The Millionaire Affair

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At last Lisa gave vent to her fury, if only for a moment. She slammed the car door with the full force of her arm. Nikolai winced.

She crossed the street without looking back.

Nikolai picked up the car phone and dialled.

‘Hi, Tom,’ he said when it was answered. ‘I’m going to have to take a raincheck on lunch. Something’s come up.’

‘And Sedgewick? What do I do with him? I’m not the one who wants to go with him to Borneo.’

‘Hang onto him. I’ll be over later.’

Tom was not best pleased. ‘He goes at teatime, whether you’ve caught her by then or not,’ said Tom firmly.

Nikolai grinned for the first time in what seemed like hours.

‘Caught her? I don’t know what you mean.’

Tom ignored that. ‘How long have I known you, Nicki? Put the skirt on ice for the afternoon. If you really want to go on this expedition.’

Nikolai was injured. ‘You’ve got a suspicious mind. I am dealing with my great-aunt’s affairs.’

‘Affairs, I believe,’ Tom said drily. ‘Four o’clock, latest. Or forget Borneo.’ He hung up.

Nikolai got out of the car.

As soon as Lisa let herself in to the house she saw that Tatiana’s door was now open. Immediately Tatiana herself appeared, almost as if she was waiting for her.

‘Are you all right?’ the older woman asked.

‘Of course I’m all right,’ said Lisa furiously. ‘Did you think your nephew would bombard me with poison darts?’

Tatiana blinked. She hadn’t seen Lisa in a temper before.

‘He—er—said you’d met.’

‘Met! Well, you could call it that, I suppose.’

Tatiana began to be alarmed. ‘What did he do?’

‘To be precise,’ said Lisa, ‘he leered down my cleavage. Then he accused me of fraud.’

She was still shaking. Tatiana saw it.

‘Oh, dear,’ she said. ‘He has upset you.’

‘He could not,’ said Lisa with precision, ‘upset me if he tried. All men are a joke. And your nephew is a caveman and a bigot as well.’

She clattered downstairs, dashing away angry tears. Going straight to the bathroom, she splashed cold water on her hot face. Her reflection in the mirror looked like an angry cat.

Lisa’s temper subsided somewhat. She leaned forward and rested her hot forehead against the glass. She sighed.

Men! It was enough to make a woman weep. They caused so much trouble: Sam hating to admit that she was good at her job and doing everything he could to denigrate her; Alec deciding he was in love with her so that she had to move out; the whole dreary succession of men over whom her sister Kit had broken first her heart and then her health. Lisa’s mother, Joanne, watched her daughter like a hawk, but Kit seemed to have an unerring instinct for finding men who would use her badly and leave her flat. And then she punished herself because they didn’t love her. Lisa’s eyes pricked with unexpected tears again as she remembered.

And now Nikolai Ivanov, King of the Jungle, accused her of trying to blackmail him! Lisa ground her teeth, reviving at the thought. Well, if he wanted a fight, she was going to show him that she was every bit as tough and nasty as he thought she was. And she was going to win.

The doorbell rang. Lisa had no doubt at all who it was. She whipped upstairs, past Tatiana in her doorway, and flung it open like a cavalry charge.

‘Go away!’

Unseen behind her, Tatiana bit back a smile and retreated into her own part of the house. Neither Lisa nor Nikolai noticed.

He held out the shopping she had left in his car and stood his ground.

‘We started off on the wrong foot,’ he said. ‘My fault. I’m really sorry. Can we start again?’

Lisa was unimpressed. ‘Is this the charm offensive now?’

A faint look of annoyance crossed the handsome face.

And it was handsome, Lisa had to admit. He had deep-set eyes over high cheekbones and a thin, haughty nose. And his mouth! In the days before she had decided men were a waste of space Lisa had been rather a connoisseur of mouths. And in this one, wide and mobile, she read sensuality warring with control. Which would win if it came to all-out war? she pondered. It would be a challenge to find out.

Lisa came to herself with a start. Would have been a challenge, she corrected herself. Would have been. In the past. In the days when she had still been playing games like that. Now the whole idea left her unmoved. Didn’t it?

Nikolai curbed his annoyance and permitted himself to look penitent.

‘I was unfair,’ he said mendaciously. ‘Put it down to my affection for Tatiana. Let me make amends. Why don’t I buy you a late lunch?’

Lisa gaped.

His smile deepened the lights in his eyes until they looked as warm as a friendly fire on a dark night. It was the sort of smile a lot of girls would dream about turning to…drowning in… Fortunately she was not one of them, Lisa reminded herself.

‘Why?’ she croaked.

‘You can tell me all about your arrangement with my aunt Tatiana. And I’ll tell you anything you want to know about me.’

She toyed with the idea of saying she didn’t want to know a thing about him. Then she saw his expression. That was exactly what he was expecting her to say. Lisa stopped herself just in time.

‘A name would be nice,’ she said drily.

And saw with real triumph the way the phoney warmth flickered out.

Nikolai recovered quickly. ‘I’m sorry. Nikolai Ivanov.’

He held out a hand. To her own annoyance, Lisa found herself shaking it. His fingers were long and she had that tingling sensation of his physical strength again. She pulled her hand away.

‘Hello and goodbye,’ she said curtly.

‘I told you, we need to get better acquainted,’ he drawled, amused. ‘Come on, have a meal with me. Call it compensation for waking you up.’ Nikolai’s voice was soft, but he sounded horribly determined.

Lisa felt a shiver of reaction. She hung onto her cool irreverence. But it was an effort. ‘No need.’

‘Oh, but there is.’ He smiled straight into her eyes. ‘If you don’t come, we’ll both die of—shall we call it curiosity?’

Lisa could hear the blood pounding in her ears. How did he do that? She swallowed.

Hardly believing it, she heard herself say, ‘All right. Let me unload the groceries and you can take me to 192.’

Nikolai nodded, without comment.

She wasn’t sure whether that indicated that he knew the fashionable local brasserie or that he accepted her acquiescence. Probably the latter, thought Lisa, annoyed with herself. To judge by his expression it was only what he’d expected.