Page 28 of The Tycoon's Ultimate Conquest
Rose.
He abruptly turned away, headed for the battered Land Rover which couldn’t have been more different from his own fleet of super-charged, high-performance cars.
She’d temporarily loaned him her car.
‘I’ll be buried in case files for the next week or so.’ She had laughed, her arms wound around his neck, her eyes sparkling, her half-clad body pressed against his. ‘You’ll want to be out and about. Lord knows you’ve become some kind of mentor to half the protesters...with that promise of yours that the developers are going to meet their extravagant demands! Mind you, I’ll be pleased to have my kitchen table back.’
Art would have to come clean. There was no way around it. He couldn’t believe that he had been disingenuous enough, when thoughts had entered his head about sleeping with her, to believe that he could have a fling and walk away.
Two adults, he had argued to himself. Two consenting adults who fancied one another. What was the problem? All he had to do was make it clear to her from the very start that he wasn’t going to be hanging around and his conscience would be clear.
He’d approached all his relationships with the opposite sex like that. With honesty and no promises. If some of them had become distraught when he’d walked away because they’d been pointlessly looking for more than he had in him to give, then so be it. Not his fault. How could it have been when he’d done nothing but warned them off going down that road?
But the situation with Rose was different and that was something he had failed to factor in.
He’d conveniently whitewashed the whole business ofwhyhe had turned up, unannounced, on her doorstep into something that wasn’t really relevant—he wasn’t going to be sticking around so she would never actually discover his true identity. Therefore, why did it matterwhohe was?
Except it did.
And now he would have to pay the price for his not-so-innocent deception.
It was not quite six in the evening. He had spent the day partly in the library, where he had worked in pleasurable peace, and partly in a five-star hotel near Oxford, where a high-level meeting had been arranged with the CEO of a company he intended to buy.
He wondered whether his attack of conscience had been kick-started by that return to the reality of his high-powered city life. Sitting at that table, back in his comfort zone of work, business and making money...had it brought him back down to earth with a bump? Reminded him of the single tenet he had always lived by—work was the only thing upon which a person could rely?
Art didn’t know. He just knew that he owed Rose more than a disappearing act.
He made it back to her house within fifteen minutes, to find her still in her office alone, Phil having gone for the day.
Rose looked up and smiled.
He’d told her that he didn’t do commitment and he didn’t do domesticity and yet they’d cooked together and discussed everything under the sun from world politics to village gossip.
‘You’re just in time,’ she said, standing up and stretching. ‘If I read any more of this file I’m going to end up banging my head on the desk in frustration. You wouldn’t believe the spurious arguments this company is using to get rid of one of their longest-serving employees just because it would be cheaper for them to get a young person on board.’
‘The world of the underdog would be nothing without you...’ Art framed that light-hearted rejoinder in a voice that lacked his customary self-assurance.
He clenched his fists, walked towards the double-fronted bay window, sat down on the ledge and stared out for a few silent seconds.
‘Are you disappointed in the outcome of the protest?’ he asked abruptly, swinging around to look at her but remaining where he was by the window, perched on the broad ledge, his legs loosely crossed.
He had no idea how to begin this conversation and even less idea as to where it was going to end. For once in his life he was freefalling without a safety net and he loathed the sensation.
For a man to whom control was vitally important, this lack of control was his worst nightmare.
* * *
Rose tilted her head to one side. The smile with which she had greeted him had faded because she was sensing that something was out of kilter, although she wasn’t sure what.
‘Not disappointed, no...’ She gave his question consideration. ‘I always knew it was going to be a token protest because the land had been bought and all the channels had been navigated with planning permission, but I do think it’s a result if the developers consent to all the things they’ve made noises about.’
‘They will.’
‘You seem very sure about that.’ Rose laughed because this sort of assertiveness was just typical of him and it was something she really...
For a few seconds her heart stopped beating and she could feel the prickle of perspiration break out over her body. Something shereally found amusing.Not something sheloved, but something she foundamusing.
‘I am.’
