Page 12 of She Devil
‘Okay, look, Jamie, just tell me what I can do to persuade you to sell to DH Worldwide and I’ll do it. Let’s find a way to make everyone happy.’
I take great pleasure in leaving a long, thoughtful pause hanging in the air before I speak again, seeing the tension mount in her shoulders as I draw this out for as long as I can.
‘You can let me make you come,’ I say finally.
She stares at me, obviously wondering whether she’s misheard me, her hands jerkily returning to her sides.
I suppress the grin that’s pushing like mad at the corners of my mouth. I need her to believe I’m deadly serious about this.
‘I’m sorry, did you really just say I have to have an orgasm in order for you to sell your father’s company to me?’
‘I did. And it has to be me that gives it to you.’
She lets out a broken laugh and shakes her head. ‘Wow. I had no idea you could stoop this low just to try and prove a point.’
‘Okay, well, if that’s the way you feel then there’s nothing left to discuss,’ I say, walking away from her, over to my desk. ‘I’ll happily sell to your biggest rival instead. I know they’d be delighted to have De Montfort Software for their portfolio.’
Her hands shoot up again. ‘No. Wait. I didn’t refuse the deal, did I? I was just surprised by it.’
‘So is that a yes?’
She looks properly confused now. ‘Why, though, Jamie? Why on earth would you want something like that?’
I shrug, as if it’s of no real consequence. ‘Let’s just call it closure, shall we?’
‘Is this because of what I said at the fundraiser? About you never being able to make me come?’
‘If that’s what you want to believe.’
She gives me another smile, which I think she thinks is warm but actually comes across as beleaguered. ‘Because I was only messing with you, you know.’
I lean back against the edge of my desk and take a moment to thoroughly assess her. ‘I’m not sure I believe you. In fact, I’m not sure you’re actually capable of letting go enough to orgasm.’
‘Well, I am!’ I can see I’m making her angry now but she’s desperately trying to fight it to keep this meeting on a businesslike footing.
Satisfaction surges through me, but I know I need to keep my triumph under wraps if I’m going to gain her trust so she’ll tell me the secret she’s been keeping from me all these years. I think at this point she’d tell me any old pack of lies if she thought it would help close this deal and that’s exactly what I don’t want to happen. I need to get her to a point where she’s emotionally compromised and weak enough to let me back into her good graces. I want to turn her upside down and inside out with lust, to make her so befuddled by desire she’ll happily tell me anything I want to know.
So she’ll tell me the truth.
I push away from the desk and walk over to the window, pretending to stare out at the view, though all I can see is the image of her confused face blazed across my vision like a light trail. I force down a sting of unease, which comes at me from out of nowhere.
‘I’ll let you have a few minutes on your own,’ I say, gesturing outside towards the path from my house that leads down to the cove, as if I’m thinking of taking a stroll there. ‘Give you some time to think it over.’
I turn back to see she’s standing ramrod-straight in the middle of my library, as if turned to stone. She’s paralysed with confusion and frustration.
Just the way I hoped she’d be.
CHAPTER THREE
April
ABEADOFsweat trickles down my spine as I stand there, frozen with indecision about what to do about Jamie’s indecent proposal.
It’s not as if I have a moral objection to using my sexuality to attain something I feel will be beneficial. Hell, I was prepared to go through with a marriage of convenience a couple of months ago because I could see the clear business benefit—not that I ever had a chance of making that happen, because my potential suitor turned out to be the only man capable of taming my wild sister, Maya, who’s now completely in love with him, and he her—but Jamie’s an altogether different proposition. There’s history between us. Twisted, messy history with a potential forchallengingemotions to resurface.
He’s the last man on earth I should be letting into my bed.
But I wouldn’t be the successful businesswoman I am today if I hadn’t been able to handle challenging situations.
