Mallika gave him what she hoped was a sufficiently cool and professional smile.
‘I’ll tell you if I change my mind,’ she managed, as she pulled together her scattered thoughts.
‘The salary is negotiable,’ Darius added, but she shook her head.
‘It’s not about the money,’ she assured him.
Darius knew when not to push—he also knew he wasn’t going to give up so easily.
‘I need to go,’ she said. ‘Thanks for being so nice about everything.’
She put her hand out, and Darius got to his feet as he took it.
‘Nice’ wasn’t the impression he wanted to leave her with. ‘Nice’ suggested she’d forget him the minute she stepped out of the hotel. And he wasn’t going to let that happen.
This is my sixth book for Harlequin Mills & Boon®, and it was perhaps the most fun to write. The idea popped into my head when I was talking to a colleague who’d taken a few months off to travel around Europe. What if I had a hero who was wildly successful at what he did and had made more than enough money to fulfil his boyhood dream of spending some years just travelling around and discovering more about the world? And what if, just before he left, he met a woman who made him think that perhaps there was more to life than just living out his dream?
It took a while to get my characters just right, but Darius in the book is now exactly as I imagined him—successful, strong-willed and very, very attractive. Mallika is different—she’s been through a lot and she’s always put family ahead of anything else. As a result, while she’s resilient she’s also very risk-averse. She’s instantly attracted to Darius but she fights the attraction, thinking that it can never work between them. Darius, however, has completely different views on the matter!
Happy reading!
Shoma
SHOMA NARAYANAN started reading Mills and Boon® romances at the age of eleven, borrowing them from neighbours and hiding them inside textbooks so that her parents didn’t find out. At that time the thought of writing one herself never entered her head—she was convinced she wanted to be a teacher when she grew up. When she was a little older she decided to become an engineer instead, and took a degree in electronics and telecommunications. Then she thought a career in management was probably a better bet, and went off to do an MBA. That was a decision she never regretted, because she met the man of her dreams in the first year of business school—fifteen years later they’re married with two adorable kids, whom they’re raising with the same careful attention to detail that they gave their second-year project on organisational behaviour.
A couple of years ago Shoma took up writing as a hobby—after successively trying her hand at baking, sewing, knitting, crochet and patchwork—and was amazed at how much she enjoyed it. Now she works grimly at her banking job through the week, and tries to balance writing with household chores during weekends. Her family has been unfailingly supportive of her latest hobby, and are also secretly very, very relieved that they don’t have to eat, wear or display the results!
An Offer She Can’t Refuse
Shoma Narayanan
To my family
Table of Contents
Dear Reader
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
EPILOGUE
DARIUS MISTRY WAS NOT used to taking orders from anyone. And especially not orders that came from a woman he was supposed to be interviewing. The fact that the woman had turned out to be surprisingly attractive was neither here nor there—this was strictly work, and her behaviour right now seemed more than a little strange.
‘Hold my hand,’ she was saying. ‘Come on, she’s almost here.’
Her current boss had just walked into the coffee shop, and Mallika was reacting as if it was a massive disaster. Granted, being caught by your boss while you were being interviewed for another job wasn’t the best start to an interview, but it wasn’t the end of the world. Mallika’s expression suggested a catastrophe on a life-threatening scale—like the Titanic hitting the iceberg or Godzilla stomping into town.
‘Please, Darius?’ she said, and when he didn’t react immediately she reached across the table and took his hand. ‘Look into my eyes,’ she pleaded.
He complied, trying not to notice how soft her skin was, and how her slim and capable-looking hand fitted perfectly into his.
‘At least try to pretend you’re my date,’ she begged despairingly.
He laughed. ‘You’re not doing a great job either,’ he pointed out. ‘The whole “deer caught in headlights” look doesn’t suggest you’re crazy about me.’
She managed to chuckle at that, and her expression was so appealing that he sighed and put on what he hoped was a suitably infatuated look. Actually, after a second he found he was quite enjoying himself. He had a keen sense of humour, and despite his attempts to remain professional when faced with such an attractive interviewee, the situation was so completely ridiculous it was funny.
He was supposed to be evaluating Mallika for an important role in his company, and instead here he was, holding her hand and gazing deeply into her eyes. Rather beautiful eyes, actually—the momentarily helpless Bambi look was gone now, replaced with an apprehensive but intriguingly mischievous little sparkle.
‘My goodness, Mallika, what a surprise!’
The woman who’d stopped by their table was middle-aged and plump and terribly overdressed. Purple silk, loads of fussy jewellery, and make-up that would