"Lydia?" She was brought back to the present with a jolt as she realised
Wolf was looking straight at her, his mouth tight.
"Have you seen him recently?"
"Seen him...?" The suddenness of the question flummoxed her completely.
"Matthew? No..."
"And is there any chance of the two of you getting back together again?" he asked, still in the strange, blank, hard voice as he watched her tightly through cool blue eyes.
"Wolf--' " Just answer yes or no, Lydia. “His eyes were totally expressionless and as blue as a summer sky.
"Is there a chance?"
"No." She took a deep breath.
"But--' " We've got to go. “He picked up the suitcase and strode to the door, waiting for her to precede him. “We’re going to cut it fine and we need to be on that flight. "
He had known she was going to talk about Matthew and he hadn't wanted her to, but why not? Lydia asked herself bemusedly as she walked out into the street to see a taxi-cab waiting patiently. Why ask her about him like that if he didn't want her to explain? But then he wouldn't want to get involved, would he? His earlier _words about relationships flooded her mind. If he could ascertain that his temporary secretary wasn't likely to have any difficult emotional outbursts that might affect her capability, if he could be reasonably sure that the estranged husband wasn't likely to cause problems with his efficient machine. That was all he was interested in, after all.
The grey day outside suddenly seemed a shade greyer.
But why had he kissed her? Once seated in the taxi Wolf sat staring silently out of the window and she glanced at the hard profile under her lashes. He was an enigma. She felt a moment of deep and painful confusion. She had never met anyone she understood less.
Once the formalities were completed they were settled comfortably on the plane and she couldn't fault Wolf’s courtesy in the way he treated her but. it was so cold. Chillingly so.
And in the taxi, the departure lounge, and now here on the plane, he was so very careful not to touch her, to make sure that not a part of his body came into contact with hers.
"Wolf?" She touched his arm to get his attention and felt powerful muscles tense under her hand.
"Have I done something to annoy you?
Recently, that is. “She smiled carefully as she kept her voice light.
Observation of this man over the last few weeks had shown her that any display of emotion, however slight, was met with an expressionless mask.
"Annoy?" He turned to her, his face cool and hard and his mouth cynical as he prepared to make an easy rejoinder, but as he did so blue eyes met soft, velvety brown ones and the words seemed to die in his throat as their gaze joined and held. She could feel herself be-gin to drown in the silver-blue sea of his eyes as time _hung suspended in a sapphire mist, the thud of her heart and pounding of the blood through her veins the only things that convinced her this was happening. And then his face came slowly closer, as though something outside himself had control over his actions, and his warm lips brushed tantalisingly over her half-open mouth, their touch provocative.
"So soft and beautiful..." She could barely hear the murmured words, and the next instant he had settled back into his own seat, his eyes shadowed and unfathomable.
"You haven't annoyed me, Lydia." She had forgotten her original question and blinked at him in surprise before she pulled herself together. He was dangerous. Oh, he was so, so dangerous.
"Good." She smiled brightly and forced herself to reach forward and select a magazine from the pile the efficient blonde stewardess had brought her a few minutes before.
"That's all right, then." She hoped me trembling that had spread into every fibre of her body wasn't visible to those sharp, ice-blue eyes but as she glanced at him, the brittle smile held in place by sheer will-power, she saw he was reaching for his briefcase, his face distant and preoccupied as though he had forgotten her already. She knew a moment's deep and humiliating chagrin at how easily he dismissed her, before a fierce flare of pride brought her chin upwards. The light caress didn't mean anything to her either, it didn 't. She wouldn't let it.
They were met at the airport by Wolf’s general manager of the Scottish branch, a tall, good-looking man called Douglas Webb, who immediately began to apologise, once introductions were over, for the imminent catastrophe.
"Calm yourself, Doug." Wolfs attitude surprised Lydia. She had expected tight rage or the icy-cold, biting _condemnation he was so good at, but as the three of them walked towards the waiting car his face was cool but friendly, his voice even.
"It's not a fait accompli yet, by a long way."
"If you want my resignation--' " Of course I don't want your resignation,"
Wolf responded with his usual acerbity.
"What I want is for the two of us to work together and get out of this mess.