Once in London, Sophie took a black cab to the premises of the office in Notting Hill.
Oliver had told her that things were coming along brilliantly but he had undersold just how much had been done in the space of a few days. It wasn’t just about the paint job on the outside or the impressive potted plants or the newly painted black door with its gold lettering announcing the name of the company.
Standing back, Sophie’s mouth fell open as she took in the smart exterior. Then the door opened and she was staring at a casually dressed Javier, who, in return, stared back at her as he continued to lounge indolently against the door frame. Arms folded, he was already projecting the signs of ownership so that, as she took a few tentative steps towards him, she felt herself to be the visitor.
‘Wow.’ She hovered, waiting for him to step back, which he did after a couple of seconds, taking his time to unfold his gloriously elegant body and then stand aside so that she had to brush past him, immediately turning around and establishing a safe physical distance between them. ‘It’s completely changed on the outside.’
‘There’s no point having an office that repels potential clients,’ Javier said drily.
Yet again, she was in work attire. The sort of clothes that drained her natural beauty.
‘Why have you shown up wearing a suit?’ he asked, strolling past her and expecting her to follow, which she duly did. ‘And where is your bag? You do realise that you will be relocating to London for the foreseeable future?’
‘I’ve been giving that some thought...’
Javier stopped and turned to look at her. ‘Forget it.’
‘I beg your pardon?’
‘Remember the terms and conditions? One of them is that you relocate down here so that you can oversee the running of the London arm of the business.’
‘Yes, but—’
‘No buts, Sophie.’ His voice was cool and unyielding. He hooked his fingers on the waistband of his black jeans, which sat low on his lean hips, and held her stare. ‘You don’t get to dip in and out of this. You’re on the letterhead, along with your brother, and of course myself. Don’t think that you’re going to reap the rewards without doing any of the hard graft. I intend to oversee proceedings initially but I need to be assured that you and your brother won’t run the company back into the ground the second my back’s turned. Don’t forget, this isn’t a charity gesture of goodwill on my part. I’m not parting with cash if I don’t think that there will be a decent return on my investment.’
Sophie thought that she’d been right. It was all about the money for him. Yes, there was a personal connection, but the animosity of their break-up wasn’t paramount in his decision to help them. What mattered was that he was being handed a potentially very profitable business with an age-old reputation at a very cheap price because she and Oliver were desperate.
She imagined that, once the company was sorted, its reputation would not only be repaired but would ensure gold-plated business and a return of all the customers they had sadly lost over the years.
Right now, Oliver had an interest in a third of the company, but he would quickly lose interest and, she foresaw, would cash in his shares, take the money and head back to California, where he could continue his sporting career in a teaching capacity.
In due course, Javier would have invested in a very worthwhile project at a very good price.
And their past history did not figure in the calculations. In fact, she wondered whether he felt anything at all about what had happened between them.
‘I thought I might commute down.’
Javier burst out laughing before sobering up to look at her with a gimlet-eyed warning. ‘I wouldn’t even entertain that notion if I were you,’ he informed her in the sort of voice that did not expect contradiction. ‘In the first few weeks there will probably be a great deal of overtime, and hopping on and off a train to try to get the work done just isn’t going to cut it.’
‘I have nowhere to stay here.’ Once upon a time, there had been a snazzy apartment in Kensington but, she had discovered, that had been mortgaged up to the hilt when the company had started shedding customers and losing profit. It had been sold ages ago.
‘Your brother has stayed in a hotel when he’s been down.’ Javier’s eyes roved over her flushed face. ‘But,’ he mused with soft speculation, ‘as you’re going to be here for considerably longer, I have already made arrangements for you to have use of one of my apartments in Notting Hill. You’ll be within convenient walking distance of the company. No excuse for slacking off.’
‘No!’ She broke out in clammy perspiration.
‘Reason being...?’
‘I...I can’t just decamp down here to London, Javier!’
‘This isn’t something that’s open to debate.’
‘You don’t understand.’
‘Then enlighten me.’ They hadn’t even stepped foot into the renovated office and already they were arguing.
He couldn’t credit that he had originally played with the thought of helping her in return for having her. He couldn’t think of anything less satisfying than having her blackmailed into coming to him as a reluctant and resentful partner when he wanted her hot, wet and willing...
He also couldn’t credit that he had simplistically imagined that one scratch would ease this itch that had surfaced with such surprising speed the second her brother had opened that door back into the past. The more he saw of her, the more he thought of her, the more dangerously deep his unfinished business with her felt. One or two nights wasn’t going to be enough.
‘I have to keep an eye on the house,’ she said with obvious reluctance.
‘What house?’
‘The family home.’
‘Why? Is it in imminent danger of falling down if you’re not at hand with some sticking plaster and masking tape?’
Bitter tears sprang to her eyes and she fought them down as a red mist of anger swirled through her in a tidal rush.
‘Since when did you get so arrogant?’ she flung at him. They stared at one another in electric silence before she broke eye contact to storm off, out of the beautiful reception area, which she had barely noticed at all, and into the first set of offices.
It took a couple of seconds before Javier was galvanised into following her.
Being accused of arrogance was not something he was accustomed to. Indeed, being spoken to in that accusatory, critical tone of voice was unheard of. He caught her arm, tugging her to face him and then immediately releasing her because just the feel of her softness under his fingers was like putting his hand against an open flame. It enraged him that she could still have this effect on him. It enraged him that, for the first time in living memory, and certainly for the first time in many, many years, his body was refusing to obey his mind.
‘Are you sure it’s the house you need to be close to?’ he growled.
‘What are you talking about?’
‘Maybe there’s a man lurking in the background...’ Javier was disgusted to realise that he was fishing. Did he care whether there was some lame boyfriend in the background? She wasn’t married and that was the main thing. He would never have gone near any woman with a wedding ring on her finger, but if she had a boyfriend somewhere, another one of those limp ex–public school idiots who thought that a polished accent was all that it took to get you through life, well...
All was fair in love and war...
Sophie reddened. The dull prickle of unpleasant memories tried to surface and she