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Mariann edged a little closer to glimpse the dazzling beauty of romantic Budapest. Her face softened. There was the vast Gothic parliament building, its severe facade turned into an elaborately decorated wedding-cake by the snow icing. And on its balcony, she mused, a Hungarian Prime Minister had once made a plea for freedom from Soviet occupation. How awful, to have been oppressed—
‘What’s the name of the people you work for?’ asked Vigadó with a sudden verbal lunge.
She blinked, dragging her mind back to a present-day oppressor, and told him. He checked the phone book, wrote down the number on a pad and faced her again, the jet-black hair stark against the leaden skies, his face a dark, unreadable blur in the fading light. ‘I’ll ring them in the morning.’
‘No point. They’ll be here,’ she said, worrying that he’d find out someone had impersonated him.
‘Why aren’t the men working overtime? Why you?’
Suddenly Mariann felt trapped. His body language was telling her that she was being very astutely judged and found wanting. ‘I—I badly need the money,’ she said huskily. ‘I begged and coaxed them to let me carry on.’
‘Clever.’
She thought so. Living on her wits was becoming a way of life and life was a series of opportunities. ‘We’re doing a good job, and doing it fast. We’ll be out of your way before you know it.’ True! He scowled at her and stayed silent. ‘Well?’ she asked anxiously.
‘No, it isn’t “well”. Far from it. Get out of here,’ he said with a sudden, brutal finality. ‘Don’t bother to come back. I’ll get my own man in.’
Mariann stared at him in dismay. Her careful plans, all her work, had come to an abrupt end! She’d failed! Helplessly she watched Vigadó sling his coat over his shoulder and pick up his briefcase. His dark, steely eyes flicked back contemptuously to her as he paused in the door that led to the next office. She froze.
‘I told you to go!’
‘But you can’t mean that! What about my mates?’ she wailed, moving forward to head him off. The image of the open cabinet burned in her mind.
‘For God’s sake!’ he snapped. ‘Don’t you have any sense of self-preservation? Don’t you know what a dangerous man I am?’ His voice became a low, savage growl, his eyes petrified her with their intense black anger. ‘Stay,’ he said menacingly, ‘and you risk more than a little damage to that beautiful face of yours.’
Her eyes flipped automatically to his scar while his glance swept from her toes to her head, slowly, measuring her inch by inch. With every flicker of his thick, dark lashes, Mariann felt weaker, the caress of his eyes on her lips making them part, the contempt, when their eyes finally met, rocking her on her heels. And it was the first time that she’d ever felt so scared for her own safety that she was close to being physically sick.
‘You have ten seconds to move, two minutes to clear the mess!’ rapped Vigadó.
‘Impossible! I need to clean—’
‘Go!’
There was no sense in inviting an explosion of that simmering temper. Mariann sullenly shrugged her shoulders. ‘You’re the boss.’ What on earth was she going to do? ‘I think you’ve dropped your wallet or something,’ she said, pointing back vaguely to her heaped clothes. When he grunted and strode over to check, she slipped past him into the next office and quietly pushed the cabinet shut.
‘Nothing there,’ he said softly, returning. ‘Now what are you doing?’
‘Checking there’s nothing of mine in here,’ she said breathlessly.
Cold and hard, the sinister dark eyes lingered on hers for a few scary seconds. ‘I believe everything in there belongs to me,’ he said tightly, and strode to the desk, sifting through the mail as if she didn’t exist any more.
Thinking savagely that half the authors in that cabinet rightly belonged to their original publishers and not him at all, she stalked out, racking her brains for a way out. It seemed awful just to walk away and admit defeat. He shouldn’t always get whatever he wanted, she thought resentfully. He bullied people, using whatever means he could—power, the that of violence, sex. Angrily she pushed cleaning rags into a carrier bag and wrapped the roller.
She didn’t want him to win. She never abandoned anything she’d set out to do. It had been so easy for him, to arrive, snap out a few questions and decide he didn’t want to be bothered with a perfectly good gang of decorators.
A small voice inside her urged her to go, that arguing with him would be imprudent and staying would be risky. But she’d always been more stubborn than wise, making things work for her. Throughout her life, her policy had always been to go that extra mile, push harder, further than other people to reach her goal and never to show weakness.
That was how, she mused, she had won the reputation of never being troubled, of always being happy and sunny. Even her family believed that. But early on she’d seen that they’d had enough troubles of their own without hearing about hers—and they, like everyone else, had come to see her as the one bright and cheering ray of sunshine in their lives.
Only her younger sister, Sue, knew that there were dark days too. That the constant effort to show the expected sparkling face had become part of a role she didn’t always want to play.
Mariann grimaced and slowly dunked her brushes in the turps jar before suspending them in their clips. Her elder sister Tanya was warm, motherly and deeply committed to them all. John, well, he was a kid brother, eager, enthusiastic, romantic. Sue was sensible and downto-earth.
Smiling, Mariann thought that it was odd how easily she’d drifted into being the glamorous, carefree one. Men went out with her for those qualities—her ability to enjoy life, have fun, make them laugh—and not because she looked homely or could bake feather-light sponges.
Sometimes she wondered if anyone would ever see deeper than the external face she showed the world. But when she’d once revealed some of her real self, everyone had thought she was fooling around and had laughed at her hesitant confidences.
A smile, a quip, a witty remark…they’d never wanted any more. And increasingly everyone had come to think that she was so tough, she could work miracles. Like now. She straightened, her eyes on Vigadó’s dauntingly broad back. ‘England expects…’ she thought, and smiled wryly.
And then a thought popped suddenly into her head uninvited: how lovely it would be to have a relationship with a man who had a stronger will than she! Mariann grinned. No, it would be awful! Too many fights! Talking of which, this Vigadó was one guy she didn’t want to get the better of her!
Action stations! Re-form! Charge!
Giggling to herself, she padded over to the open door of the next office, watching his body move lithely around as he emptied his briefcase.
He hadn’t noticed her, her bare feet making no sound on the dustsheets. On the brink of speaking, she checked herself. He’d stiffened all his muscles in tension. Bending over his case, he picked up a framed photograph of a woman and stared at it. Slowly and deliberately, he pushed it back into the briefcase with a gesture that suggested he loathed the very sight of the woman.
Vigadó’s wife? she wondered. It hadn’t been Liz— Lionel’s wife—because the photo she’d seen had shown her boss with a dark woman. The one in Vigadó’s photograph was ash-blonde. He squared his shoulders as though coming to a decision and turned. Her eyes widened at the expression of dark despair that filled his face with a vulnerable, human quality she hadn’t seen before.
But instantly his face tautened into a mask, smoothing away the bitter sorrow of his mouth, the bleakness in his eyes, the heart-tugging lines of strain.
Mariann was fascinated. He did have doubts, worries, problems, like normal men! And that meant he was accessible. There was something inside him she could appeal to if necessary. It gave her hope.
‘You still here?’ he shot.
Bullies backed down if you stood up to them. She’d known enough men who’d grabbed her and crumbled when she’d assaulted them with scathing words. And this one, apparently, had a wounded core. Inspiration came to her.
‘Just wanted to say that you’ll be hearing from me.’ Stiff and proud, she turned, collected the two largest paint tins and carried them to the outer door.
‘You’re not trying to coax me to let you stay or…anything else?’ he asked in surprise, stepping forward to stare after her.
‘No. See you in court,’ she answered crisply.
‘Court?’ He gave a small, incredulous laugh.
‘Yup.’
The laugh came again. ‘Suing?’ She didn’t answer. ‘Did you have a written agreement, a contract?’
‘Yes,’s she said, unperturbed. There had been a generous price for the job and she knew there’d been a backhander arranged for Antal. Disapproving of such corruption, she’d pretended not to see the money change hands, telling herself that Vigadó cheated so many people, he shouldn’t be surprised if his staff cheated him too. She prayed her father would never find out what she was doing.
‘I hope you’ve got a work permit,’ he snapped.
‘No.’
‘Well! You personally don’t seem to be on very firm ground,’ he said scathingly. ‘How are you intending to sue me? By claiming sexual harassment?’
At the low, meaningful probe, she gave him a mysterious smile and turned her back on him. ‘Now. Where did I put my flat brush…?’
‘Try a charge like that and my lawyers will expose your background and your case will fall through,’ he said contemptuously.
‘I’m not trying it,’ she said, calmly taking one ladder at a time to the corridor outside.
Vigadó moved further into the room. ‘Then what the hell are you playing at?’ he asked with exasperation steaming from every word.
Mariann grinned to herself. She’d successfully captured his attention. Tycoons hated mysteries and they had to be in control. ‘I’m not playing. It’s not a game to me. I’m trying to make a livelihood,’ she said, weaving elements of truth into her answer. How could this be a game, when her job as editor depended on it? ‘I care passionately about my work. I’m just starting out and I need to get more experience—’
‘You will,’ he drawled. ‘With a body like that, you will, I can assure you.’
She ignored his taunt. ‘You have no reason to break the contract,’ she said with dignity. ‘We’ve worked darn hard, hour after hour without proper breaks, to get the job done fast. My arms ache, I’ve been inhaling paint fumes so I feel nauseous, I’ve spilled paint all over me and I’m fed up with your bad-tempered behaviour just because you turn up earlier than expected yet you want everything to be perfect!’ She risked an indignant glare. ‘Oh, no. Neither I nor the firm will be suing you!’
‘No?’ he prompted, his brows drawn together in puzzled lines.
‘No. you’ll be suing me,’ she said simply. And she picked up her Thermos flask and sandwiches with a purposeful air.
‘Wait a minute! I’m riveted, Tell me why and maybe we can short-circuit this proposed court appearance,’ he said drily.
‘Well, I’ll be telling my story to a newspaper, of course!’ she said, wide-eyed and artless.
‘You’ll what? Which story?’ He’d taken two quick strides and caught her beneath her armpits, lifting her in the air till she was Devel with his thunderous face. ‘Which story?’ he snarled.
‘Put me down and I’ll tell you!’ she gasped. ‘Unless you want a Thermos and a packet of cheese and pickle smashed over your head!’
‘Your hand wouldn’t get that far,’ he growled, but dumped her roughly on the floor nevertheless. ‘Speak.’
She stood her ground, whereas she would have preferred to move back from the alarmingly angry rise of his expanded chest. ‘I’d tell them the story I’ve just told you. How hard I’ve tried to please their home-grown whiz-kid’s imperious demands, slaving my fingers to the bone, going without sleep—’ She caught a malevolen flicker in his eyes and hastily scrapped the rest of her litany. ‘Basically, I’m going to appeal to the Hungarian people’s sense of fair play, and their empathy with people who work long hours, and tell them how badly you treat your employees—’
His hands stayed her. ‘Oh, no. I won’t let you do that. There are enough lies flying around about me as it is. I’m impressed,’ he said slowly. ‘No wonder you landed the job.’ Mariann kept her eyes lowered and held her breath. ‘What a clever woman you are! You do know how to get what you want,’ he murmured, tucking blonde strands behind her ear. ‘That kind of perseverance and dedication deserves some kind of reward.’
‘Oh!’ He was weakening! ‘You’re so right! I am relieved you see it my way at last!’ she cried happily, deciding to flatter him. ‘I knew there was a decent heart inside that ruthless exterior—’
‘Please,’ he protested mockingly. ‘You’ll ruin my reputation for tyranny.’
‘I won’t tell,’ she grinned. ‘And…I’ll do my best—’
“I’ll make sure you will,’ he said softly and smiled a thin, unnervingly venomous smile as though he meant to examine every inch of paintwork and pronounce judgement on it. ‘I can well imagine that you’re very good at your job. You can understand my suspicion. You’re the most unlikely-looking decorator I’ve ever seen.’
‘I know. It’s the outfit, isn’t it?’ she said innocently, catching his glance wandering hungrily over her bare legs again. The sultry expression in his dark eyes suggested he wanted to work his way up from her feet, tasting every inch of skin. She quivered and quickly suppressed the deliciously curling sensation that had come with that thought.
‘And your reason for dressing like that is…?’
‘Sweat!’ she said, hoping to kill all thoughts of sex— her own thoughts as well as his—with her bombshell directness. ‘If I don’t strip off the layers, I get overheated. Your offices are awfully hot with the central heating turned up all day and it’s too bitter outside to open the windows. I like fresh air. I’m a country girl myself, you see.’
‘Is that so?’ he stated flatly. ‘I had no idea the East End of London was considered to be the country.’
She gazed at him in consternation and then recovered herself. ‘It isn’t. My family live in Devon,’ she explained hastily. ‘Dad retired there.’
‘Is that how you got the job at Kastély Huszár?’ he queried in a tone of mild curiosity. ‘The English manager comes from Devon, I believe.’
She blinked. ‘Yes,’ she admitted, wondering what Vigadó would do if he knew ‘the English manager’ was her brother John! ‘You have to use all the contacts you can,’ she said disarmingly.
‘No doubt you’ve made some worthwhile contacts with my staff too,’ he purred.
‘Well, you see me here, so I suppose I did. So we can carry on working?’ she said, checking, just to be sure.
‘Shall we say…I would like you to turn up tomorrow?’ he replied carefully.
‘Oh! Wonderful! Th-ta!’ she cried in delight.
‘Not dressed like that, though,’ he drawled. ‘I’m sure my staff would be delighted if you clambered up and down ladders in those clothes, but I’d prefer them to keep their eyes and minds on their work.’
‘OK. I’ll wear overalls,’ she assured him earnestly. ‘I won’t even sing. Can’t say fairer than that!’
‘I was surprised to hear singing,’ he mused. ‘Most people only sing in the bath.’
Something in his tone brought a warm curling glow to her insides. She knew enough about men to realise that he’d look fabulous nude, the water gleaming on those pass and biceps…Her muscles tensed at the disturbing and tantalising image of soap-suds gliding down his narrow hips and she ruefully gathered up her hysterical hormones and confined them to barracks again.
‘I sing in the bath too. Got to keep our plastic ducks amused, haven’t we?’ She grinned, but her voice was creakier than it should be.
His slow glance sent unwanted shock-waves up and down her spine. ‘I prefer something a little more tactile,’ he replied huskily.
Several hormones went AWOL again. ‘Uh-huh. Loofahs.’ She nodded sagely and was rewarded with a flash of amusement in his dark eyes.
‘I do believe,’ he murmured softly, ‘that my jet-lag has suddenly vanished.’
‘Well, isn’t that nice?’ she cried merrily and then her brows drew together in a dark line. ‘Did you say jetlag?’ she queried in surprise. ‘Don’t whiz-kids fly Concorde?’
‘Naturally. But back-to-back meetings in Sydney, Hong Kong and New York take their toll nevertheless.’
Her hazel eyes were filled with well-simulated awe. ‘I’ve never talked to a tycoon like you before, she said in admiration, her mind working furiously. He’d relaxed a little and seemed willing to talk at last. She was more than willing to listen while she finished clearing away because she might break down the barriers between them. ‘Here. Have some coffee. A cheese and pickle sandwich,’ she offered, generously passing him the remains of her lunch before ferrying the equipment back into the room. ‘And tell me what you do at these meetings,’ she said earnestly as she did so. ‘Do you talk about sales figures and thump the table and gee people up?’
Declining the food, he hesitated before answering and, hoping to encourage him, she adopted an attitude of fascinated attention. ‘Mainly we were talking about authors,’ he replied casually.
Her body tensed with excitement. ‘Gosh! Isn’t that thrilling? It’s one heck of a glamorous world. I read historical novels,’ she told him eagerly, deliberately not choosing to mention the subject she was most interested in. ‘Do you do those?’
‘We “do” everything.’ His dark eyes flickered. ‘Travel books, reference, mystery and suspense, romance… sagas…’
To Mariann, there seemed to be an increasing tension between them, a waiting, as if each of them was assessing the other, circling, throwing a wary punch or two. And she knew she dared not pursue the avenue he’d left open to her. Every fibre of her being might be directed towards tracing saga-writer Mary O’Brien but this wasn’t the way to do it. She’d have to be patient till tomorrow.
‘Must make your eyes tired,’ she said sympathetically, ‘doin’ all that readin’. He smiled faintly. ‘Speaking of tired, my mum said I should never outstay my welcome so I’d better get my things on.’
‘I’ll see you tomorrow.’ He shut the door and she was left gazing at its heavy panels, feeling a sense of anticlimax. It had all been easy after all. Too easy? Her brow furrowed in anxiety.
Trudging through the snow back to the Budapest Hilton a short distance away, she mentally reviewed her position. She thought she’d allayed his suspicions, but wasn’t sure. In the morning, she’d have to ask her two fellow decorators not to refer to the fact that she was ‘Viggy’s’ girl.
Despite her predicament, she had to smile. This was the kind of crazy, impossible situation she loved as a challenge to her ingenuity—though several times she’d felt she’d been sailing a little close to the wind!
Lionel rang her and she told him what had happened. ‘The next night, I’ll get that address if I have to set the office on fire and stay on to ransack the cabinet while the flames are leaping about my ears’ she joked.
