‘Everything that we discuss within this room will be highly confidential,’ Nikolai warned her.
‘Of course,’ she acceded as he introduced his aides and then dismissed them.
Abbey discovered that she was relieved to no longer be the centre of attention for three sharp pairs of female eyes.
Nikolai studied Abbey with the appraising attention of a connoisseur. Her black trouser suit and yellow shirt were standard business-issue apparel, but she wore them with cool elegance. He appreciated her height and her proud carriage almost as much as the sleek line of her shapely curves and long, endless legs. She wore her fabulous mane of colourful hair in a high ponytail. Tiny coppery curls had escaped to soften her hairline and a hint of make-up accentuated her remarkable violet eyes and her soft full pink mouth. She looked incredibly young and untouched for a married woman, he reflected grimly. And, now, as the male who had discovered and taken her innocence for himself, he knew the literal truth of that observation.
The familiar tightening at his groin infuriated him, for he had spent half of the previous night in a cold shower, his hunger for her refusing to abate. It incensed him that he should still lust after her to that extent. It didn’t make sense after the way she had treated him either. He wanted to walk away and turn his back on her without a thought, something he had contrived to do with every other woman he had ever known. He didn’t want her to be different or exceptional in any way. And he remained very curious about the kind of man who had chosen to leave such a beauty virginally intact. In fact he had already instructed Sveta to check out the late Jeffrey Carmichael and bring him a detailed report.
Abbey gritted her teeth in the heavy silence. ‘After the way we parted, I’m sure you can understand my surprise when I got to the office this morning and discovered that you had made an appointment to see me.’
‘I want you to work for me-’
‘Work for you? After last night? Are you out of your mind?’ Abbey demanded thinly, dragging her straying attention from his fabulous bone structure and scolding herself for looking at him in the first place.
‘Not at all.’
‘I refuse to work for you in any capacity!’ Her violet eyes flashed a warning to him, her slender figure rigid with animosity.
‘At least hear me out first,’ Nikolai drawled, his gaze lingering on the ripple of her shirt as she breathed in and the way the fine silky fabric clung and outlined her wonderfully lush curves. ‘But I should also make it clear that I won’t accept you delegating the responsibility of working for me either to your employees or to other professionals whom you may choose to engage on my behalf.’
In receipt of that comprehensive embargo, which would make personal contact with him unavoidable, Abbey focused on him with angry incredulous intensity. Noticing where his unrepentant gaze was resting, she began buttoning her jacket with scarlet cheeks and hands that were trembling with sheer rage. ‘As I can’t imagine working for you under any circumstances, I think that’s superfluous information.’
‘That would be a great shame. Your references impressed me with the belief that you are exactly what I’m looking for.’
‘References?’ Abbey questioned, her temper rising in direct proportion to his incredible cool. Last night had evidently not embarrassed him by so much as an atom, while she felt like a dupe being cruelly taunted with a massive blunder. She could not shake free of humiliating recollections of their lovemaking. She had given herself so completely: she had held nothing back and had virtually begged for his sexual possession. Those images smarted in her memory like an open wound and an unwelcome reminder of weakness and stupidity.
‘I’ve had enquiries made and past clients speak very highly of your efficiency and devotion to detail. You have a lot of satisfied former clients out there.’
‘That’s good to know.’ Abbey was slightly relieved by the news that he had had enquiries made, for it suggested that he was shining a professional rather than personal light onto the task of engaging her services. ‘But it doesn’t change my attitude. In what way did you envisage Support Systems working for you?’
‘I’m planning to move my business base permanently to the UK. That is extremely confidential information, which I don’t want discussed outside this room,’ Nikolai spelt out, his lean, dark, devastatingly handsome face sober and serious. ‘My staff are already handling the business ramifications, but I would like you to deal with the more social aspects of my move.’
‘Social?’ Abbey queried the term.
‘As you know, my penthouse apartment here in London is convenient to this office, but if I’m to live here all the year round I will require a much larger London base, as well as a country house suitable for entertaining.’
Abbey could not believe his sheer nerve. ‘You are planning to ask me to house-hunt for you?’
‘A little more than that. I would prefer it if the press were kept in the dark with regard to this move for a few weeks longer.’ His brilliant dark eyes gleamed in the morning sunshine filtering through the blinds. ‘When the paparazzi descended on us last night and I saw the headlines this morning, it occurred to me that I could make double use of your presence in my life.’ As he spoke he extended a tabloid newspaper to her.
Abbey stole a reluctant look at the headline that screamed that the Russian billionaire had found a British lover. She was relieved to note that a photo of them together on the pavement outside his apartment building the night before was so out of focus that her best friend wouldn’t have recognised her. Her name was misspelt, her marital status incorrect and her career demoted to the level of a clerical assistant to her brother. She cringed at the prospect of her face and her private life being paraded across publications that only made money from the shock value of gossip and salacious revelations.
‘Double use? I don’t understand what you’re suggesting,’ Abbey said icily, parading her lack of interest like a banner and wishing he would take the hint.
‘I want to hoodwink the press. Let them believe that you are house-hunting because we are engaged in a serious relationship.’
‘But you don’t
‘You’re not very effective in business meetings, are you?’ Nikolai breathed with sardonic bite. ‘Insulting me is scarcely good practice. Will your brother be equally happy when he learns that you have rejected my offer?’
Abbey froze, her delicate facial bones tightening in reaction to that blunt retaliation. She knew Drew would be most unhappy and, bearing in mind their current financial position, she knew that he would believe he had good cause to be angry with her.
‘The press love a romance,’ Nikolai pointed out. ‘That would provide a useful cover story for my purchase of new homes here and conceal the fact that I’m planning on a permanent move.’
‘That’s possible,’ Abbey conceded curtly. ‘But while I’m prepared to house-hunt for you, I’m not prepared to pretend to be flavour of the month in your bed. I would also have to tell you that I think you are the most despicable man I have ever met-’
‘Do you make a habit of taking despicable men to your bed?’ Nikolai quipped.
Abbey turned white as a sheet at that retaliatory crack. ‘I annoyed you last night because I asked you to leave and that must have dented your macho ego. Now you want me in your pay and your power to get your own back, and the answer is no.’
‘You’re being very foolish. I know you can’t afford to turn me down. Your family firm is dangerously overextended.’
Abbey was furious. ‘That’s confidential banking information. Where did you get it from?’
‘My sources in financial fields are always exceptional and accurate.’
With difficulty, Abbey swallowed the ire that was threatening to choke her. She was so angry with him that containing her fury made her feel nauseous. It was impossible that she could work for him in any way, but she played for time by asking, ‘What would the pretence require from me?’
‘Occasional public appearances in my company, hosting a couple of parties for me, allowing me to buy you a new wardrobe and provide you with the trappings that would make the role seem more convincing.’
‘As well as being at your beck and call while I look for property?’
‘That, too, obviously,’ Nikolai conceded.
Her violet eyes lighting up like tiny purple flames, she viewed him in furious frustration. ‘I hate you. I can’t act for peanuts. I’d be a PR disaster in such a role.’
‘Would you be?’ Elevating an ebony brow in disagreement, Nikolai closed a hand round her narrow-boned wrist and tugged her closer to him. ‘Even though you light up like a Christmas tree around me?’
