God, Nathan was so certain he knew her. So certain he was right. He deserved to have some of that arrogance knocked out of him, and, the way she felt now, she was just the person to do it.
Her heart began to race as she dealt with the temptation. What pleasure it would give her to throw the truth in his face! Her eyes narrowed in a way that should have sent a wise man running for cover. Nathan unwisely stayed right where he was. ‘You’d say nothing, ever?’ she checked, and his eyes glittered with amusement.
‘You’re getting more like yourself by the minute,’ he observed mockingly. ‘Do what Linus asks of you and my lips will remain sealed. You can get any man you want, any way you want, and yet you’ll remain as innocent as the day is long in Linus’s eyes.’
With a mental grinding of her teeth, Rachel rose to her feet once more. ‘Well, now, that does make a difference,’ she mused thoughtfully, crossing to the mirror and making a show of smoothing her hair back. Tucking in a stray lock, her eyes darted to his reflection and caught the curl of his lip. It hurt to finally realise what his opinion of her was, but she was a fighter, not a quitter. He would get the person he thought her to be, in spades. Starting now.
‘After all, I have nothing but Grandfather’s best interests at heart,’ she reasoned, and Nathan’s smile broadened.
‘Of course you do. Which is why you couldn’t stand by and refuse to help him now, could you?’ he enlarged simply.
Rachel smiled too as she swung round. ‘It isn’t that I didn’t want to help him,’ she explained with a shrug, getting into character.
Nathan appeared only too happy to follow her lead, which did nothing for her mood. ‘Of course not. It’s just that a girl needs to know where she stands.’
The rat. Her smile widened. ‘Absolutely.’
‘OK, now that we understand each other so much better, why don’t you come and sit down and we’ll make some plans,’ he drawled sardonically, making her palms itch. He would never understand her. Never.
She didn’t want to sit, but standing made her look tense when she needed to appear at ease. She chose the chair opposite. ‘What sort of plans are you referring to?’ she asked, determined to sound businesslike at the very least.
‘Getting our stories straight, for one thing. We’re supposed to be lovers. I’m the high roller and you’re my lucky mascot. Think you can play the part?’ he asked her with a decided glint in his eye.
Rachel shot him an equally mocking look. ‘So long as you don’t expect me to bring you luck.’ What she wished for him right now was quite the opposite.
As she was fast coming to expect, Nathan laughed. ‘Just remember we’re on the same side, lover.’
Lover. The word shivered across her skin like the faintest breath of hot desert air. She didn’t feel in the least lover-like. Murderous, yes. The trouble was, loathe him as she might for his blindness, she was still strongly attracted to him. The last thing she needed was for him to discover the fact, but how to prevent it when the pretence of their relationship would entail certain behaviour which would put her in close proximity with the man? Danger signals flashed. It would be as well for her to set the parameters of this fictional relationship right now.
‘I’ll remember we’re on the same side, and you remember that we aren’t lovers,’ she told him bluntly.
He looked over at her with a faint curl of his lip. ‘A fact for which I am extremely grateful. Rest assured I don’t want you, and never will. Try any of your games on me and you’ll regret it.’
He couldn’t have said anything more guaranteed to get her dander up. She forgot in that moment that she didn’t want him to want her and acted purely on feminine instinct.
‘Oh, really?’ she murmured with sweet viciousness. ‘I’ve heard it said that people who protest too much generally have something to hide.’
He had no trouble following her drift. ‘Some men might, but I’m not one of them. Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s concentrate on the real problem,’ Nathan responded evenly, and it annoyed her no end that she couldn’t rattle him. She wanted to knock the wind clean out of him, and upset his complacency once and for all. She’d do it, too. Somehow. Before this was over. It was a promise she made to herself right there and then. She would find his weakness and use it against him. Everyone had their Achilles’ heel—even men like Nathan Wade.
She eyed his bent head as he opened the envelope Linus had given him. ‘You’re very sure of yourself, aren’t you?’
He looked up, blue eyes glittering sardonically. ‘Very sure. Remember that, if you’re ever tempted to take me on.’
Oh, she was tempted all right, and when the time was right she would act. ‘I’ll be sure and make a memo in my diary,’ she drawled, and his teeth flashed whitely as he smiled in acknowledgement.
‘So you don’t know anything about Luther Ames?’
She shook her head. ‘I only know what Linus said, that he prefers blondes.’
‘Exactly. Just remember, although he prefers them, he’s no gentleman.’
His warning surprised her, given his opinion. ‘Don’t tell me you’re concerned about me, Nathan?’ she charged with patent disbelief.
He sent her a reproving look. ‘Don’t take it personally. I’d worry about anyone who got tangled up in Ames’s sticky web of corruption. A man who would stoop to blackmailing his own aunt doesn’t have an ethical bone in his body. We don’t know what else he gets up to. Keep your wits about you, but don’t let him see you have any. His women aren’t required to think, just look decorative. Add all their vital statistics together, and they still wouldn’t reach your IQ. You should fit right in.’
Rachel came as close as she ever had been to smacking another human being. ‘Are you trying to be deliberately offensive?’
He eyed her quizzically. ‘Don’t get your nose out of joint. I meant you’d fit in because of your talent for being all things to all men. You should be able to play a dumb blonde with your eyes shut.’
‘Thanks, that makes it even worse!’ she returned dryly. ‘Do me a favour and don’t pay me any more compliments like those.’ All things to all men! He made her sound as if she spent her life on her back. Lord, but he was hateful. If it was the last thing she ever did, she would show him just how wrong he was about Rachel Shaw!
She became aware that Nathan was looking her over with a jaundiced eye. ‘You’re going to have to ditch the glasses,’ he declared flatly, and she nodded, for that was the least of her problems.
‘I only wear glasses when I’m working, anyway.’
‘I suppose you think they promote a different type of image, like the suits,’ he observed dryly, and Rachel took umbrage.
‘I take my work very seriously and I do my best to appear professional at all times. There’s nothing wrong in that,’ she pointed out acidly.
Nathan’s expression spoke volumes. ‘Rachel, are you under the impression that by playing down your looks you’ve lost the ability to turn men’s heads? Take it from me, it ain’t so,’ he informed her mockingly, and every nerve in her body jumped. ‘When it comes to sex appeal, sweetheart, you’d be oozing it if your hair looked like a bird’s nest and you wore nothing but a sack tied up with a piece of string. You might not flaunt it by day, but it’s still there. You’re a sexy woman, and no amount of glasses and power suits is going to change that.’
Considering she was not the person he believed her to be, his description