Torn By Desire

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.’