No More Mr. Nice - By Renee Roszel Page 0,9
instincts. “You used that odd term on the phone. Techno-bull. Is that anything like, ‘That’s a load of bull,’ or ‘You’re full of bull’? Is techno-bull that kind of bull, Mr. Brand? If so, I gather you’re going to lie to someone tonight?”
She shrugged, suddenly feeling beaten down. “Forgive me if I’m naive. I’m sure you have good reasons for lying. But I need to know if your promise to Mr. Roxbury was…techno-bull, too. If it was, I don’t have much time to find a replacement for you.”
He remained impassive, allowing no hint of emotion to cross his features. Still, Jess had the feeling she’d shifted him off-center.
“What is this tactic?” he asked. “You point out my sins and I’m supposed to atone by being an obedient little Mr. Niceguy?”
She didn’t know what to say. Didn’t know where she was going with this, so she kept quiet. There was a chapter about keeping quiet in the book. She hadn’t read it, yet. She wished she had, because if there was a whole chapter devoted to its benefits, there must be something to it. Girding herself with resolve, she looked squarely into his face and kept her mouth shut.
The hush grew long and strained. Jess was beginning to wonder what, exactly, keeping quiet was supposed to accomplish besides giving a person a neck cramp from holding still too long. She fought the need to tap her fingers on her purse. Chapter one had said that a show of nervousness was a sure way to lose ground, so she continued to act like a statue, no matter how agonizing the act was.
Just as the craving to tap her fingers had grown overwhelming, he startled her by breaking the silence. “Look, Mrs. Glen…” His tone was as cold as his stare. “No one in his right mind would tell a potential million-dollar-plus client his program is locked up. For one thing, the problem’s temporary. For another, it’s bad business to mention every setback. As for my integrity, it’s never been questioned.”
She felt a shiver along her spine. Why, he was insulted! Jess was shocked to discover it was possible to hurt his feelings. Mr. Icy Insolence—who would have thought? She didn’t think insulting a man, even such an overbearing one, was anything to be proud of, but since she was this close to actual emotional contact with him, she might as well forge on. “I’m relieved to hear you’re a man who keeps his promises,” she said without inflection.
He gave her a hard glance, apparently detecting her subtle sarcasm for what it was. “Look. I told Roxbury I’d do the Mr. Niceguy thing. I just won’t be as hands-on as he was.”
“I see.” Jess could no longer keep the animosity from her voice. “In other words, your pledge involved the use of your secretary, your caterer, and probably your servants, but not yourself.”
“If you want to put it that way,” he stated flatly. “It’s the best I can do right now.”
His frankness sent her anger seething very near the surface, and her attempt to remain reasonable was quickly going up in smoke. She’d had it up to her eyebrows with self-serving, money-hungry types, and Lucas Brand was the most self-serving, money-hungry egomaniac of them all! She’d never been so frustrated by any one human being in her life. His was a debt of honor, for heaven’s sake! And in the same breath that he slithered out of a loophole, he dared suggest his integrity had never been questioned? Well, she was questioning it now!
Suddenly, something inside her snapped, and a raw, primitive fury overwhelmed her, sending her storming to her feet. “When you made that promise to Mr. Roxbury, what was it? A sort of techno-bull token to get him off your back?”
Lucas’s hawklike features grew wary, then hard, but the lid was off now, and she couldn’t halt the words that flowed, angry and unguarded. “Just so we’re clear, Mr. My-Integrity-Has-Never-Been-Questioned,” she cried, stomping toward him. “I don’t like to believe Mr. Roxbury made a mistake, but I think you’re the worst choice in the world for Mr. Niceguy! What do you have to say to that?”
The patio took on the silence of the dead. Mortified by her unprofessional behavior, Jess could only stare back as he watched her, his implacable expression unnerving.
The strained stillness was finally broken by a deep, cynical chuckle. With more weariness than irritation in his manner, he propped a lean hip on the railing. “This may shock