Seduced By The Enemy

‘Ha ha!’ She rasped the words abrasively.

She made no attempt to sit down, but stood watching him with a feeling of helplessness. Something about Tate was totally unnerving: he made her feel at a loss as to what to do with herself, never mind what to say to him.

He worked efficiently, clearing up the sugar and carefully wrapping the broken pieces of crockery before depositing them in the bin.

Her eyes darted to the table, where he had placed the orange-coloured file that he had brought with him. Presumably her father had signed whatever it was he had wanted him to sign. So why hadn’t Tate left for his next meeting instead of wasting his time in here? Her lips twisted in annoyance. There was an ulterior motive, of course. A man like Tate Ainsley didn’t do anything unless there was something in it for him.

‘Have you finished your business with my father?’ she asked him crisply.

‘Until tomorrow.’ He turned and caught the look of annoyance and anxiety in the bright gleam of her green eyes and he sighed.

‘Look, what I said about Paul…’ His lips twisted drolly. ‘It’s nothing personal. In fact, I quite like Paul. It’s just that I think he needs pulling firmly into line as far as your father and his business are concerned.’

‘And I think that is none of your damned business,’ she said, with a tense angry note in her voice. She knew Paul and her father had argued over Tate, and she strongly suspected that Tate had inflamed the situation, turned Lawrence’s mind in his favour.

‘Probably not.’ He shrugged, totally insouciant. ‘But I only give advice when asked.’

‘Meaning that Pop asked your advice about Paul?’

‘Yes, he did, as a matter of fact.’

She was incredulous. This was getting absurd. Her own father asking someone like Tate Ainsley for advice on how he should deal with his son!

‘Look, Helena.’ He came to stand next to her. ‘I realise you are concerned about your father, about Paul. But everything will sort itself out, I’m sure of it.’

‘Well, that’s very reassuring.’ Her voice was filled with sarcasm. ‘You appear to be an absolute authority on my family—in fact, you seem to know more about them than I do.’

‘Well, that’s hardly surprising,’ he answered coolly. ‘You did take yourself off for five years.’

She flinched as if he had struck her, her eyes widening with hurt. He made it sound as if she had abandoned them. It had torn her apart to leave her home, her family. Every day in London she had thought about them, missed them. But she had been too afraid to return…it had taken a crisis to get her back.

‘I didn’t want to leave Barbados.’ She spoke the words impulsively, without thinking. ‘It certainly wasn’t the easy option.’

‘So why did you go?’

She met the deep blue of his eyes and came back to earth with a sharp jolt.

‘A broken heart?’ He ventured the words gently.

‘No!’ Her answer was sharp, perhaps too sharp. ‘Look—’ she made a deliberate attempt to calm her voice to a moderate tone ‘—I don’t want to discuss personal issues with you. What I would like to ask is what kind of business are you conducting with my father?’ She angled her chin up firmly as she held his gaze.

‘I hate to remind you, Helena, but your father appears to think that his business doesn’t concern you.’

It took every grain of strength to contain her rage at those words. ‘Well, I think anything that concerns my father concerns me.’

‘Obviously that is a point you will have to take up with Lawrence.’ Tate shrugged. ‘It would hardly be ethical for me to discuss his business behind his back.’

‘Cut the dramatics, Tate.’ She ground the words unevenly. ‘You’re talking to his daughter, not a rival business person.’

‘Ah…but, as you so succinctly pointed out, avarice is no respecter of family ties.’

Having her own words quoted back to her was the final insult. Helena could feel her skin turning from pale ivory to vivid scarlet as she reached boiling point.

‘Your sister may have married into my family, Tate Ainsley, but as far as I’m concerned you are still an outsider,’ she told him with brittle fury. ‘And I care about my father too deeply to let all his affairs rest in the hands of a relative stranger.’

One dark eyebrow lifted slightly. ‘You mean you want to get to know me better?’ he drawled laconically. ‘If you hadn’t just told me that I was the last man on Barbados that you would be interested in, I’d think you were fishing for a date.’

The laughing gleam in his eye filled her with a desire to hit him hard across that handsome, infuriating face.

‘That’s all right with me.’ He shrugged. ‘We’ll just forget all that you’ve said and start again, shall we?’

‘I don’t know what the hell you are advocating, but I certainly don’t want to go out with you on a date,’ she told him in no uncertain terms, her green eyes flashing fire at him. ‘I want to talk to you about—’

‘Fine…dinner tonight, then.’ Tate glanced at his watch. ‘I’ve got to dash, Helena, I’ve got an important meeting.’

‘I haven’t finished,’ Helena grated furiously as she watched him stroll over and collect the file from the table.

‘It will have to wait until this evening, I’m afraid.’ He sounded anything but afraid; he sounded totally, arrogantly sure of himself.

At that moment the kitchen door opened behind them, and much to Helena’s annoyance her father came in.

‘Ah, Tate, I’m glad you haven’t gone,’ he said cheerfully, his bright eyes moving from Helena’s flushed features towards the other man’s face. ‘There was one last point I forgot to clear with you.’

‘OK, Lawrence,’ Tate drawled easily. ‘I was just arranging what time I should pick your daughter up for dinner tonight.’

‘Dinner, eh?’ Lawrence’s face lit up. ‘Well, that is good news.’

Helena cringed, her skin burning with a rage that was almost feverish.

‘Eight o’clock, Helena?’ Tate watched her, his expression challenging and amused.

She didn’t answer. It was just unbelievable that she could have allowed Tate to manoeuvre her into such a corner.