Page 46 of Incognito

Ignoring his pathetic greeting, she said, “Thanks for seeing me. I have something for you.”

She kept her tone brusque, business-like. She had to, otherwise she’d scream at him.

“This sounds promising.”

With an insolent smile, he leaned back in his gigantic director’s chair, hands clasped behind his head like a smug prick, surrounded by a plush office overlooking a million dollar view.

She’d once been impressed by this: his status in the business world, his confidence, his suave looks. But now she saw it for what it was, a set of fake props for a conman. The type of man who set out to make an innocent woman fall in love with himin an attempt to get his hands on one of Melbourne’s premier hotels.

Clay could’ve gone after any other hotel—he already owned several of them—but he had to have the best, the crowning glory, the hotel that had been in a family for generations—so he set out to get his grubby hands on Telford Towers the only way he knew how.

By deception.

“I’ve got the final payment for you, and the contract for you to sign.”

“You’re kidding?” His cocky grin slipped, only to be replaced by a cruel twist of his thin lips.

“I’m not in the mood for jokes.” Especially considering she happened to be looking at one. “Here.” She threw the contract onto his desk. “Sign next to the cross.”

He barely glanced at the contract and scowled. “The hotel’s about to go under. How did you get the money so quickly?”

Forcing a sickly sweet smile, knowing it would infuriate him further, she said, “That’s none of your business. Now, sign along the dotted line like we agreed and let’s put this behind us.”

Clay’s eyes narrowed to nasty slits as he sat upright, his palms slamming the monstrous mahogany desk.

“You weren’t supposed to make the final payment. You were supposed to lose the lot, to me!”

Revulsion rose like acid bile in her throat and she swallowed with effort. She knew someone had been undercutting their supplies and interfering with the behind the scenes running of Telford Towers, and as much as she suspected Clay’s hand in it, hearing the man she’d once been engaged to admit his treachery made her physically ill.

“It was always about getting your grubby hands on Telford Towers for you, wasn’t it?”

His sneer said more than any eloquent words. “If you’d married me like you were supposed to, none of this would’ve happened. I’d be the current owner of your pathetic little family hovel, you’d still be running around like an errand girl, we’d have been happy.”

He shook his head, his upper lip curled in derision. “You wouldn’t have had to pay back the money I gave you, I wouldn’t have threatened to run a smear campaign on the hotel. Instead, you had to make a big song and dance about discovering my girlfriend, I told you a few home truths, and look where we ended up. Squabbling like a couple of kids.”

She knew the exact moment he’d give it one last try, the sly gleam of cunning lending his opaque eyes a demonic edge. A desperate man reached for desperate means and she knew what would come before the slime ball opened his mouth.

“Come on, babe. We can give it one last try. Let’s put all this crap behind us and start afresh.” He held his hands out, palms up, like he had nothing to hide. “You know we’d be a dynamite team in the hotelier field, the best in the business. What do you say?”

Drop dead?

Bite me?

Fuck off?

A whole host of less polite responses sprung to mind, but Natasha swallowed them all. While her feet itched to turn around and make a run for the door, she stood still and tapped the contract in front of him.

“As you can see, this is a legally binding document. It states that my debt to you is clear, that there will be no further business between us. Is that clear?”

He stood so quickly she took a step back, her momentary sign of weakness making his cold eyes glitter with triumph.

“What if I don’t sign?” He jabbed a finger in her direction. “What if I instigate that smear campaign as I threatened before, and drag your precious family through the mud?”

It took every ounce of self control for Natasha not to pick up the nearest paperweight and throw it at him.

“You will sign and you can keep your empty threats. You want to play dirty?” She squared her shoulders. “Go ahead and try me.”

His sneer solidified her resolve to rid herself of this slime once and for all. “What are you going to do?”

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