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More than that, it was damned insulting!
‘How very Sherlock Holmes of you!’ she snapped.
‘I thought so.’ Sin’s smile was completely lacking in humour.
She gave a disgusted shake of her head. ‘And that night I thought you were—I believed—You’re no better than Paul Bridger!’
His lips curled with distaste. ‘Not a pleasant individual, I grant you. Although it wasn’t exactly pleasant of you, either, to threaten him with the fact that he’s married.’
‘I didn’t threaten him. You were there in the hallway. You heard some of what was said—’
‘I heard you mention Bridger’s wife,’ he admitted grimly.
Luccy became very still. She had mentioned Paul’s wife to him that evening. But only out of desperation, as a deterrent, not—
‘He expected—He wanted—I only mentioned his wife because I was only trying to remind him of his—of his responsibilities,’ she defended herself, realising just how lame that sounded.
‘He claims you were trying to blackmail him into giving you work. His boss—Dale Harris is his name, I believe?—he seems to believe it too.’
This was a nightmare. An unbelievable nightmare. She had taken Paul and Dale to dinner, had paid for the whole damned evening—and now it seemed she was going to be made to pay in another way, too.
‘Let me try and get this straight,’ Luccy exclaimed. ‘You believe I tried to blackmail Paul Bridger into giving me work on the magazine he works for by threatening to tell his wife that he tried to get me into bed after our business meeting? You’re also of the opinion, based on that belief, that my ultimate intention was to somehow blackmail you, too?’
‘That works for me, yes.’ Sin nodded slowly. ‘But having transferred your attention onto me so impulsively it must have presented something of a problem for you when I told you that I didn’t have a wife, let alone kids.’
Luccy frowned at his continued insistence that she had deliberately planned what had happened between them that evening. ‘Even supposing—just supposing!—that your accusations were true, what do you possibly have that I could want?’
‘Off the top of my head?’ he drawled derisively. ‘Your future employment seems like a good enough incentive.’
Luccy had heard enough. She really had. ‘What future employment are you talking about?’
‘You still have a contract with PAN Cosmetics, I believe?’
Luccy became very still. He had mentioned the PAN contract earlier today, too. As he had just mentioned her future employment…
‘What does any of that have to do with you?’ she asked warily.
Mocking brows rose over those icy grey eyes. ‘Still pretending ignorance, Luccy?’
She wasn’t pretending at all! But she had a definite premonition she wasn’t going to like his answer when it eventually came!
‘Sleeping with the boss just isn’t what it used to be, is it?’ he derided.
The boss? What boss?
The only boss Luccy had came with her contract with PAN Cosmetics…
She swallowed hard. ‘You work for PAN Cosmetics?’
He gave an impatient sigh. ‘I own PAN Cosmetics, Luccy. As you are well aware,’ his voice grated harshly.
He owned…?
Luccy didn’t just stare at him now—she goggled. ‘Jacob Sinclair is head of Sinclair Industries, the company that owns PAN Cosmetics…’ Was that strangulated voice really her own?
‘Yes.’
Luccy could barely breathe now. ‘But Jacob Sinclair is—Isn’t he an elderly man, almost eighty?’
‘Jacob Senior is eighty, yes,’ Sin confirmed. ‘He also stepped down as Chairman of Sinclair Industries almost ten years ago. As I’m sure you are well aware,’ he added pointedly.
And why should she have known that? She worked exclusively with PAN Cosmetics, not Sinclair Industries.
Luccy could only stare at Sin as she waited for him to drop the next bombshell—one that she was sure was going to completely devastate her!
‘Ordinarily, his son, Jacob Junior would have inherited that position, of course, but unfortunately Jacob Junior was killed in a car accident ten years ago.’ His eyes were cold as he looked at Luccy.
Luccy moistened suddenly dry lips. ‘So who did take over as chairman?’
Sin gave a weary sigh. ‘Do we really have to continue with this act of ignorance on your part?’
‘Just humour me, will you?’ she rasped, totally agitated as he continued to play with her.
His mouth tightened. ‘Jacob Sinclair the Third, Jacob Senior’s only grandchild now controls all the companies under ownership by Sinclair Industries. Which, of course, includes PAN Cosmetics.’
Luccy’s eyes widened as the truth suddenly hit her with the force of a blow to the chest. ‘You?’
‘Me.’ He gave an unpleasant smile.
Him. He was Jacob Sinclair the Third. The grandson—and the only grandchild!—of Jacob Sinclair Senior.
The man who had become Luccy’s lover three days ago…
The man who now believed—with the help of that lying louse Paul Bridger!—that she had deliberately transferred her attentions to him that evening because she had spotted a bigger fish to fry.
Her cheeks burned. ‘I didn’t know!’ she gasped weakly. ‘How could I possibly have known when you introduced yourself to me only as Sin that night?’ she added accusingly.
‘You introduced yourself only as Luccy, remember?’
‘That was because—because—’
‘Because you had recognised me in the restaurant earlier but didn’t want me to know who you were!’ A nerve pulsed in his tightly clenched jaw.
If Luccy had recognized this man as Jacob Sinclair three evenings ago, in the restaurant or anywhere else, then they wouldn’t even be having this conversation!
Not that it mattered now. This man owned and ran Sinclair Industries, and consequently owned PAN Cosmetics, too.
The same man who was going to ensure that Lucinda Harper-O’Neill never worked for PAN Cosmetics again. Or possibly anyone else, either?
‘Don’t look so downcast, Luccy,’ he jeered. ‘You aren’t the first woman to use her body in order to try to get what she wants.’ His mouth tightened.
Luccy stared at him. ‘This—Are you saying that something like that has happened to you before?’
‘Just the once,’ he growled, the coldness of his expression telling her that it was not a pleasant memory—for him or the woman involved!
She swallowed hard. ‘What happened…?’
His eyes narrowed to steely slits. ‘Just a lowly employee of Sinclair Industries who thought she would like a promotion.’
‘And she went to bed with you to get it?’
His face darkened ominously. ‘Luccy—’
‘What happened to her?’ Luccy persisted.
He shrugged. ‘After her employment was terminated? I have absolutely no idea.’ His eyes glittered angrily.
Luccy gulped. ‘I think I would like that glass of wine now,’ she said shakily.
‘I don’t believe getting drunk is the answer to your problems,’ Sin drawled mockingly even as he stood up to pour wine into the second glass before handing it to her.
Luccy ignored the comment, her hand trembling slightly as she took the glass from him. ‘So.’ She drew in a shaky breath after taking a sip of the chilled wine. ‘Where do we go from here?’
‘Where do you want us to go?’
Luccy looked up at him warily, seeing him for exactly what he was now. Not only the billionaire chairman of Sinclair Industries, but also a hard, powerful, and ruthless man. ‘What do you mean?’
He grimaced. ‘Well, obviously I have now made it clear to you that any attempt on your part to use our past—relationship, shall we say, as leverage of any kind, in order to renew your contract with PAN, is out of the question…’ He looked up as Luccy stood up abruptly, his expression one of hard challenge as she began to pace the room agitatedly.
Luccy made no attempt to disguise her dislike as she glared across the room at him. ‘I can assure you I did not—and most definitely still do not—have any intention of ever discussing that evening again. With anyone!’
‘I’m pleased to hear it.’
‘And that includes you!’ Luccy snapped as she saw Sin’s derisive expression. ‘It was a mistake—’
‘It was certainly a serious tactical error on your part,’ he agreed.
Luccy slammed her glass forcefully down onto the table, mildly surprised when it didn’t instantly shatter. ‘You seduced me that evening—’
‘I believe it was a mutual seduction,’ he corrected harshly.
‘If it was mutual then why are you bitching about it?’ Luccy was beyond even attempting to keep this conversation polite. Why should she bother when Sin had done nothing but insult her since coming to her studio this morning?
Why was he bitching? Sin questioned himself suddenly.
Probably because, although it had been ten years since he had last been this gullible, Sin could still clearly remember the humiliation he had felt, the sheer fury, at knowing how naïve and stupid he had been.
So much so that he could cheerfully have wrung Luccy’s neck right now.
He had found his conversation with Paul Bridger this morning offensive, to say the least. The other man, once he’d realised the purpose of Sin’s visit, becoming extremely insulting about Luccy as he talked of the way she had encouraged him to believe they would be going to bed together at the end of the evening. That those insults were obviously true, going on the part of their exchange Sin had overheard, had only made his own conversation with Bridger more unpleasant.
‘Nothing else to say?’ she challenged Sin scathingly now.
There were a lot of things Sin could have said. But he wasn’t about to say any of them. ‘I believe the next move is up to you.’
She scowled. ‘Obviously you will be terminating my employment with PAN Cosmetics immediately—’
‘No.’
She raised startled brows. ‘No…?’
Sin gave her a scathing glance of his own. ‘You have three months left to run on your present contract, I believe?’
She eyed him warily. ‘Yes, so?’
He nodded. ‘Then you will continue to fulfil your obligations to PAN Cosmetics for that amount of time.’
‘That’s very—surprising, of you,’ Luccy said warily.
‘It’s business, Luccy,’ Sin rasped.
‘And once that contract is over you will make sure I never work again, is that it?’ she asked.
He continued to look at her coldly for several long seconds. ‘I haven’t made my mind up about that yet.’
Luccy knew by the absolute implacability of his expression that there was no point in her continuing to proclaim her innocence; this man simply didn’t believe her. ‘Let me know when you have!’ she retorted before marching in the direction of the lift.
‘Where the hell are you going?’
‘I’m leaving, of course.’ She stabbed her finger on the button to open the lift doors.
Sin stood up. ‘I don’t believe we’ve finished talking yet—’
‘I have,’ she assured him grimly as she stepped into the lift, her eyes glittering as she turned to face him before the lift doors slowly closed.
Sin was scowling darkly as he listened to the lift descending, knowing that the conversation hadn’t gone at all as he had thought it would.
The tears he was sure he had seen glittering in Luccy’s eyes didn’t make much sense to him, either…
CHAPTER FIVE
‘CHAMPAGNE?’
Luccy didn’t need to turn and face the owner of that silkily soft voice to know who it belonged to. It might have been eight weeks since she had last heard it, but, as she had guessed at the time, she hadn’t succeeded in forgetting a single thing about Jacob ‘Sin’ Sinclair, least of all the silky seductiveness of his voice!
She had wondered about—and dreaded!—seeing him again at this glitzy party being given in the New York Sinclair hotel to celebrate the launch of PAN Cosmetics’ new brand of lipstick. But, as she was the photographer for all the publicity shots that had blitzed the media for the last month, it would have looked distinctly odd if Luccy had refused her own invitation to attend. Especially as she had decided that this particular photography assignment for PAN Cosmetics was to be her last…
Which didn’t make it any easier for her to break off her present conversation in order to turn and face Sin!
