Double Dealing Read Online Free PDF

you’re interested
in what I have to say?”
    Gabriel shifted his glance briefly from her face to the small
garden and back again. “I wouldn’t say that I’m particularly interested in
doing business with you, Miss Maitland, but I will admit to a certain
curiosity.”
    Samantha resisted the impulse to clench her teeth. Getting a
commitment out of this man was going to be difficult. And she had so little
time.
    But what had she expected? Men like this did not automatically
grab at every deal that was offered. She had been hoping, though, that the bait
she had used in this particular instance would give her an edge on gaining his
agreement. It struck Samantha as she watched his profile that Gabriel Sinclair’s
physical solidity had an intellectual counterpart. He would not jump into anything,
nor would he be pushed. But he had an ego, she reminded herself. Every man had
an ego, and it was invariably his weakness. Which did not mean that he would
understand or sympathize with her own weaknesses, so she must maintain the
strictly business facade. He must never suspect for a moment that her
motivation stemmed from an emotion as dangerously unpredictable as revenge.
Nothing would have been more likely to make such a man shy away from this deal.
    “As I explained to you in my note,” she began industriously.
    “Your cryptic note.” Why did he have to harp on that?
    “If it was a bit, er ,
cryptic-sounding, I expect it was because I was in something of a hurry,” she
apologized airily.
    “It was cryptic because you were trying to interest me in
the deal without giving too much information away at the beginning,” he
corrected softly, hazel eyes gleaming.
    “Perhaps,” she conceded with a shrug and then smiled engagingly.
“Whatever my motives, you’re here.”
    “Don’t congratulate yourself yet,” he advised blandly. “I
have a great many questions which I would like answered.”
    I’ll just bet you do, Samantha thought grimly. Outwardly she maintained the smile. “Of course you
have questions. And I shall be more than happy to answer them.” Damn it, he was
interested. He had to be interested or he would never have bothered to turn up at
the spa, seeking her, Samantha assured herself, trying at the same time to
stifle the rush of excitement which was bubbling up inside. She must not get in
a rush and ruin everything through her own eagerness. But it was so difficult
to be calm and businesslike when she was so close to the end. So many months of
careful planning and investigation were nearing the finish line, and she could
destroy all her own efforts by letting the hopeful exhilaration show. She just
knew that kind of enthusiasm would make this plodding financial angel take
wing. Samantha’s fingers clenched around the handle of the teacup in her hand
as she forced herself to remain cool and restrained in front of Sinclair.
Everything depended on handling this man properly.
    “First, I would like to know a little more about your business,
Samantha. I may call you Samantha?”
    “By all means,” she hastened to assure him, smiling brilliantly.
    He blinked with decided wariness under the flash of the
smile, and she instantly modified it into a polite, tempered expression.
Gabriel poured himself another cup of tea and met her eyes deliberately. “What
does Business Intelligence, Incorporated actually do?”
    “Oh, I’m a sort of information broker,” she explained, resigning
herself to the fact that this man would do everything in a prudent,
step-by-step fashion, attending to each detail in turn. There would be no
hurrying him. Would he make love to a woman in the same deliberate fashion? she
found herself wondering with a flash of inner humor. She could just picture him
in bed, going step-by-step through the procedures outlined in a sex instruction
manual. “While kissing left breast, locate sensitive area of partner’s inner
thigh and massage slowly. After three minutes repeat, alternating to