She could deny it, of course. But what would be the point…?
Instead she gave him a mocking smile. ‘And does the spoilt little rich boy always get what he wants?’
‘No.’ His teeth showed in a humourless smile of his own. ‘But Jacob Sinclair the Third does!’
‘Really?’ Luccy gave a softly derisive laugh. ‘Then he’s going to be awfully disappointed when he finally realises I’ve turned him down, isn’t he?’
Sin really couldn’t help but admire this woman. Almost as much as he desired her…
He quirked dark brows. ‘You’re leaving some time tomorrow, you said?’
‘Yes, that’s right,’ she confirmed warily.
‘I could always offer to fly you home on the Sinclair jet when you’re ready to leave.’
‘Is that supposed to impress me?’ she scorned.
‘It sure as hell impresses me every time I climb aboard it!’
‘It’s an indulgence I think I’ll manage to forgo, thanks,’ Luccy told him with saccharine sweetness.
This man—the Sinclair family, at least—owned their own jet!
She was way, way, way out of her depth…
She gave a bright meaningless smile as she prepared to leave. ‘I’m sure I don’t have to lie and say what a pleasure it’s been to see you again?’
He grinned unconcernedly. ‘The pleasure has been all mine, I assure you.’
‘If you enjoy being with a woman who holds you in nothing but contempt, then, yes, it would appear so,’ Luccy snapped.
His eyes narrowed dangerously, telling Luccy that she had probably gone too far with that last remark.
‘If you won’t have lunch with my grandfather tomorrow perhaps you would have it with me, instead,’ he bit out coldly.
Luccy’s eyes widened. ‘Why on earth would I want to do that?’
Sin shrugged. ‘Perhaps because you would like to be the one given the photographic contract with PAN when it’s reviewed next month?’
Luccy frowned. ‘We both know that isn’t going to happen.’
‘Do we?’
Luccy looked at him searchingly, noting the challenge in his expression, the hard twist to his mouth. ‘Yes,’ she finally sighed. ‘It’s common gossip that Roy Bailey wants that contract.’
‘What Bailey wants and what he gets could be two different things. I really do have the final say on who gets the contract, Luccy,’ he said.
Luccy raised incredulous brows. ‘Are you by any chance using blackmail into forcing me to have lunch with you tomorrow, Mr Sinclair?’
‘I believe the word you prefer is leverage. And the answer to that is yes,’ he confirmed unapologetically.
This man—He—Ooh! Luccy gritted her teeth to keep the words back. She could never remember feeling so frustratedly angry before! What she wanted to do was tell this man what he could do with his contract, but caution warned her that it would be better if she was on the other side of the Atlantic—well out of Sin’s reach—when he learnt that she had already told Darren Richards she had no interest in signing another contract with PAN even if it was offered to her.
She flicked a look at him from beneath lowered eyelashes. ‘What time do you want me and where?’
Sin didn’t show by so much as a flicker of an eyelid that he was disappointed by her answer. Part of him had wanted—hoped—that Luccy would tell him what he could do with both his lunch and his contract.
Face it, Sin, he told himself derisively, Luccy really is only interested in what she can get from you. So much so that she would even agree to have lunch with you tomorrow.
‘Here at one o’clock,’ he rasped. ‘The penthouse apartment at this hotel, like the one at The Harmony, is always available for family use,’ he added mockingly as she raised questioning brows.
Providence was already working against her, Luccy acknowledged heavily. ‘How convenient for you,’ she drawled.
Sin bared his teeth in a humourless smile. ‘It can be.’
Luccy would just bet that it could!
She had assumed, naïvely, that they would be having lunch in a restaurant, not in the privacy of another hotel suite.
Could she handle being alone with Sin again? Did she want to be alone with Sin again?
What choice did she have? Once she was back in England she would be safely out of his reach, but until that happened she had to go along with Sin’s belief that she was still interested in renewing her contract with PAN. At any price, apparently!
‘Very well,’ she accepted briskly. ‘But it will have to be a very brief lunch,’ she added warningly. ‘I really do intend getting on an earlier flight back to England tomorrow.’
‘I’ll make our—conversation, as brief as I can, Luccy,’ Sin said dryly.
Luccy felt the colour warm her cheeks as she heard the innuendo beneath that statement.
If Sin thought she was going to bed with him tomorrow lunchtime then he was going to be very disappointed!
CHAPTER SIX
‘DO TRY and lighten up, Luccy,’ Sin murmured as Luccy, having refused his offer of a glass of the chilled white wine, now refused to sit down either but instead stood tensely across the sitting-room of the penthouse suite of the Sinclair Hotel. ‘Maybe if we attempted a little polite conversation?’
‘Is that even possible?’ She shot him a scathing glance, her appearance very businesslike in a white silk blouse and fitted black trousers, her hair secured in a neat chignon.
‘I don’t see why not,’ Sin said lightly as he sat down on the cream sofa. ‘Tell me about your family. Do you have siblings? Parents?’
‘Well, of course I have parents, Sin,’ she came back sarcastically.
His mouth tightened. ‘I meant ones that are still alive.’
Luccy sighed impatiently. ‘Yes, I have a mother and father, both still living, and whom I love very much. I also have a sister, Abby. She’s going through a very messy divorce at the moment,’ she added with a frown.
‘That’s a pity.’ Sin also frowned. ‘Any children involved?’
‘Two.’ Luccy nodded.
‘Even more of a pity,’ he sympathised.
‘I think so, yes,’ Luccy said abruptly.
Her sister Abby’s eight-year marriage had been a disaster almost from the beginning, and was one of the reasons that Luccy had always steered shy of relationships herself. The main reason, in fact.
Abby had been eighteen and three months pregnant with Alice when she and Rory had married so hastily. But it had been obvious within weeks of Alice being born that Abby and Rory should never have married each other, the attraction that had been between them when they had first met, and which had resulted in Abby’s pregnancy, having very quickly turned to resentment on Rory’s part and discontent on Abby’s. But instead of ending the marriage as they should have done, Abby and Rory had added to the mess by having Josh just a year after Alice had been born.
After eight years of unhappiness the two of them had finally decided to admit defeat and get a divorce. But even that had