Slave to Love

Joel looked at it, and instantly recognised it for exactly what it was. ‘I can’t accept it,’ he refused, shaking his head.

‘You can,’ Roberta countered smoothly. ‘Because I insist.’ Pointedly she put the envelope down on the desk between them.

‘Oh, hell, Roberta,’ he sighed heavily. ‘Don’t do this to me! He’ll skin me alive if you do!’

‘I tell you what, Joel,’ she suggested softly, ‘while he’s skinning you alive, you skin him. Then it will be just like old times, won’t it? One brother using the other brother to get what he wants?’

‘I can’t help it if he pulled rank on me over the Brunner thing!’ he sighed. ‘Take issue with him, if you need to take issue with anyone! He’s the one who really counts, after all!’

‘Oh,

I mean to take issue with him,’ Roberta assured him. ‘But just tell me one more thing before I do,’ she asked. ‘Was Karl Loring a set-up too? Mac said you’d realised he was trying to pull a fast one over you, yet you still had him meet me when I arrived.’

He had the grace to flush. ‘I thought a bit of competition might help bring Mac to his senses about you,’ he admitted grudgingly.

Oh, it had, Roberta acknowledged silently. It had activated his possessive streak long enough for him to stake his claim on her again. But it had only lasted as long as it took his daughter to restake her claim on him.

‘How is Delia, by the way?’ she enquired as an aside.

Joel looked up and grimaced. ‘Not bad now,’ he said. ‘Went through the mill a bit at the time. They had to pump her full of antibiotics to kill the spread of infection and she’s lucky to be still alive, to tell the truth. Still—’ he shrugged ‘—she’s getting over it and should be coming home in a few days. Roberta,’ he then pleaded, ‘take back this letter—at least until you’ve spoken to Mac!’

‘No,’ she refused. ‘I don’t like being used, Joel,’ she told him tightly. ‘And between you and your brother you’ve been using me for just about every purpose you can think of!’

‘Where are you going?’ he demanded when she turned to leave.

‘To take issue with the boss, as you suggested I do,’ she answered tartly.

‘Then at least take this with you!’ he said, lurching forward to pick up the envelope and pushing it at her. ‘If you’re going to resign to anyone, then do it to him. I’m not brave enough to accept it!’

She took the envelope and walked out, well aware that Joel didn’t think she would end up going through with it. She would, though, she vowed. She was more determined than ever to get away from Mac’s influence now!

She was still coldly furious when she walked into Mac’s office without knocking a few minutes later.

He was standing at the window, staring out at the bird’s-eye view he had of London. He wasn’t wearing a jacket and his hands were lost inside the pockets of his beautifully tailored dark grey trousers. Roberta felt the usual sensation of hot breathlessness attack her, as it usually did when she first set eyes on him, but firmly squashed the feeling with contempt.

She wasn’t here to drool over him. She was here to—

‘Where the hell have you been?’ Mac bit out furiously, turning on her like a dog preparing to bite.

She blinked, his sudden angry snarl having taken the initiative right away from her.

But only for a moment. ‘Away!’ she said. ‘Abroad—to get away from you!’

His eyes glinted at her simmering contempt. ‘This is not your ex-lover talking to you, Miss Chandler, it’s your chairman, demanding a full explanation from you!’

Ex-lover? Roberta went pale. It was the first time Mac had ever used that prefix to her, and it hit her so hard that she almost gasped in pain.

‘Now,’ he prompted tightly, when he saw that he had made his point, ‘where have you been?’

‘S-Spain,’ she answered, hating that tell-tale little stammer that crept into her voice. ‘Majorca, to be exact. My parents have friends who have a villa there. They let us use—’

‘Your parents?’ he cut in incredulously. ‘You went away with your parents?’

‘I do possess parents, you know!’ she said stiffly, offended by his tone.

‘Yes,’ he jeered. ‘Parents you always professed to hate!’

‘I never said I hated my parents!’ she protested.