Melting The Icy Tycoon

Two

Conn almost groaned aloud when he saw Eve sitting up front, chatting to the purser. He considered turning and walking off the ferry, but this was the last one of the night. It was now or the office couch.

He slipped warily into a seat at the back. The ferry was almost empty. With a bit of luck, he could get off before she saw him when they got to Waiheke. He stretched his long legs out, pulled his coat collar up around his ears and squeezed his eyes shut.

He knew he had been arrogant and the passage of a few days was not long enough to let him forget. She’d made an overture of friendship, and he had thrown it back at her. He could still see her lovely face streaked with embarrassment and something worse, as if her eyes were bruised. Had it been so long that he’d forgotten how to act around a woman?

Forgotten how to act around people, period. Conn avoided interaction with people. Even his parents had nearly given up on him. They had been a happy family unit once. Now he was lucky to speak to them once a month.

It used to be so different.

He could hear Eve’s voice the whole way. It was a nice voice, warm, lilting, bright with humor. He pried his eyes open occasionally to watch her. Her hair swung and her hands were never still. The purser had a smile a mile wide.

Finally they docked and Conn did not look back. Of course she would have seen him; there were only a handful of passengers. He got into his car, feeling like a heel, and watched her walk across the road to the taxi rank. The deserted taxi rank.

Damn.

He and Eve were the only people who lived up on the ridge far above the terminal. Being only thirty minutes by ferry to New Zealand’s largest city, Waiheke Island was a popular place to reside—if you could afford it. In the summer, day-trippers and tourists tripled the population, and the many hotels, resorts and hostels were full.

But this was out of season and, except for the ferry commuters, the roads were deserted. There would only be one or two taxis operating at this time of night.

His hands clenched the wheel.

The very thought of driving another person froze his guts. Conn was comfortable enough driving himself—he had taught himself to be. Driving was necessary to living in the twenty-first century.

But the thought of anyone else in the car when he was at the wheel had him straightening and shrinking from an ice-cold trickle of sweat. Because of Rachel.

He breathed in deeply. He could do this. It wasn’t like he never drove anyone these days. But he generally liked to prepare himself. Give himself a pep talk beforehand.

He knew he could not drive past his new neighbor in the dark of a late-autumn night.

Easing the car into gear, he drove across the road, stopped, then leaned over and opened the passenger door.

Eve actually looked like she was going to refuse. She pursed her mouth, giving the empty streets a last look. Conn began to hope she would turn him down. But then she picked up his briefcase from the passenger seat and slid into the car.

“Nice of you.”

He grunted, inhaling something tangy and lemony. They set off sedately. Conn forced himself to relax his knuckles so they would not whiten around the wheel. His knee began to ache. It always did in times of stress. The demolition of that knee in the accident had ruined his rugby-playing career, but that was a small price to pay for the taking of a life.

“Working late?” she asked eventually.

“Business dinner.” The road was dark with dew. Conn hated wet roads. “Don’t you have a car?” he asked curtly.

“It’s in a garage in town. I thought I might get a scooter to have on the island.”

“Not suitable for the gravel road on the ridge.” In the silence that followed, he chided himself for sounding so abrupt.

Eve sighed and leaned her head on the rest.

The engine droned in Conn’s ears. He thought about her talking and laughing with the purser just minutes ago.

“How’s the job hunting going?” he asked, lifting one damp hand off the wheel to wipe over his thigh.

“I landed a job today, actually.”

Conn flashed her a quick glance. She seemed more subdued than elated.

“It’s part-time,” she continued. “Only a few hours a week from home.” She looked at him and her chin tilted up. “It shouldn’t interfere with my renovations.”

His lips compressed. If she was planning renovations, she was not thinking of moving.

She looked tired. He decided to cut her some slack and steer clear of the house subject. “What’s the job?”

Her voice warmed. “Gossip columnist, would you believe? For the New City.”

Conn snapped a look at her, incredulous. “Gossip columnist?”

“It should be fun.” Now she sounded defensive.

“Perfect,” Conn muttered, shaking his head in derision.

There was a long silence and then she sighed gustily. “What is it exactly that you don’t like about me?”

That jolted him. He wondered what she’d do if he told her he liked her so much, he’d bought a women’s magazine about her. “I don’t know you well enough to have formed an opinion.”

“What is it—my politics? My interviewing style?”

He liked her interviewing style, always had. He admired the way she put her subjects at ease, and he had never watched a show of hers that involved the badgering technique employed by so many others. She was enthusiastic and expressive, especially her hands; she used her hands constantly on TV.

A rabbit shot across the road in front of him. Adrenaline flooded his body. It took a superhuman effort not to swerve or pound at the brake pedal.

Conn focused on the road and his breathing. You can do this, you do do it. Every muscle in his body vibrated with tension.

A minute dragged by. When his breathing had calmed, he cleared his throat. “I think you should know, Ms. Summers, I regard the whole media machine as a level below stepping in spit.”

Her cheeks blew out in a little huff of exasperation, and she turned away to stare out the window. Conn knew he would feel bad later, but right now he was too tense to address it.

Finally they approached their turnoff and he swung the car onto the gravel road. His eyes pricked with relief at the sight of her dilapidated letterbox a few hundred meters away. He flexed his aching leg and eased off the gas, indicating he was about to turn into her driveway.

“Just here is fine.”

The big car rolled to a halt opposite her house. Conn peeled his hands off the steering wheel. Inhaling, he laced his fingers together, pressed down and cracked each knuckle, one by one. He saw her grimace, but the flow of tension ebbing out of his extremities was exquisite.

She handed him his briefcase and held his gaze for a second. “Not friends, then,” she murmured and turned to get out of the car. “But I do thank you for the lift. Good night, Mr. Bannerman.”

Arrogant pig! Eve slammed her way inside the empty house and flicked the kitchen radio on. Some neighbor. Living in the city, you expected detachment and disinterest from neighbors. Here there were just the two of them for miles around.

She felt like a glass of wine for the first time since the flu. Pouring a large glass, she wandered into the lounge and stabbed at the TV with the remote.

Why did Conn Bannerman hate her? He could barely bring himself to speak to her. To think she had found him attractive. She wandered into her second bedroom and booted the computer up. The attraction was certainly not mutual.

Wine was the nectar of the gods, she thought, sipping. She and James had been passionate about it. Had an enormous collection in London—she wondered what had become of it after she’d walked away.

After the miscarriage…

The phone rang. Frowning, she checked her watch. It was her friend Lesley, one of the reporters who worked—had worked—on her show.

Eve’s mood perked up. If she was going to be the New City newspaper’s gossip columnist, there was no one better than Lesley to know what was going on in town. “How are you bearing up, Les?”

The very worst thing about being fired was that it affected all the people working on her show.

“I’m fine, Evie. Don’t worry about me. There’s plenty of work around. How’s life in the slow lane?”

While she chatted with Lesley, Eve came across the card Conn had given her the other night. She typed in his company Web site. Waiting for the screen to come up, she asked her friend if she’d heard of Conn Bannerman.

“‘Ice’ Bannerman? The guy building the stadium?”

“They call him ‘Ice’?” Eve asked, thinking how apt that was.

“Fearless on the field. Used to play rugby for New Zealand.”

Eve raised her brows. That explained the killer bod.

New Zealand was a small country on the world stage but punched well above their weight in rugby. And they treated members of their national team like kings. Even past members. “Why haven’t I heard of him?”

“Long time ago. Ten, eleven years.”

“Ah, I was on the big OE.” Overseas, backpacking around, producing the news in far-flung places. “Anything personal?”

“Hmm. I don’t think he does interviews.”

I sort of got that, Eve thought.

“Self-made millionaire. I think there was something—an accident, finished his playing career before it really took off. I’m not sure. But Jeff will know. I’ll get him to look it up.” Lesley’s boyfriend was a sports editor.

“Now listen up. Have you checked your e-mails? Your mystery contact called today.”

Eve banged her glass down, slopping wine in her rush to sign into her e-mail.

“He’s sent you a teaser,” Lesley continued. “A couple of photos. They say a picture tells a thousand words.”

Eve flopped back in her seat, staring at the monitor.

The photos were poor quality, grainy and unfocused. It wasn’t the skimpily clad, almost prepubescent girls that widened Eve’s eyes. Nor the opulence of the yacht the subjects were on. It was the three middle-aged men the girls were draped over that had her scrambling for a pen and scribbling frantically on her deskpad.

Three well-known names.

One, a businessmen who was at the very top tier of big business. The second man was the current police commissioner. The third—she groaned in disgust—was on the board of the government-owned television network. The one she’d worked for.

“What else? Did he say anything else?”

“He asked for your phone number—I told him you would have to agree to that. I guess he’ll be in touch. And he wants you to know he’s sorry if you got sacked on his account.”

Eve frowned. How did he know she was sacked? The official word was she’d quit.

“Oh, and he said to tell you it’s not always about money.”

Eve pondered that. How did this relate to Pete Scanlon?

She hadn’t seen her nemesis since she was fifteen. It had been a huge shock to her when he’d burst onto the political scene here six months ago. No one knew anything about him. He was progressive and personable. He was handsome and articulate. People said he was vibrant.

Eve had invited him on the show but he declined, knowing full well she detested him. She made the comment on air that perhaps the show should go to his home town down south—her home town—and find out what his peers thought, since he chose to be so elusive.

Then an anonymous businessman called her at the studio, claiming Pete’s tax consultancy had involved him and other prominent businessmen in shady deals amounting to tax evasion. While trying to persuade him to name names publicly, Eve proposed exploring the issue in a segment on the show. Her boss said no which had led to a huge row and Eve being fired.

Then she’d gotten sick, moved and succumbed to a relapse.

Now Pete Scanlon was set to shake this city of one and a half million on its head. So much more scope for damage than a few country bumpkins. Eve intended to make sure the people of her adopted city knew what they were getting before they cast their votes.

“You really have it in for this guy, don’t you?” her friend asked.

Eve took a large sip of wine and swirled it around her mouth to dilute the bad taste the thought of that man always left. “You know that old adage about a leopard changing its spots? That will never happen to Pete Scanlon. He is bad, through and through.”

Lesley promised to pass on her phone number when the contact called again. Eve stared at the photos on the screen for minutes after hanging up, wondering what they meant.

It’s not always about money.

What did an opulent yacht, some underage girls and two out of the three men working for the government have in common with dodgy tax deals?

Only that Pete Scanlon was involved. The lightbulb went on. Blackmail and corruption, so much more his style than business.

Praying her mystery man would contact her again soon, she considered her options. The only weapon at her disposal now was the gossip column. First thing tomorrow she would contact the legal team at the paper. Her words would have to be very carefully chosen to avoid slam-dunking the fledgling paper into a defamation war.

Eve signed out, her mood grim, but her path ahead was clear. Stop Pete Scanlon.

Her eye was drawn to the business card of the CEO of Bannerman, Inc. For the second time, she crumpled the card in her hand and tossed it on the floor.

And told herself to stop thinking about Conn Bannerman!

Three

Conn paused by his secretary’s desk. “Phyll, do you read the New City?”

His secretary looked surprised. “No, Mr. Bannerman.”

He carried on into his office. As he removed his jacket, Phyllis followed him in, held out a wad of messages and took his coat from him in the same movement. “I think I saw one in the tearoom.”

Conn looked at her blankly.

“The newspaper. Shall I get it?”

“Thank you.”

To anyone who did not know her, his secretary looked unperturbed. Conn, however, knew the level of astonishment she displayed in her arched brows and pursed lips. He read only the business papers. The New City was hardly what one would call a serious newspaper, chock-full as it was of entertainment news and fashion.

Eve Summers invaded his mind for the umpteenth time today, as she had every day since their last meeting. He had seen her once since giving her a lift home. She’d been chopping wood into kindling in the lopsided lean-to she used as a wood shed. She hadn’t turned and waved as he drove past. He had not expected her to.

He could hardly be blamed for being so unpleasant the other night. If she only knew what it cost him to drive her.

Phyllis tapped on the door and entered the room, placing the newspaper on the corner of his desk. Conn pretended to concentrate on his work. He bet Phyll would know how to make amends to a minor acquaintance she had slighted.

He bet Phyll would have a coronary if he asked her.

Alone again, he reached out for the folded paper and noted the small advertising box on the front page: Our New Gossip Columnist, Perennially Popular EVE DRUMM! (formerly SUMMERS!)

How could she stoop so low? Conn’s lip curled. She’d described the position as fun. People’s embarrassments and misfortunes all thrown into the pot, mixed well and served up as fun?

He tossed the paper back on the desk and bent his head to his work.

After a hectic day, Conn settled on the ferry and finally opened the New City newspaper. He proceeded to read the thing from cover to cover, leaving her column till last. It was almost like postponing his reward.

That was his mistake. Had he read her column first, the flash of temper it inspired would have had longer to cool by the time he drove up Eve’s driveway. Conn may have taken a moment to wonder whether the article itself angered him or it was just an excuse to see her again.

“Damn it all!” he muttered, throwing the car into park. He strode up her pathway as if he could outrun the steam coming out of his ears. It was bad enough that there was a celebrity living next door. He’d already heard music on the night air a couple of times. The glitzy parties were bound to start anytime. There would be cars cluttering up the roads and fancy caterers’ vans and no doubt photographers hiding in the bushes.

But the fact that she was also a gossip columnist—the lowest of the low—only added to his ire.

She opened the door to his loud knocking, a startled look on her face. Conn did not wait for an invitation. He brushed past her, saluting her with the paper. After several moments she closed the door and followed him into the kitchen.

Conn slapped the paper down on top of the table while she moved to switch off the radio on the bench. It didn’t make any difference; there was still music blaring.

“You’ve gone too far,” he told her loudly.

Frowning, Eve turned to the window and pulled the curtain back. She wore the same pink sweater as the other night and black pants. Very slinky black pants, the kind with no zip in front.

“What are you doing?” he demanded of her shapely hip as she peered out into the twilight.

“The thunder clap’s arrived,” she said drily. “Where’s the lightning?” She let the curtain fall and turned back, leaning her hip against the bench.

Conn stared at her, biting the inside of his lip to stop himself from smiling. Damn it! He raised the folded newspaper and gave it a loud flick. “You’ll be laughing on the other side of your face when my legal team is through with you.”

“Oh, the column.” Her face cleared and she fluttered her fingers at the paper he held. “Funny. I didn’t pick you as a fan of gossip columns.”

“I’m not!” he snapped. “It was—brought to my attention.”

A wariness sharpened her gaze. “What’s he to you?”

Conn raised his tense shoulders. “For your information, my company is backing Pete Scanlon to the hilt in the mayoralty campaign.”

That seemed to jolt her. Two little lines appeared between her wide-set indigo eyes. “You mean financially?”

“Yes, financially. What else?” How she stirred him up! Every reaction he had around this woman was extreme. There were no nice soft corners. It was all slashes of anger, of suspicion, of confusion.

Of desire.

“Are you close?”

Conn snorted. “What do you mean, close? I give him money for his election campaign. I do that because I need him to win. I need him to win so I can do my job.”

There was some hideous piece of opera playing in the next room. He could hardly hear himself think. Eve leaned three feet away, her chin jutting out in defiance. Once again, he had put her on the defensive by being insufferable.

“So you don’t socialize with him?”

“I hardly know the man,” Conn told her impatiently. Surely she’d noticed he was not the type to socialize. “But I won’t have him slandered in rags like this.”

Eve lifted her shoulders and placed both palms on her chest. “My legal team went through it with a fine-tooth comb. You won’t find a word in there you can do anything about.”

Conn struggled to keep his eyes on her face and not the indentations her fingers made, pressing in on her front. “You know what I think? You made it up.”

“Think so?” she taunted softly. Either she had lowered her voice or the music was getting louder. Her eyes were wide and teasing. Her mouth, half smiling, baited him. All he could think was would she still be smiling after he kissed her?

“Can we turn that blasted racket off?” he barked.

That wiped the complacent look off her face. She threw her arms up in the air and stalked into the lounge. He was one step behind her as she swerved to avoid a cluster of sanding gear, masks and tins of paint stripper on the bare floor.