Free A Tangled Affair by Fiona Brand Page B

discussing something that might never happen. Is that all you wanted to know?”
    “No.” He propped himself on the edge of the desk. “Have a seat. There’s something else we need to discuss.”
    There were three comfortable client seats; she chose the one farthest away from Lucas. The second she lowered herself into the chair she regretted the decision. Even though he wasn’t standing, Lucas still towered over her. “Let me guess—I’m fired in a week’s time? I’m surprised it took you so long to get around to—”
    “I’m not firing you.”
    Carla blinked. Constantine had fired Sienna almost immediately, although his reasons had been understandable. Continuing on as CEO of a company in Sydney while he was based in Medinos had not been viable.
    His gaze flicked broodingly over the crisp little suit. “Do you always dress like that for work?”
    His sudden change of tack threw her even more off balance. She realized that from his vantage point he could see more than the shadowy hint of cleavage that was normally visible in the vee of the jacket. She squashed the urge to drag the lapels together. “Yes. Is there a problem?”
    He crossed his arms over his chest. “Nothing that an extra button or a blouse wouldn’t fix.”
    She shot to her feet. “There is nothing wrong with what I’m wearing. Sienna was perfectly happy with my wardrobe.”
    He straightened, making her even more aware of his height, the breadth of his shoulders, the incomprehensible anger simmering behind midnight-dark eyes.
    “Sienna was female.”
    “What has that got to do with anything?”
    “From where I’m standing, quite a lot.
    She didn’t know what was bothering him. Maybe a major deal had fallen through, or even better, Lilah had dumped him. Whatever it was she would swear that he was behaving proprietorially, but that couldn’t be. He had dumped her without ceremony; he had made it clear he didn’t want her. To add insult to injury, the tabloids were having a field day reporting his relationship with Lilah.
    His gaze dropped once again to the vee of her jacket. “Who are you meeting today?”
    Temper soaring at the lightning perusal, the even more pointed innuendo, she reeled off two names.
    “Both male,” he said curtly.
    “Chandler and Howarth are contemporaries of my father! And I resent the implication that I would resort to using sex to make sales for Ambrosi, but if you prefer I could turn up for work in beige. Or, since this conversation is taking a medieval turn, maybe you’d prefer sackcloth and ashes.”
    His mouth twitched at the corners and despite her spiraling anger she found herself briefly mesmerized by the sudden jolt of charm. Lucas was handsome when he was cool and ruthless, but when he smiled he was drop-dead gorgeous in a completely masculine way that made her go weak at the knees and melt.
    “You don’t own anything beige.”
    “How would you know?” she pointed out, glad to get her teeth into something that could generate some self-righteous anger.
    She wasn’t vengeful, nor did she have a desire to hurt Lucas. It was simply that she was black-and-white in her thinking. They were either together or they weren’t, and she couldn’t bear the underlying invitation in his eyes, his voice, to be friends now that he had decreed their relationship was over. “As I recall, you were more interested in taking my clothes off than noticing what I was wearing. You had no more interest in my wardrobe than you had in any other aspect of my life.”
    His brows jerked together. “That’s not true. You were the one who decreed we had to live separate lives.”
    Her hands curled into fists. “Don’t say it didn’t suit you.”
    “It did, at the time.”
    “Ha!” But the moment of triumph was hollow. She just wished she had realized she wasn’t built for such a shallow, restricted relationship.
    Pointedly, she checked her wristwatch. “I have a meeting in ten minutes. If there’s nothing else, I