by Natalie Fox
He was in the kitchen area pouring wine when she got downstairs and she noticed for the first time that he'd changed into a hideous tartan shirt.
'I seem to have wrongly anticipated this whole weekend,' she said as she stood by the archway, feeling over-dressed and out of place as he turned his attention to a bowl of salad. 'If I'd known it was going to be so casual I'd have borrowed my gardener's shirt. He's got one just like that.'
Harry's eyes raked her up and down before getting back to his tossing. 'I suppose that was meant to be an insult. Do I really make you feel so very ill at ease?'
'I think you could have warned me what to wear. You gave me the impression we were staying at the exclusive Murrays and I packed accordingly.'
'I'm sorry you feel at such a disadvantage. Is that a reason to insult what I wear?'
'I thought insults were on the agenda this weekend.'
'You really do have a personality problem, Alexia. Do you always deal with men in this hostile, defensive way or is it just me that rubs your feathers the wrong way?'
Alexia shrugged and moved to pick up the glass of wine he had poured for her. 'I usually assess the man in question and deal with him as is fitting. I choose to be abrasive with you because that's the way you treat me.'
He smiled and left the salad to rest and picked up his wine. 'And how would you treat me if I was some wimp pandering to your every need?'
Alexia sipped her wine, considering that possibility.
'I'll answer that for you, shall I?' he offered.
'Go ahead, I haven't had my psychoanalysis this week.'
'You love the cut and thrust and that's why you're here this weekend.'
Alexia smiled thinly. 'Sorry, but you've just failed your psychology degree. I'm here to sell you my company, not to cut and thrust with you.'
'Yet you are willing to put up with it to get what you want. That says a lot about the state of your company.'
'Meaning what?' Alexia replied levelly, though her heart was pumping at that particular cut and thrust.
'You're going bust and I'm your only saviour.'
The wine seared her throat till she thought she would choke. She swallowed hard before replying. 'I don't know where you get your information from but it's wildly out of line.' She put her glass down on the breakfast bar. 'I have all my figures with me. I'm sure you'll find --'
'Later,' he cut in. 'Let's eat first and then we'll get down to what we are both here for this weekend.'
She didn't like the innuendo in his tone but chose to ignore it. He was a successful financier and this was what all this weekend was about, slicing her asking price down to the bone, and if that meant undermining her with His suggestive remarks, let him play his silly games. How damned clever he thought he was being, and what a great error of judgement he had made.
'What are we eating?' she asked casually to hide her concern at that remark about going bust. He'd obviously done his homework and that could be tricky for their negotiations.
'Steak and salad. I hope that meets with your approval. My housekeeper usually cooks for me when I'm here but I told her we can manage on our own this weekend.'
'She doesn't live in, then?' Alexia successfully masked the desperation in her voice.
'Heavens, no. I value my privacy too much. Be a sweetie and set the table while I put the steaks on.'
Alexia obliged, only too happy to be occupied with something. So they were completely alone here. Well, it really wasn't a problem.
They ate at a small dining table on the sitting-room side of the breakfast bar.
'You obviously don't do much entertaining here—or is there a dining-room tucked away somewhere?' Alexia was making conversation; eating with him was having a disturbing effect on her. The fire blazed in the big stone fireplace across the room, the lighting was subdued and intimate, the wine delicious and the steak just perfect and if she were here with anyone else but Harry Masters she'd be dangerously unwinding.
'I never bring anyone here. This is my very private domain,' he told her, pushing the salad bowl towards her. 'So take that as a compliment that I brought you here.'
'I'm not flattered,' she told him abrasively, taking the bowl to help herself to more salad. 'I know exactly why I'm here.'
'Do you?' he drawled softly.
A slice of tomato slid from the salad server to the floor and they both reached down for it, Alexia reaching the target before him. Her thick hair silked across his face and she snatched at it with the tomato still in her hand. Their eyes locked as in that first meeting and heat pulsed through her. Harry's hand came up and gently he wiped a smear of tomato from her cheek with his serviette.
'What a messy eater you are,' he teased.
Alexia tossed the piece of tomato down on her plate and scrubbed at her face with her own napkin. 'I'm sorry, it slipped.'
'And so did you. You're blushing like a teenager. Is that the effect my touch has on you?'
Alexia's face blazed even more but she held her cool. 'I don't like anyone touching me and it isn't a blush. Your face would be red if you'd just rubbed it.'
She sliced into her steak but her appetite had gone. Harry had finished his and was leaning back in his seat watching her.
She jerked her head up. 'And what are you looking at?'
He smiled. 'You—you fascinate me. I've kissed you, more than once if I remember rightly, I've even had the brazen audacity to caress your breasts. I've also threatened seduction and yet one single locking of our eyes, one stroking of your cheek and I have you blushing like a rose.'
'That's fascinating, is it?' She held his eyes now, not afraid of him any more because now she was getting the gist of what was going on. He was outrageously flirting with her for one reason, and it wasn't difficult to suss out that reason. Business! 'I think you're reading more into it than there is. Embarrassment flamed me, Harry Masters. I dropped my tomato on the carpet and that was embarrassing and I blushed. It had nothing to do with our eyes locking.'
'So you're denying there is a mutual attraction between us?'
Alexia could have happily tipped the salad bowl over his head for that. 'I don't know you well enough to pass judgement on how you feel about me but I can tell you I feel nothing for you!'
'So those kisses in the four-poster landed on uninterested lips, did they?' He smiled as her eyes widened in shock. 'Not the impression I got, Alexia, not the impression I got at all.'
The barriers around Alexia's heart came up then. So he had kissed her and it hadn't been a delicious dream. How could she ever have thought it was? Even now it still burned on her lips. The tip of her tongue shot out and moistened those lips and she looked coldly at him. This was a wicked game to him. 'I was asleep,' she told him, 'and dreaming of someone else if you must know.'
'And who would that dream lover be, Alexia?' he asked with mocking indifference. 'Don't tell me you're still carrying a torch for Rex Parton?'
Alexia thought she had suffered enough shocks from him since they'd met but this was worse than any of the others. Her whole body stiffened in defence.
'How...what...how did you know about me and Rex?' she grated angrily. 'What on earth gives you the right to pry into my private life?'
'It was necessary,' he told her smoothly.
'Like hell it was! I can understand your wanting to know about the company you are trying to buy but I don't go with the company and my personal life is no concern of yours!'
'Trouble is, it is, Alexia. It was necessary for me to know why you wouldn't sell to me after your father died and left you the company. I made a few discreet enquiries and came to the conclusion that you were fired by revenge. Am I right?'
'Spot on!' Alexia retaliated. 'You were responsible for my father's death. He had a heart condition and the pressure you put on him to sell killed him. The same pressure ruined my relationship with Rex. Did you think that after that I would even consider selling to you?'
'I think you should have got your facts right befor
e ploughing on and heading your company into insolvency,' he told her quietly.
'Facts!' Alexia cried. 'What could be more positive than you killing my father?'
'I didn't kill your father, Alexia, so stop being so melodramatic. I had a good relationship with him and if he hadn't died so suddenly we two wouldn't be here now.'
Incredulous, Alexia gaped at him. 'Meaning he would eventually have given in to you? Not on your life.'
'You really don't know what went on three years ago, do you?'
'But you're going to tell me, aren't you?' she retorted sharply.
'Only if you want to hear it. I don't want to open up old wounds for you but I honestly think you'll benefit from knowing the truth.'
She held his eyes across the table and clenched her fists in her lap. 'I somehow think the truth, if there is any, would benefit you more than me,' she told him icily. 'I'll listen to you,' she went on, 'but it won't affect our negotiations.'
'That wasn't my intention,' he told her equally icily. 'This might surprise you, but I like you—'
Alexia let out a small derisive laugh at that. 'Like me? You want my company --'
'I don't kiss women I don't like, Alexia,' he interrupted firmly, 'and I don't bring them to the one home I own that I keep exclusively for myself. You're a very privileged lady --'
'And don't keep giving me all that soft condescension, Harry Masters. I know precisely why I'm here. You want Stroben and—'
'And I want to make love to you as well,' he interrupted softly.
Alexia fought down the rise of heat that seared inside her at the very thought of him making love to her, but did he really believe she would swallow that?
'Tactics,' she breathed heavily. 'You want me because you think that's the only way you'll get me to sell. You accused me of putting a high price on my sexuality—well, yours is even higher. You're wasting your time, because I want to sell to you. You don't have to bother bedding me for Stroben. In fact I'll go as far as to say I'd rather give it to you, gift-wrapped with silver balls, than let you seduce me!'
She went to get up but his hand lashed out and caught her wrist, pressuring her down into her seat again.
'Stop running, Alexia; you've run long enough.'
She wrenched her wrist from his and reached for her wine. Her hand was shaking so violently that she could scarcely get it to her lips.
'I'm sorry,' he said quietly. 'I've upset you, haven't I?'
'Your wanting to make love to me doesn't upset me because it's no go,' she told him forcibly, 'but your denying you put pressure on my father does.'
'My conscience is clear over your father's death but, until you accept that, our negotiations are going to get nowhere and nor is your future life.'
'My life is my concern, not yours!'
'And it's full of bitterness and hatred for me. Not Only do you blame me for your father's death but you blame me for your split with your lover.'
'You are to blame for both!' Alexia fought back. 'Rex and I were going to be married but when you started harassing for Stroben it all fell apart!'
Harry let out a ragged sigh. 'You really do have a problem, Alexia, if you believe that. I think we ought to thrash it out before it ruins you.'
'Who the hell do you think you are?. Some amateur head-shrinker?'
'So you admit you have a problem?'
'Oh, yes. I have a problem all right, it's sitting here with you --'
'When we should be in bed.'
Heat flamed her from head to toe. 'Precisely,' she told him stiffly, 'you in yours and me in mine.'
He smiled. 'Not exactly what I had in mind.' His burning eyes searched her face and then he said quietly, 'You know what you need, don't you, Alexia?'
She raised a brow and forced a dry smile. 'You wouldn't be the first man to come on to me with that line and knowing the shallowness of the male mind you won't be the last. No, I don't need what you think I do. Save what rules your head for your little redheaded floozies.'
He didn't come back with a predictable retort to that, which made Alexia feel gauche for saying it. She lowered her head and stared stupidly at her clenched fists.
'Look at me, Alexia; I want to see your eyes when I tell you exactly what you need.' He said it almost tenderly and she raised her face to his, in curiosity at the change in his tone, not in curiosity at what he might say.
'You need me to make love to you,' he told her softly. 'Completely and thoroughly and satisfactorily. You need me to caress every part of your body, to tease every erogenous zone till you cry put for release. I want to release you, Alexia, for my pleasure and yours.'
Blood rushed to her ears and nearly deafened her. She wanted to run but her legs were weak and ineffectual; she wanted to strike him hard across the face but even that small pleasure was denied her as every pulse in her body dissolved to quivering jelly. With a supreme effort she held his eyes and it cost her dearly. Pain racked through her with the effort.
'And why you, Harry Masters? What makes you think you are the man to release me?' she whispered huskily.
'Because I'm your past, I'm your bitterness, I'm blocking your future happiness with any man, Alexia.'
She could hardly breathe. The room seemed to be closing in on her. 'I haven't any problems where you are concerned,' she told him tightly. 'If I need release I can find any number of men to give it to me.'
'So why haven't you?'
'That's my business, not yours!'
'It is my business because you blame me for Rex Parton's walking out on you and since then there hasn't been anyone else in your life.'
'You don't know that!'
His eyes narrowed to slits of jet. 'But I do, Alexia, because I can have any woman, just like that.' He clicked his fingers to stress the point. 'But you don't fall into my arms as easily as all the others do.'
'Huh!' Alexia exploded in disbelief at his enormous ego. 'I suppose it never occurred to you that I don't fancy you?'
He smiled. 'It did actually, but that kiss in the four-poster disproved that theory.'
'I... I was asleep and not in control and King Kong might have had the same effect!'
He laughed out loud at that. 'You can't get out of it that easily, Alexia. You actually murmured my name.'
'I did not!' she protested vehemently, her eyes wide and glittery.
'Can you be absolutely sure of that?' he drawled, so confidently that Alexia wasn't sure at all.
'Look, this is getting out of hand,' she blurted.
'I agree,' he said with resignation, and stood up and gathered up the dirty dishes. 'Perhaps we had better get back to what we were discussing earlier - why you think I'm to blame for your father's death and your split with Rex.'
Alexia stood up and gathered together the remaining dishes. Her fingers were still trembling with the shock of the revelation that he had kissed her on the bed. Crazy, but that damned kiss had had more effect on her than all the others put together. Because her defences had been truly down, she considered. Well, no more.
'Do you know Rex?' she asked, following him to the kitchen and watching as he loaded the dishwasher. She was curious to know how he knew so much about her past with Rex.
'No, only by sight. I know his father, Daniel, your father's ex-partner. He's still pretty screwed up at what happened.'
'Screwed up?' Alexia puzzled.
Harry slammed shut the dishwasher and set it in motion before turning to her. His face had hardened. 'I'm not sure you're ready for this,' he murmured.
Alexia steeled herself. 'Ready for what?'
'Possibly being hurt.'
'After all you've said to me so far I'm surprised at your concern.'
'Perhaps it's all better left unsaid.' He spooned fresh coffee into the coffee machine.
'You can't start something and then just leave it,' she urged.
'Yes, but are you up to facing some hard facts about your father that might upset you?'
'I don't know till you tell me.'
/>
'Did you love him?'
'Of course, he was my father!'
'But you weren't very close to him?' He turned and leaned back on the cooker to wait for the coffee to filter.
'I didn't see much of him; he was always working. I had a nanny. My mother left us when I was eleven --'
'Another reason for your bitterness --'
'I am not bitter!' Alexia retorted and then she sighed—perhaps there was some truth in that. She gathered her arms around herself and stemmed a shiver. 'It... it seems everything I've ever cared about, I've lost. My mother, my father, Rex.'
'And now you're losing your company to me and that must tie you up in knots.' He said it quietly, not triumphantly, and Alexia was mildly surprised.
'It hurts, yes,' she admitted. 'You're not to blame for my mother's defection, but the rest you are.'
He said nothing as he poured the coffees and picked them up. Alexia followed him across the room to the sofas and the fire. She sat in one sofa and he sat in another. She wished she hadn't admitted so much. Now she felt at a disadvantage and curiously vulnerable and she didn't like the feeling; it was as if she was losing some of her control. She sipped her coffee and waited for him to say something. He did at last and his face was oddly grave when he spoke.
'I do understand how you feel, Alexia, but we must iron out our differences before we can go any further.'
'I don't see why! I'm selling you Stroben and when the transaction is over we'll never see each other again --'
'Please, Alexia, let me go on.'
Sulkily she held her tongue. He could say what the hell he liked but it wouldn't make any difference to how she felt about him.
'Over three years ago I wanted to buy Stroben. Your father was ready to sell, but before he did he wanted to buy out his partner, Daniel. I stood back and waited. Daniel wanted early retirement anyway so there wasn't a problem there. The problem came later when Daniel found out that your father had under-priced the offer he had happily agreed to and was going to make a killing on what I had offered.' He stopped to let Alexia digest that.