Two's Company

Her cheeks warmed at his mocking tone. ‘I saw your girlfriend earlier,’ she snapped irritably.

He frowned slightly, and then his brow cleared. ‘You mean Diana,’ he nodded. ‘Diana isn’t my girlfriend, Juliet; she’s my personal assistant.’

Juliet gave him a slightly sceptical look from beneath raised brows. If that was what he chose to call the other woman that was up to him, but there had seemed to be a familiarity between the two of them that implied a slightly deeper relationship than the one he had described.

‘As you were my father’s personal assistant,’ he added softly.

Juliet gave him a sharp look, but the blue eyes that returned her gaze were completely enigmatic. Just how much did this man already know about her? And if he already knew the answers to the questions he had asked her why had he asked them at all?

She gave a cool nod of acknowledgement. ‘As I was your father’s assistant.’

‘And now you’re his joint heir,’ Liam bit out hardly.

She swallowed hard. It must seem strange to William’s son that his father had worded his will in the way he had, she freely acknowledged that, and if Liam had shown the slightest interest in Carlyle Properties during the last two months she would gladly have told him that she knew he had prior claim to the company. But she knew from his behaviour that he would be quite happy to see Carlyle Properties go under, and she owed William more than to allow that.

‘You didn’t answer my question, Juliet,’ Liam continued in that hard voice.

‘Do I need to?’ She met his gaze with a calmness she was far from feeling. ‘You seem to know enough about me already. And what you don’t know I’m sure you could make up!’

He gave a shrug of indifference at her show of temper, sitting back in his chair, giving up all idea of eating his own food now. ‘You live at Carlyle House—have probably done so for some time, even before my father’s death?’ He raised mockingly questioning brows.

‘For several years before that,’ she acknowledged tautly.

He pursed his lips. ‘And what did your boyfriend make of that?’

God, how he persisted! ‘I don’t have a boyfriend,’ she bit out coldly, so angry that she was starting to shake with the emotion, her eyes flashing, darkly grey.

Blond brows rose. ‘At the moment?’

‘Ever!’ she answered forcefully.

He eyed her disbelievingly. ‘You’ve never had a boyfriend?’

Just the one. Simon. But he had died. And she hadn’t allowed herself to love anyone since him.

Liam’s mouth twisted. ‘You seem to be taking a long time finding an answer to that question,’ he taunted.

She drew in a deep, steadying breath, determined not to give him the satisfaction of seeing just how much he was disconcerting her. She had no intention of owning up to a boyfriend, because she had no intention of talking about Simon. Certainly not to this man.

‘Why is my personal life of interest to you, Liam?’ She used his first name deliberately now, the familiarity putting them back on an equal footing. ‘Our discussion is merely on a business level,’ she reminded him firmly.

He calmly met the challenge in her gaze. ‘I like to know all there is to know about the people I do business with,’ he returned softly.

Juliet felt the warmth in her cheeks. She didn’t like the idea of this man knowing all there was to know about her; she had lived her life very privately for the last seven years. The fact that she now had a larger-than-life business partner, whose name was synonymous with the exclusivity to be found at his hotels world-wide, couldn’t be allowed to change that.

‘I’m sorry to disappoint you, Liam,’ she bit out tautly, ‘but I don’t actually have a private life to speak of.’

‘A career woman, hmm?’

The way Liam said it, it sounded like an insult! But that was exactly what she was. Oh, not in the way of hard-headed businesswomen who lived for nothing but succeeding and getting ahead, no matter who they had to step on or over to get there. But Carlyle Properties had become the main focus of her life, and in that sense she was a career woman.

‘Only as far as Carlyle Properties is concerned,’ she told him stiffly, made more and more uncomfortable by this conversation. She had wanted to meet William’s son only as a means of keeping the business going, wanted nothing more than a business partnership with him, had no interest in his personal life, and resented the fact that he should take any in hers.

The blue eyes glittered coldly. ‘It’s interesting that a young woman of twenty-seven, with no surface connection to the Carlyle family, should live in Carlyle House and inherit half the family business…’

It wasn’t ‘interesting’ at all. In fact, now that she had met this man, this whole thing was turning out to be more trouble than it was worth! But she owed William so much…

‘Perhaps,’ she conceded distantly. ‘But as your father’s personal assistant—’

‘And just how “personal” was that?’ Liam watched her across the table with narrowed eyes.

Juliet looked up at him sharply. ‘Just what are you implying, Mr Carlyle?’ she bit out tautly.

He shrugged broad shoulders. ‘My father was old enough to be your grandfather—’

‘Hardly, Liam,’ she cut in derisively.

‘He was sixty-five when he died, Juliet,’ he reminded her coldly. ‘More than old enough to be your grandfather.’

She had never thought of William in those terms, but, put like that, she supposed that in actual years William could have been her grandfather. But even so…

‘Why did you live with him, Juliet?’ Liam didn’t give her a chance to answer before attacking again. ‘Surely that isn’t normal in a business association?’

Under attack was exactly how she felt now. This man, for all his apparent lack of emotion about this situation, was obviously not so calm beneath the surface. ‘Your father and I were friends as much as anything else,’ she returned defensively.

‘Close friends?’

She didn’t just feel under attack now, she was under attack! No doubt about it. Liam’s eyes glittered dangerously, his mouth a thin, angry line.

She gave up any pretence of trying to eat a meal with him; they were both wasting their time even attempting it under these circumstances. ‘I suggest we meet at ten o’clock tomorrow morning in one of the conference-rooms here, Liam,’ she told him evenly, bending down to pick up her evening bag. ‘We can discuss anything you care to talk about then.’

His eyes were narrowed to ominous blue slits. ‘Anything?’

‘Within reason,’ she nodded.

He shook his head. ‘I don’t think you’re in a position to dictate conditions, Juliet,’ he scorned.

Neither did she! But she had a feeling that if she showed this man an ounce of weakness he would use it to his advantage. And to have become as successful as he had over the last ten years he must have had to play by his own set of rules, otherwise he would never have survived in business, let alone have owned his world-wide string of hotel and leisure complexes! She was a mere beginner compared to this man.

‘Possibly not,’ she conceded, standing up smoothly, her lack of composure not showing by so much as a tremble of her hands as she held on to her evening bag—possibly because she was holding on to that bag so tightly, was gripping the black leather so hard, her hands couldn’t tremble! ‘But nevertheless I do not conduct business discussions over dinner. And this is a business discussion, Liam,’ she added firmly. ‘And tomorrow when we meet I will bring the necessary paperwork with me so that we can talk knowledgeably about Carlyle Properties.’

He gave her a look that said she could bring the paperwork but whether or not he chose to discuss its contents would be completely up to him!

Juliet was inwardly shaken by that look, but she managed to give him a cool nod before turning and walking from the dining-room, all the time conscious of that narrowed blue gaze following her progress across the room. She’d known it would.

She was still stunned by the realisation that he was Edward Carlyle. She could have had no inkling, no idea—God, she had had no idea! And he had been playing with her all day. No doubt he had enjoyed himself at her expense, but she just felt totally stunned by the whole encounter.

And no wonder meeting Liam had brought back such sharp memories of Simon—the two men had been brothers…!