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Kate’s head shot up and her heart started pounding recklessly as she stared at Charo, whose dark eyes were sparkling mischievously. Charo laughed at her expression. ‘I unpack for you.’
‘No,’ Kate told her quickly with a smile. ‘I’d rather do it myself.’ She wanted to be alone to take all this in. It was beyond her wildest expectations but a little unnerving. The implications of it all were too much for the moment. ‘Thank you, Charo. I’d like to shower and go to bed and—’
‘But dinner is being prepared at the villa. My mother, she cooks for everyone.’
‘Dinner?’ Kate glanced at her watch. She couldn’t eat at this time of night, or rather the early hours of the morning. ‘No dinner.’ She smiled at Charo again. ‘Please make my excuses.’ Much as she wanted to see Conrad again and to thank him for his thoughtful hospitality, she really was on her last legs.
Half an hour later she was in bed. Cool and relaxed after a long, warm shower. She slept like the proverbial log.
Coffee! She could smell coffee brewing and bacon grilling. Delicious. She stretched luxuriously in the downy bed. Sun filtered dreamily into the room and cicadas serenaded the last remnants of sleep from her muddled head. Charo was cooking her breakfast. I could get used to this, she thought as she yawned and relished another long stretch. But she was here to work.
Reluctantly she got up, washed and dressed quickly in cool white cotton trousers and a canary-yellow camisole top, and, slipping on flip-flops, dashed downstairs. Hopefully Charo would fill her in on the routine here—something Lorraine and the awful Guy had omitted to tell her. She hadn’t a clue what time she was expected to start work.
‘Charo!’ she called. She followed her nose and the aroma of coffee led her out into the shady but still very warm courtyard.
Kate stopped dead in her tracks and let out a small ‘Oh’ of surprise.
Guy Latham sat at the wooden table under the grapevine, looking coolly elegant in off-white linen trousers and a crisp white shirt, a somewhat surprising multi-hued silk tie at his throat. It was hotvery—but he looked cool, if a little formal for such a climate. His dark hair was slicked back and was still damp from a shower. Kate took all this in because she had time. He was sitting drinking coffee and reading the business section of the Observer and might have been in London instead of the jetset paradise of Marbella.
He looked up, saw her hovering and then glanced back at his paper.
‘I don’t think you are appropriately dressed for work, do you?’ he said without looking at her, as if once was enough.
Oh, first mistake. She should have checked. She felt herself blushing hotly and in confusion went to turn back into the house.
‘Hold it! Come back here. Sit down. Charo!’ he called out. ‘Bring Kate’s breakfast and pronto!’
Kate was frozen to the spot now, wondering if he had come to fetch her. Was she late?
He looked up again, sighed in exasperation, folded his paper up neatly and pointed to the wooden chair across the table from him.
Kate crossed the courtyard, sat down and stared at him, feeling a chill of apprehension run through her. She hadn’t expected to find him sitting in the courtyard and his abrasive tone was a shock too. Charo put a breakfast plate of bacon, eggs and tomatoes down in front of her and disappeared back into the house. Kate sat mutely and watched him pour coffee for her.
‘You haven’t been briefed, have you?’ he said coldly.
‘Briefed?’ she uttered weakly.
‘Obviously not.’ He didn’t look very pleased, as if it were her fault.
‘Lorraine should have told you,’ he said, pushing the coffee-cup towards her. ‘Just because the climate is different here it’s no excuse for sloppiness. You’re late, not appropriately dressed and-’
‘Just a minute.’ Kate rallied, putting two and two together and coming up with a typical Lorraine putdown. Lorraine hadn’t said a word to her about schedules and expectations and that wasn’t surprising. Lorraine didn’t like her. ‘I’m sorry if I’m late, sorry if my attire doesn’t meet with your approval, but—’
‘Sweetheart, don’t give me a hard time,’ he interrupted lazily. ‘You can come on to me any time in see-through silk and I won’t complain but—’
‘Don’t speak to me that way!’ Kate shot back, and was on her feet in a trice, seeing her career slipping away without trace. She wasn’t going to be spoken to as if she were another to add to his entourage of adoring women.
‘That’s what I like,’ he drawled. ‘A woman with spirit. Sadly it isn’t what turns my brother on. Are you getting my drift?’
Wide-eyed, Kate gaped at him. ‘No, I’m not getting your drift,’ she retorted heatedly, clenching her fists at her sides.
‘Sit down, then, and let me tell you about it.’
Sensibly Kate did as she was told, regretting her outburst but only just holding onto her temper.
‘Eat before your breakfast gets stale. I’ll do the talking and then if you have anything to offer you’re welcome to give it a try.’ He leaned back in his chair and watched her with dark eyes fringed with thick black lashes.
Kate averted her eyes to the breakfast in front of her. She was starving but couldn’t eat, so numb with shock that she couldn’t move to pick up the fork. Shakily she managed to reach for the coffee-cup.
‘You need more than caffeine to nourish that skinny little body of yours. Now pick up that knife and fork and eat, because if you don’t I’m going to have to do it for you and I will,’ he threatened darkly.
Kate shot him a look of pure poison. He really was the most arrogant pig she had ever met. He was also one of her bosses. She started to eat.
‘That’s better.’
Kate gripped her cutlery tightly and glared at him. He might be her boss but she didn’t have to take this patronising attitude.
‘And that’s enough,’ she told him firmly. ‘I don’t like being spoken to in that tone and I don’t like being ordered around this way. So I’ve put my foot in it this morning, but I’m pleading ignorance and I’ve apologised. I’m not a three-year-old and I’m not stupid. Correct my mistake and give me a dressing down but don’t, just don’t patronise me.’ She started eating and when she looked up at him he was smiling at her—thinly.
‘You’re executive material, you know.’
‘Really,’ she mumbled between mouthfuls. Here we go, she thought; he was trying to flatter her now that she had shown a bit of rebellion. She wondered if she was the first to have stood up to him.
‘I’m only trying to be helpful,’ he said in a softer tone. ‘Think yourself lucky you are being addressed by me this morning and not my brother.’
‘I’m grateful,’ she uttered.
‘Sarcasm doesn’t become you. Now listen to me, Kate Stephens, and listen good because I’m on your side.’
Kate listened, Oh, yes, she listened, because she knew already that she had overstepped the mark. The trouble was, Guy Latham didn’t impress her one bit. She didn’t need to kowtow to him because she knew she was good at her job. So she was being a bit risky with him, but she hadn’t been asked down here to Marbella for nothing. Only the best got asked and Conrad had put her in his favored guest house and that counted for something. But she mustn’t push her luck with his brother all the same.
‘Go on,’ she murmured compliantly.
‘We start work at nine. We dress as we would in an office environment in the UK. The office suite is air-conditioned so you shouldn’t suffer any discomfort. My brother expects high standards. This is no different a routine from the usual. We work the same way as we do in the UK.’
Conrad would expect high standards, of course. Kate saw that now and she would respect his wishes because she respected him, though she ruefully thought that a less austere routine would be easier to live with in this heat. Never mind.
‘I will deal with Lorraine myself because she should have told you all this,’ Guy went on. ‘And I’ll smooth over your lateness with Conrad and I’ll also explain you had a headache or something last night and retired to—’
‘What do you mean?’
He eyed her levelly across the table. ‘You were expected to dine with us last night and—’
‘I wasn’t asked!’ Kate protested.
‘You were told. Charo told you.’
Yes, she remembered. Embarrassment engulfed her and she swallowed it down hard ‘I…I didn’t realise and I was tired. I didn’t realise I was expected to take my orders from the maid.’
‘You take orders from me, Kate,’ he told her, scraping his chair back and getting to his feet. His dark, moody eyes met hers. ‘Remember that and save yourself unnecessary stress. You answer to me, understand?’
Kate nodded and wished she weren’t there. Marbella palled and those hot, balmy Mediterranean nights were but a figment of an overactive imagination. This was all turning into a video nasty, with Guy Latham in the starring role. Poor me, Kate thought as she mumbled, ‘I’d better get changed, then.’
‘Anything I can do?’ he breathed suggestively.
‘Yes,’ Kate returned defiantly. ‘Keep out of my way.’
‘And what exactly is that supposed to mean?’ he questioned darkly.
Actually she wasn’t sure. She supposed it was some sort of warning. After all, he thought himself a gift to women, but surely he wasn’t trying it on with her? No, she was sure he wasn’t because he’d had nine months to try and not once had he shown her any interest.
‘I’m sorry,’ she said in response after deciding that a quiet life was very preferable to riling Guy Latham. She didn’t want to be thrown off this job before it had even started. ‘I’m overreacting. This is my first assignment down here and I’m not at all sure of the procedure. I’ll get changed and then perhaps we can start all over again.’ She gave him a hesitant smile and he simply nodded.
‘I’ll wait for you,’ was all he said as Kate turned away.
That was something at least, Kate pondered as she hurried upstairs to change into something more businesslike. Lorraine she would tackle later for not preparing her for this. Her reason was obvious. To belittle Kate in the Latham brothers’ eyes. Guy, surprisingly, had offered her a helping hand. He probably felt sorry for her. Well, sorry she didn’t need from him.
CHAPTER TWO (#ulink_87597708-024d-5c15-9d13-825089f23ffe)
‘KATE. So sorry to hear of your travel sickness. I trust you are feeling better this morning and are eager to get down to some work?’ Conrad Latham said formally as he entered the ground-floor office suite attached to the back of the sumptuous villa.
Mind racing, Kate smiled at him hesitantly. Guy had marched her over here without a word, ushered her into a cool, spacious office efficiently equipped with computer consoles and Danish-style furniture—very modern and chic—and left her. Lorraine wasn’t around and Kate had stood nervously by the desk at the patio doors overlooking the gardens, just waiting.
So Guy had offered travel sickness as an excuse for her absence at the dinner table last night and her lateness this morning. A lie, which made her wonder at the brothers’ relationship. Though they were equal partners it seemed Conrad had the whip hand. Nevertheless Kate was reluctantly grateful to Guy for covering for her, though a little uneasy at the method.
‘Yes, I’m feeling much better after a good night’s rest, thank you, and—’ She was just about to offer further thanks for the lovely accommodation he had put at her disposal when Guy and Lorraine stepped into the room, Guy as steely as usual and Lorraine looking surprisingly pale and disgruntled.
The next few minutes of proposals for the work they were undertaking unfortunately flew over the top of Kate’s head as she watched Conrad stride around the room giving out orders. He really was a very impressive man, tall and elegantly dressed in a lightweight grey suit that seemed to highlight the smattering of silver at his temples.
Whereas Guy was deeply tanned, Conrad was quite pale in comparison. Obviously the workaholic of the two. Kate could imagine Guy topping up that tan by the poolside at every opportunity while his brother wheeled and dealed in this air-conditioned office suite. It endeared him to her even more. She admired a successful man.
‘Kate will deal with the German contracts and the redevelopment marketing as she is so efficiently fluent—’
Kate concentrated and glowed inside to think that Conrad thought so much of her, but when the rose mist of adoration cleared from her eyes she realised that it was Guy mouthing the words, not Conrad.
‘Lorraine, you are to work closely with Conrad as his personal assistant as you are no good to me on these foreign contracts. Kate is a linguist and of far more use to me-’
Kate felt her stomach somersault in dismay. Lorraine gave her a look as frosty as the Eiger and Conrad simply nodded his acceptance.
‘We are restructuring the whole European marketing concept,’ Guy went on, addressing himself to Kate and Lorraine. ‘And I’m afraid the next few weeks are going to be hectic. I apologise for that in advance and my brother and I hope you will bear with us and—’
‘Come now, Guy.’ Conrad interrupted, giving Kate a look that set her heart pounding. ‘Don’t expect too much from these beautiful ladies. I’m sure they will benefit from some leisure time while they are with us.’
There was a sudden silence as the brothers caught each other’s eye, Guy glowering as if the suggestion should never have been made and Conrad steelyeyed as if exerting some mental power over his younger brother. Guy was the first to concede with a slight shrug.
‘Feel free to use the pool and the grounds— strictly out of office hours, of course. This isn’t Club Med,’ Guy said rather stiffly.
Lorraine let out a small laugh, which didn’t surprise Kate one bit. Lorraine would fall helpless at any little joke Guy might attempt. But Kate remained unaffected, seeing the remark for what it was meant to be—a warning, not a joke. It made her wonder what all that had been about this morning—Guy telling her she wasn’t suitably dressed, making out that Conrad was the tyrant and expecting high standards. At this moment in time the roles appeared to be reversed, Guy showing far more power and stridency than she had expected in front of his elder brother.
‘Kate, you’re looking rather pale. Perhaps a tour of the grounds would help you settle,’ Conrad suggested kindly.
In utter astonishment Kate widened her deep brown eyes, truly surprised by the suggestion and the implication that he might accompany her. And the way he was looking at her, so invitingly, with smoky grey eyes, made Kate decide that she wasn’t mistaken. He did mean to accompany her. Her heart fluttered excitedly because on their dinner date his behaviour had been impeccable but now, well, he was sort of flirty, and in front of the others too.
‘Kate is perfectly well, Conrad, and there will be plenty of other opportunities to explore the gardens of Babylon, but for the moment work is more important,’ Guy stated cuttingly.
Kate’s heart began to sink. There was an atmosphere here that made her feel extremely uncomfortable. Power play, and it seemed she was in the line of crossfire between the two brothers. She wished she weren’t here.
Before she knew what was happening, Conrad had moved to Lorraine, taken her arm and guided her out of the office without a word from either of them. Kate was left alone with Guy and wishing she weren’t because this appeared to be his personal office. She cleared her throat.
‘Where do you want me to sit?’ she asked in a small voice.
Guy said nothing, indicating a chair at the computer console and walked across the room to the desk by the window, glancing at his watch with a frown and picked up the phone. For a good ten minutes he carried on a conversation in Spanish to a colleague in Madrid, making an arrangement for a meeting in Barcelona and enquiring after the recipient’s family, all of which Kate understood, being fluent in Spanish as well. She stared at the dead screen of the computer, waiting for Guy to finish and give her some direction, feeling totally lost and unwanted.
‘I apologise for that,’ he suddenly said from behind her, so close that she flinched with nerves. ‘I had to catch him before he left. Now let’s get down to making you feel at home. Conrad was right—you are looking rather pale. I hope I haven’t made a mistake by selecting you for this assignment.’
Kate turned her head to look at him, her heart reeling with disappointment, her lips slightly parted with surprise. He had chosen her? She didn’t understand. She had presumed Conrad…She licked her very dry lips.
‘I won’t disappoint you,’ she mumbled humbly, hating it all, hating him. One small glow inside helped, though, as she thought of the beautiful accommodation Conrad had secured for her. And another glow formed at the consideration he had shown with that suggestion of a tour of the ‘gardens of Babylon’—as Guy had so scathingly named the grounds. Conrad was a true gentleman, his brother a heathen. She wished with all her heart that she were in Lorraine’s shoes at this moment.
‘I doubt you could,’ he told her softly, holding her limpid brown eyes with his own. ‘But my brother might find you a bitter disappointment,’ he added enigmatically.
His hand was on the back of her chair and Kate felt a very small movement, as if he was rubbing his thumb over the back of her white silk shirt. The touch burned and her insides steeled themselves against the intimacy of the touch, but she held it all inside her, glaring at him with a defiance she felt very strongly.
‘And what is that supposed to mean?’ she asked directly.
‘It means that my brother has high expectations.’
‘So? I would hope he has,’ Kate returned. ‘We aren’t playing cowboy outfits with your business, are we?’
He afforded her a small smile and leaned even closer to her—so close that she was assailed by that delicious cologne again.
‘Indeed not, but my brother plays other sorts of games and sometimes he doesn’t stick to the rules. He invariably wins.’
Kate couldn’t help the stiffening of her whole body at that innuendo. A warning? That was good coming from him, the Lothario to end all Lotharios. Her contempt for him rose to an alltime high.
‘I’m not going to pretend I don’t know what you are getting at,’ she seethed through tight white lips. ‘But I didn’t just fall off the olive tree.’
He raised a teasing brow at her. ‘Olives are crushed for their virgin oil, dear Kate. Remember that if my brother comes on to you.’
In a fury of shocked embarrassment Kate pushed at the console to free her chair and free herself. She leapt shakily to her feet. Guy had stepped back out of the way of her chair and she swung to face him, eyes blazing.
‘How dare you? How dare you speak to me like that?’ she cried furiously.
He looked totally unrepentant, even dared to offer her a wicked smile which she was sorely tempted to wipe from his face with the back of her hand.
‘Now, I wonder what got your back up? The implication you might be a virgin or that my brother might be toying with the idea of coming on to you?’
Kate opened and shut her mouth in exasperation. Had she heard right? Had this awful, arrogant beast actually uttered those words? I’m going mad, she thought; the heat’s getting to me.
