“This time, no games, Miranda. No tricks up my sleeve. I just want to talk.”
She sighed angrily, sinking into the chair. “I just don’t understand. Why are you here? I was supposed to meet with the people from Bretton. Don’t tell me you own that too?”
“As of oh...last week, I did,” he said mildly. “I found out you’d been angling for a deal with them. It was a simple matter to take over their subsidiaries.”
She was staring at him in confusion. “You mean, you took over the company? Just to get to me?” She shook her head, amazed. “Will you stop at nothing? Do you think you can buy your way through everything? Even me?”
“I’m only interested in helping, Miranda. You sent back the papers in shreds. I felt like I still had a promise to fulfil –”
“Well, you’ve been officially freed from that promise,” she gritted out. “Damn you, Jude. Jeffrey was right; dignity is far more important. If you think I need your pity or charity...”
“Not pity, Miranda, and certainly not charity,” he said his tone as light as ever. “You came here to make a presentation; Bretton were already interested in taking up your portfolio. So in essence, you’ll be doing the same thing: getting financed, working to get back on track – just that you’ll be doing it with me.”
She stared at him with furious eyes. “Now why the hell would I want to do that?”
“Because I’m the best at what I do. And because in less than six months, I can guarantee you’ll be able to legitimately take back control of your company.”
“I feel like I’m having a bad case of déjà vu,” she said mockingly, her head on one side. “You offer to help me in some way, and then I have to ask what I need to do in return. Right?”
His eyes held no expression, though she dearly wished she could guess what he was thinking. She just never seemed to be able to tell. “I told you, Miranda – no tricks. I just...I’m thinking this may be my chance to make amends.”#p#分页标题#e#
“Amends?” she croaked, thrown by the sudden vulnerability that flashed across his face. Jude, vulnerable? She almost couldn’t credit her senses.
“Yes,” he said, firmly, before reaching out a hand to cover hers. Just that touch from him, and Miranda felt projected back to the three nights they’d spent together. She could have sworn she was over that, had been so sure she’d put it all behind her. But then she’d walked in and seen him, as devastatingly gorgeous as ever – and then he had to touch her. His fingers tightened on hers and she was forced to look up into his piercing aqua eyes. And couldn’t seem to look away.
“I went about things the wrong way,” he continued with a rueful shrug. “And found out to my self-disgust that I may just be as much the bastard as everyone says I am.”
“I don’t think you’re bastard,” she heard herself say. “Well, not recently I haven’t.”
“Thanks,” he said drily. “It took just one night with you – and I knew I’d played the wrong card. I shouldn’t have been gunning for a week – I should have been aiming for far, far more.”
“Trust me, anything more than a week of sex and you’d have been sick of me,” she joked, deliberately misunderstanding him as she tried not to quail underneath his melting smile.
“I honestly, truly doubt that,” he said, his thumb stroking over her knuckles caressingly. “So here’s the deal –”
“I knew it! I just knew there was a catch somewhere,” she said half in irritation.
“Will you shut up and listen?” he growled, eyes dancing. “There’s no catch, Miranda. I’m simply about to suggest that we start over. As friends. I know I’m your brother’s least favourite person in the world – and the same could go with your father – but I’m hoping that somehow, I can eventually get to warm up to me. In the meantime, we give ourselves time to get to know each other – without the intimacy this time.”
“What?” she asked, eyebrows raised.
“That’s right, Miranda, no sex. Just us working things out together, as a couple. I want to prove to you that it’s not all about the physical with me. I desire you as a woman, that’s a given, but I care about you as a person, too. And I want to prove that.”
Miranda bit on her lip in consternation. “I’m not sure what you’re requiring of me here. Are you asking me to date you, Mr. Jude Stone?”