'Close,' he drawled, when she didn't appear to understand his cryptic remark. 'i find it difficult to interview people half a mile away'.
'oh, of course, sorry.' Donjin Kim blinked and lowered her eyes, talking up the chair he had indicated with a briefly pointed a finger. She kept her eyes down to avoid meeting his . They had nasty stare of laser-beam quality, hunting out all her weaknesses and foibles, penetrating into her very soul. At least, that was what it seemed like. It was probably a technique he'd learned while stalking politicians and opening up their mouths and brains with a surgeon's precision.
Molten lava flowed in his voice. 'How do you do ,Mrs Ben? I am Kim Leo .' He extended his hand . Ee-varn, he'd pronounced it, she registered. She forced a polite greeting and firmly grasped the lean brown fingers, tyring not to recoil from the electrifying sensation that accompanied his handshake.
'Relax.'
Not a mnato waste words,she thought, unless of course they were lethal indictment of politicians. 'Thank you , I will.' She gave him a pleasant but remote smile . If he was going to act the curt interviewer, she'd play the charming, unruffled interviewee. This could be quite fun
Very carefully, she crossed her legs primly at the ankles and placed her hands neatly in her lap. A quickly flicked glance confirmed that he'd found her response amusing, but then, to her consternation, her eyes ran all over her body, examining it intently. He began with the plain black court shoes-were they still highly polished? She resisted the urge to check. Next under his scrutiny came her long, slender legs, pressed firmly together. His eyes swerved around her curving hips, dipped into the waist of the fitted jacket, following the plush fullness that betrayed the presence of her breast.
His detailed appraisal was raised the hairs on the back of her neck. It was only a test , to disconcert her, of course. Her training had included mock interviews like this. This man's perception of her role was obvious, and she had to struggle with the immediate sensation of inferiority and subjugation that his glance had aroused in her.
The dark scanned her face, noticing everything and, much against her will, she was forced to look at him. God, he was handsome! Unfairly, devastatingly so. Perfectly groomed, blue-black hair slicked back from a widow's peaks, a tanned, strong-boned face so smooth that it seemed no hair would dare grow on it apart from the neat black sideburns that angled into the hollow of his cheek. His nose was strong and manly, its perfection spoiled by the fact that someone had once smashed his faced with a fist, so driven by violence that the bone had broken, adding menace to his already threatening features. Either the same man, or another, had split one of his extraordinarily high Latin America cheekbones, because a faint scar dented its prominence. His mouth had been hacked out of granite and defined by cynical creases which indicated the habitual sarcasm that shaped it. Combined with the wide shoulders and deep chest, clad in a fine black pin-stripe that tapered to lean hips and long legs, the overall impression was one of immense power and dynamic energy. A man's man. The kind of man who not only didn't eat quiche, but had probably never heard of it; who might open doors for women and stand them dinner, but would expect them to pay with their bodies afterwards. For why would anyone expect anything else of such a rawly sensual animal ?
'Tell me-'Ivan reached over to a file, extracting her letter and curriculum vitae with a long slender hand, laying them side by side so that he could see them clearly. Enough vitriol had dripped from those fingers into his pen to annihilate half the politicians in the House. 'Why on earth should I employ a woman?
'That's for you to judge, Mr Kime Leo. I don't know the qualifications of my my competitors. You do.' Was that too abrasive? She said it quite pleasantly, hard through that had been in response to his taunt.
'You're very young. Twenty-three.' He was frowning
'Yes. About the same age as the other candidates.'
Her tone was remarkable level.
'They didn't get job,' he observed frilly.
'I'm mature and experienced enough. '
An eyebrow lifted fractionally at the word experienced,' but Reachel held his gaze strictly, not rising to his suggestive expression. 'And what has given you this maturity, would you say?, he murmured.
'A tough life .' She was conscious that he had become very still, as if he had suspected the process of breathing. He could assume the most perfect poker face that she'd ever seen! 'I-I was fostered,' she said with unusual frankness. What on earth had possessed her? Those darn tongue-loosening eyes of his. They had narrowed to slits and she wished she'd hadn't begun to hell with him. 'I had a number of homes and learnt to be self-sufficient at an early age, and not rely on other people for anything. '
'Why were you fostered ?'
Is that relevant?' She asked coldly.
'It could be. Any reason why you shouldn't tell me
No. I was illegitimate. My mother didn't want me.'
Despite her intentions, a small tremor hovered in her voice. It still hurt. No one had ever loved her for long.
'Then we have something in common, Mrs wells,' he said softly, and she looked up, her big brown eyes moist and startled. 'I was illegitimate, and my father didn't want me enough to disrupt his life.'
Donjin Kim found herself falling into his dark, bottomless eyes, and imagined that she saw first sadness and then bitterness there before she averted her head, confused. She seemed to have struck a human chord within him. Perhaps his hard exterior hid a great deal of pain and hurt, just like hers. A warm warm empathy gentled the solemn lines of her face
'Hmm .' His relentles gaza stripped her brain methodically till she was sure he could see all her past, laid out in its sordid, miserable muddle. 'What masochistic tendencies make you pine to spend your days in traffic jams, raising your blood pressure, inhaling lead fumes and carbon monoxide?'
The moment had gone. Her impression of a sensitive man had been in her own imagination, and was swept away by the cynical black glint in her eyes and the sour twist to his mouth. He was back to his original softly spoken, yet biting manner. Donjin Kim was beginning to tune in to this curt, unorthodox approach. ' Hunger, Mr Kim Leo. That and lack a of other skills .'
'You're a little slow on the uptake, Mrs Wells. Are you always bad at summing up people? I don't fall for sob stories. I missed out when the good fairy godmother dished out humane qualities like pity,' he said in his smooth, brandy voice. Like brandy, it had a hidden kick. 'All I got was a violent initiation by the wicked fairy. Try another tack.'
'I was merely stating the facts.' She refrained from saying that is was perfectly obvious he didn't have one shred of pity in the whole of his body. If he did, he would be more conscious of an interviewee's nerves. 'You asked me why I was insane enough to want to be your chauffeur, and I told you the reason. '
He slid from the desk and just looked at her for a long time. 'I'm not quite sure whether you are choosing your words cleverly, and are taking the mickey out of me, or whether you are sublimely innocent.'
Donjin Kim smiled to herself and was subjected to further intense scrutiny, the dark, penetrating eyes alive with a wry humor.
Wells Fargo can't fault your driving.'
His words startled his. The company had belonged to Sanji, her ex-husband, and he had refused to give her and references from his express mail and chauffeur service after she humiliated his mistress. How had Kim Leo got any information about her ? Typically, he seemed to know what she was wondering.
'Som of the secretaries at Fargo have big mouths after a few drinks,' explained Kim Leo, with a mocking smile.
'I see,' she said calmly. It was just as well she had nothing to hide. After four years of driving around London, chauffeuring anything from pop stars to Bolivian attaches and African masks to rare blood, her record was perfect. There had been nothing and no one lost, no trouble, plenty of drama soothed by her reserves of Calm patience and common sense.
Yet she hated his sneaky investigation. 'It would have been simpler and cheaper to give me test run instead. Oh!' She put her hand to her mouth, realizing what she'd just said
A grin, characterized by brilliant white teeth against dark skin, chased briefly across his face. ' What an interesting idea, 'Kim Leo murmured.