‘But there’s nothing you can do about it, is there?’ Fran had started to feel nervous. ‘Not now!’
He felt like a courtroom lawyer, all the facts at his fingertips, moving in for the kill…. ‘Are you quite sure about that, Fran? When you failed to fulfil your contractual obligations to me?’
‘How?’ Fran shook her head and frowned. ‘You mean letting Rosie—?’
‘No.’ He met her eyes. ‘Let’s forget the cabaret for a moment. Even though the rest of the world doesn’t seem to want to. I was actually referring to your desertion—’
‘Desertion?’
‘Uh-huh. You were contracted to stay to the end of the ball, and to help clear the place up. But, like Cinderella—you slipped away as the clock chimed twelve.’
‘So sue me!’
His eyes gleamed. When she straightened her shoulders like that, her breasts looked like two luscious missiles pointing straight at him…. He swallowed. ‘Pretty foolish to issue a challenge like that.’
‘Or courageous? To stand up to a man who makes veiled threats.’
‘You think I wouldn’t follow through?’
‘Who knows? Why don’t you just do it, instead of hinting at it!’ she said, daring him.
‘Oh, Fran, how I’m tempted,’ he laughed softly, feeling himself momentarily harden as she made the provocative challenge. He ruthlessly pushed the erotic thoughts away. ‘But quite frankly, I wouldn’t bother suing you. I mean, it would be a complete waste of my time.’
Something in his voice put her senses on full alert. ‘Oh?’
‘Well, it’s no secret that your business—if you can still call it that—is in danger of going down the pan. People don’t like bad publicity. Clients have been pulling out of deals like rats leaving a sinking ship, haven’t they?’
Pointless to tell a lie. He had obviously checked his facts. ‘A few.’
‘And your profession is the kind that stands or falls on its reputation, isn’t it, honey?’
She felt an infuriating prickle of excitement when he called her that, even if the endearment was more snarled than whispered. But she shouldn’t be surprised, not really. After all, Sam Lockhart’s indisputable sex appeal was the reason she had gone charging to Rosie’s rescue in the first place.
‘Can’t you see the writing on the wall?’ he mocked.
‘Get to the point, will you!’
‘Okay.’ Sam narrowed his eyes. ‘Suppose I did sue you—it would be bye-bye to your business, wouldn’t it?’
‘Maybe it would! But it wouldn’t be the end of the world. Not to me. Your threats don’t frighten me, you see, Sam. No one has died. No one is ill. And I’m very adaptable.’
‘I’m sure you are.’ A pulse began to flicker in his cheek as he let his gaze drift slowly over her. He had wanted her to beg him, to plead with him, but her determination surprised him and intrigued him. Made the fight more equal. And the victory all the sweeter.
She had succeeded in making a fool of him, but more than that, had made him doubt his critical judgment. He had trusted her, warmed to her. For a man unaccustomed to giving either, it had been a shock to have them torn up and thrown back in his face. A unfamiliar anger had burned deep inside him, and he had forced himself to sit tight for days and consider his options. And not to take any action until he was in full control of his emotions.
Well, now he was.
‘I’m sure you’re many things,’ he murmured, thinking how unworldly she looked, with her scrubbed face and clear eyes. It could be so misleading, a face devoid of make-up…. Only the sun-gold satin straining over the swell of her breasts and her hips reminded him of the siren’s body beneath, and suddenly he wanted to possess that body. Possess it and ride it to glorious fulfillment.
She saw the blatantly sexual way he was looking at her, and felt her body begin to stir in response. Of course, if she had been expecting him she might have worn something a little more concealing. A satin robe with just a pair of pants underneath was provocative at the best of times. And no one in their right mind could describe this meeting as the best of anything.
She raised her eyebrows at him. ‘So is that it? Have you said everything you came to say? You’ve tried to frighten me into fearing for my livelihood—and this, I guess is where you storm out again—to put the word around that I’m finished. The unforgiving victor, with just the sound of my desolate sobs shuddering in the background?’
Sam smiled. So she was a feisty adversary as well as being an extremely sexy one, was she?
‘And what if I were to do the very opposite?’ he questioned smoothly. ‘To prove to you what a wonderful human being I am, and that Rosie and her rather pitiful acolytes were at best deluding themselves, and at worst…seriously deluding you.’
‘And how do you propose to do that? By having a personality transplant?’