Bittersweet Love - Cathy Williams [26]
He didn’t look in the slightest bit flattered or surprised by the unwanted attentions of a married woman, but then he wouldn’t, would he? Natalie thought ironically. He was quite accustomed to attention from all quarters.
‘I thought it might have been in my imagination,’ Natalie lied awkwardly. It was this empathy with him that undermined her most.
‘Hardly. She invited me to sleep with her the last time we met. I don’t think she was too impressed when I refused. I told her I had made a prior arrangement to wash my hair.’
Natalie looked at him, incredulous, until he laughed out loud.
‘Horrified? I’m surprised. I thought you were highly versed in the realms of passion.’ There was a thread of laughter in his voice and the stony look on her face amused him even further. There were times, she thought, when she positively hated him. Now was one of those times.
It was clear from the look on his face that he didn’t believe a word about her passionate affair with Eric. In fact, the thought was so ludicrous that it made him laugh. Beneath the anger at his response there was a well of hurt which she refused to acknowledge. She waited in silence until his amusement subsided, then she left the office, still fuming.
The man was unbearable. How could she ever have fallen in love with someone who was so unbearable?
It was a rhetorical question, of course. She knew why she had fallen in love with him. He might be infuriatingly self-assured but he was also clever and witty and had a sense of humour which had edged its way under her skin until the thought of ever having to live without it made her go cold.
Still, that didn’t mean that she was looking forward to a weekend at his country house entertaining clients, with the delightful Anna swanning around and making sly, derisory comments at her expense.
It was funny but when she had been overweight and not particularly appealing she had managed these dos without any bother at all. She had slotted herself comfortably into the background and had happily fulfilled her duties, observing Kane from a distance, knowing that she was virtually invisible to him. Now something had changed. Perhaps it was all in her mind, but an element of sexuality had entered their relation-ship which disturbed her, made her all the more aware of how dangerous her position was. She was playing with fire merely by continuing to work for him, and playing with fire inevitably involved burnt fingers. Hers.
She half expected Eric to decline Kane’s invitation, but to her surprise he accepted with alacrity, informing her that it might prove a very good opportunity to make valuable contacts.
Natalie hadn’t thought of that. She grinned wryly to herself as she replaced the receiver, and decided that it was just as well that she was not madly in love with him because she would have been quite disappointed at the speed with which he relinquished a weekend alone in her company in favour of the chance to make a few contacts.
The following morning Kane asked her whether she had sorted out the weekend with Eric and she nodded, not glancing in his direction.
‘We’ll be there at six,’ she informed him, skimming through her mail and then getting up to make them both a cup of coffee.
‘I half expected you to tell me that he had refused to spend a weekend watching you entertain my clients,’ Kane called out, walking towards his office. ‘Odd sort of response considering the passion you two share. Or rather the passion you claim you two share. Or maybe my definition of passion isn’t quite the same as yours, because I know that if I were Eric I damn well wouldn’t want to share you for a weekend.’
Natalie dumped the cup of coffee on his desk. ‘Well, you’re not Eric, are you?’ she said sweetly, her skin burning from his throw-away remark which had sent a series of images shooting through her brain.
He grinned wickedly at her and promptly dropped the subject, but his reaction had left her with a niggling feeling. Whatever he said, however he behaved,