Slave to Love

Roberta’s chin went up. ‘No, I do not!’

‘Have dinner with me, then,’ he suggested slyly, ‘and we’ll discuss both issues—your forgiving me and my helping my brother get out of the hole he’s dug himself.’

She shook her head, glad that she had a valid excuse to refuse him. ‘Sorry,’ she said, ‘but I already have a dinner engagement tonight.’

His eyes suddenly shot daggers at her. ‘Who the hell with?’ he demanded. ‘You’ve only been in Zurich for five damned hours!’

She shrugged, secretly pleased that she’d managed to annoy him. ‘A friend of Joel’s,’ she told him coolly.

‘Joel,’ Mac muttered between clenched teeth. ‘I might have known he’d— What’s his name?’ he then demanded.

‘Karl,’ she said. ‘Karl Loring.’

‘Break it,’ he commanded tightly, the name having a strangely murderous effect on his eyes.

She shook her head, savouring her cup of coffee. ‘I’m afraid I can’t do that,’ she said, becoming more at ease the more angry he got.

‘You will if you want me to sort out the mess for Joel,’ he growled.

Roberta looked sagely across the coffee-table at him. ‘I should like to think that you would do that for Joel’s own sake, Mac.’

His eyes darkened fractionally, but it had nothing to do with a guilty conscience for using his brother against her like this; it was sheer frustration that she wouldn’t jump to his autocratic bidding.

‘How did you meet him?’ he asked.

‘Karl collected me from the airport,’ she explained, the small smile which came to play about her mouth when she recalled that meeting seeming to shoot Mac’s temper right to its limits.

‘Fancy him, do you?’ he enquired bitterly. ‘See him as the kind you can seduce into marrying you where I wouldn’t?’

That hurt—hurt so deeply that she had to fight to squash the need to wince. ‘What’s the matter, Mac?’ she countered silkily. ‘Don’t you like the idea of another man knowing me as intimately as you do?’

In a sudden burst of fury he shot up, his hand snaking out to take the cup from her before he hauled her to her feet. ‘Don’t even let yourself think about it!’ he warned her bitingly. ‘Or, so help me, Bunny, I’ll—!’

‘Don’t you dare threaten me!’ she flared, holding his murderous gaze with her own. ‘I can eat with and sleep with whom I damned well like! We are finished, remember?’

‘Finished?’ he grated deridingly. ‘You must be joking!’

And to prove it he brought his mouth down punishingly on hers.

By the time he released her she was wilting like a limp rag. Mac pushed himself away from her in disgust—self-disgust, she suspected, knowing he had seen the way the tip of her tongue had flicked out to catch the droplet of blood where his angry assault had broken the delicate flesh of her bottom lip.

He turned away from her, his shoulders hunched in angry contempt. ‘OK,’ he said grimly. ‘I’ll do a deal with you, Roberta. I’ll sort out this mess with Franc Brunner for Joel the moment you agree to return our relationship to the way it was.’

For a few short seconds she just stared at him in blank disbelief of what she thought she’d just heard. Then, ‘Sleep with you, you mean? Why, you utter unprincipled swine!’ she choked. ‘What an offensive proposition to make!’

‘Why?’ he sighed out frustratedly. ‘We’ve been sleeping together almost every night for a year! Why the hell should the idea of our sleeping together again be suddenly so offensive to you?’

‘Because I refuse to sleep with anyone just to clinch a business deal!’ she cried. ‘My God,’ she whispered, turning white with distaste. ‘You make me feel like a whore!’

‘You are not a whore!’ he roared, shooting around to face her with an angry jerk.

‘No?’ she choked. ‘Then why are you trying to treat me like one? Or do you have another name for women who use their bodies as bartering tools? Oh, go away, Mac!’ she choked, on the first sob that she feared was going to be one of many. ‘Just go away and leave me alone!’

With that she ran, stumbling into the bedroom to close and lock the door so that he couldn’t follow her.

He didn’t. He didn’t even try. And, oddly, that hurt her just as much as everything else he did hurt her these days.

You’re a fool, she told herself sternly. A stupid fool for letting him get to you the way he does!