Intimate Seduction - Brenda Jackson [66]
“The only thing you can do right now, Natalie, is leave and don’t come back. You got what you came for. Funny thing, though, it was a wasted effort on your part.”
A cruel smile then touched his lips. “But not on mine. My goal was to get you back in my bed, and I succeeded in doing that.”
“Donovan, I—”
“No! Please leave now, Natalie. I don’t want to ever see you again.”
Natalie knew that in his present state there was no way she could get through to him, so she turned and walked out the door.
“Let me get this straight. Donovan thought your notepad with those chemical equations on global warming had something to do with this project his company is working on?”
Natalie wiped the tears from her eyes. “Apparently.”
She had left Donovan’s house and had gone directly to Farrah’s, nearly colliding with Xavier, who just happened to be leaving when she was arriving. And with Farrah still in her bathrobe and naked underneath, it didn’t take a rocket scientist to guess what the late-night visit had been about.
“He actually thinks I’m a corporate spy. Can you believe that, Farrah? Just how crazy is that? And what hurts more than anything is that he didn’t give me a chance to explain. How could he so easily assume the worst about me after all the time we spent together?”
Farrah regarded her carefully. “So, what are you going to do, Nat?”
Natalie lifted her chin stubbornly. “Nothing. Eventually he’ll see he made a mistake.”
“And then what?”
Natalie inhaled deeply. “And then, still nothing. I refuse to love a man who can think the worst about me.”
“But you already love him,” Farrah pointed out.
Fresh tears appeared in Natalie’s eyes. “I know, and that’s why I’m hurting so bad.”
Donovan paced the confines of his living room. His pain was almost unbearable, and he fully understood why.
He had fallen in love with her.
Hell. Him? The playa of all times? The man who swore no woman would ever have his heart? Yeah, well, one had definitely gotten it.
He didn’t even try to figure out how and when it had happened. He was far from being a romantic, but he would guess it had been the day he had found her asleep in his bed. Something inside of him had cracked the moment she had awakened and he had gazed down into her honey-brown eyes. From that moment on, he had wanted her like he’d wanted no other woman.
And now that woman had betrayed him.
He would have to meet with his brothers in the morning and tell them everything. He could just imagine what they’d think to discover the one woman he had brought around had been nothing more than a corporate spy.
He glanced at the clock. It was past midnight but more than likely Chance was still up. He dialed his brother’s phone number.
“Hello?”
“Chance, I need you to call a meeting with everyone in the morning.”
“Why? What’s going on, Donovan?”
“I’d rather not say right now.”
There was a pause and then Chance said, “All right, I’ll arrange the meeting.”
“And it would be a good idea if Juan was included.”
Chapter 16
“Okay, Donovan, what’s this all about?” Chance asked his younger brother when everyone had arrived for the meeting that they decided to hold in the lab. Even Bas had decided to come in, refusing to be left out of anything of importance when it came to the Steele Corporation.
Donovan stepped forward. “It’s about this,” he said, holding up Natalie’s notepad in his hand.
Morgan lifted a brow. “What is that?”
“Something Natalie left at the house.”
Chance looked confused. “Natalie?”
“Yes.”
“You still haven’t said what it is,” Bas pointed out, no doubt trying to follow Donovan but having a hard time.
“It’s a notepad filled with chemical equations.”
“And your point?” Morgan asked.
Donovan was tempted to throw the notepad across the room and hit Morgan with it. “My point is that I found it very strange that she would have something like this in her possession. And with the letters GW written on every page.”
Bas stared at him. “So let me get this right. Are you