Her stomach clenched down hard. First sympathy, and now flattery. Oh, he had all the best weapons where women were concerned, didn’t he? Thank God he didn’t seem to fancy her or she’d be in real danger.
‘You know it will be hard working together, if you’re going to be glaring and sniping at me all the time,’ he went on quite reasonably. ‘Do you think, for the house’s sake, you could put your dislike of me on hold for two months? Or is that too long for you to control your—er—feelings?’
Carolyn swallowed. She certainly hoped not. ‘I think I could just about manage two months.’
He laughed. ‘Good lord, you don’t pull any punches do you? But who knows? Once you get to know me better, you might find I’m not quite the heartless cad you’ve obviously believed I was all these years.’
I doubt that very much, she thought with private irony.
Vaughan’s mouth curved back into a rueful smile as he surveyed her unrelenting face. ‘Come on. Maddie will be wondering where you are.’ And with that he took her elbow again, opened the door, and marched her from the room.
She was jerked to a halt in front of the secretary’s desk.
‘I’m walking Carolyn here along to Maddie’s office, Nora,’ Vaughan pronounced. ‘I’ll be back in five minutes and you’ll be able to go home. The big bad ogre is giving you an early mark for putting up with his rudeness.’
‘Oh, Mr Slater,’ the woman simpered in return. ‘You’re never really rude.’
His chuckle was dry. ‘That’s an opinion not shared by several building contractors I know.’
‘Some of them deserve a blast,’ the secretary defended loyally.
‘We had all sorts of trouble with the plumbers at Julian’s house,’ Vaughan confessed as they made their way along to Suite Four, that insidious male hand still glued to her arm. ‘Most of the time they just didn’t turn up when they said they would. It’s no wonder one can’t get a house built in the time scheduled if the tradesmen don’t even make an appearance some days.’
‘But what excuse do they give?’ Carolyn asked, curious, despite her discomfort. She was still shaking inside from their highly strung encounter, and quite rattled by her unexpected response to her once vowed enemy. If only he wouldn’t keep on touching her...
Vaughan shrugged his broad shoulders in reply. ‘Occasionally the weather. It was either too hot or too cold or too wet, which was crazy since the walls and roof were intact at the time. Mostly they just said they hadn’t finished the previous job, but when I contacted the project in question I found out that hadn’t been finished because they consistently hadn’t turned up there either! It’s a vicious circle of apathy and laziness. No wonder this country’s building industry is in a mess!’
‘You really care about your work, don’t you?’ she remarked.
His sidewards glance was puzzled. ‘You sound surprised. Oh, I see...’ His eyes darkened, flashing with anger. ‘I’m a man without conscience, without... what was it? Without a shred of decency.’ He made a dry, scoffing sound. ‘As a man without morals, I’m not supposed to have any integrity, even regarding my work, am I? Might I remind you, Carolyn,’ he added caustically, ‘that some of the most immoral men in history have been high achievers. Look at Napoleon or Hitler!’
She flinched under his outburst. ‘I would hardly put you in the same category as Hitler.’
His laughter did not sound amused. He reached out to the doorknob of Suite Four and lanced her with a cynical look. ‘Methinks our temporary truce is already fraying at the edges, but I suggest we regroup our defences for Maddie. We don’t want her asking any awkward questions, do we?’
‘Certainly not.’
‘Smile, then, Carolyn. We’re about to put your acting ability to the supreme test. Maddie has the most devilish female intuition that sees all, hears all and knows all, if given half a chance. She will not be fooled except by a most convincing performance. How are you at acting?’
‘Very good, actually,’ she returned with a measure of black humour. And gave him an Academy Award-winning smile. If she weren’t a good actress, he’d already know she found him the most disturbingly attractive man she’d ever met.
‘Excellent. And I presume you want to pretend we’ve just met for the first time?’
‘Definitely.’
‘I thought as much,’ he muttered, and with a savage twist of his hand flung the door to Suite Four open and waved her inside.
CHAPTER FOUR
‘MADDIE, sweetheart,’ he called out once they were in the conspicuously empty reception area, ‘in which one of your rooms are you hiding?’
A door on the left opened and the most strikinglooking woman Carolyn had ever seen appeared. She was very tall—almost as tall as Vaughan—and very slim, with the whitest of white skin. Yet everything else about her was black. Black hair, long and curly, bundled up in a most irregular pony-tail. Black eyes, flashing at the moment with apparent exasperation. Black eyebrows, thick and sardonically arched. Skin-tight black mini dress, black lacy stockings and black high heels. Only her ear-rings were coloured, huge discs in red, pink and orange hanging in interlocking circles from her lobes to her shoulders.
‘You’re late again!’ she accused, giving Vaughan a black look from those striking black eyes.
Carolyn tensed.
‘Only by a few minutes,’ Vaughan said, and smiled wryly. ‘Something not going right for you, sweetheart?’ He strode forward and gave the woman a bear-hug. ‘You always get testy like this when your colours aren’t blending properly.’
‘Don’t think you can get around me that easily, you bad man,’ the interior decorator scorned, but didn’t retreat from the hug. ‘Save it all for your lady-loves.’ And suddenly she winked at Carolyn over his shoulder.
Her heart gave a little jump. Did that mean Vaughan wasn’t sleeping with this woman?
Dismay was hot on the heels of her avid curiosity. What did it matter who he was sleeping with these days? It should mean nothing to her. Nothing!
Self-disgust must have sent a hard look into her face, for those black eyes—which a second before had winked at her—abruptly changed from an expression of amusement to a surprised thoughtfulness. Their owner drew back from Vaughan’s embrace to cast a sharp look his way.
‘You haven’t been bullying this sweet girl, have you?’ she asked.
‘No. Only Nora.’
‘Oh, Vaughan. Truly? The poor woman...’
‘Poor, my foot. I pay her damn well to sit there and answer the telephone. Anyway it’s all smoothed over now. Carolyn glared at me reproachfully and made me feel guilty, didn’t you?’ He threw an ironic look her way. ‘And it’s not Carolyn Thornton, by the way. Her surname is McKensie. She hasn’t taken Julian’s name.’
‘Really? But I thought...’
‘So did I. Seems Nora just jumped to that conclusion. Anyway, it’s Carolyn McKensie. Carolyn... come over here and meet Maddie.’
Carolyn walked forward and extended her hand. ‘How do you do?’
Maddie smiled and took her hand, all the while those penetrating black eyes surveying her closely, seemingly stripping her of her disguising clothes and making Carolyn feel most peculiarly naked. She had never had a woman look at her like that before and a most uncomfortable suspicion sprang into her mind.
‘My, you’re a very sensual-looking girl, aren’t you?’ the other woman said. ‘I’d love to paint you.