3

Grace turned her head and squinted into the dense forest that surrounded them. With the helicopter gone she was suddenly aware of the constant background noise that enveloped them. Jungle sounds. Yelps, calls, shrieks, chirping and warbling. It was as if the whole forest was alive. ‘It sounds as though someone is being murdered out there.’ Laughter in her eyes, she looked back at him, seeking to build an emotional connection and falling at the first hurdle.

There was no connection. No answering smile. And it was impossible to know what he was thinking because his face revealed none of his thoughts.

‘You’re afraid of the jungle, Miss Thacker?’ His tone was less than encouraging. ‘Or is it something else that is making you nervous?’

Something else? Like the fact that her whole life was on the verge of being ground into the dust, perhaps, or the fact that she was alone in the rainforest with a man who obviously disliked the entire human race?

There were so many things to make her nervous she wouldn’t have known where to begin her list, but he wasn’t exactly a man who invited confidences so Grace pushed away the mental image of the jaguars, snakes and two thousand species of insect. ‘I’m not nervous—’

‘Is that right?’ He watched her for a few moments and then narrowed his eyes. ‘Then let me give you a few more hints on how to do business with me. Don’t waste my time, don’t lie to me and most of all, don’t cheat. They’re the three things guaranteed to irritate me and I never say yes to anything when I’m irritated.’

What did women see in him? He was wrapped in a cloak of cynicism so thick that it didn’t allow even the faintest chink of light to pass through

and his eyes shimmered with an impatience that he didn’t bother to mask with the usual social pleasantries.

‘I won’t lie to you. I don’t lie to anyone.’

But she hadn’t been absolutely honest with him either, had she? She hadn’t revealed everything about herself when she’d taken up his loan. Discomfort and guilt slithered down her spine and she quickly reminded herself that there was nothing in the contract that stipulated that she tell everything about herself. And none of her personal history had any relevance to her ability to run her company—she’d made sure of it. Nevertheless she felt betraying colour touch her cheeks and saw him smile.

Just a flicker and not a particularly nice smile, but a definite indication that he’d seen her blush and filed it away as a point against her. ‘You’re a woman, Miss Thacker. Lying and cheating is welded into your DNA and you can’t change that. The best we can hope for is that you endeavour to fight against thousands of years of evolution when you’re in my company.’ He pulled open the door and stood to one side so that she could pass through.

For a moment she just stood there, looking at him. ‘Don’t bully me, Mr Cordeiro.’ Her voice was husky and shook slightly but she forced herself to carry on speaking. ‘My business isn’t doing well and I know we have things to discuss, but don’t try and intimidate me.’

Never again was she allowing that to happen. ‘Do I intimidate you?’

She was willing to bet he scared everyone he met. ‘I think you could at least try to be a little more friendly.’

‘Friendly?’ His voice was faintly mocking. ‘You want me to be

friendly?’

She forced herself to hold his gaze. ‘I just don’t see why a business meeting always has to be cold and impersonal.’

He moved towards her and she took an instinctive step backwards. ‘You want to get personal with me, Miss Thacker?’ His lashes lowered, his eyes grazed hers and the heat and the humidity in the air rose to stifling proportions. ‘How personal?’ He moved closer still and she found it suddenly hard to breathe.

He wasn’t touching her and yet her body was overwhelmingly conscious of every inch of his, as if it had been sleeping for the past twenty-three years and had suddenly been brought to life. ‘I’m just trying to say that I’ve always felt that business can be fun as well as hard work.’

‘Is that right?’ He studied her for a long moment. ‘Well, your attitude explains a great deal about the current state of your company accounts.’

He moved away but it took a few moments for her breathing to normalise and her heart rate to slow to something approXimating its normal rhythm.

She wanted to respond to his less than flattering comment about her company, but he didn’t give her the opportunity. Instead he strolled through the open door, leaving her to follow.

No wonder his wife left him, she thought miserably as she followed him, carefully closing the door between her and the jungle. Or was he arrogant and cynical because his wife had left?

As she pondered that question, it took her a moment to be aware of

her surroundings but when she finally glanced around her she realised with a jolt of surprise that they hadn’t left the rainforest outside at all. It was part of the lodge.

Following him through a huge glass dome, she glanced left and right, her attention caught by the profusion of huge, exotic plants that turned his home from amazing to spectacular. And through the glass, the rainforest, so close that inside and outside appeared to merge in perfect harmony.

At any other time she would have been fascinated, but it was obvious from his less than encouraging body language that Rafael Cordeiro had absolutely no interest in her opinion on his choice of home.

Making no attempt to put her at her ease, he led her into another large room and waved a hand towards a large round table that housed a state- of-the-art computer and several screens. Two phones were ringing but they both suddenly stopped, as if they’d been answered elsewhere. ‘Sit down.’

Technology, Grace thought, eyeing the phones. He clearly wasn’t as alone as he appeared to be.

She sank onto the nearest chair and glanced around her in awe. Through giant hexagonal panes of glass, the lush, dense greenery of the jungle pressed in on them.

‘It’s amazing,’ she breathed, genuinely taken aback by the unusual nature of their surroundings. ‘It’s like sitting in a greenhouse in the middle of the forest.’ Her eyes slid to a patch of fern that she saw moving. ‘Do the animals come close? Do they know you’re here?’

‘Predators always sense their prey, Miss Thacker.’ Rafael Cordeiro

spoke in a low drawl, his accent so faint that it was barely detectable. He lounged back in his seat and lifted an eyebrow in expectation. ‘I agreed to give you ten minutes. The clock starts now.’

Unprepared for such an unsympathetic approach, she gaped at him. ‘You were serious? You really meant it when you said I could only have ten minutes?’

‘I’m a busy man. And I never say anything I don’t mean.’ He obviously wasn’t going to make this easy for her.

Flustered by his total indifference to her dire predicament, she took a moment to gather her thoughts. ‘All right. Well, you know why I’m here. Five years ago your company lent me the money to start up my business. Now you want to foreclose on the loan.’

‘Don’t waste time stating irrefutable facts,’ he advised in a silky tone, his eyes flickering to the clock in an explicit reminder of his terms. ‘You now have nine minutes remaining.’

She felt a flicker of panic. He was completely unreceptive. She was wasting her time. ‘The business is important to me. It’s everything.’ Immediately she regretted that impulsive confession. Why would he be interested in the emotional stake that she had in the business?

Clearly he was wondering the same thing because his bold brows drew together in a discouraging frown. ‘I’m interested in facts and figures. And you now have eight minutes remaining.’

She flushed and forced herself to plough on. Don’t get emotional, Grace. Don’t get emotional. ‘As you know, I started a chain of coffee shops with your investment, but they’re not just coffee shops.’ She dropped her

hands into her lap so that he couldn’t see them shaking. ‘We don’t just sell a cup of coffee, we sell a whole Brazilian experience.’

‘And just what constitutes a “Brazilian experience”, Miss Thacker?’ He lingered over the words and she bit her lip, refusing to allow him to intimidate her.