But we left out the most important information.
She gave a slight nod, swallowing with a dry throat.
‘Very well. In that case, I’m embarking on a new business venture—a potential refurbishment project—your skills might come in useful to me. If so...’ he was watching her speculatively through those veiled lashes of his ‘...I would accept your work in lieu of rent—if that is agreeable to you.’
Talia stared. The hope that had flared so pathetically briefly when he had first said there would be no problem in her staying on at the villa—before naming his price for that—sparked into life again.
‘Yes! Yes, of course—’
The words were out of her mouth before she could stop them. The fact she would be working for the man who had brought down her father, who now owned everything that he had once possessed, was irrelevant.
She saw him sit back, cross one leg over the other and steeple his long fingers—fingers that had once trailed through her loosened hair and skimmed the contours of her naked body...
She dragged her mind away and stifled the inner voice that was telling her she was insane even to think of working for a man she had spent such a night with and who was now regarding her as nothing more than an employee.
But I have no choice in the matter. If he is offering me a job I have to take it—I have to! If it lets Mum stay on in
the villa... If it buys me time...
She swallowed again. ‘When...when do I start?’
She watched him smooth a hand over his thigh in a controlled, leisurely fashion, his eyes never leaving her, revealing nothing of what might be behind that leaden gaze.
‘I’m flying out at the end of the week. Meet me at Heathrow,’ he informed her.
Consternation filled Talia’s face. ‘Flying out? Where?’
‘The Caribbean. I’ll be there a fortnight—so will you.’
Violently, she shook her head. A fortnight? ‘I couldn’t! Impossible!’
It would be impossible to spend two weeks with Luke—and in the very place they had fantasised about that night together. About running away to a sun-drenched tropical island, a palm-fringed beach, with no cares or responsibilities or prison doors to stop her...
The cruelty of it mocked her. Mocked her with the torment of the prospect of having to be with him again as he was now—so cold, so distant...
She saw him shrug again—a gesture of indifference. And that was all he felt for her now, she knew.
‘In which case be out of the Marbella villa next week.’
Talia shut her eyes as if she could shut out the reality of this situation. How could she turn down this offer he was making her? She couldn’t. She had no choice.
Luke was speaking again. ‘You can have twenty-four hours to make your decision. Phone my PA when you’ve made it.’
He uncrossed his legs, extending them under the wide mahogany desk, and reached for his keypad. Talia swallowed. It was a signal that she was being dismissed.
Numbly, she walked from the office.
* * *
Behind her, Luke lifted his gaze as she walked out. She could not have spelt out more clearly how repugnant she found the notion of spending time with him.
Memory stabbed at him again of how they had talked on that amazing, unforgettable night together, sated with passion, wound in each other’s arms. Talked of taking off to the Caribbean together...
But it had never happened, had it? She had never had the slightest intention of going anywhere with him, of spending a single further night with him.
She used me—and left me. Had what she wanted of me and walked out.
As the door closed behind her his face darkened. Was he clinically insane to have offered her a job? Actually invited her to go with him to the place that mocked him in his taunting memories? Why the hell had he done it?