„Actually, I finished the accounts quite a while ago.‟ Then, „And you wouldn‟t believe just how interesting the process was.‟

„What‟s going on here, Mattie? Care to tell me? Or are we going to talk in riddles for the next two hours while I try and get to the bottom of whatever it is you want to say?‟

„Since I‟ve been working here, I really haven‟t got involved in the accounts side of things at all. I‟ve really just been tagging along with the marketing crew, dealing with stuff from prospective clients.‟

„And you sound overjoyed at being given additional responsibility. If that responsibility happens to materialise on a Saturday morning when we‟re planning on driving up to the country, then who am I to complain?‟

„But I made a very interesting discovery this morning while I was innocently rooting through the filing cabinet in Liz‟s office in search of some files I needed.‟ Sitting down put her at a disadvantage for this conversation but she couldn‟t trust her legs if she got up.

„Oh? And what was that?‟ Dominic‟s black eyes narrowed on her face. Her highly

unreadable face, and he felt a sudden, sharp stirring of deep unease.

„Your connection with this particular group of people who have been hired to cover the marketing for the development.‟ Mattie watched his face very carefully and knew she was looking for something, some little sign that would tell her just how off target she was. No such sign. In fact, she saw him flush darkly and knew that the assumptions she had made had been spot-on.

He had manipulated her in the worst way possible. He had manoeuvred for her to get this job and, with it, the flat.

And she knew why he had done it. He had wanted her from the moment he had set eyes on her and, in his usual arrogant way, he had simply taken measures to ensure that he got what he wanted. Frankie was around, and so what better way to make sure that that inconvenience was sorted than by getting her a job in which accommodation was part of the package? He wanted her away from the dangerous divide that she had persisted in creating, and so he had simply found her a job that would elevate her into a career woman capable of stepping over the chip on her shoulder that had been holding her back.

She felt tears threaten and clenched her jaw accordingly.

„I found a letter from you stuck at the bottom of a file congratulating Bob Hodge on acquiring the building, asking him to keep you informed as to what he was going to do with it.‟

She could hear herself pleading with him for a denial that didn‟t come.

„So what did you do, Dominic?‟ she whispered. „Called in a favour? Asked him to make a space in his qualified team so that I could be slotted in? Like an imbecile who wasn‟t capable of finding a job for herself? How could you? How could you have manipulated my life like that?‟

„I wasn‟t manipulating your life, Mattie.‟ Hadn‟t he been?

„Oh, right! You once told me that you always got what you wanted. Were you just making sure that you got what you wanted even if the route was a little underhand?‟ Her voice was trembling with disappointment and anger, and when he made as though to move towards her she turned away in immediate rejection.

„OK, maybe I went around things the wrong way, and maybe I should have told you from the start that I could have got you this job, but would you have listened? Or would you have jumped on your bandwagon and denied yourself the opportunity just to be pigheaded?‟

„That‟s not the point!‟

„You haven‟t answered my question!‟

„I wanted to do things on my own. I didn‟t need any help from you!‟

„You‟re acting as though somehow I‟ve committed a crime against your pride, Mattie.

But how far does pride really get any of us?‟

„Stop trying to twist everything around so that you can emerge in a positive light.‟ It scared her how badly she wanted him to succeed. „You manipulated me. That‟s all there is to it.‟

Dominic smashed his fist down on the desk and a little container of pens and paper clips toppled over and spilled. Mattie looked at it in mute fascination.

„That is not all there is to it, dammit!‟ This time her icy expression wasn‟t enough to deter him and he covered the distance between them in a few furious seconds. „So maybe I wasn‟t as upfront as I should have been—‟

„Understatement of the year!‟ She pressed back into the chair to try and avoid his towering presence from engulfing her totally.

„If I was trying to manipulate you, wouldn‟t I have told you about the job?‟ Dominic demanded, his face so close to hers that she could see straight into the black depths of his eyes.

„Wouldn‟t I have jumped at the first chance to make you feel that you owed me? I damn well didn‟t do that, did I?‟

„Well, maybe you were just saving that as your trump card!‟ Mattie flared back.

„Something you could pull out of your sleeve if the occasion ever arose and you needed to!

Pulling strings! That‟s all you‟re good at, isn‟t it, Dominic? Just as you pulled strings with Harry to get to meet me in the first place! You think that everyone should dance to your tune and it‟s…it‟s hateful!‟

There was a charged silence and abruptly he stood up and walked away, towards the very same window against which she had been standing when he had first entered the room.

„I tried to tell you—‟

„When?‟ Mattie demanded shrilly. She swivelled the chair so that she was looking at him.

„Yesterday. I told you we needed to talk about your job. Then things got carried away and I figured I‟d tell you after the weekend.‟

Yes, she did remember him saying something along those lines. And no, the last thing she wanted to think about was how they had become carried away. Getting carried away had been her big mistake from the word go.

„I don‟t believe you, Dominic,‟ she said quietly. „You wanted me so you took the necessary steps to get me. You never spared a thought for my feelings because you don‟t know the meaning of the word sensitivity.‟ Her voice thickened with bitterness. „That‟s what our whole relationship was about. Lust. Want. Sex. No feelings anywhere in the equation.‟

„It‟s what you wanted as well, or have you decided to conveniently forget that?‟

No, she hadn‟t. She‟d just made the simple mistake of forgetting to hang on to the original deal they had struck. Because now it felt like a deal. Two people, neither wanting involvement, just giving in to their baser instincts with the unspoken agreement that it would never progress from there. It had been a rubbish deal and she could see that now, because somewhere along the way she had made the fatal error of liking him, then falling slowly in love with him.