‘I will never create a perfume made in such a way!’ Sadie told him passionately. ‘To me, synthetic scents are an abhorrence. They are a mockery of everything a true scent should be. A great fragrance can only be made from natural ingredients. It does not just reflect its origins, it also reflects and highlights the… certain essential properties of its wearer…’
‘Certain properties?’ The dark eyebrows rose mockingly. ‘You mean it reflects and highlights a woman’s sensuality?’
To her disgust, Sadie realised that she was actually blushing!
‘Sadie, you are totally out of step with what’s happening today in the perfume business,’ Raoul objected angrily.
‘No, Raoul,’ Sadie argued back, glad to have an excuse to turn away from Leon and focus on her cousin instead. ‘You are the one who is out of step. The mass perfume market may still be governed by chemically produced products, but at the top end of the market there is an increasing demand for traditionally produced perfumes. If either of you two had done your homework you would both know this,’ Sadie told them fiercely. ‘And the fact that you do not know it, the fact that you have not done your homework, makes me have very serious doubts about the ultimate success of any new product you might launch.’
Whilst Raoul was beginning to bluster an angry protest, it was Leon’s reaction that interested her more, Sadie acknowledged. His mouth had tightened into a hard line and he was frowning at her.
‘Mass-market perfume is big business,’ he told her harshly. ‘The production of a perfume which can only be afforded by a few élite buyers does not interest me.’
‘Well, it should,’ Sadie countered. ‘Because it is the scent worn by the élite buyers that the mass-market buyers most want to wear themselves. And why shouldn’t they aspire to do so? Why should they be fobbed off with a synthetic substitute that is never going to come anywhere near equating to the real thing?’
‘Perhaps because the synthetic substitute is affordable and the real thing is not,’ Leon told her pungently.
‘You say that, but it could be!’ Sadie claimed immediately. ‘It is perfectly feasible for high-quality natural perfumes to be made at a reasonable cost. But of course the profit margin on them would be much smaller, and that is the real reason why big business like you refuse to produce them. Because profit is all that matters to you. You and men like you are as… as soulless as… as… synthetic perfume!’ Sadie told him passionately.
‘Is that a fact?’
The silky tone of Leon’s voice made Sadie quiver inwardly with wariness, but she refused to heed her body’s own protective warning, eyeing Leon defiantly.
‘Well, you, of course, would be in a perfect position to judge me, wouldn’t you? Having met me how often? Twice?’
‘Three times,’ Sadie corrected him, and then felt her body burn with self-conscious heat as he looked thoughtfully at her.
‘Three times?’
‘How many times I’ve seen you is an irrelevance.’ Sadie overrode him.
‘The world’s opinion of the status of the corporation you run and its aims and beliefs are written about publicly and frequently in the financial press, and—’
‘The financial press?’ Leon stopped her. ‘They report company and corporation policy. They do not make it,’ he told her acidly.
‘I don’t care what you say,’ Sadie protested emotionally. ‘Raoul already knows my views on his plans to sell Francine to you—against my wishes. In fact I came here hoping that I might be able to dissuade him, but I can see that there is no hope of that! I cannot stop him from selling to you, since he is the majority shareholder, but there is no way that I would ever—ever… prostitute my… my gift of a good “nose” for perfume by selling that to you!’
Abruptly Sadie realised how silent both men had become. Raoul was looking angry and embarrassed, whilst Leon…
The chill was back in his green eyes, but strangely now there was a glow beneath it, a glitter like the beginning of the Northern lights on ice, all white fire shimmer and danger, a warning of a strength and a power that secretly she already felt vulnerably in awe of.
Which was all the more reason why she should not give in to him, Sadie told herself militantly.
‘Stirring words. Pity they don’t seem to have been matched by your actions!’
Leon’s cool words were every bit as chillingly dangerous as the look he had given her. Outraged, Sadie turned to look to Raoul for support, but her cousin was out of earshot on the other side of the room, searching through some papers on his desk.
Leaning closer to her, Leon continued with steely venom, ‘When I saw you at the trade fair it was quite obvious that you were—’
‘That was Raoul’s idea,’ Sadie protested defensively.
‘Raoul’s idea, Francine’s perfume—and your body. As a matter of interest, what kind of response, other than the obvious, did that cheap sideshow you were putting on generate? I am, of course, asking about the amount of sales it generated, and not the number of offers you received for your body!’
Sadie glared at him.
‘How dare you say that? I had no idea that men would assume I was also available.’ Her mouth compressed with anger whilst her face burned hotly with sharply remembered shame.
‘No idea?’ The contempt in his eyes left her sensitivities burned raw. ‘Oh, come on. You can’t expect me to believe that! You paraded yourself openly and deliberately, wearing—’
Sadie had had enough.
‘I was perfectly respectably dressed, and if I’d had any idea that what I had assumed to be a collection of professional businessmen would behave like… like a pack of… of… animals, I would never, ever have allowed Raoul to persuade me into helping him.’
How could her cousin even think of selling Francine to this man? To this… this monster?
With a change of tack so swift and unexpected that it caught her totally off guard, Leon demanded, ‘That scent you’re wearing today—what is it?’
Immediately Sadie tilted her chin and eyed him defiantly.
‘It’s a perfume of my own.’
‘I like it,’ Leon told her crisply. ‘Indeed, I should have thought that it would be a highly marketable addition to the Francine name. In fact, I am surprised that you are not already marketing it!’
Anger flashed in Sadie’s eyes, turning them as brilliant a gold as the sun streaming in through the dusty windows.
‘This scent was created by me for my own personal use.’
‘It’s an original formula of your own devising?’
Sadie frowned. Why was he asking her so many questions? He was beginning to seriously annoy her!
‘Not exactly,’ she admitted haughtily. ‘It’s actually based on a one-time famous Francine perfume called Myrrh.’
Sadie stopped speaking as the dark eyebrows snapped together and she was treated to a frowning look.
‘Myrrh… I see!’
In the warning-packed silence that followed Sadie could feel her nerve-ends tightening.
‘Aren’t I right in thinking that that was Francine’s most exclusive and successful scent?’ Leon asked smoothly.
Now it was Sadie’s turn to frown.
‘Yes,