He pulled away from the window when he saw Britt's cab arrive. However angry she was he had to keep her on board. Skavanga Mining needed her-
He needed her-
He would protect her from further distress the only way he knew how, which was to say nothing about Tyr, just as he had promised, and allow the blame to fall on the ruthless Black Sheikh instead. He would live up to his reputation. Better she hated him than she blamed Tyr for throwing in his lot with the consortium. Tyr had seen it as the only way to save the company in a hurry, and Tyr was right, though Sharif didn't expect Britt to be so understanding; and with Tyr and the other two men in the consortium tied up half a world away, it was up to him to handle the takeover. There had been time to leave a brief message for Britt with the women at the encampment, and he hoped she'd got it. If not he was in for a stormy ride.
'Britt.' He turned the instant she entered the room. His response to her was stronger than ever. She lit up the room-she lit up his life. She forced him to re-evaluate every decision he had ever made, and he always came to the same conclusion. He would never meet another woman like her, but from her expression he guessed she hated him now. 'Wait for me outside,' she told her sisters in a cold voice that confirmed his opinion.
'Are you sure?' the youngest asked anxiously.
'I'm sure,' Britt said without taking her eyes off him.
She looked magnificent-even better than he remembered. A little crumpled from the journey, maybe, but her bearing was unchanged, and that said everything about a woman who didn't know the meaning of defeat. He'd made a serious error leaving her behind in Kareshi. He should have brought her with him and to hell with the consequences. He should have known that Britt was more than ready for whatever she had to face. Her steely gaze at this moment was unflinching.
'Please sit down,' she said, and then she blinked as if remembering that he was in charge now.
'Thank you,' he said, making nothing of it.
Crossing to the boardroom table, he held out the chair for her and heard the slide of silk stockings as she sat down and crossed her legs. He was acutely aware of her scent, of her, but, despite all those highly feminine traits that she was unable to hide, she was ice.
He chose a chair across the table from her. They both left the chairman's chair empty, though if Britt felt any irony in sitting beneath portraits of her great-grandfather, who had hacked out a successful mining company from the icy wastes with his bare hands, or the father who had pretty much lost the business in half the time it had taken his own father to build it up, she certainly didn't show it. As far as Britt was concerned, it was business as usual and she was in control.
Even now she felt a conflict inside her that shouldn't exist. She had entered the room at the head of her sisters, determined to fight for them to the end. But seeing Sharif changed everything. It always did. The man beneath that formal suit called to her soul, and made her body crave his protective embrace.
So she might be stupid, but she wasn't a child, she told herself impatiently. She was a grown woman, who had learned how to run this company to the best of her ability when it was thrust upon her, whether she wanted it or not. And nothing had changed as far as she was concerned. 'I called the lawyers in on my way from the airport.'
'There's no point in rushing to do that,' he said, 'when I can fill you in.'
'I prefer to deal with professionals,' she said.
He couldn't blame Britt for the bite in her tone. The way that things had worked out here meant she could only feel betrayed by him.
* * *
She searched his eyes, and found nothing. What would he find in hers? The same? If her eyes contained only half the anger and contempt she felt for him, then that would have to do for now. She could only hope the hurt and bewilderment didn't show at all.
'I'd be interested to hear your account of things,' she said coldly. 'I believe my brother's involved in some way.' For the first time she saw Sharif hesitate. 'Did you think I wouldn't find out?'
'In an ideal world I would have liked things to take their course so you could get used to the idea of Tyr's involvement. As it was he stepped in to prevent a hostile takeover from any other quarter.'
'And this isn't a hostile takeover?'
'How can it be when Tyr is involved?'
'I wouldn't know since I haven't heard from him.'
'He is still on his travels.'
'So I believe. I heard he took the coward's way out-'
'No one calls your brother a coward in my hearing,' Sharif interrupted fiercely. 'Not even you, Britt.'
Sharif's frown was thunderous and though she opened her mouth to reply something stopped her.
'You realise Tyr and I go back a long way?'
'I don't know all his friends,' she said. 'I still don't,' she added acidly.
Ignoring her barb, Sharif explained that Kareshi was one of the countries Tyr had helped to independence.
'With his mercenaries?' she huffed scathingly.
He ignored this too. 'With your brother's backing I was able to protect my people and save them from tyrants who would have destroyed our country.' He fixed her with an unflinching stare. 'I will never hear a wrong word said against your brother.'
'I understand that from your perspective, my brother has done no wrong. Tyr knows how to help everyone except his own family-'
'You're so wrong,' Sharif cut in. 'And I'm going to tell you why. If Tyr had added his golden shares to those you and your sisters own, the company would still go down. Add those shares to the weight of the consortium and the funds we can provide-not some time in the future, but right now-and you have real power. That's what your brother's done. Tyr has stepped in to save, not just you and your family, but the company and the people who work here.'
'So why couldn't he tell me that himself?'
'It's up to Tyr to explain when he's ready.' Sharif paused as if he would have liked to say something more, but then he just said quietly, 'Tyr's braver than you know.'
She felt as if she had been struck across the face. There was no battle to fight here. It had already been won.
'A glass of water?' Sharif enquired softly.
She passed an angry hand over her eyes, fighting for composure. She felt sick and faint from all the shocks her mind had been forced to accept. The structure of the business had changed-Tyr was involved, but he still wasn't coming home. And mixed into all this were her feelings for this man. It was too much to take in all at once.
Thrusting her chair back, she stood.
Sharif stood too. 'We want to keep you, Britt-'
'I need time-'
'The consortium could use your people skills as well as the mining expertise you have. At least promise me that you'll think about what I've said.'
'Ten minutes,' she flashed, turning from the table. She had to get out of here-now.
One foot in front of the other-how hard could that be?
That might be easy if she didn't know she had let everyone down. She allowed herself to become distracted and everything had changed. The company might have been thrust upon her, but she had given it all she'd got, and had intended to continue doing so for the rest of her working life. So much for that.
Bracing her arms against the sink in the restroom, she hung her head. She couldn't bear to look at her reflection in the mirror. She couldn't bear to see the longing for Sharif in her eyes. Everything he'd said made sense. He wasn't even taking over and booting her out. They wanted her to stay on, he'd said. And she wanted Sharif in every way a woman could want a man. She wanted them to have a proper relationship that wasn't just founded on sex. She had run the gamut of emotions with him, and had learned from it, but this was the hardest lesson of all: the man they called the Black Sheikh would stop at nothing to achieve his goal-even recruiting Britt's long-lost brother, if that got him where he wanted to be. And Sharif didn't even want the part of her she wanted to give, he wanted her people skills. The only way she could survive knowing that was to revert to being the Britt who didn't feel anything.
Sluicing her face down in cold water, she reached for a towel and straightened up. Now she must face the cold man in the boardroom whom she loved more than life itself, and the only decision left for her to make was whether or not she could stay on here and work for Sharif.
She could stay on. She had to. She couldn't abandon the people who worked here, or her sisters. And if that meant her badly bruised heart took another battering, so what? She would just have to return it to its default setting of stone.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
BRITT RETURNED TO the boardroom to find Sharif pacing. Caught unawares, he looked like a man with the weight of the world on his back. For the blink of an eye she felt sorry for him. Who shared the load with Sharif? When did he get time off? And then she remembered their time in the desert and her heart closed again.