‘that more care should be taken to involve the visitors into the island life. A fabulous complex is one thing, but it can be enhanced by easy access to the local customs.’
‘You have opinions now, have you?’ he asked softly. ‘And since when has your efficiency extended beyond my orders?’
Beth didn’t answer. She would have to remember to act in character, and Laura would never have volunteered such an observation without being asked.
‘Is that all?’ she murmured, preparing to leave. ‘Sir?’
‘The name is Marcos,’ he answered easily, ‘use it. You always have. And no, as a matter of fact, that’s not all. Not by a long shot.’
Beth waited and the silence built around her like an electric field.
He had something else to say, and, from the sound of this particular brand of silence, whatever it was it wasn’t pleasant.
CHAPTER TWO
NEVER IN HER ENTIRE LIFE had Beth felt so acutely ill at ease. And the worst part was, Marcos Adrino wasn’t at all embarrassed at her discomfort. He continued to stare at her, those black eyes taking in absolutely everything, until she felt like jumping up from the chair and begging for forgiveness for whatever the hell it was she was supposed to have done, because he still hadn’t said.
He would have made a great interrogator, she thought. He certainly had the ability to fill his silences with unspoken threat.
‘I’ve been hearing other, slightly more distasteful rumours about you,’ he broke the silence, but there was still a dangerous softness to his voice. He idly picked up the silver letter-opener from his desk, running the edge along his finger with caressing delicacy.
Did he have to do that? Beth wondered nervously. Was he doing it on purpose? She didn’t think so. There was something absent-minded about his action, but even so, it was menacing.
No wonder, when Laura had spoken about him, her voice had been filled with awe.
Of course, she decided, falling back on her good, old-fashioned sense of practicality, any awe Laura felt towards him was totally misplaced. All that forbidding arrogance didn’t intimidate her at all. Well, not now anyway. Maybe to start with, but she had got the measure of him now, she decided.
He had something unpleasant to say to her and, instead of just coming right out with it, which was what any normal boss would have done, he was playing a cat-and-mouse game with her. Creating a shroud of tension around her, waiting for her to snap, at which point he would no doubt find the whole scenario hugely entertaining.
‘Oh, yes?’ Beth asked politely.
His mouth hardened. Any minute now, she thought, and he’ll tell me that I have an attitude problem. But she was damned if she was going to let Marcos Adrino walk all over her. He might treat the rest of the human race like that, but not her. Not if she had any say in the matter.
She fleetingly thought that she was supposed to be impersonating her sister and that Laura would never have dreamt of answering back to him, and promptly pushed the thought aside for future reference.
‘You don’t seem overly concerned,’ he said, dropping the letter-knife and standing up.
Beth followed his movements warily as he walked around the desk to perch on it directly in front of her.
Another little ploy, she told herself. Designed to make the guilty party feel inferior and vulnerable. It won’t work.
Her green eyes serenely met his, and she saw an expression of what? Puzzlement? Almost as though he was trying to figure something out. Then it was gone and he was looking at her with cold disapproval.
‘Of course I’m interested in whatever rumours you’ve heard,’ Beth agreed with the same level of controlled politeness in her voice. ‘Not that rumours are always based on fact.’
‘Your week off certainly seems to have turned you into a little philosopher,’ Marcos observed coolly. ‘I don’t remember you being so opinionated before. Who did you spend the time with?’
‘No one,’ Beth said hurriedly.
‘Not even David Ryan?’
So this is it, she thought, I might have guessed. Her face reddened and then just as quickly drained of all colour.
‘I see that’s managed to crack that controlled little façade of yours.’
‘May I ask who has been spreading these…rumours?’ she asked. Not that I’ll be able to deny them. Laura, she groaned inwardly, why on earth did you have to fool around with someone in the company? Why couldn’t you have contented yourself with any one of the hundreds of other men in London who had nothing at all to do with the Adrino corporation?
Marcos smiled coldly. ‘I really don’t think that’s relevant, do you?’
‘I suppose not,’ Beth said dully.
‘The fact is that you and Ryan have been sleeping together, haven’t you?’
‘I didn’t realise that what I did outside of company time—’
‘You know damn well that it’s not allowed. You’re my secretary and Ryan isn’t just one of the junior members of staff. He’s one of our directors.’
‘He is?’ She hadn’t thought to ask Laura what David’s status in the company was, and Laura had, naturally, tactfully omitted to mention it.
‘Don’t try and plead ignorance,’ Marcos bit out. ‘It won’t work. I had noticed that his work was becoming sloppy. Is that why he requested a transfer to Paris?’
‘I don’t know. You’ll have to ask him,’ Beth hedged, looking away.
‘I’m asking you. But don’t worry, your face says it all for you. No doubt you drove the poor fellow into a corner and he fled from the country to get away from you.’
‘I resent that!’ she exclaimed hotly, standing up. It was on the tip of her tongue to inform him that she wasn’t paid to sit in his office and be systematically insulted. That he could expect her resignation first thing in the morning. But, of course, she couldn’t. Laura would never have forgiven her if their convoluted efforts to secure her job had lasted precisely two hours and had resulted in Beth walking out.
She bit back her words and rearranged her features into what she hoped was an expression of subdued apology.
‘Sit back down,’ Marcos commanded abruptly. ‘You’ll leave when I’m finished with you. You’ve been playing with Ryan, and who else? Is he one of a succession of men you’ve been sleeping with in my company?’
‘No, of course not.’
‘Because I won’t have it. I can do without being known as someone who has a tramp for a secretary.’
‘I am not a tramp!’ Two bright patches of colour had appeared on her cheeks, and she realised that she was perspiring all over.
‘I needn’t tell you that rumours of your affair with Ryan could very quickly spread into rumours of an affair with me.’
The black eyes glinted cynically at her. She wondered briefly whether that wasn’t bothering him as much as Laura’s love-affair with David. After all, it was easy for a boss to lose credibility with his staff if it was rumoured that he was sleeping with his secretary.
And that would be quite an easy assumption to make. He was attractive, she supposed, if you liked that sort of ruthless appeal, and he was aware enough of his own sexuality to realise that women were drawn to him.
‘I can assure you that you don’t need to fear anything on that score,’ she informed him stiffly.
‘No?’ He raised one eyebrow, and this time there was a distinct gleam of lazy amusement