She arched, and her fingers dug into his back as he suckled. A deep and delicious ache tugged at the center of her body. And she wanted him there, there where the heat was most intense. There where she felt so soft, so needy.
“Please.” She could hear the whimper in her voice but felt no embarrassment. Only desperation. “Mikhail, please.”
The throaty purr of her voice burst in his blood. He came back to her mouth, assaulting it, devouring it. Crazed, he hooked one hand in the top of her dress, on the verge of ripping it from her. And he looked, looked at her face, the huge eyes, the trembling lips. Light and shadow washed over it, leaving her pale as a ghost. She was shaking like a leaf beneath his hands.
And he heard the drum of traffic from outside.
He surfaced abruptly, shaking his head to clear it and gulping in air like a diver down too long. They were driving through the city, their privacy as thin as the panel of smoked glass that separated them from her chauffeur. And he was mauling her, yes, mauling her as if he were a reckless teenager with none of the sense God had given him.
The apology stuck in his throat. An “I beg your pardon” would hardly do the trick. Eyes grim, loins aching, he tugged her dress back into place. She only stared at him and made him feel like a drooling heathen over a virgin sacrifice. And Lord help him, he wanted to plunder.
Swearing, he pushed away and yanked her upright. He leaned back in the shadows and stared out of the dark window. They were only blocks from his apartment. Blocks, and he’d very nearly…it wouldn’t do to think about what he’d nearly.
“We’re almost there.” Strain had his voice coming out clipped and hard. Sydney winced away as though it had been a slap.
What had she done wrong this time? She’d felt, and she’d wanted. Felt and wanted more than she ever had before. Yet she had still failed. For that one timeless moment she’d been willing to toss aside pride and fear. There had been passion in her, real and ready. And, she’d thought, he’d felt passion for her.
But not enough. She closed her eyes. It never seemed to be enough. Now she was cold, freezing, and wrapped her arms tight to try to hold in some remnant of heat.
Damn it, why didn’t she say something? Mikhail dragged an unsteady hand through his hair. He deserved to be slapped. Shot was more like it. And she just sat there.
As he brooded out the window, he reminded himself that it hadn’t been all his doing. She’d been as rash, pressing that wonderful body against his, letting that wide, mobile mouth make him crazy. Squirting that damnable perfume all over that soft skin until he’d been drunk with it.
He started to feel better.
Yes, there had been two people grappling in the back seat. She was every bit as guilty as he.
“Look, Sydney.” He turned and she jerked back like an over-wound spring.
“Don’t touch me.” He heard only the venom and none of the tears.
“Fine.” Guilt hammered away at him as the car cruised to the curb. “I’ll keep my big, grimy hands off you, Hayward. Call someone else when you want a little romp in the back seat.”
Her fisted hands held on to pride and composure. “I meant what I said about my mother.”
He shoved the door open. Light spilled in, splashing over his face, turning it frosty white. “So did I. Thanks for the ride.”
When the door slammed, she closed her eyes tight. She would not cry. A single tear slipped past her guard and was dashed away. She would not cry. And she would not forget.
CHAPTER FOUR
She’d put in a long day. Actually she’d put in a long week that was edging toward sixty hours between office time, luncheon meetings and evenings at home with files. This particular day had a few hours yet to run, but Sydney recognized the new feeling of relief and satisfaction that came with Friday afternoons when the work force began to anticipate Saturday mornings.
Throughout her adult life one day of the week had been the same as the next; all of them a scattershot of charity functions, shopping and lunch dates. There had been no work schedule, and weekends had simply been a time when the parties had lasted longer.
Things had changed. As she read over a new contract, she was glad they had. She was beginning to understand why her grandfather had always been so lusty and full of life. He’d had a purpose, a place, a goal.
Now they were hers.
True, she still had to ask advice on the more technical wordings of contracts and depended heavily on her board when it came to making deals. But she was starting to appreciate—more, she was starting to relish the grand chess game of buying and selling buildings.
She circled what she considered a badly worded clause then answered her intercom.
“Mr. Bingham to see you, Ms. Hayward.”
“Send him in, Janine. Oh, and see if you can reach Frank Marlowe at Marlowe, Radcliffe and Smyth.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
When Lloyd strode in a moment later, Sydney was still huddled over the contract. She held up one finger to give herself a minute to finish.
“Lloyd. I’m sorry, if I lose my concentration on all these whereases, I have to start over.” She scrawled a note to herself, set it and the contract aside, then smiled at him. “What can I do for you?”
“This Soho project. It’s gotten entirely out of hand.”
Her lips tightened. Thinking of Soho made her think of Mikhail. Mikhail reminded her of the turbulent ride from Long Island and her latest failure as a woman. She didn’t care for it.
“In what way?”
“In every way.” With fury barely leashed, he began to pace her office. “A quarter of a million. You earmarked a quarter of a million to rehab that building.”
Sydney stayed where she was and quietly folded her hands on the desk. “I’m aware of that, Lloyd. Considering the condition of the building, Mr. Stanislaski’s bid was very reasonable.”
“How would you know?” he shot back. “Did you get competing bids?”
“No.” Her fingers flexed, then relaxed again. It was difficult, but she reminded herself that he’d earned his way up the ladder while she’d been hoisted to the top rung. “I went with my instincts.”
“Instincts?” Eyes narrowed, he spun back to her. The derision in his voice was as thick as the pile of her carpet. “You’ve been in the business for a matter of months, and you have instincts.”
“That’s right. I’m also aware that the estimate for rewiring, the plumbing and the carpentry were well in line with other, similar rehabs.”
“Damn it, Sydney, we didn’t put much more than that into this building last year.”
One slim finger began to tap on the desk. “What we did here in the Hayward Building was little more than decorating. A good many of the repairs in Soho are a matter of safety and bringing the facilities up to code.”
“A quarter of a million in repairs.” He slapped his palms on the desk and leaned forward. Sydney was reminded of Mikhail making a similar gesture. But of course Lloyd’s hands would leave no smudge of dirt. “Do you know what our annual income is from those apartments?”
“As a matter of fact I do.” She rattled off a figure, surprising him. It was accurate to the penny. “On one hand, it will certainly take more than a year of full occupancy to recoup the principal on this investment. On the other, when people pay rent in good faith, they deserve decent housing.”
“Decent, certainly,” Lloyd said stiffly. “You’re mixing morals with business.”
“Oh, I hope so. I certainly hope so.”
He drew back, infuriated that she would sit so smug and righteous behind a desk that should have been his. “You’re naive, Sydney.”
“That may be. But as long as I run this company, it will be run by my standards.”
“You think you run it because you sign a few contracts and make phone calls. You’ve put a quarter million into what you yourself termed your pet project, and you don’t have a clue what this Stanislaski’s up to. How do you know he isn’t buying inferior grades and pocketing the excess?”
