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Oh, dear, one of those men that lectured instead of answered! Claudia sighed. ‘You seem to know a lot about it,’ she said, fanning herself with the safety card and trying not to think too much about the take-off as the plane taxied slowly down the runway.
‘I should do. We’re the contracting engineers on the project.’
She half turned in her seat to look at him in surprise and dawning consternation. ‘But GKS Engineering are the contractors, aren’t they?’
For his part, David eyed her with deepening misgiving. What did this silly woman have to do with GKS? ‘How do you know that?’ he asked suspiciously.
‘My cousin’s married to the senior engineer on the project...Patrick Ward. Do you know him?’
David’s heart sank. Of course she would have to be going to visit the very people he would normally spend most time with in Telama‘an! Was there to be no getting away from her? ‘Yes, I know Patrick,’ he said reluctantly. ’And Lucy.’
‘Oh, well, I’ll tell them I met you,’ said Claudia, who had not missed the reluctance in his voice and who had perceived an opportunity to achieve at least one of her objectives. ‘What’s your name?’ Let him get out of that one!
‘David Stirling,’ he admitted after a tiny pause.
‘I’m Claudia Cook,’ she introduced herself, although he hadn’t asked. Peeping a glance at him from under her lashes, she wondered whether she should force him to shake hands, but decided against it. It had been achievement enough to get a name out of him, and, looking at that jaw, she didn’t think that David Stirling was a man she would want to push too far. Better to stick to the inane conversation line; it was a far more effective way of needling him!
‘So you’re an engineer as well, are you?’
‘Of sorts.’ David was cursing his luck. Not only was he doomed to spend the next two and a half hours sitting next to her, but he couldn’t put her in her place as he was longing to do. He was very fond of Lucy and Patrick, so he could hardly tell their guest to shut up and mind her own business. It was hard to believe that there was any connection between them, though. The Wards were one of the nicest couples he knew, while this girl was a ghastly intrusion from some other life altogether.
In spite of himself, he found himself glancing at her. She had beautiful skin—either that, or she was very cleverly made-up. Probably the latter, David decided. Those lashes were too long and thick and dark to be natural with that pale gold hair, and he could see how she had outlined her eyes with a fine pencil.
He had a sudden, bitter picture of Alix at the mirror in his bathroom, her mouth pursed in concentration and one finger holding her eyelid steady as she carefully drew a line above her lashes. David was unprepared for the way the memory could still hurt. Alix had taught him a valuable lesson, and he was wary still of girls like her.
Girls like Claudia Cook.
She would be in marketing, he guessed, or perhaps something in the media. Some job that enabled her to kiss people extravagantly and run around with a clipboard feeling important. She would go to parties and claim to be exhausted by work, although she probably spent most of her day on the phone without producing anything more tangible than a date for lunch or an agreement to talk later.
David smiled grimly to himself. Oh, yes, he had met girls like Claudia before, and he was in no danger at all of being impressed!
The plane had turned, poised for a moment at the end of the runway before hurtling itself down the tarmac and heaving itself into the air at the last moment. Claudia sucked in her breath and concentrated on breathing evenly. David Stirling would only sneer if he thought she was nervous, and she was not going to give him the satisfaction of making a fuss!
Still, it was a relief to hear the tell-tale ‘ping’ of the ‘no smoking’ sign being switched off, and as the plane levelled out she turned back to David, only to catch his eyes straying back to his report. She couldn’t have him concentrating on his work, could she, now?
‘Are you based out in Telama’an like Patrick?’ she asked, all eager interest.
‘No,’ said David through his teeth. The graph danced up and down on the page beneath his eyes. Those wide eyes and that gushing voice didn’t fool him for a minute. He knew perfectly well that she had set out to be deliberately provocative for some reason. Well, he wouldn’t give her the satisfaction of rising to the bait again. She would soon get bored with cold courtesy. ‘I spend most of my time in the London head office.’
‘Why are you going to Telama’an now?’ Claudia persevered.
He drew a deep breath and forced himself to stay calm. ‘I’ve got a series of extremely important meetings to attend,’ he said tightly after a moment. ‘We’re coming to the end of the first phase of the project, and we want to persuade the government to award us the contract for the next major stage, but there are several other big firms in the running, so we’re up against some tough competition.
‘The final decision rests with the local sheikh, who is a cousin of the Sultan and who’s been given overall responsibility for the project, but he’s not an easy man to deal with. After months of requesting a meeting, he’s finally offered us the chance to give him a special presentation the day after tomorrow, and it’s absolutely vital that I get there as soon as possible to brief the rest of the team before the meeting. However, it does mean that I must check these reports, so if you’ll—’
‘Well, that’s a coincidence!’ Claudia interrupted before he could complete his excuse. ‘It’s absolutely vital that I get there by tomorrow as well.’
‘Really?’ he bit out. ‘And why is that?’
She leant towards him confidentially. ‘It’s my thirtieth birthday tomorrow, and I’m going to a party to meet my destiny!’
David looked at her with incredulity. ‘Your what?’
‘My destiny.’ Claudia hoped she looked suitably soulful. ‘Years ago a fortune-teller told me that I wouldn’t get married until I was thirty, and that I’d meet my husband somewhere where there was a lot of space and sand.’
‘So you thought you’d just get on a plane to the desert on the off-chance that you’d bump into some poor unfortunate man?’ David didn’t even bother to hide his disbelief and she smothered a smile as she opened her eyes wide.
‘Oh, no. I know exactly who he’ll be. The fortune-teller told me that the initials J and D would be very important, so I’m sure I’ll be able to recognise him at once. Lucy’s going to throw a party so that I meet him on my birthday and all I have to do is get there by tomorrow!’
He snorted. ‘You’re not trying to tell me that Lucy believes any mumbo-jumbo about predictions? I’ve always thought of her as an intelligent woman!’
‘She was there when my fortune was told,’ Claudia told him solemnly. ‘We were only fourteen and it made a big impression СКАЧАТЬ