Looking at Luccy from beneath hooded lids, he could see that she was just as angry…
Because she had been found out?
Whatever the reason, those deep blue eyes sparkled when she was angry, her cheeks became flushed, and her breasts strained against the soft material of her sweater. As for that blue-black hair! Just looking at its soft silkiness reminded him of how that long ebony swathe had fallen so enticingly about the nakedness of her shoulders the night they had made love together.
‘No,’ he bit out, ‘I don’t find being with you anywhere near as painful as a visit to the dentist.’
‘It’s early yet,’ Luccy retorted swiftly.
‘I have nothing else to do this evening—what about you?’
Luccy repressed a quiver down the length of her spine as she easily heard the underlying threat in his voice. ‘Can we just get this over with?’
‘By all means,’ he agreed smoothly.
‘Well?’ Luccy prompted impatiently after at least a minute’s silence had stretched between them.
He frowned darkly. ‘I was giving you the opportunity to explain yourself.’
‘How can I do that when I have no idea what you’re talking about most of the time?’ It had taken a tremendous effort of will on Luccy’s part to come here this evening, the least this man could do was cooperate.
Sin’s mouth thinned. ‘I’d hoped the games would be over this evening.’
‘Maybe they would be—if I knew what game we were playing!’
‘I thought we had agreed it was blackmail—sorry, leverage?’
Luccy felt the heat in her cheeks. ‘I still have no idea what you meant by that remark. As far as I can see, the only one guilty of using leverage is you—by forcing me to come here this evening!’
Sin’s patience faded completely in the face of her continued claim of innocence. He hadn’t expected this to be a pleasant evening, he was too coldly angry for that, but he would certainly have respected Luccy more if she could at least have been honest with him once she was found out.
‘Okay, let’s start with exactly when it was you realised who I am,’ he growled.
Luccy eyed him blankly. ‘Who you are?’
Sin gave an impatient sigh. Damn it, he didn’t enjoy being made a fool of! ‘I can see this is going to be a long evening, after all,’ he rasped.
‘No, it isn’t,’ she said. ‘You tell me who you are, I’ll go “wow”, and then I can leave. Yes?’
‘No,’ Sin grated. ‘But Wow is probably as good a place as any to start this conversation.’
Luccy became very still, her gaze wary now. ‘You’re referring to the magazine?’
His mouth tightened. ‘I’m referring to one of its executives. Paul Bridger, to be exact, a man we both met—in my case, briefly—three evenings ago.’
Luccy nodded slowly. ‘When he propositioned me and you interceded, yes.’
Resulting in Luccy having received a very politely worded letter the following day, from the secretary of Dale Harris, the other executive at that dinner meeting, informing her—surprise surprise!—that they had decided against contracting her to do any work for their magazine.
‘I won’t deny you gave a charming performance that night, but it really wasn’t very fair on Paul Bridger,’ Sin bit out disgustedly.
‘Not fair on him?’
He nodded. ‘You had already agreed to go to bed with him in exchange for being given a photographic assignment with the magazine he works for—’
‘I most certainly had not!’ Luccy glared at him indignantly, her hands clenching into fists at her sides.
‘He says you did.’
‘He—! When did you talk to him?’ she demanded incredulously. ‘Why did you talk to him?’
Sin looked at her coldly. ‘Let’s just say I found the way you just disappeared the other evening while I was in the shower a little—questionable, to say the least—’
‘It didn’t occur to you that I might have been embarrassed by what had just happened between us?’ she asked exasperatedly.
‘No,’ Sin said. ‘But I was definitely curious enough to know that it might be in my best interest to—see you again. I had a little difficulty tracking you down at first,’ he acknowledged ruefully, ‘but enquiries at the hotel restaurant established that you had been dining with two executives from Wow magazine that evening. It wasn’t too hard to find out the names of those executives, or to make an appointment to see the younger one—’
‘You’re incredible, do you know that?’ Luccy gasped disbelievingly.
He gave an unapologetic shrug. ‘I went along to Bridger’s office this morning and had an illuminating little chat with him before coming to your studio.’
Luccy stared at him. Just stared at him. Sin had—Then he had—And he believed Paul Bridger’s version of what had happened that night rather than her own? It was unbelievable! Absolutely unbelievable!
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.