She was very preoccupied at the library that morning, and her mood wasn’t helped by Paul telephoning to say he thought that afternoon would be a good time for them to discuss business. It wasn’t a good time for her, it was the last thing she felt like doing today, but she realised that Paul was a busy man and that it was only through someone cancelling an appointment that he was able to see her that afternoon. Besides, a drive into town might help to clear her head a little, she tried to convince herself.
But it became apparent after only a few minutes that Paul had little or no interest in discussing business himself, that he was still very involved with the problem of Adam in their lives. Wasn’t everybody?
‘I’m having someone check into his past, Eve,’ Paul told her grimly. ‘I want to know exactly——’
‘You’ve done what?’ She gasped disbelievingly, her head suddenly very clear.
His eyes flashed angrily. ‘Don’t sound so surprised, Eve,’ he dismissed hardily. ‘I realised yesterday, when I told you that you don’t really know the man, just how true that is. I’m interested to know how he acquired his wealth, how——’
‘T
hrough sheer hard work!’ She stood up to agitatedly pace the room, all the time looking at Paul as if she had never seen him before as he sat so calmly behind his imposing desk. As, indeed, she was beginning to doubt. ‘You can’t be serious about this.’ She shook her head incredulously.
‘Of course I’m serious,’ he said impatiently. ‘Eve, be sensible about this,’ he sighed as she still looked stunned by what he was doing. ‘He could have any number of skeletons in his closet.’
And Paul was determined to flush them all out. It was unbelievable.
Her mouth was tight. ‘I wish you had talked this over with me before going ahead with it.’
‘You’re infatuated with the man, you were sure to have said “no”,’ Paul dismissed scathingly.
‘I would have said “no” because it’s an invasion of his privacy!’ she returned heatedly.
He shook his head sadly. ‘I can’t bear to see you making a fool of yourself over this man.’
‘I’m not.’ She controlled herself with effort, realising she was starting to sound slightly hysterical. But what Paul had done was—well, it was—well, she was at a loss for words! ‘I want you to know here and now that I completely disapprove of what you’re doing,’ she bit out stiltedly. ‘And that no matter what you find out about Adam, I don’t want to know about it. I prefer to make up my own mind about people,’ she added with distaste for his method.
‘I was hoping to have had some initial information back by the time you got here this afternoon.’ Paul frowned, seeming not to realise how angry his delving into Adam’s private life had made her.
‘I mean it, Paul. I’m not interested in what dirt you manage to dig up,’ she snapped coldly. ‘Now, if you don’t mind,’ she picked up her bag, ‘I’d like to leave.’
‘But, Eve——’
‘I’m certainly not in the mood now to discuss business,’ she cut in warningly.
Something in her tone finally got through to him, and he stood up to come around his desk to her, putting his hands lightly on her shoulders as he gazed down at her. ‘Darling, I’m sorry if all this has upset you, but I don’t——’
‘Upset me?’ she echoed tautly. ‘You’ve shocked me! Your behaviour is like something out of an old black and white movie! No one looks into another person’s life for dirt in real life.’
He flushed his displeasure at her criticism. ‘Of course they do, Eve.’
‘Not in my world, they don’t,’ she stated firmly, shrugging off his hands. ‘Now, you can go ahead with this ridiculous business if you want to, but leave me out of it. And certainly don’t even attempt to tell me anything of what you find out,’ she repeated with distaste.
‘Eve, listen to me——’
‘If it’s more of the same nonsense, then I don’t want to hear it,’ she warned him harshly.
He sighed. ‘All right, I won’t talk about that any more—for now. But when I do find out something underhand about him, I don’t intend——’
‘If you do,’ she corrected stiffly, her eyes flashing deeply turquoise.
She was sure that if there had been anything like that in Adam’s past, then he would have told her about it last night; he had gone into pretty graphic detail about everything else in his life! Certainly, nothing in his manner had given her the impression he was holding anything back from her.
‘When I do,’ Paul insisted harshly, his gaze narrowed on her with slight contempt for what he believed to be her gullibility. ‘You really are infatuated with the man, aren’t you?’
No, she realised sadly, she didn’t believe she was infatuated with Adam at all; in just a few short days she had come to love him. And that knowledge hadn’t helped to solve her dilemma at all. Now she was just aware of loving two men at the same time!
She had no idea how she had come to fall in love with Adam so quickly, or at all; she had just known last night that it was a fact. Marina had said she was in love with him, and, even as she had been indignantly denying it, she had known like a lightning bolt that it was the truth. If she had needed any further proof of it, she had got it when the jealousy ripped through her at Marina’s request to be left alone with Adam.