Carole Mortimer Romance Collection

The silence stretched on and on, until Juliet felt as if her nerve might snap. ‘For goodness’ sake, Liam,’ she finally bit out tautly, that feeling of being a naughty little girl still with her. ‘Janet was just——’

‘I’m not interested in what Janet was doing,’ he cut in harshly. ‘I believe I made my feelings plain to you yesterday evening!’

She swallowed hard. ‘Janet just wondered if you were going to be in for dinner,’ she continued determinedly. ‘And one thing led to another.’ She shrugged dismissively.

His mouth twisted. ‘I’m sure it did. Well, in future—’ his face hardened ‘—I would prefer it if one thing didn’t lead to another!’

‘Fine,’ she snapped, tired of these mood swings. ‘I’ll endeavour not to let your name pass my lips again!’

He sat back, looking at her through narrowed eyes. ‘Really?’ he drawled.

Juliet suddenly didn’t like the way he was looking at her; she felt uncomfortable under that appraising gaze. ‘Really!’ she returned—somewhat defensively, she felt.

Liam stood up slowly, moving stealthily around the desk and standing dangerously close to her. ‘Never?’ he challenged softly.

There was heated colour in her cheeks now, and she wanted to move. Instead, she stood her ground with great effort. Inwardly she just wanted to get away from him! What was it about this man that had this effect on her?

She met his gaze unflinchingly. ‘Look, Li— Liam,’ she completed firmly. ‘It would obviously be better if you and I stayed away from each other as much as possible——’

‘Why?’ he cut in softly. ‘Some of the times we’ve been… close I’ve enjoyed very much.’ His gaze moved appraisingly across her face and body.

Her cheeks were burning now, and she had to force herself not to move away. ‘You know very well what I’m talking about, Liam,’ she rapped out. ‘You’re here on business; there’s no need for us to put up a pretence of getting on!’

He shrugged unconcernedly. ‘But on one level we do “get on", Juliet,’ he drawled huskily. ‘In fact, I’m amazed at just how well…’

She knew to which ‘level’ he referred; it would be impossible not to know! And she wasn’t amazed by it at all—stunned would be a better way of putting it!

She might not have moved away, but there was definitely a barrier going up around her! ‘You won’t be here for much longer, Liam, so—’

‘Are you telling me or asking me?’ His voice was dangerously soft now.

Her eyes flashed her irritation with this verbal game he was playing. ‘Carlyle Properties is a very small fish in your large pond, Liam,’ she snapped impatiently. ‘Once you’ve seen what you need to you’ll be going off to deal with your other businesses. Until that time, as I’ve already said, perhaps it would be better if we avoided each other as much as possible.’

‘Is that what you did with your last business partner?’ he taunted challengingly. ‘Strange; I thought you had rather a different arrangement with my father.’

She drew in a sharp breath at his deliberately insulting tone. ‘I wasn’t your father’s business partner,’ she reminded him tautly.

‘Oh, no, of course you weren’t.’ He nodded agreement. ‘Assistant, wasn’t it? Well, I suppose at his age he needed all the assistance he could—I wouldn’t, if I were you,’ he advised in a menacingly soft voice as her hand arched up instinctively.

Her hand was arrested in mid-action, her breathing ragged in her agitation. ‘You are the most insulting man I have ever met in my life,’ she finally managed to say. ‘That happens to be your father you’re talking about!’ She glared at him for the slur he was making on a man she had cared about very much. And who had cared about her in return.

‘He was a man, wasn’t he?’ Liam dismissed harshly.

‘He was my friend,’ Juliet defended. ‘My very good friend.’ She could have kicked herself for allowing that emotional catch in her voice; Liam wouldn’t understand things like platonic love between two people who weren’t actually related to each other. And now wasn’t the time to enlighten him, either, as she could hear Janet approaching the study with the coffee-tray.

‘Could I have a dinner-tray in my room?’ she requested stiltedly of the other woman as she entered after knocking briefly on the door. She studiously avoided looking at Liam; she was so angry and upset that she might say something completely unforgivable if she looked at him again.

‘I have something I wish to discuss with you, Juliet,’ Liam told her coldly before Janet could answer.

She still couldn’t bring herself to look at him; she needed some time and space away from him. ‘Can’t it wait until morning?’ she said abruptly.

‘No. It can’t,’ he answered uncompromisingly. ‘It’s business,’ he added curtly as she still looked mutinous.

Juliet drew in a ragged breath. Liam had the upper hand in this situation, and he knew it. When it came to the future of Carlyle Properties—something William had entrusted to her—then she had no choice…!

She nodded. ‘I’ll join you for coffee after dinner,’ she conceded, at last looking up at him—and then wishing she hadn’t! Liam had a way of looking at her that made her feel so—so…It was very uncomfortable, feeling that someone disliked you as much as Liam seemed to dislike her!

Although dislike possibly wasn’t the right word. As he had admitted, on one level they did get on, and Liam obviously resented that fact. He couldn’t dislike her because he wouldn’t really allow himself to get to know her, but he did resent the effect they had on each other. As she did.

‘Very well,’ he accepted icily, obviously not too happy with the compromise, but willing to let it go by because of Janet’s presence. ‘Ten o’clock, in the study,’ he added hardly.

‘Very well,’ she acknowledged distantly.

‘And make sure she does have a tray in her room, Janet.’ He turned to the housekeeper. ‘Juliet has a habit of forgetting that her body needs food!’ he added drily.

Juliet gave him a narrow-eyed look before turning on her heel and abruptly leaving the room.

‘He had to have the last word,’ she muttered to herself disgruntledly as she went up the stairs. She hoped his dinner gave him indigestion! It was the least he deserved, because she surely wasn’t going to enjoy her own food, no matter what Liam might have instructed to the contrary!

Ten o’clock came around all too quickly as far as Juliet was concerned. She did eat some of the delicious dinner which Janet brought up for her, just the smell of the beef Wellington making her feel hungry—mainly, she suddenly realised, because she had forgotten to eat lunch. It certainly had nothing to do with what Liam had said to her!

Why did he bring out such childish rebellion in her? she wondered heavily. She had lived her life quite sedately for the last seven years, and in a few short days Liam had reduced her to an emotional see-saw, one minute so angry with him, the next unable to resist being in his arms. She would be glad when he had gone out of her life again!

But would she…?

Yes, Liam evoked emotions she hadn’t felt for some time, emotions she wasn’t altogether comfortable with, but at least she had been alive, totally alive, since first meeting him.

She couldn’t be falling in love with him…? Not with Liam of all people!

She felt angry in his presence, irritated, apprehensive occasionally, but those other emotions—of anticipation of seeing him again, the pleasure she had known in his arms, the fact that she felt so alive in his company—what did they mean? They couldn’t mean she was falling in love with him— was already in love with him…

God, it was gone ten o’clock now; if she didn’t go downstairs soon he would—

‘A question of the mountain coming to Mohammed?’ Liam drawled as he entered her bedroom unannounced.

After the recent thoughts she had been having about him, being alone with him in her bedroom was the last thing Juliet wanted!

She stood up abruptly from where she had been seated at the table in front of her bedroom window. ‘I was just about to come downstairs and join you,’ she told him stiltedly as she crossed the room to stand pointedly beside the open doorway.

Liam shrugged, making no effort to move. ‘I’m here now,’ he dismissed easily. ‘We may as well stay here.’

No, definitely not! ‘Business is better discussed in the right surroundings,’ she insisted determinedly.

His mouth twisted mockingly. ‘So I seem to remember you telling me once before,’ he said, reminding her of the evening at the hotel in Majorca. ‘I rarely deal in offices, Juliet,’ he continued drily. ‘More business is settled over a good meal, or in a bedroom,’ he added pointedly, ‘than has ever been achieved in a boardroom!’

His meaning, concerning the bedroom, wasn’t lost on Juliet, and she didn’t like the implied insult one little bit! ‘I would prefer to go down to the study,’ she told him distantly, grey eyes unblinking as she met the challenge in his gaze.

‘Whatever,’ he finally shrugged. ‘It’s really totally irrelevant to me.’