‘No, I am not joking,’ she said curtly, finding his use of the word generous an insult too far. Zac believed he could buy anything and anyone—well, not her…She would stick to the letter of their deal, but no more, and with that in mind she added, ‘It is almost midnight, and Saturday is my time, in case you had forgotten. I need to call a cab and go home.’
His eyes narrowed with tightly controlled anger. ‘No need to call a cab. The limousine will take—’
She cut him off with a bitter laugh.
‘No, thank you. I saw the salacious look your driver gave me when we arrived here,’ she said scathingly. ‘I certainly don’t need a repeat performance to remind me. A cab will do fine.’
Zac stilled, his mind running riot. He was furious at her hard-headed attitude, and he could not believe the passionate, eager lover he had held in his arms could change into the cold-eyed woman before him. He had actually imagined he felt a connection beyond the sexual with Sally—enough to confide in her the truth of his fighting past, something he had never done with any woman. Maybe that was his mistake!
He had never asked a woman to move in with him before—in fact, he had never spent more than a weekend with a woman in his life. One night, two at most, and he could count on one hand how rare an occurrence that was for him. Yet he had offered Sally more than any other woman and she had turned him down flat.
Or had she? he wondered cynically. Power and wealth attracted some women, and he had both and had learnt to recognise the type. He would be a fool if he didn’t see through every hard-headed gold-digger that came along. He had put Sally in that category at first and changed his mind. Then he remembered she had said she wanted to marry—maybe she had not been teasing him, as he had thought…Was her refusal of his offer a trick to get him hungry enough for her to give her the
ultimate offer: marriage? He didn’t know…but he meant to find out…
Sally watched him as the silence lengthened, and when Zac finally responded, she tensed as his fingers tightened on her shoulders.
‘I think I understand why you refused to move in here.’ He surveyed her with dark-eyed arrogance. ‘You worry about what people will think if you live in my apartment, an outdated anxiety in this day and age. As for the driver—if you don’t like him he will be replaced.’
‘You amaze me, Zac!’ Sally exclaimed. ‘You don’t care a damn about anyone but yourself—as long as you get what you want, to hell with the rest of us poor mortals.’ She shook her head, her eyes hating him. ‘You treat people like puppets to be moved at your bidding. Well, keep your driver and keep your apartment. I am not interested in either them or you.’
‘You were happy enough in my bed earlier, and eager to do my bidding,’ he declared with a sardonic smile. ‘I only have to touch you and you will be again. But be warned—if your refusal of my offer is simply a ploy to get what the majority of females want—a wedding ring—you are wasting your time.’
Sally’s cheeks burned, and she was filled with an incredulous anger as his words sank home. He could not have chosen a better way to insult her, yet again, and he had made her hate him more by reminding her of her weakness and implying she was after a marriage proposal.
‘Oh, please!’ she cried. ‘Don’t kid yourself. I would not marry you or any man in a million years. I am here only because of my father,’ she said scathingly, and wanting to hurt him, wanting to dent his ego, his arrogant pride, she continued, ‘You and he are two of a kind. He actually told me to be nice to you, and you have to wonder what kind of man pimps his own daughter to his boss…’ She sneered. ‘And what kind of boss takes advantage of the fact.’
‘I am nothing like your father,’ he snarled, his face darkening in fury. ‘And you were with me from the moment we met. You practically melted the first time we kissed—the same as I did.’
Sally’s mouth hardened into a bitter, hostile line. ‘I made a deal with my father, to back him and be nice to you when you called. In return he will come with me this weekend to visit his wife, Pamela—my mother—something he never does more than once in a blue moon. Something I was hoping to persuade him to do over lunch the first day you and I met. And we both know that didn’t work,’ she drawled derisively.
‘I had to bargain for the presence of my father at my mother’s bedside because for some reason my mother loves the man, and misses him. Heaven knows why. And that was the first reason I agreed to your deal. The second was keeping my father out of prison—again to keep my mother happy. I asked you for time to raise the money, and hopefully with the damn man’s help I’d pay you back, but you would not give me time. Well, now I am not wasting what is technically my time on you. I am leaving. I am picking my father up at nine in the morning to make sure he keeps his side of the bargain. As for you and I…’ she drawled, her blue eyes reflecting her contempt. ‘You know when and where I’m available, as agreed under the terms of our deal.’
Sally felt the tension in every bone in her body as Zac stared at her in a bitter, hostile silence, and it took every inch of willpower she could muster to hold on to her self-control. She avoided his eyes, but she could feel his gaze burning into her.
Suddenly his hands fell from her shoulders and she was free. Surprised, she glanced up at him. His face was suffused with anger, a thin white line circled his tight mouth, and his eyes rested coldly on her like chips of ice. And yet she could not look away, could not move. The continuing silence hung between them like a great black thunder cloud, and neither one seemed able to break it.
Then, as if a veil had fallen over his face, his expression changed to one of hard indifference. He turned and crossed the room, picked up the phone and called a cab.
‘As you so succinctly pointed out, it is almost Saturday,’ he drawled as he sauntered back towards her.
Sally saw how close he was, and knew she should step back, but she refused to let him intimidate her.
‘The cab will be here in five minutes,’ he informed her, his hand reaching out to grasp her hair, sliding off the band constraining it, his long fingers tangling in the glossy red locks.
‘You are an intelligent woman, Sally. But you have met your match with me,’ he told her chillingly.
His dark head bent and his arm slid round her, pressing her against his long body while his hard mouth moved ruthlessly on hers. Her pulse leapt, and she fought an internal battle to resist the seductive power of his kiss, but his fingers bit into her waist and she lost…Helplessly she arched against him, her hands of their own volition curving over his broad shoulders and clinging in shaming response.
He raised his head, his dark eyes gleaming down at her. ‘You see, my Salmacis,’ he drawled mockingly, ‘blame your father, make all the excuses you like, but you want me as much as I want you, and some day you might admit it. When you do, you have all my numbers—call me.’
Mortified by her easy capitulation to his kiss, Sally jerked free of him and glanced up with a bitterness that belied the longing in her eyes. ‘That will never happen.’ Then, to her relief, the intercom rang. The cab had arrived.
Zac walked her down to the street without saying a word until he handed her into the waiting cab.
‘I am going to Italy tomorrow. Maybe we will meet again some time.’ He shrugged ‘Your choice.’ And, turning, he went back inside without a backward glance.
Sally told herself she was glad it was over between them as the cab moved off, but she had to blink away the moisture hazing her eyes.