‘I can’t put that on my head. It will ruin my hairdo.’
‘Take it down.’
‘Take it down?’
She stared at him in the mirror again, the green jacket totally encompassing her from neck to calf, and Lukas didn’t think he’d been more turned on in his life. This was supposed to have been a two-minute stopover to ensure that she didn’t fall ill from being underdressed and instead he was watching as she raised her arms to release her hair and he was riveted to the spot like a store mannequin. The chestnut waves fell about her shoulders in a cloud of silken strands and the scent of fresh apples rose to his nose. Her cheeks were flushed as she gazed at his reflection and it was all he could do not to spin her around and crush her pink lips beneath his own.
He glanced up at the heating vents in the high ceilings and wondered if someone had just turned the furnace up to full bore. It was so hot it almost seemed redundant to dump the ushanka on her head but he did it anyway.
‘Ouch.’
She raised her hand to adjust the hat and he shoved the gloves into her hand. ‘No fur, so don’t complain.’
‘I’m not complaining.’
She moved toward the small fitting room to look at herself more closely. Lukas turned away.
‘Put that on my account,’ he told the boggle-eyed salesgirl.
‘Yes, sir.’
‘No, wait. I’m paying.’
Eleanore grabbed her purse and spun around to rush out of the sitting room except that Lukas was in her way.
She stopped, startled at how close he was. ‘I mean it, Mr Kuznetskov. I don’t need you to buy clothes for me.’
No, she wouldn’t need anything from him, Lukas thought, and why did that realisation make him more annoyed. ‘This isn’t about what you need, Miss Harrington, it’s about what I need.’ And he really needed to get out of this ridiculously hot store.
‘I can buy my own clothes.’
‘This is a business expense.’
She frowned. ‘Can you do that?’
He had no idea and he didn’t care. ‘I can do whatever I want.’
‘I think you’ve been doing whatever you want for far too long.’
Eleanore hadn’t actually meant to blurt out her thoughts like that but somehow he drove her to say things she would normally keep to herself.
‘True.’
His offhand reply riled her, especially after Petra’s earlier revelations about his do-gooding deeds had made her think she had read his character wrong. ‘And what’s this about the proceeds of the ice hotel going to a charity?’
Something in his expression became guarded. ‘What about it?’
‘If Harrington’s is to be associated with the hotel I feel like it’s something we should have known about already.’
‘And now you do.’
Frustrated with his unconcerned attitude she scowled up at him and tried to ignore the feeling of being trapped. ‘Which charity is it?’
He shrugged. ‘I can’t remember.’
‘You can’t remember?’
‘That’s what I said.’
Eleanore frowned. ‘So why do it?’
‘Because I can.’
Maybe she hadn’t got him wrong after all. Maybe Petra was just hoodwinked. ‘And no doubt looking good in the community doesn’t hurt either,’ she said.
It aggravated him that she had already pegged him as a bad person after one comment that hadn’t been meant for public consumption. It was as if she could see the very essence of him and knew there was something lacking inside of him. ‘There is that,’ he agreed flatly.
The way she gripped her handbag to her chest and glared at him let him know she was ready to leave but he ignored the cue.
‘If possible I think my opinion of you just sunk lower,’ she said snootily.
‘Is that something I’m supposed to care about?’ he asked.
‘Obviously not.’
Her haughty attitude was like nails down a chalkboard to his soul and Lukas’s irritation spilled over. Who was she to judge him? ‘Are you quite finished with the interrogation?’ he bit out tersely. ‘We have a month to turn this project around and I need someone competent and willing to work hard.’
Her chin jerked upward. ‘Why do I feel like you just slighted me?’
‘Perhaps my opinion of you isn’t that much higher than your opinion of me.’
‘We should make a great team, then,’ she said testily.
Lukas stepped into the doorway of her dressing cubicle. ‘We’re not a team, Miss Harrington. I’ve hired you to work on a project for my company.’