LITMIR.BIZ

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      ‘You’re a fine one to talk, Nathan Holier-than-Thou Wade! How many boxes of long-stemmed red roses did you send out to women this time?’ she asked, saccharine-sweet in lieu of answering his question.

      Nathan had been touring the European branches of the world-renowned bank for the past several weeks. She doubted very much if he had remained celibate the whole time. In fact, if he had had the use of a company jet, she was pretty sure he would have taken along some light female entertainment to relieve the boredom!

      Rather than taking offence, Nathan let his lips curl into a damned attractive smile. ‘One or two. I forget the exact number.’

      She sent him a withering look, even as her heart twinged. ‘I bet you do.’

      ‘You know, that sounds an awful lot like sour grapes to me, sweetheart,’ he drawled, getting under her skin with the skill of a surgeon.

      Despite her best efforts, the little green-eyed monster was alive and well inside her. Notwithstanding, Rachel afforded him an old-fashioned look. ‘Credit me with some intelligence. I’d have to be mad to want to get involved with a man like you. Fortunately for me, insanity doesn’t run in my family,’ she responded dryly.

      ‘There are a lot of women out there who don’t see it as insanity,’ Nathan argued, with a reminiscent gleam in his eye.

      ‘The operative words being “a lot of women”,’ Rachel returned smoothly. ‘Florists all over the world must rub their hands together with glee every time you pull into town.’

      He laughed, a deep-throated sound which almost set her knees wobbling. Damn, but the man had everything. He was tall, dark and handsome, with a body to die for, and a dimple in his cheek when he smiled that was downright sinful. It was an unjust world that had such men in it. Rachel groaned silently.

      ‘I do my bit for the economy.’ Nathan grinned roguishly, showing her, had she needed proof, why it was women fell for him in droves.

      ‘More than your fair share, I would think,’ she retorted waspishly, unable to help herself, and had him laughing again. ‘I’m so glad I amuse you,’ she added tartly.

      ‘It’s either laugh at you or kiss you, sweetheart,’ he countered, bringing colour to her cheeks once more.

      This was a new tack, and her nerves jangled. ‘Don’t imagine for even one second that I would let you kiss me!’ Rachel declared in outrage, only to see a faint smile curve his lips.

      ‘Darling, if I wanted to kiss you, then kissed you would be.’

      Her throat closed over. Why all this talk of kissing? What game was he playing in that devious mind? Whatever it was, she wanted nothing of it. She drew herself up to her not inconsiderable height of five feet eleven in her two-inch heels, and folded her arms with a belligerent lift of her chin. ‘Not whilst I had a breath left in my body!’

      Nathan’s eyes gleamed. ‘Now that sounds suspiciously like a challenge. Are you daring me to kiss you, Rachel?’ he charged softly, and the sound of her name on his lips, instead of the more usual ‘sweetheart’ or ‘darling’, did strange things to her breathing.

      Did she want him to kiss her? Only all the time! She dreamt of it constantly, wondering how he would feel, how he would taste. But she wasn’t about to find out just to amuse him. She sent a warning flashing from the depth of her emerald eyes. ‘Lay so much as a finger on me, Nathan Wade, and I’ll break your arm.’

      Blue eyes gleamed as he considered the threat. ‘Could you?’

      Rachel allowed her lips to curve faintly. ‘Do you think I couldn’t?’ In this day and age a wise woman learned how to defend herself, and Rachel had taken several self-defence courses. She had yet to put anything she had learned to the test, but she knew a few moves which she was sure would surprise him.

      Nathan appeared to think so too, for he shook his head ruefully. ‘Something tells me I would be a fool to call your bluff, and my mother didn’t raise her children to be fools.’

      Realising the threat, whether real or imagined, had passed, Rachel relaxed her stance. ‘It’s a pity she didn’t do more about other areas of your character.’

      ‘She knows I’ll settle down when the right woman comes along,’ Nathan countered smoothly, understanding her perfectly, and she arched a dubious brow at him.

      ‘And just what will make one woman the right one?’ she asked curiously, interested in spite of herself.

      He shrugged. ‘I haven’t the foggiest idea, but I’ll know her when I see her.’

      Which clearly left her out of the running, even if she hadn’t been already. ‘In the meantime you’ll just carry on in the same old way, loving them and leaving them?’ Rachel remarked dryly, to which he grinned unrepentantly.

      ‘Until somebody invents some other way, it looks like I’m stuck with it. Now, delightful though it always is to share these interludes with you, sweetheart, perhaps you’d care to tell me what your grandfather’s summons is about this time.’

      Rachel’s cheeks pinkened uncomfortably as she was brought back to the point of Nathan Wade’s presence, and at how far they had wandered from it. It was another thing she so much disliked about loving him, this infernal habit he had of making her thoughts stray from the path they should be taking. She had intended keeping everything cool and to the point, but history had repeated itself…again.

      Collecting her thoughts, recalling her own lingering sense of unease, she frowned faintly. ‘I’m afraid I can’t,’ she said unhappily.

      ‘Has the old codger sworn you to secrecy again?’ he charged with some amusement. ‘OK, I won’t compromise your principles by asking you to tell me, but you can at least give me some sort of hint,’ Nathan urged in a tone of voice that Rachel knew would, on most occasions, get him his own way. This time, however, he was going to be disappointed.

      Had she not already been uneasy about the reasons for this summons she might have made some flippant response, but instead she looked at him seriously. ‘I can’t because I haven’t the faintest idea why Linus wants to see you. All I do know is that something is bothering him in a way I’ve never seen before, and he won’t let me help. I don’t mind admitting I’m worried, Nathan, really worried.’

      ‘Is he ill?’ he asked sharply, clearly concerned, which raised him in her estimation, but Rachel shook her head.

      ‘Grandfather had a medical check-up only two weeks ago, and he was fine.’ She quickly allayed any fears he had in that direction. ‘No, this is something entirely unexpected. Something apparently only you can help him with.’ She looked at him with a directness that had Nathan taking a deep breath and dragging a hand through his hair.

      ‘If it was any other man I’d suspect woman trouble, but not Linus. OK, you’d better take me to him. The sooner I find out what’s going on the happier I will be.’

      Rachel led the way to the large room her grandfather used as a study. Linus Shaw glanced up from his seat at one half of an enormous old partner’s desk. He was a handsome man in his late seventies, still in fairly robust health and sporting a full head of pure white hair. He drew the ladies every bit as much as Nathan did, though his heart would always belong to the adored wife he had lost eight years ago.

      Far from looking pleased to see his much liked successor, a grunt of disapproval left his pursed lips. ‘Took you long enough to get here!’ he growled.

      Nathan ignored the less than friendly greeting, and strolled over to the desk. ‘Unlike you, I haven’t retired,’ he countered. ‘I came as soon as I could.’

      ‘You took as long as you thought you could get away with!’ Linus harrumphed knowingly, and Nathan grinned unrepentantly.

      ‘I was born with a dislike of being ordered about. I take after you in that respect, Linus,’ he replied teasingly, but the older man did not look one whit abashed.

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