Web of Deception - By Nina Blake Page 0,9
talk about his personal life, as I’m sure, neither do you.”
“Kate,” Daniel said. “If I loved a woman enough to want to marry her, everyone would know about it. In fact, for someone in my position, it’d be impossible to hide. It’d be in the papers and I’d be proud to be seen with the woman I loved on my arm.”
“But that’s not what you want, is it?” She turned her head slowly towards him. “So what’s the point of even mentioning it?”
“You’re right.”
“You put all your energy into Webb Corp because that’s what’s most important to you. Making money.”
“Not quite. I want business success. There’s a difference.”
Kate knew more about Webb Corp and the now defunct Irwin Webb than he thought.
But Daniel had known nothing of her until this evening. Then, in a matter of minutes he’d sussed her out completely, read her like a book, found her weaknesses and pounced.
Well, she knew a little about him too and wasn’t going to let him get away with this.
“Mark is the right kind of man for me,” she said. “He’s solid and reliable and dependable. You, Daniel, are not the right kind of man. I don’t know exactly what you’re trying to do but I’m not going to fall for it.”
Grinning, his eyes crinkled up at the corners. “If I’m so wrong, then why is there no shortage of women trying to latch on to me?”
“Oh, come on.”
“I’m not trying to boast. I’m merely telling it like it is.”
She shrugged. “Lots of women find money very attractive.”
“But not you?”
Looking him up and down, she said, “You’re like some kind of James Bond living life on the edge, going through women at a rate of knots. You’re very successful and that’s not an easy road. You thrive on the stress, on the big deals, on scraping in by whisker to make the biggest profit.”
“That’s the sort of business I’m in.”
“No, that’s the kind of person you are. The kind who’s always striving for the next big deal, never satisfied with what you’ve got. Above all, you’ll never settle down.”
“And that makes me the wrong kind of man?”
She nodded. “Absolutely.”
“You know, I don’t understand why women are so fixated on marriage as if it’s the most important thing there is.”
“It works for millions of people around the world.”
“Not all of them. There are many people for whom it doesn’t work, my parents included, and I don’t plan on reliving their mistakes.”
So what if his parents’ marriage hadn’t worked? That wasn’t her problem. Daniel was obviously the wrong kind of man, the kind who liked living in the fast lane.
Dependability and reliability. They were admirable traits, ones that Daniel didn’t have and Kate certainly wasn’t going to get involved with someone whose business tactics were as cutthroat as his.
“There’s one thing that doesn’t make sense,” she said. “After everything you’ve told me about yourself tonight, how could you possibly have looked at me out on the balcony and said I was the woman you were going to marry?”
He glanced down for a moment, deep in thought, then lifted his gaze to meet hers. “I don’t know what came over me. I don’t have a good explanation for it and I’m sorry if I hurt your feelings. That wasn’t my intention at all.”
Kate looked him square in the eye. “Then what are your intentions?”
He sidled closer but didn’t touch her. “Remember I’m the wrong kind of man. My intentions are all completely, wonderfully evil.”
Deep but soft, his voice sent a sensual shiver up her spine.
“Actually, that’s irrelevant,” she said. “I’m taken.”
He lifted one hand to tilt her chin towards him. “If you’re telling me you’re not interested, then I won’t come any closer. I won’t do anything you don’t want me to do.”
“Good. I don’t want you to.”
Daniel cupped her face in both his hands and she couldn’t help but flinch at the sudden movement.
She’d told him she wasn’t interested. What was he doing? She wasn’t going to fall into his lap.
“Don’t be afraid,” he said. “I’m not going to force myself on you. I’m going to wait until you want me and, I assure you, you will want me.”
“What? Because other women do?”
“No, I’m not talking about other women. I’m talking about you.”
He was so brash, so arrogant. She couldn’t believe it. She’d never met a man like him before. If he thought she was going to drop into a heap at his feet, he was sadly mistaken.
She slipped his jacket off her