So? Get used to it! There was no time for self-pity. This was all about protecting her sisters, whatever they’d done. They weren’t to blame. They had no idea what it took to survive in the cut-throat world of business—she didn’t want them to know. She would protect them as she always had.
She nearly jumped out of her skin when the phone rang, and she rushed to pick it up. Mixed feelings when she did so, because it was Eva, her middle and least flexible sister, calling. ‘Eva—’
‘You rang?’ Eva intoned. ‘Seven missed calls, Britt? What’s going on?’
Where to begin? Suddenly, Britt was at a loss, but then her mind cleared and became as unemotional as it usually was where business was concerned. ‘The man from the consortium just left the cabin. He said you and Leila signed something?’ Britt waited tensely for her sister to respond, guessing Eva would be doing ten things at once. ‘So, what have you signed?’ Britt pressed, controlling her impatience.
‘All we did was give permission for the consortium’s people to enter the offices to start their preliminary investigations.’
‘Why didn’t you speak to me first?’
‘Because we couldn’t get hold of you.’
And now she could only rue the day she had left Skavanga to show Emir the mine.
‘We thought we were helping you move things on.’
Britt could accept that. The sooner the consortium’s accountants had completed their investigations, the sooner she could bring some investment into Skavanga Mining and save the company. ‘So you haven’t agreed to sell your shares?’
‘Of course not. What do you take me for?’
‘I don’t want to argue with you, Eva. I’m just worried—’
‘You know I don’t know the first thing about the business,’ Eva countered. ‘And I’m sorry you got landed with it when our parents died. I do know there are a thousand things you’d rather do.’
‘Never mind that now—I need to help people at home. I’m coming back—’
‘Before you go, how did you get on with him?”
‘Who?’ Britt said defensively.
‘You know—the man who was at the mine with you—the sheikh’s man.’
‘Oh, you mean Emir.’
‘What?’
‘Emir,’ Britt repeated.
‘Well, that’s original,’ Eva murmured with a smile in her voice. ‘Did the Black Sheikh come up with any more titles to fool you, or just the one?’
Britt started to say something and then stopped. ‘Sorry?’
‘Oh, come on,’ Eva exclaimed impatiently. ‘I guess he was quite a man, but I can’t believe your brain has taken up permanent residence below your belt. You know your thesaurus as well as anyone: emir, potentate, person of rank. Have I rung any bells yet?’
‘But he said his name was—’ Hot waves of shame washed over her. She was every bit as stupid as she had thought herself when Emir left, only more so.
‘Since when have you believed everything you’re told, Britt?’ Eva demanded.
Since she met a man who told her that his name was Emir.
She had to speak to him. She would speak to him, Britt determined icily, just as soon as she had finished this call to her sister.
‘You haven’t fallen for him, have you?’ Eva said shrewdly.
‘No, of course not,’ Britt fired back.
There was a silence that suggested Eva wasn’t entirely convinced. Too bad. Whatever Britt might have felt for Emir was gone now. Gone completely. Finished. Over. Dead. Gone.
‘You should have taken him for a roll in the snow so you could both cool down.’
‘I did,’ she admitted flatly. ‘He loved it.’
‘Sounds like my kind of guy—’
‘This isn’t funny, Eva.’
‘No,’ Eva agreed, turning serious. ‘You’ve made a fool of yourself and you don’t like it. Turns out you’re not the hotshot man-eater you thought you were.’
‘But I’m still a businesswoman,’ Britt murmured thoughtfully, ‘and you know what they say.’
‘I’m sure you’re going to tell me,’ Eva observed dryly.
‘Don’t get mad, get even.’
‘That’s what I was afraid of,’ Eva commented under her breath. ‘Just don’t cut off your nose to spite your face. Don’t screw this deal after putting so much effort into it.’