Sin turned his hard silver gaze on the older man. ‘Richards,’ he greeted tersely. ‘I believe my grandfather was looking for you a few minutes ago…’ he added pointedly.
Luccy, having turned to face Sin, barely noticed as Darren Richards excused himself and hurried away, her attention all on Sin. He looked tall, dark, and breathtakingly handsome in the black evening suit and snowy white shirt and bow tie, the expression in those silver-grey eyes totally unreadable as he coolly returned her gaze, holding out one of the two champagne glasses he carried.
‘I won’t, if you don’t mind.’ She shook her head as she held up her glass of sparkling water.
‘Fine.’ He shrugged before disposing of one of the glasses on the tray of a passing waiter. ‘Have you been working your brand of magic on one of the PAN executives this time?’
Luccy had decided before coming to New York that if she and Sin did meet again she would not allow him to get under her skin. ‘Do you think I succeeded?’ she came back dryly.
Once again Sin couldn’t help but admire her easy confidence. ‘Judging by the way Darren almost fell into your cleavage? I would say that’s a yes,’ he confirmed mockingly. ‘The only problem is, Darren doesn’t have the final word over any future contracts you may or may not have with PAN.’
Luccy met his gaze unblinkingly. ‘But you do?’
‘Of course.’ He gave a derisive inclination of his head.
‘Pity.’ She gave him a sweeping glance before turning her attention to the rest of the room. ‘Did you say that your grandfather’s here?’
Sin’s mouth curved into a humourless smile. ‘He may be eighty but he still makes a point of always appearing at these occasions. Would you like to meet him?’
‘No, I don’t think so, thank you,’ she refused lightly.
‘He doesn’t bite,’ Sin assured her dryly.
Unlike this man, that silver gaze warned Luccy!
‘You don’t want any champagne. You don’t want to meet my grandfather. What do you want, Luccy?’ he asked softly.
The huskiness of his voice caused a tingling at Luccy’s nape and sent a quiver of awareness down the length of her spine, the bodice of her gown suddenly feeling too tight as her breasts swelled in response.
This man was playing with her, Luccy easily guessed, and he was enjoying doing it too!
‘From you?’ she bit out. ‘I thought I had already made it clear at our last…meeting, that you don’t have anything that I want.’
‘I believe what you wanted was another contract with PAN?’
She looked at him coldly. ‘There are plenty of other companies who have just as big an advertising budget, you know.’
‘Wow and Paul Bridger came up trumps, after all, did they—?
‘Where are you going?’ Sin reached out to take a light hold of her arm as she would have walked away.
‘Anywhere that you aren’t,’ she snapped. ‘For your information, I haven’t seen or spoken to Paul Bridger—or anyone that knows him,’ she added pointedly, ‘since talking to you at your hotel that evening. How about you?’
Sin raised a disdainful eyebrow. ‘Why the hell would I want to see him?’
She shrugged those creamy shoulders as she looked at him challengingly. ‘Oh, the two of you seemed to have so much in common.’
Insulting as well as courageous, Sin acknowledged ruefully. Not that she had lacked courage the last time they had spoken, she just seemed different in some way. Or was it himself that was different? He’d had the same eight weeks to think of this woman and wonder if he really had been wrong about her, as Luccy had insisted so vehemently.
In the circumstances it was unfortunate that the first time he’d seen her this evening she had obviously been charming yet another executive, of PAN this time!
Luccy looked pointedly at the fingers that still encircled her arm. ‘Take your hand off me, Sin,’ she instructed softly. ‘I’ll give you three seconds and then I’m going to start screaming,’ she added when he continued to frown down at her.
His mouth twisted. ‘That would definitely make you the centre of attention!’
She raised dark brows. ‘I believe that would bother you more than it would me.’ After all, there were hundreds of members of the press present…
His eyes darkened with amusement as he slowly released her. ‘Aren’t you becoming a little—reckless, Luccy?’
‘Am I?’ She resisted the effort to rub the tingling spot on her arm where Sin’s fingers had just touched her. ‘Or maybe it’s just that I don’t care to be in the company of a man who has the opinion of me that you do,’ she said sarcastically.
‘And what opinion is that, Luccy?’
She gave a dismissive laugh. ‘I don’t believe I’ve ever met anyone else who has believed me capable of blackmail—let alone actually accused me of it!’ Her voice had hardened over the last words, her eyes glittering angrily as she looked at him in furious challenge.
Sin’s gaze was narrowed. ‘You have to admit—’
‘I don’t have to admit anything, least of all to being guilty to any of the accusations you made against me,’ Luccy insisted. ‘And, fortunately, I don’t have to stand here and hear them repeated, either. I find it rather warm in here, so if you’ll excuse me—’
‘No, Luccy, I won’t excuse you,’ Sin growled harshly as he stepped in front of her to stop her departure.
Sin wondered what it was about this particular woman that just touching the silky softness of her skin a few minutes ago had made him want to sweep her up in his arms and carry her out of here to the nearest bed.
None of the other women he had known had ever made him feel like shaking her and kissing her at the same time! In light of what had happened between them two months ago the first emotion was easily explained, but surely that second instinct should have been nullified by the first?
She eyed him coldly. ‘What do you mean no?’
His mouth quirked humourlessly. ‘Exactly what I said,’ he grated tersely. ‘I haven’t finished talking to you yet—’
‘But I have finished talking to you,’ she announced calmly.
Sin looked about them impatiently; if anything the room was even more crowded and noisy than it had been a few minutes ago. ‘Let’s get out of here and go somewhere we can talk without interruption,’ he rasped.