LITMIR.BIZ

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to focus on Bastien’s tall, powerful figure by the door that appeared to communicate between her room and his. ‘What’s wrong?’ she asked sleepily.

      ‘We’ll discuss it when you get up,’ Bastien framed darkly, glittering dark eyes settling on her with chilling distaste. ‘I’ll see you downstairs in five minutes.’

      Exasperated, Lilah rolled her eyes. In mega-bossy mode, Bastien infuriated her—and she refused to be ordered round like an unruly schoolgirl. On the other hand, something bad had clearly happened, and he evidently thought she was involved in it in some way—because why else would he have looked at her as if she had just crawled out from under a stone? Even so...he expected her downstairs within five minutes? In his dreams!

      Scrambling out of bed, she went into the dressing room and searched through innumerable drawers to find her own humble clothing, from which she selected denim shorts and a simple white tank top to deal with the early-morning heat she could feel in the air. Following a quick shower and the application of a little light make-up, Lilah stalked downstairs in flat canvas shoes, ready for whatever Bastien might choose to throw at her.

      With a noisy scrabbling of his claws on the hallway tiles, Skippy hurled himself at Lilah’s knees. Stefan informed her that Bastien was waiting for her in his study and directed her down a corridor. Breakfast, he added helpfully, would be served out on the terrace.

      Bastien was lodged by the window of a large, imposing book-lined room with his broad back turned towards her. Muscles flexed beneath the taut, expensive fabric of his jacket. He swung round, and she was irritated that she immediately noted that his dark designer suit acted as a superb tailored frame for his wide shoulders, narrow hips and long, powerful thighs.

      Hard, dark golden eyes zeroed in on her, and involuntarily, Lilah paled at the intensity of that tough, questioning scrutiny.

      Mouth curling, Bastien scanned her appearance in the worn shorts and casual top, neither of which had featured in her officially sanctioned new wardrobe. The adolescent outfit combined with her long, tumbled hair and only a touch of make-up made her look very much like a teenager. Admittedly, though, an incredibly pretty teenager.

      Pretty...an old-fashioned word which didn’t belong in his vocabulary, Bastien reflected in exasperation at his lack of concentration. Hot would be a more appropriate word, and from the top of her curly dark head down to her pert breasts, tiny waist and slim sexy legs and the very soles of her tiny canvas-shod feet, Delilah looked amazingly hot.

      He tensed, reluctant to embrace that thought, but his body was already doing that for him, reacting with libidinous enthusiasm to her presence.

      ‘What’s this all about?’ she asked in apparent innocence.

      In answer, Bastien crossed the room and lifted his tablet from the desk top. ‘This!’ he bit out wrathfully.

      Lilah moved closer to stare at the British newspaper headline depicted on the screen.

       Dufort Pharmaceuticals to join Zikos stable?

      ‘I still don’t know what you’re talking about,’ Lilah pointed out, although she had the vaguest recollection that she had heard that company’s name mentioned during Bastien’s deliberations with his staff that first evening in the hotel in London. Unfortunately, since she had not really been listening, she had not the foggiest idea why Bastien was so annoyed.

      ‘Someone leaked confidential information to the press that night in London...and I believe it was you!’ Bastien breathed with raw emphasis.

      Lilah’s spine snapped straight as an arrow, her blue eyes rounding with disbelief as she tipped her head back to look him in the eye. ‘Me?’ she spluttered incredulously. ‘Are you nuts?’

      His cool, sculpted mouth hardened. ‘You’re the only person who left the suite during my discussions with the team that evening. According to my sources, someone tipped off the press halfway through that evening. The bodyguard accompanying you saw you making several phone calls. You also had contact with a journalist.’

      Her soft mouth had fallen open in shock, because she could barely credit what she was hearing. How dared he accuse her of being some sort of business spy when he had shared a bed with her the night before? How dared he?

      Her colour rose even higher when she recalled that he had actually slept apart from her, and she replied curtly, ‘I can’t believe you’re serious. Why would you suspect me of stealing confidential information? Why would anyone want to leak it?’

      ‘The tip that I’m planning to buy Dufort Pharmaceuticals is worth hundreds of thousands of pounds on the open market.’

      ‘But I didn’t leak it. I didn’t discuss it with anyone,’ Lilah remonstrated. ‘Why would I have? Apart from anything else, I’m not interested in that information and I wasn’t really listening to what you and your staff were talking about... I was watching TV.’

      ‘You were present throughout. You heard everything,’ Bastien reminded her obdurately.

      ‘At least four members of your staff were present as well! Why are you picking on me?’ Lilah demanded in a furious counter-attack.

      ‘I have absolute faith in my personal team.’

      ‘I’m delighted to hear it, but obviously your faith is misplaced in at least one of them,’ Lilah pointed out thinly. ‘Because I can assure you that I didn’t sell any information about your business dealings to anyone.’

      ‘I don’t trust you,’ Bastien admitted harshly, because he had looked at the evidence from every angle and the conclusion that Delilah had sold the information made the most sense.

      Lilah set the tablet back down on the table. ‘Well, I’m not playing the fall guy, here, so you have a problem. I suggest you stop wasting time suspecting me of doing the dirty on you and search out the real mole. Why would you suspect me anyway? I’ve got too much to lose in this situation.’

      ‘How?’ Bastien gritted, unimpressed, and particularly outraged because he had wakened to the phone call forewarning him of the press release with a powerful craving to enjoy her small slender body again.

      ‘You gave my father a job, which means a lot to him. I wouldn’t do anything to jeopardise his continuing employment,’ Lilah argued vehemently. ‘I’m not an idiot, Bastien. If I betrayed your trust you wouldn’t stick to our agreement.’

      His hard mouth set into a grim, clenched line, Bastien said nothing. He could not count on her loyalty. She was a woman, not an employee, and she might well want to punish him for the choice he had offered her. That gave her a good motive, and she had certainly had the opportunity that night to pass on news of his acquisition plans for Dufort Pharmaceuticals.

      Worst of all, the damage was done now that the facts were out in the public domain. Either he paid through the nose to acquire a company which was no longer the bargain it had been or he decided to back off altogether.

      ‘You have cost me a great deal of money,’ Bastien told her harshly.

      ‘You don’t listen. You haven’t listened to a single word I’ve said in my own defence, have you?’ Lilah accused, her eyes flaring an almost other-worldly blue with suppressed rage. ‘But I’ll say it one more time...not guilty. I didn’t gossip about your business plans or pass them on to anyone who could profit from knowing about them. I made two separate phone calls after leaving the hotel suite—one to my father and the other to my stepmother. On neither call did I mention your business discussions. The journalist who approached me was a gossip columnist, not a financial reporter...’ Her voice trailed off as she studied his lean, darkly handsome face, which was shuttered and forbidding. ‘You’re still not listening to me...’

      Seething resentment was flaming up through the temper which Lilah was struggling to keep under control. Her hands closed into punitive fists. Even before she had answered his charges she had clearly been judged and found

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