‘Do you wear it?’
He saw the flinch, was absolutely sure she was standing there with her eyes screwed shut—probably cursing herself for falling into that one? ‘No,’ she answered curtly, and opened the door.
‘Then buy some,’ he instructed. ‘To market a product one should know exactly what it is you are marketing.’
‘It isn’t my job to know,’ she protested.
‘It is now,’ he replied. ‘I expect by the end of the week for you to have an opinion on their full range. And that, Miss Deyton,’ he added for good measure, ‘is exactly the kind of information the personal assistant to a corporate chairman is supposed to know.’
The door opened and closed, leaving him alone to smile at her hurried departure, very satisfyingly aware that she had left here feeling more confused than she had felt when she’d first walked in and found him here instead of Edward.
The game was on. He was in control. He didn’t doubt it for a single moment. Natalia Deyton was his for the taking. He was actually enjoying himself—and within a week he intended to be enjoying himself a whole lot more…
CHAPTER TWO
STANDING on the other side of that closed door, Natalia was attempting to come to terms with what had just happened in there. It wasn’t easy, simply because she didn’t know what had happened—if you didn’t count the disturbing impression that she had just indulged in the thorough seduction of all the senses.
And with Giancarlo Cardinale, of all people.
Her skin gave a flutter on a small inner shudder that helped release some of the tension out of her body. Not that she felt any better for it, she noted as she made herself walk across her office and then sank weakly down on the edge of her desk while she tried to get herself back together.
Giancarlo Cardinale. The name was playing over and over inside her head like a mantra, frightening, disturbing—exciting, alluring.
Oh, dear God. She closed her eyes only to find that, once again, his image was firmly imprinted on her retina. The dark hair and skin, the compelling brown velvet eyes that had held her captive even though she desperately hadn’t wanted them to. Then there was his mouth—that terribly sensual mouth she could see drawing her own mouth towards it like metal to a magnet.
She could still feel the effects, still feel a warm, soft pulsing of needy flesh that brought her fingers up to cover her lips in an effort to stop the sensation. It didn’t work, and if anything only seemed to make matters worse when she felt her blood begin to heat in the mere memory of what she had wanted his mouth to do to hers.
Then—no, she amended that. Her blood wasn’t just growing hot, it was searing through her veins like pure radiation. Poisonous.
Poisonous? The word brought her hand snapping away from her mouth and her eyelids shooting open in shocked realisation of what she had just unwittingly done.
She had given the whole crazy experience a very accurate label, because, yes, Giancarlo Cardinale had to be poison—to her at any rate. Poison by passion, poison by desire, poison because she knew there could be no future in letting him come close. Yet she had a terrible feeling that she was going to let him close. That she simply was not going to be able to help herself.
The next shudder became a shiver, which brought goose-bumps standing out on her skin. The man was her enemy, she grimly reminded herself. Any member of the Cardinale clan was her enemy. But this one, this tall, dark, frighteningly sexy head of the house of Cardinale had the power to completely demolish her newly found belief in herself if he ever discovered just who it was he was dealing with.
Then there was Edward, she moved on to link one problem neatly with the other. Edward, of all people, knew the danger this situation was putting her in! So why had he done it? What the hell did he think he was playing at setting her up like this—and without any warning?
She jumped up, began pacing the floor, arms crossed, head bowed, eyebrows puckered by a frown as she tried to work out just what was going on here. It simply made no sense. Edward was her life. Both had sworn more than once that they couldn’t bear to be without the other now. So why was he putting their relationship at risk like this?
A sudden thought had her spinning back to her desk. Hitching her behind onto its pale beech-wood top, she stretched over and tapped a button on her keyboard, which would activate her voice-mail. Surely Edward would not have gone blithely off on his cruise without leaving her some kind of explanation for all of this?
It was a real relief to hear his deep, rather hurried voice filling the room. ‘Natalia, my dear. I have some news.’
In the very act of opening the door, Giancarlo Cardinale went perfectly still…
‘I have very little time to explain this, so bear with me and concentrate,’ Edward Knight instructed. ‘Surprise—surprise!’ He sounded tense and just a little anxious. ‘Alegra and I are in Barbados, would you believe? And about to embark on a second-honeymoon cruise, care of—Giancarlo! The point is, he’s arranged everything so right and tight that I hardly have time to make this call. But I had to warn you—he’s coming there. He will be looking after the business while I am away. So you’re going to have to watch your step with him. Watch what you do, watch what you say—and for goodness’ sake don’t fall in love with him! I need
to know that my girl will still be there in one whole piece, waiting for me when I return.’
Natalia laughed, though it was a rather thick, self-deriding sound. Giancarlo on the other hand heard nothing even vaguely amusing in what Edward had said. His mouth was tight, his eyes hard. If Natalia had glanced round and seen him standing there, she would have run screaming for her life.
But she didn’t turn, and Edward was still talking. ‘Also I need you to do a few things for me before he arrives,’ he explained.
‘Too damn late,’ she muttered.
‘I have some personal papers locked in the safe—you know the ones I mean,’ he added brusquely. ‘I would prefer Giancarlo not to set eyes on them. You know the combination—and so does Giancarlo now, because I was stupid enough to give it to him without thinking. So get all my private stuff out of there before he has a chance to find it, and keep it safe somewhere else for me until I come home. Got to go now,’ he announced hurriedly. ‘Alegra is glowering at me. I’m going to miss you. Be good while I’m not there—’
The connection was broken. Behind her the door to Edward’s office was silently closing again, leaving Natalia alone to mull over everything Edward had said—none of which made her feel any happier with the situation. He’d offered too little much too late and put their secret at risk in the interim—which also told her that he still hadn’t got around to breaking the news about them to his wife.