No. No! What was the matter with her? He was an egotistical bastard, the kind of man she’d always despised, and he believed her possible of the worst kind of avarice...
She gave a little sob of anger and twisted her face away from his.
‘All right,’ she said. Her voice was thin; she inhaled, then tried again. ‘All right, Conor, enough.’
He looked down at her, his eyes still clouded with desire, and nodded his head.
‘You’re right,’ he said thickly, ‘there’s no sense in this.’ He shifted his weight, putting her off balance so that she had to lean against him for support. ‘It’s time we got down to basics.’
‘I know you’re determined to make me quit this job, but—’
‘Job?’
‘Intimidation didn’t work, so now you’re trying seduction. But—’
‘To hell with your job!’
Arden’s laughter was sharp. ‘I wish to God I could echo that sentiment—but I can’t, thanks to you and what you did that night at the hotel. When I think back—’
‘When I think back,’ he said softly, ‘I know that if I’d done what I should have, none of this would have happened. You were standing outside that lift, looking as cool as a queen, and I had just returned from three weeks in the back country—’
‘I know this is hard to believe, but I’m not the least bit—’
‘My truck broke down half a dozen miles outside town.’ His hand went to her hair and he took a strand between his fingers, rubbing it gently as if it were silk. “That’s why I looked the way I did.’
‘Didn’t you hear me? Dammit, Conor, I don’t care!’
‘Ah,’ he said softly, smiling just a little, ‘but you should. Just think, sweetheart, if I’d made a better first impression—’
‘The only way you could have managed that would have been if the lift had dropped through the foundations and taken you with it.’
He grinned. ‘I like a woman with a temper.’
‘And I don’t like anything about you!’
‘You don’t have to. All you have to do is admit the truth: that if we hadn’t started off on the wrong foot that night, you’d have gone to bed with me.’
Colour flared under her skin. ‘You really are crazy!’
‘One night, and we’d have got all this out of our systems.’
‘You’re completely insane!’
‘I’m honest, which is more than you are. You’re still angry that I ruined the little scam you were going to run on that guy in your room, so angry that you won’t admit the truth.’
Arden punched her fist against his shoulder. ‘My God, you’re the most egotistical, despicable, lying son of a bitch I’ve ever met! When I tell Felix—’
‘Tell him wha
t? That I’m on to you?’
‘Listen here, Conor—’
‘That I accused you of being beautiful, and desirable, and every inch a woman?’ He laughed. ‘My uncle is old and ill but he’s not a fool. Why do you think he hired you?’
‘Because—because I can talk about things with him, and—’
‘I said, he’s not a fool. What man wouldn’t want a woman with brains as well as beauty?’ His hands slid up her throat; he cupped her face and tilted it to him. ‘Even me,’ he said gruffly. ‘Hell, I’m no better than my uncle or that poor son of a bitch you conned into coming to your room that night.’ His mouth narrowed. ‘The only difference between them and me is that I know you for what you are.’