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    “Why wouldn’t I?” she replied.
    “To tell you the truth, I wasn’t sure you were Mark’s fiancée.”
    He’d called her bluff. She hadn’t thought he’d be so blunt.
    “I’m here, aren’t I?”
    “Did you enjoy the party the other night?” he asked. “You left in a hurry.”
    “I had a lovely time, thank you. I’m just not one for late nights, that’s all.”
    “I couldn’t help but notice that Mark didn’t take you home.”
    “I’m a big girl. I can leave a party on my own.”
    That night she hadn’t wanted to leave on her own but Mark had been having a good time and had wanted to stay on. Suddenly it struck her that, even though there had been over a hundred people at the party, Daniel had a noticed they’d left separately.
    “Were you keeping tabs on Mark and me?” she asked.
    “Not at all. He was one of the last to leave. It was hard not to notice.”
    “Oh.”
    Daniel’s lips curled to a smile. “I’d rather you’d been the one to stay.”
    “Why’s that? So you could take me to bed. Obviously, that wasn’t going to happen.”
    “I only meant you were welcome to have stayed as long as you liked.”
    She had him now, she thought. “I did stay as long as I liked.”
    He laughed.
    “I don’t see what’s so funny,” she said. “I wasn’t joking. I didn’t want to stay and take you up on your little offer.”
    Daniel looked her in the eye. “You’ll change your mind.”
    She leaned back in her chair and took a sip of white wine. “I’m sure you’ve come up with that line many times before. You should hear yourself. You have no idea how conceited you sound.”
    “Perhaps.”
    “Perhaps you’ve used that line before or perhaps you’re arrogant?”
    He shrugged. “I don’t care if I sound conceited.”
    “So you think nothing of just telling me I’m going to end up sleeping with you. That’s what you’re saying, isn’t it?”
    He leaned forward. “I’m not being mean, Kate. Just honest, probably more honest than any man you’ve dealt with before.”
    She knew about at least one past business discrepancy which wasn’t completely honest but this wasn’t the time for that, not when she was getting so much out of their little discussion.
    Shaking her head, she said, “Daniel, this is not a done deal.”
    “Isn’t it?”
    Kate nearly choked on her wine. “Of course not. You can’t make me do something I don’t want to do.”
    He smiled. “Oh, I won’t be forcing you.”
    One thing was for sure. If she ever got together with this man, it would be on her terms. She would be in charge.
    “I’m surprised you manage to get any woman into bed if you talk like that,” she said.
    He held her gaze. “I’m very frank when it comes to business but I don’t normally talk this way out of the boardroom. You must be bringing out the worst in me.”
    Perhaps he was right. She recalled the words he’d said to her when they first met. Before they met, in fact. What else would explain that particular outburst? But she didn’t want to bring that up again.
    “Y ou’re very successful at what you do,” she said. “But if that’s the way you talk in the boardroom you must really have rubbed a few people up the wrong way.”
    “I hope that’s not what I’ve done to you. Upset you.”
    “Actually, I’m made of fairly sturdy stuff.”
    She hadn’t always been. Her upbringing, though wonderful, had been quite sheltered. She’d been a good student at school, always had lots of friends and got on well with her older sister. Her parents, both teachers, had a loving relationship, the kind she wanted.
    Kate only wished she’d had a relationship that had gone nearly as well as that of her parents’. She seemed to have got off to a bad start at university when she’d chosen a boyfriend who ended up telling her she was boring, then followed up with a series of other lousy choices.
    She could really pick them. Still, the experiences had hardened her, made her