Two's Company. Carole Mortimer

didn’t need to; he had already shown his lack of interest in Carlyle Properties. If she wanted to talk to him at all, she was going to have to sit here and suffer through dinner with him. But for what reason? If they didn’t discuss business, what else were they going to talk about for the couple of hours it would take to eat the meal?

      ‘Tell me about yourself, Juliet,’ he invited once their salmon had been delivered to the table.

      She gave him a startled look. What did he mean, tell him about herself? What was there to tell? He must already know that she was his partner in Carlyle Properties, and he had stated quite firmly that he didn’t want to talk about business just yet, so…

      ‘Your personal life, Juliet,’ he drawled mockingly, seeing her puzzled expression.

      She blinked across at him, making no effort to use the fish-knife and fork she had picked up preparatory to eating her salmon. Personal life? She didn’t have one. Carlyle Properties had been her life for the last seven years.

      ‘You must have one,’ he taunted, having no hesitation in starting his own meal.

      She shook her head. ‘No, I—’

      ‘Where do you live? Do you have a family? A boyfriend? Lover? Or are you married? With children?’

      The questions were shot at her in such quick-fire succession that Juliet barely had time to draw her breath before Liam delivered the next one. And what he was asking was too personal when they were only business partners!

      ‘I could ask you the same questions,’ she returned challengingly.

      His mouth twisted mockingly. ‘Well, I certainly don’t have a boyfriend!’

      Her cheeks warmed at his mocking tone. ‘I saw your girlfriend earlier,’ she snapped irritably.

      He frowned slightly, and then his brow cleared. ‘You mean Diana,’ he nodded. ‘Diana isn’t my girlfriend, Juliet; she’s my personal assistant.’

      Juliet gave him a slightly sceptical look from beneath raised brows. If that was what he chose to call the other woman that was up to him, but there had seemed to be a familiarity between the two of them that implied a slightly deeper relationship than the one he had described.

      ‘As you were my father’s personal assistant,’ he added softly.

      Juliet gave him a sharp look, but the blue eyes that returned her gaze were completely enigmatic. Just how much did this man already know about her? And if he already knew the answers to the questions he had asked her why had he asked them at all?

      She gave a cool nod of acknowledgement. ‘As I was your father’s assistant.’

      ‘And now you’re his joint heir,’ Liam bit out hardly.

      She swallowed hard. It must seem strange to William’s son that his father had worded his will in the way he had, she freely acknowledged that, and if Liam had shown the slightest interest in Carlyle Properties during the last two months she would gladly have told him that she knew he had prior claim to the company. But she knew from his behaviour that he would be quite happy to see Carlyle Properties go under, and she owed William more than to allow that.

      ‘You didn’t answer my question, Juliet,’ Liam continued in that hard voice.

      ‘Do I need to?’ She met his gaze with a calmness she was far from feeling. ‘You seem to know enough about me already. And what you don’t know I’m sure you could make up!’

      He gave a shrug of indifference at her show of temper, sitting back in his chair, giving up all idea of eating his own food now. ‘You live at Carlyle House—have probably done so for some time, even before my father’s death?’ He raised mockingly questioning brows.

      ‘For several years before that,’ she acknowledged tautly.

      He pursed his lips. ‘And what did your boyfriend make of that?’

      God, how he persisted! ‘I don’t have a boyfriend,’ she bit out coldly, so angry that she was starting to shake with the emotion, her eyes flashing, darkly grey.

      Blond brows rose. ‘At the moment?’

      ‘Ever!’ she answered forcefully.

      He eyed her disbelievingly. ‘You’ve never had a boyfriend?’

      Just the one. Simon. But he had died. And she hadn’t allowed herself to love anyone since him.

      Liam’s mouth twisted. ‘You seem to be taking a long time finding an answer to that question,’ he taunted.

      She drew in a deep, steadying breath, determined not to give him the satisfaction of seeing just how much he was disconcerting her. She had no intention of owning up to a boyfriend, because she had no intention of talking about Simon. Certainly not to this man.

      ‘Why is my personal life of interest to you, Liam?’ She used his first name deliberately now, the familiarity putting them back on an equal footing. ‘Our discussion is merely on a business level,’ she reminded him firmly.

      He calmly met the challenge in her gaze. ‘I like to know all there is to know about the people I do business with,’ he returned softly.

      Juliet felt the warmth in her cheeks. She didn’t like the idea of this man knowing all there was to know about her; she had lived her life very privately for the last seven years. The fact that she now had a larger-than-life business partner, whose name was synonymous with the exclusivity to be found at his hotels world-wide, couldn’t be allowed to change that.

      ‘I’m sorry to disappoint you, Liam,’ she bit out tautly, ‘but I don’t actually have a private life to speak of.’

      ‘A career woman, hmm?’

      The way Liam said it, it sounded like an insult! But that was exactly what she was. Oh, not in the way of hard-headed businesswomen who lived for nothing but succeeding and getting ahead, no matter who they had to step on or over to get there. But Carlyle Properties had become the main focus of her life, and in that sense she was a career woman.

      ‘Only as far as Carlyle Properties is concerned,’ she told him stiffly, made more and more uncomfortable by this conversation. She had wanted to meet William’s son only as a means of keeping the business going, wanted nothing more than a business partnership with him, had no interest in his personal life, and resented the fact that he should take any in hers.

      The blue eyes glittered coldly. ‘It’s interesting that a young woman of twenty-seven, with no surface connection to the Carlyle family, should live in Carlyle House and inherit half the family business…’

      It wasn’t ‘interesting’ at all. In fact, now that she had met this man, this whole thing was turning out to be more trouble than it was worth! But she owed William so much…

      ‘Perhaps,’ she conceded distantly. ‘But as your father’s personal assistant—’

      ‘And just how “personal” was that?’ Liam watched her across the table with narrowed eyes.

      Juliet looked up at him sharply. ‘Just what are you implying, Mr Carlyle?’ she bit out tautly.

      He shrugged broad shoulders. ‘My father was old enough to be your grandfather—’

      ‘Hardly, Liam,’ she cut in derisively.

      ‘He was sixty-five when he died, Juliet,’ he reminded her coldly. ‘More than old enough to be your grandfather.’

      She had never thought of William in those terms, but, put like that, she supposed that in actual years William could have been her grandfather. But even so…

      ‘Why did you live with him, Juliet?’ Liam didn’t give her a chance to answer before attacking again. ‘Surely that isn’t normal in a business association?’

      Under attack was exactly how she felt now. This man, for all his apparent lack of emotion about this situation, was obviously