Page 6 of Betrayal

“I’d say we’re finished for tonight.”

“Tonight?”She slapped a hand over her mouth before she uttered “When hell freezes over.”Settle, Anna, you’re the hard-headed twin.And damn him to hell—she’d liked the snake a little, proving her taste was still lousy.

“Right move.”He nodded.“I think we might both need to do a bit more fact-finding.”

“Fact-finding!”She snorted.

“I expect you to use the intelligence you demonstrated in our conversation to examine all the facts.”

She spun on her heel and strode through the door, across the lobby, and out into the night.Damn H.S.Thompson!She’d swallowed her worst insults, but she’d feel better if she’d matched a fraction of his cold detachment.She didn’t look forward to telling Antonio about this meeting.Worse—she might have blown any chance they had to persuade Hunter S.to reconsider their lease.

* * *

Hunter sank onto thesofa when she stormed out.She’d spilled her dreams, believing she was building them—adding texture and colour to a project she was passionate about.When she’d twigged to who he was, Anna Turner had retreated to drama and disgust to disguise her despair.She was a perfect stranger and another innocent victim of his father’s, Nick Richardson, games.Hunter had been H.S.Richardson until his eighteenth birthday, when he’d taken his mother’s family name.For more than a decade, it had kept Nick out of Hunter’s life.

The waiter edged nearer.

“Lagavulin, please.”

“Yes, sir.”

“A double.”

Anna Turner would hate the term “victim.”He’d bet serious money she’d regroup and come at him from another angle.That made her ...fascinating.

The press release announcing H.S.Thompson was relocating his headquarters to a five-storey medium rise in Darling Harbour was a red herring designed to stop Nick Richardson.Hunter didn’t want or need new headquarters.He did want to protect Raed Hariri, his best friend Casildo’s father, from Nick’s latest attack.

Hurting the people Hunter loved was Nick’s party trick.

Nick’s plan was to financially kneecap Hariri Senior, firstly by sabotaging the tenancies in The Hariri building with arson attacks and petty burglaries, then by spreading the word the building was overvalued and finally by instigating a hostile takeover of the premises.

Nick’s true purpose was always to bring Hunter to heel.

Never again.

This latest attack had followed Hunter’s refusal to become Nick’s junior partner.

Although, now The Hariri was temporarily in Hunter’s name, he could see possibilities in the gracious, old building.

Architecture was a passion he rarely had time to indulge these days.In recent years, property investment had taken most of his time.But the power of architecture, the complexity and the simplicity, the utility and the beauty fascinated him—no wonder he’d taken the bait when Anna Turner had gone all soft and welcoming after discovering he was an architect.

His whiskey arrived.“Thanks.I’ll settle up now.”Hunter added a generous tip because someone deserved to finish the night happy.

Staring into the single malt for endless seconds, he let the peat smoke tease his nostrils.Peat, fruit sherry with a hint of vanilla.

Spontaneous combustion was a serious hazard around Anna Turner.The flame-red dress had marked her out as a risk-taker in a room full of pastels and black and white.The way she was poured into it had given his libido, which he’d feared was on life-support, a sharp jolt.Well-defined curves, legs stretching forever, and a sizzle burning clear across the room.When he’d agreed to accompany Casildo, whom he’d abandoned without a word, to the cocktail party, a mindless tumble with someone of a like mind hadn’t been on his radar.Anna Turner had tempted him, until he’d worked out the wordunavailableshould have been tattooed across her forehead.Still, he’d been drawn to her, and until he’d told her his name, she’d been interested too.Irrelevant now.

Swallowing the amber liquid in three gulps, he welcomed the explosion of salt-and-pepper smoke at the back of his mouth.Sacrilege to gulp such a fine drop.The same might be said of Anna Turner.He didn’t regret the buy, but starting tomorrow, he’d work out how to deal with Ms.Collateral Damage.

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