She wasnât a patient woman. Delays and excuses were barely tolerated, and never tolerated well. Waitingâand she was waiting nowâhad her temper dropping degree by degree toward ice. With Sydney Hayward icy anger was a great deal more dangerous than boiling rage. One frigid glance, one frosty phrase could make the recipient quake. And she knew it.
Now she paced her new office, ten stories up in midtown Manhattan. She swept from corner to corner over the deep oatmeal-colored carpet. Everything was perfectly in place, papers, files, coordinated appointment and address books. Even her brass-and-ebony desk set was perfectly aligned, the pens and pencils marching in a straight row across the polished mahogany, the notepads carefully placed beside the phone.
Her appearance mirrored the meticulous precision and tasteful elegance of the office. Her crisp beige suit was all straight lines and starch, but didnât disguise the fact that there was a great pair of legs striding across the carpet. With it she wore a single strand of pearls, earrings to match and a slim gold watch, all very discreet and exclusive. As a Hayward, sheâd been raised to be both.
Her dark auburn hair was swept off her neck and secured with a gold clip. The pale freckles that went with the hair were nearly invisible after a light dusting of powder. Sydney felt they made her look too young and too vulnerable. At twenty-eight she had a face that reflected her breeding. High, slashing cheekbones, the strong, slightly pointed chin, the small straight nose. An aristocratic face, it was pale as porcelain, with a softly shaped mouth she knew could sulk too easily, and large smoky-blue eyes that people often mistook for guileless.
Sydney glanced at her watch again, let out a little hiss of breath, then marched over to her desk. Before she could pick up the phone, her intercom buzzed.
âYes.â
âMs. Hayward. Thereâs a man here who insists on seeing the person in charge of the Soho project. And your four-oâclock appointmentââ
âItâs now four-fifteen,â Sydney cut in, her voice low and smooth and final. âSend him in.â
âYes, maâam, but heâs not Mr. Howington.â
So Howington had sent an underling. Annoyance hiked Sydneyâs chin up another fraction. âSend him in,â she repeated, and flicked off the intercom with one frosted pink nail. So, they thought sheâd be pacified with a junior executive. Sydney took a deep breath and prepared to kill the messenger.
It was years of training that prevented her mouth from dropping open when the man walked in. No, not walked, she corrected. Swaggered. Like a black-patched pirate over the rolling deck of a boarded ship.
She wished sheâd had the foresight to have fired a warning shot over his bow.
Her initial shock had nothing to do with the fact that he was wildly handsome, though the adjective suited perfectly. A mane of thick, curling black hair flowed just beyond the nape of his neck, to be caught by a leather thong in a short ponytail that did nothing to detract from rampant masculinity. His face was rawboned and lean, with skin the color of an old gold coin. Hooded eyes were nearly as black as his hair. His full lips were shadowed by a day or twoâs growth of beard that gave him a rough and dangerous look.
Though he skimmed under six foot and was leanly built, he made her delicately furnished office resemble a dollâs house.
What was worse was the fact that he wore work clothes. Dusty jeans and a sweaty T-shirt with a pair of scarred boots that left a trail of dirt across her pale carpet. They hadnât even bothered with the junior executive, she thought as her lips firmed, but had sent along a common laborer who hadnât had the sense to clean up before the interview.
âYouâre Hayward?â The insolence in the tone and the slight hint of a Slavic accent had her imagining him striding up to a camp fire with a whip tucked in his belt.
The misty romance of the image made her tone unnecessarily sharp. âYes, and youâre late.â
His eyes narrowed fractionally as they studied each other across the desk. âAm I?â
âYes. You might find it helpful to wear a watch. My time is valuable if yours is not. Mrâ¦.â
âStanislaski.â He hooked his thumbs in the belt loops of his jeans, shifting his weight easily, arrogantly onto one hip. âSydneyâs a manâs name.â