Savage Destiny

by Amanda Browning

  So angry that she was shaking, she was just about to snatch up the telephone in order to ring him at his hotel and give him a piece of her mind when she heard the phone ring in her father’s office. Puzzled, because all calls had been routed to her for the last few weeks, she had half risen to go and answer it when the ringing ceased and she heard the muffled sound of someone speaking.

  Even as she crossed the room to investigate she had a premonition of what she would find. When she thrust open the connecting door, it came as no surprise to see Pierce sitting in her father’s chair, calmly carrying on a telephone conversation. Catching sight of her, he indicated that she should take a seat, but that only served to infuriate her further, and she ignored him, choosing instead to send him a glare which didn’t go halfway to showing him how she was feeling.

  Pierce didn’t hurry himself. It was a good five minutes before he put the receiver down and turned to face her, by which time she was ready to explode.

  ‘What are you doing here? How dare you think you can simply walk into my father’s office and take it over?’ she challenged with icy anger. He might think he could take over her life, but that was all.

  Pierce sank back in the leather chair and regarded her mockingly. ‘For your information, darling, I didn’t “think” I could do anything—I knew. When I went to see Stephen last night, he suggested that I use his office in order to facilitate the plans I had drawn up. I accepted.’

  Brought up short, Alix swallowed back any further words she had had ready and channelled her anger along another course. ‘Why wasn’t I told? I suppose, now that you’re in charge, I don’t count! If you didn’t feel up to telling me to my face, then the very least you could have done was send me a memo!’ she rejoined tartly, and very much to the point.

  At that, Pierce raised his brows in sudden comprehension, then ran a finger thoughtfully along the side of his nose. ‘Ah.’

  It took just that one sound to make her realise that she’d lost ground rather than gaining it. She made a despairing noise in her throat and turned her back on him, pacing away. ‘I do not appreciate being treated like some damned afterthought!’

  ‘As the central character, you were hardly that,’ he returned, not troubling to hide his amusement. ‘However, I was under the impression—and correct me if I’m wrong—that you wanted everything to be kept on a business footing.’

  Damn him, he was always turning the tables by using her own words against her! Cursing herself, she swung round again. ‘Much you care about what I want, Pierce Martineau. And as for keeping everything businesslike, how do you explain why yesterday you were at pains to pretend you were in love with me? We both know it was a lie, although I have to admit it wasn’t up to your usual standard of deceit.’

  Pierce never took his eyes off her as she paced the floor. ‘Your parents believed it, and that was the object of the exercise. Or are you suggesting I should have told them the barefaced truth rather than an acceptable lie?’

  ‘Even you wouldn’t have the bad taste to tell them you were getting my body in return for services rendered,’ she sneered.

  He was on his feet in an instant, every step he took towards her brimming over with barely leashed fury. ‘You push your luck to the very limit, don’t you, Alix? Just what is it you’re trying to make me do? Get so angry that I’ll take you by force? So that then you will always be able to claim you had no choice? Is that what you really want to happen?’

  Reeling from the waves of violent emotion coming at her, Alix stared at him through stormy eyes. Her heart quailed. She had never seen him this angry before, and she knew she was to blame. There was some devil inside her that kept her pushing and pushing. So was there any wonder that he had finally reacted? It was time for a tactical retreat. ‘No,’ she admitted gruffly, and was relieved to see him take a deep breath.

  ‘Then you’d better walk easy around me, darling, and learn where to draw the line. I’m prepared to give you a certain amount of leeway, but push me too far and you’ll have to take the consequences.’ He turned away from her then, raking a hand through his hair as he returned to stand by the desk. Picking something up from the surface, he held it out to her. ‘These are for you.’

  Gathering up her badly shaken composure, Alix went to him, taking the folder he offered quickly, as if he were a snake ready to strike. Inside were credit cards for certain well-known stores, and she glanced up at him in quick enquiry.

  ‘You’ll need a trousseau. You’d better take the afternoon off and go shopping,’ he suggested evenly, turning his attention to the papers on the desk as if the subject was now closed.

  If he had his limits, then so did she. He might have bought her, but she’d be damned if she’d be kept! ‘I don’t need you to buy me clothes, Pierce. I have an adequate salary of my own, and besides, I don’t need any new clothes,’ Alix pointed out tersely.

  Glancing up, Pierce shook his head slowly. ‘You know, it would be a delightful change if you’d just do as you’re told for once. However, I can see you’re determined to fight me on everything, aren’t you? Unfortunately for you I am equally determined. I don’t care how many clothes you have, Alix. In my experience a woman can always find room for more, just as you’re going to do.’

  It was a battle of wills, and right then his was stronger. ‘If it means that much to you, then I’m surprised you don’t insist on coming with me,’ she challenged, with something that was very nearly a flounce. The childishness of that brought her up short, and she realised she was allowing him to make her act totally out of character.

  Pierce, on the other hand, was the epitome of calm assurance and control. ‘Believe me, I would, if only I weren’t so busy saving your father’s company from bankruptcy,’ he drawled, scoring a direct hit.

  Inwardly she reeled from a reminder she really didn’t need. Ambivalently, she knew she should be grateful, but he made her so angry all the time that that emotion swamped everything else. Common sense returning, she decided there was more than one way to skin a cat, and, to mix metaphors, he might insist on leading her to water, but he couldn’t make her drink. Taking the cards didn’t mean she intended to comply with his edict. Armed by the idea of outsmarting him, she simply couldn’t resist salaaming. ‘To hear is to obey, o master.’

  However, instead of angering him it seemed to restore his sense of humour, for he eyed her in distinct amusement. ‘Anyone less like a willing slave I’d be hard pressed to find. And when I come to think of it I wouldn’t want you any other way than as you are. It makes every encounter that much more of an adventure.’

  Alix frowned at him. ‘How can it be, when you’ve already...?’ The words tailed off and she felt a soft flush invade her cheeks.

  ‘Already had you?’ he supplied for her, in a voice as smooth as dark chocolate. ‘True, but you loved me then, and you don’t now,’ he pointed out next, and the heat left her cheeks, leaving them waxen.

  ‘I don’t think I could ever have loved you,’ she told him flatly, walking over to the door.

  Pierce leant against the desk and folded his arms. ‘If you didn’t, you couldn’t have hated me so much, and for so long. But who’s to say where love ends and hate begins? You’ve never forgotten me, the same as I never forgot you. That spark is still there between us, however much you might wish it wasn’t.’

  Clutching hold of the door-handle, Alix threw him a stormy glance. ‘Sex isn’t love, Pierce. You taught me that. Now I know the difference, I’m never going to mistake a sham for the real thing.’

  If he was meant to feel ashamed, he gave no sign of it. ‘I’m glad to hear it,’ he said drily, and glanced at his watch. ‘You might as well go off now. And don’t imagine that you can get away with simply disappearing for the afternoon and only pretending to buy. I’ll be calling for you at eight to take you to dinner, and I expect to see the results of your afternoon. Is that clear?’

  For a moment she had the awful feeling that he could read her mind, and his gently iron
ic smile almost confirmed it until reason asserted itself and she acknowledged that it wasn’t difficult for him to guess what she might do. Thwarted, she bit back a rash retort, and smiled. ‘As if I would do such a thing!’ she murmured dulcetly, and he laughed.

  ‘Hmm, as if! Happy hunting,’ he tagged on to her departing back, and Alix thought that if she only had a shotgun she knew precisely which animal she’d like to shoot and have stuffed and mounted! And then, perversely, the very idea brought a gurgle of laughter to her lips, so that she was actually smiling as she gathered up her handbag and went to tell Ruth that she wouldn’t be back today.

  ‘Well, you certainly look more cheerful,’ her secretary was prompted to say, and Alix gave a wry grimace.

  ‘Little things please little minds. Once you’ve done those letters, Ruth, perhaps you’d better offer your services to Mr Martineau. He’ll be using my father’s office for the next few days.’ She was about to go when something else occurred to her. ‘Oh, and if anyone wants to see me you’d better pass them on to him too. See you tomorrow.’

  Once outside on the street, she decided to leave her car where it was and hail a taxi. The garage was locked overnight, so the vehicle would be perfectly safe. Allowing herself to sink back in the seat, she took out the cards, tapping them thoughtfully against her thumbnail. Her first angry reaction would have been to cut them up, but now a much better idea struck her. If Pierce wanted her to spend his money, then she would, and for once in her life she wasn’t going to bother checking the price of anything she bought.

  As a rule she always bought with durability and value for money in mind, thinking it less than clever to spend just because you had the money, so a wave of compunction did hit her when she saw the pile of boxes being put into the taxi after her visit to the first store. Then she took herself severely to task, for a faint heart would avail her nothing against a man as strong-willed as Pierce. She had to prove to him that she was no walk-over, and the chances to do that were proving few and far between.

  When she finally went home, though, she did wonder if she had overdone it when the result of her efforts lay strewn about her, cluttering up every chair and almost all of her lounge carpet. Then she decided what the hell, she couldn’t take them back, so she might just as well brazen it out. With which thought in mind, she went around opening the boxes and draping their contents hither and thither. After which she felt in need of refreshment, and made herself some tea and toast.

  With Pierce expected at eight, Alix then took herself off to bathe and wash her hair, and it was while she was drying it, seated at her dressing-table, that an added refinement came to her. So that when, just before the appointed hour, the front doorbell rang, she took a deep breath and went to answer it in a stunning ankle-length designer coat in a shade of blue which deepened her grey eyes mysteriously.

  Pierce, looking devastatingly handsome in an Armani dinner-suit, eyed her for a moment in silence before commenting drily, ‘Does this mean you’re ready to go, or that your central heating has broken down?’

  Alix, trying to settle down a heart which had begun to trip along madly at the sheer power of him, shook her head and stood back to allow him to enter. A niggling doubt about what she was going to do was pushed firmly to the back of her mind. It was far too late for second thoughts. ‘Neither. This coat is one of the purchases you said you wanted to see,’ she informed him, walking ahead of him into the lounge. While she was conscious of him coming to a halt on the threshold, she continued into the middle of the room, where she swung to face him.

  With a silent whistle, he was surveying the scene, hands slipping casually into his trouser pockets, as he raised his eyes to hers. ‘Were you hoping to break the bank? If so, I should tell you this wouldn’t even make a dent in it.’

  ‘On the contrary, as you didn’t set a limit, I thought I might as well indulge myself. Kit myself out from the skin, and top to toe.’ With a dramatic gesture she flung her arms wide, ostensibly to indicate her purchases, and as a consequence the coat parted to reveal a glimpse of the black and red lace French corset which was all she wore underneath. ‘Everything you see has been bought and paid for by you,’ she declared, and quite audibly heard Pierce catch his breath.

  It was the unmistakable tension in his lithe frame which made her suddenly decide she had gone too far, and the muscles of her stomach lurched with something that was half fear and half something she didn’t care to put a name to. Swallowing hard, she stared at him, seeing the dull colour rise in his cheeks and the nerve begin to tick in his jaw. Very slowly his hands came out of his pockets as he straightened to his full height.

  ‘I take it you include yourself in that statement?’ he said in a strange tone of voice, pacing towards her with leonine grace. ‘You’ve obviously laid everything out so that I might see each item, but I notice you’ve covered yourself up. I would hardly call that fair, would you? After all, it’s only right I should see what I’m getting, I wouldn’t want to buy a pig in a poke. So why don’t you take the coat off, Alix?’ he finished as he came to a halt a yard away.

  She knew then that she had underestimated him entirely. She had intended this to be a slap in the face, but had gone in rashly without thinking of all the possible consequences. Still, rebellious in the face of attack, she wasn’t about to turn tail and run, so she lifted her chin and slipped the coat off, tossing it aside. She was, after all, better clothed than if she was dressed for swimming. Except, of course, she had chosen to wear the sexiest piece of underwear she had bought.

  It was Pierce’s slow perusal which brought the hot colour to her cheeks, and it took an effort to stay still and not squirm in outrage. Because his inspection was deliberately salacious. She had thrown down the gauntlet and he had picked it up. Sickening as it was, she knew she had brought it on herself, with her impetuosity, and must see it through to the bitter end.

  ‘Turn around,’ he commanded huskily, and with a choked gasp she hastily swivelled, shivering as she felt the brush of his eyes on her. ‘Very nice...what I can see of you. Are you cold?’ This last comment came as another shiver ran through her, which owed nothing to temperature.

  ‘No,’ she denied hoarsely, and he sighed.

  ‘Good, because I wouldn’t want you to catch a chill when you remove that last little piece of nothing you’ve got on,’ Pierce observed mockingly.

  With a gasp of horror, Alix glanced disbelievingly over her shoulder. ‘Y-you can’t be serious?’ she stammered.

  Pierce’s smile was like a viper’s. ‘Weren’t you serious? You said I’d bought everything I could see, and had even gone to the trouble of laying it out for my inspection.’

  Alix tried desperately to laugh. ‘But it was all a joke!’ she protested sickly.

  ‘Really?’ Pierce challenged ironically, crossing his arms. ‘Well, I don’t see you laughing, Alix, and neither am I. You wanted to see me humiliated, but I’ve seen through your little “joke”. Now it’s my turn. You’d better get on with it, darling. I’ve a table booked for eight-thirty, and I don’t want to be late.’

  Feeling totally humiliated, Alix turned away, head dropping as she fought to hold back hot tears. She was the one who should have been gloating, but it had all gone miserably wrong. She looked around for escape. The bedroom wasn’t far away, but she doubted very much if she’d make it, because Pierce was between her and the door. No, he’d stop her, because he meant to have his pound of flesh. The only thing she could do was get the whole stupid business over with. Choking back a sob, she moved her hands round to the back zip and began to slide it down, but halfway she was forced to stop as another sob broke free and she knew she just couldn’t do it.

  Behind her she heard Pierce swear under his breath, and then his fingers were brushing hers aside and closing the zip again. Then one firm hand framed her chin and brought her tear-washed gaze up to his flinty one.

  ‘You stupid little fool. Haven’t you learned yet that it doesn’t pay to play games with me? Oh, g
o and get dressed! And you can forget about dinner; I’ve lost my appetite. The field is yours, Alix; I leave you in command of it. I hope the victory was worth it.’

  Biting down hard on her lip, Alix watched him turn and leave, and a moment later heard the front door slam. Feeling like a fool, she stared at the scene of her humiliation. He was right, she had wanted to shame him, but it was herself who had been made to feel cheap. The clothes returned her stare with inanimate mockery. She wished she’d never seen them, and knew for a fact that she would never wear the red and black creation again.

  Writhing with self-disgust, she went to take a cleansing shower, but she knew it would take more than that to wash the memory from her mind. Consequently she slept badly, tossing and turning the whole night through. It was during one of the sleepless hours that she decided she would have to apologise, however much the words might stick in her throat.

  So it really wasn’t surprising that she overslept, and, having done so, decided there was no need to rush. She was already late for work, so a little longer wouldn’t make any difference. She used the time to force down some toast she didn’t really want, and took extra care over her appearance. Wanting to look cool and self-possessed, she used make-up to mask the ravages of her sleepless night and chose a silver-grey silk suit which she teamed with a red blouse. Then, feeling like a condemned woman, she finally headed into the city.

  Despite her efforts, she wasn’t prepared to walk into a suspiciously busy lobby and have all eyes turn on her as silence fell. It made her want to scuttle into the lift like a crab searching for its shell, and she was afraid she had probably done so. Why on earth had everyone been grinning? It was a puzzle which deepened when she walked into her outer office and faced Ruth, who had obviously been waiting on tenterhooks for her arrival.