At exactly two minutes to eight, Keira walked into the hotel reception area and told the girl on the desk that she was expecting a car to be sent for her.
At five past eight Sayeed came hurrying through the hotel entrance, grinning broadly when he saw her.
‘Jay apologises, but he can’t make it after all,’ he told her as he sank down into the plush vibrant pink cushions of the gilded wood chair opposite her own.
He put the A4 manila envelope he had been carrying down on the marble table in front of them before signalling for a waiter, and then, without asking Keira what she wanted, he ordered champagne for both of them, his dark eyes sparkling with excitement.
‘He gave me the contract for you to sign. I’m leaving for Mumbai and then London in the morning, but I’ll make sure I get it back to him before I leave. Oh, and he said he’ll be in touch with you tomorrow about arranging to bring you up to speed with what’s happening and what he’s looking for you to provide. It’s a great deal, Keira. A good payment in advance that will give you some working capital. One thing I will say for Jay is that he expects the best and he’s prepared to pay for it.’
The waiter brought their champagne.
Sayeed picked up his glass and raised it to her in a toast.
‘To success.’
Half an hour later the contract was signed and witnessed, Sayeed had promised to fax her a copy once Jay had signed as well—and Keira’s head was swimming slightly from the combined effects of champagne and her own awareness that there was now no going back.
CHAPTER FOUR
KEIRA had just finished answering the last of her e-mails when she heard a knock on her hotel room door. Automatically she went to answer it, her body stiffening when she opened the door to find Jay standing there.
When Sayeed had told her that Jay would contact her she had assumed that he would telephone her, not arrive unannounced outside her room at such an early hour of the morning. Immediately she felt on edge and at a disadvantage.
‘I thought we’d make an early start so that we can drive out to the site before it gets too hot. Then we can come back and go through what I expect from you and the timing,’ Jay told her, stepping into her room so that she had to fall back.
It was a large room, with typical hotel anonymity, but somehow having him inside it with her made Keira acutely conscious of its intimacy and privacy.
‘If you’d rung me I could have met you in Reception,’ Keira told him sharply.
‘If you’d had your mobile on you’d have known that I did ring you—several times,’ he countered.
Keira could feel her face going red as she picked up her mobile and realised that he was right. She’d completely overlooked the fact that she’d switched if off when she was with Sayeed in the hotel foyer last night.
‘You’ll need to wear sensible shoes and a hat,’ he told her, causing Keira to grit her teeth.
‘Thank you, but I have visited building sites before.’
It wasn’t entirely true, but she wasn’t going to have him thinking she was totally incapable.
She paused, and then said steadily, ‘I can be ready to meet you in the hotel foyer very quickly. It won’t take me long to get changed.’
Jay’s mouth thinned. Was she daring to hint that she believed he had come to her room because he had some personal interest in her? After all that he had said to her yesterday? Was this yet another of her teasing games, designed to excite male interest? If so she was going to learn that he was not easily excited, and when it came to playing games he always played to win…
‘Any man who believes a woman when she tells him that is a fool,’ he answered. ‘You’ve got five minutes.’ And then, before Keira could object, he had settled himself in a chair and, having reached for the TV remote, was checking the stock market reports.
It took Keira precisely four minutes to get changed—behind her locked bathroom door—into a pair of sand-coloured and very businesslike cargo pants, a plain short-sleeved white tee shirt, and a pair of comfortable desert-style trainers.
Emerging from the bathroom, she gathered up a hat, her sunglasses, and a long-sleeved cotton shirt to wear over her tee shirt. She put them into the wicker basket which already held her notepad and some pencils, all without daring to look in the direction of the man seated in front of the TV with his back to her.