Still, he supposed two million dollars was a lot more than what was owed on that mortgage. She would still reap in a considerable sum for herself. That still made her reasonably mercenary.

‘Okay,’ he said. ‘I won’t quibble. Can you arrange some refinancing, Rich?’

‘Not right away. But if Natalie comes in to see me on Monday morning with all the particulars and a letter of authority from her parents, then I can make sure their home is safe till she can pay off the mortgage in total. Will that be satisfactory to you, Natalie?’

‘Perfectly. Thank you, Richard. This is very good of you.’

‘I’m glad to be of help. On principle, I hate it when banks start threatening to repossess. There is always another way. What time would you like to come in Monday morning. Ten suit you?’

‘Ten is fine. My time’s my own on the whole.’

‘Good. You can both sign the pre-nup at the same time. Now are we still going to have that celebratory drink? I can’t stay too long. I want to get home to Holly.’

‘I’m sorry,’ Natalie jumped in, ‘but I can’t. I have to be getting home myself. I have things I have to do.’

‘What things?’ Mike asked in the lift on the way down.

‘Female things.’

Like what? Mike thought irritably. Wash her hair? Paint her toenails? Shave her legs?

His mind suddenly filled with the image of her lying back naked in a bath with one bare leg propped up provocatively on the side whilst she ran a razor in long, languid strokes from her ankle to her knee, then up her thighs.

The lift doors opening broke into his fantasy, startling him. For Mike was not a man given to such fantasies. When he thought of sex, it was in more basic terms.

Natalie, however, seemed to be inspiring him to think in more seductive scenarios.

Was it just the challenge her prickly self presented?

Probably. He never could resist a challenge.

But he aimed to this time. No way was he going to risk rejection, or spoiling the deal of a lifetime. His male hormones would just have to behave themselves for a while.

‘You don’t have to drive me home,’ Natalie announced snippily as she stepped out of the lift. ‘I can just as easily catch a taxi.’

He looked at her hard, then shook his head. Damn, but she was an annoying woman. He was constantly torn between wanting to seduce her, and strangle her.

‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ he ground out, taking her by the elbow and urging her across the foyer. ‘I might not quite be in Rich’s mould, but I’m gentleman enough to know that when you take a lady somewhere, you take her home afterwards.’

CHAPTER SEVEN

NATALIE could not wait to get out of Mike’s car. This time, however, he insisted on walking her to the door.