As they walked towards it Sadie could see a fleet of immaculate mini-coaches parked outside the main entrance.
‘We have been inviting certain financial sector personnel to come to Dhurahn for inspection tours,’ Drax explained.
‘You’ve done so much already. I can’t see why you would need to employ someone like me,’ Sadie told him impetuously, turning to him as she spoke, and then giving a small gasp as her foot slipped on the rubble underfoot.
Drax reacted immediately, reaching out to take hold of her bare arm to steady her.
She was so close to him that she was convinced he must be able to hear the frantic thudding of her heart, never mind see the swift rise and fall of her breasts as she gulped in air. She was suddenly aware that her fingers were clutching at his forearm. The white cotton of his robe felt crisp and fresh beneath the hot stickiness of her hand. She could smell the elusive but sensual scent of male skin and sunshine, and some subtly pleasant cologne; it enticed her to move closer to him so that she could breathe it in. She had taken a step towards him before she could stop herself.
The hand he had placed on her arm moved up to her shoulder, to accommodate her move forward. She could feel its warmth cupping the rounded ball of her shoulder joint where her bare skin met the cotton edge of her top’s short sleeve—only his hand wasn’t on her sleeve, it was on her bare flesh, as though he had slid his fingers beneath the edge of her sleeve. Just thinking of that kind of intimacy made her tremble as though a fine thread inside her linking every erogenous zone she possessed had been pulled tighter. She could see the dark column of his throat, its skin taut and golden. If she lifted her gaze a little higher she would be able to see his mouth.
Her heart missed one beat and then another as she did exactly that. She couldn’t remember ever studying a man’s mouth so closely before, or wanting to do so. If she had, the moment was completely overwhelmed now by the experience of absorbing every tiny detail of Drax’s mouth. His bottom lip was full and curved, indenting sharply into the corners. She wanted to touch it, to draw her fingertip slowly along it. She wanted…She wanted to lean forward and press her own mouth against his. She wanted…
Did she know what she was doing, looking at him like that? Looking at his mouth with those big eyes, their gaze drowned in open desire? Drax’s fingers tightened on the warm, bare flesh of her shoulder, where he had slipped his hand beneath her sleeve, kneading and caressing its curve. He looked down at her body and saw how her nipples were pressing against the fabric of her top, signalling her arousal. It would be the easiest thing in the world to lift his free hand to shape them and then pluck erotically at the boldly aroused flesh, to whisper to her how he would kiss and caress its nakedness before taking it into his mouth to unite them in fierce physical pleasure.
The easiest thing, and the most dangerous. The erection he had controlled earlier throbbed urgently with aching need. He could take her back to his car now. They would be back within the palace and the privacy of his own quarters within half an hour, and then he could take his pleasure of her in all the ways his body was demanding.
Except that he had vowed that she would be Vere’s. Vere’s—not his!
He released her so swiftly that Sadie wasn’t sure if what she was feeling was relief or disappointment. What had possessed her to simply stand there like that? she wondered uncomfortably as she tried to keep pace with Drax’s long stride. Was it possible that somewhere deep inside every sensible woman there was a throwback gene to a more primitive age, with a secret desire to be claimed by a man strong enough, daring enough and powerful enough, to snatch her up and make her his own?
‘It is a pity that my brother isn’t here to show you round the building. I am sure that when he returns he will wish to do so. This venture is very close to his heart.’
‘But the design concept for the overall plan is yours?’ Sadie guessed intuitively, as they reached
the entrance to the building.
She didn’t want Drax to bring his brother into the conversation. Somehow it broke the intimacy between them, almost as though he was actually physically standing between them. The sharp stab of jealousy she felt shocked her. What kind of foolishness was this? Surely only a woman teetering on the verge of falling wildly and passionately in love with a man could feel jealous of a brother she had yet to meet?
Drax was holding the door to the building open for her. Relieved to have an excuse not to pursue her unwanted line of thought, Sadie stepped through it, shivering a little at the chill of the air-conditioning.
As she gazed upwards from the spacious ground floor with its inner atrium, Sadie couldn’t help but be impressed. She knew from the plans Drax had shown her earlier that the building had its own state-of-the-art health club complex, complete with a gym, a swimming pool, treatment rooms, and a restaurant. It also had a cinema that could be used for conferences as well as to show the latest films, several bars and restaurants, and off-duty meeting rooms for the use of those who worked in it. And this was only one of the planned buildings that would form the whole complex.
‘What do you think?’
Sadie was astonished that Drax felt he needed to ask her opinion.
‘With a set-up like this you’re bound to be able to attract top-quality personnel,’ she told him honestly. ‘I can’t imagine anyone turning down the opportunity to work here and be part of such an exciting new venture.’
‘We’ve tried to plan for all contingencies. Some of the more senior personnel will be older, with families, so we’re planning to open schools in the new complex on the coast. Dhurahn already has a university, originally endowed and established by our grandfather, but my brother has taken on its expansion as a personal project. He is the philanthropist, while I am more the hard-headed businessman. I think when you meet him that you will find Vere is very much more on your wavelength than I.’
Sadie tensed. For some reason she was beginning to feel almost hostile at Drax’s frequent references to his brother’s virtues—although she knew there was no logical reason why she should feel that way.
As they waited for a lift to take them to the upper floors Drax’s mobile rang. He turned aside to answer it at the same time as the lift doors opened to disgorge a group of European men in business suits, all of them young and, to Sadie, very obviously what she privately termed ‘trading floor types’. They exuded the male confidence, arrogance and street cred that epitomised the City boy, and Sadie wasn’t surprised to find herself being openly inspected.
That didn’t bother her particularly, but she felt far less sanguine when one of them suddenly detached himself from the others and came over to her, saying loudly in an over-familiar way that infuriated her, ‘Well, if it isn’t Sadie! Prim little Sadie, who doesn’t do sex. What brings you here? You can’t be up for a job. They only want the top graduates—although Lord knows you must need the money since you got the push from the bank.’
To Sadie’s relief Drax, still speaking into his mobile, was standing too far away to hear what was being said, although he had turned round to face them.
‘Actually, I already have a job, thank you, Jack,’ Sadie answered as calmly as she could.
Jack Logan. Jack the Lad, as the other men in the office had admiringly nick-named him. Sadie had disliked him from the moment they had been introduced—and she had ended up disliking him even more after he had trapped her in an empty office and tried to coerce her into having sex with him. Luckily she had managed to escape before he had tried to force her, but Sadie knew that he hadn’t forgiven her for rejecting him. His comments now were, she acknowledged, a form of payback.
Drax had finished his conversation and was looking enquiringly at her. Sadie wriggled past her unpleasant former colleague and hurried over to rejoin him.
‘An old friend?’ Drax asked her coolly.
‘We used to work together,’ Sadie answered shortly, wondering what Jack the Lad would make of the deference being shown to Drax by his guide as he salaamed with deep reverence and Drax responded with a small inclination of his head.