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‘Hen night?’
‘Amy’s do. Drunk on Mai Tais, Screaming Orgasms and a male stripper. Well-endowed, too…Their words, not mine. The bride-to-be appointed me chauffeur for the evening.’
Mariel’s expression didn’t alter, but he saw something flicker in her eyes. She reached for a croissant, broke it open. ‘I bet that put a dent in your social calendar.’
‘Not at all.’ He took a croissant himself. ‘I’d do it for you if you asked.’
‘Strip and ply me with Screaming Orgasms? No thanks.’ She raised her mug, took a gulp, then set it down with a chink. Her crisp retort made him smile on the inside. But only for a pulse-beat, because the image she conjured with her sharp retort hit him right between the thighs.
He lifted his mug to his suddenly parched throat and took a long, slow swallow. ‘I meant chauffeur duty. You don’t have a car yet, do you?’
‘Actually, I do. A pretty yellow hatchback. I’m picking it up today.’
He watched her eat in silence a moment, considering his words before speaking again, but he had to know for sure. ‘What’s the deal with your business partner?’ He rolled his mug between his fingers. ‘He isn’t only your business partner, is he?’
‘No. He—’ She shook her head, pressed her lips together as if she was afraid of saying too much. ‘And the word’s was. He’s history. Leave it at that.’
She drank her coffee greedily, then finished off her croissant in three quick, careless bites. ‘It’s handy you’re here; you can put those chauffeuring skills to work and drive me to the car dealer. If you’re not busy with any other…ah…commitments, that is.’ Without looking at him she rose, carried the dishes to the sink.
‘Clear schedule today.’ And wasn’t that handy? ‘When do you want to leave?’
She rinsed the dishes, put them away. ‘I’ll be ready in a few moments.’
‘That’s what they all say.’
While he waited he finished off the business section of his newspaper. Twenty minutes later he folded it and wandered over to the window. What had happened between Mariel and her lover? He told himself it was none of his business. He was still pondering when he heard her footsteps cross the tiles.
She’d accessorised the sundress with hot-pink sandals and matching beads.
She looked fresh. Fun. Gorgeous.
His fists tightened in the pockets of his shorts. Once he’d have told her, but now, with this current friction like a live wire between them, it was probably wiser to keep the verbal admiration to a minimum lest it be misinterpreted.
She stared at him a moment, a small frown marring her forehead, as if disappointed to find him lacking in the compliments he’d have once voiced without thought.
Then she spotted his car keys on the kitchen table. Their eyes met and duelled in the familiar battle he’d all but forgotten. ‘Uh-uh, I’m driving.’ She got to them first, swept them up with a laugh and jingled them above her head. ‘Your Porsche. All the way to town.’
‘You think so?’ He was behind her in a second, fingers tangling with hers, wrestling for possession.
Mariel’s laugh snagged in her chest as his familiar deep voice vibrated against her ear and between her shoulderblades. The smell of healthy male sweat and Dane’s own brand of scent seemed to wrap around her. She leaned back…or did he shuffle forward?…and his body bumped against hers and her grip on the keys faltered.
All movement ceased. Even her heart seemed to stop for one long breathless moment. His T-shirt shifted lightly against her bare back so that she was oh-so-aware of the hard abdominal ridges beneath. Over the whisper of the air-conditioning she heard the grandfather clock ticking in the hall. Felt Dane’s hand locked over hers. The rough edge of a fingernail. His breath on her hair. The power he could wield over her, both body and mind…If she let him…
She hesitated a beat too long. She sucked in a breath, but it whooshed out again as he spun her round. She glimpsed the molten steel in his gaze before his lips clashed with hers. Hard, impatient. If she’d been able, she’d have used her hands to push him away but they were trapped between them. His heart pounded heavily against one palm; his car keys dug into her chest in the other.
She had no time to think as sensations battered at her. The heat of his hands on her bare back, her breasts flattened against his rock-solid chest, the sound of her pulse thundering in her ears.
As if he commanded it, her lips opened beneath his, softening and allowing his tongue entry, duelling with hers in an erotic battle of wills. His taste swirled through her mouth, the after-taste of coffee, and something darker, richer, smoother.
There was nothing gentle about it; this assault on the senses was nothing like last night’s getting-reacquainted-and-see-how-we-like-it kiss.
It thrilled her. It terrified her. It gave her the strength she needed to push him away for the second time in as many days. She glared up at him, at the sharp angles of his face, harsh with a desire that had nothing to do with tenderness. Colour slashed his cheeks, his lips. She sucked in air, found it rich with his scent.
His eyes…she couldn’t read them behind the storm she saw there. ‘Who do you think you are, manhandling me that way?’ she demanded, and was appalled at the breathy, needy sound of her voice.
‘You’re over him or you wouldn’t have let me kiss you. Not last night. Not now. And definitely not like that.’
Like he really meant it.
Rather than tingly, her lips felt swollen and numb. She ran an experimental finger over them to check that they were still there. He’d told her last night that he’d enjoyed it, and that she had, too.
‘Why did you come back, Mariel?’
‘I told you, I—’
‘Aside from catching up with family.’
She forced herself to take a slow, steadying breath. To take a mental step away from what had just happened here and focus on Dane’s much more important question. ‘I want to create my own fashion label, set up my own boutique.’
‘You could have done that overseas.’ His voice lost some of its hard edge. ‘Or didn’t you think Paris was big enough for the two of you?’
Because her legs barely supported her, she sank onto the nearest chair. ‘It wasn’t that.’ She stared at her hands in her lap. He had to ask, didn’t he? Better to get it over with.
He took a chair, turned it around and sat astride it, leaning his forearms on the back. ‘Tell me.’
‘Luc’s a fashion photographer; smooth and sophisticated, and he swept an innocent girl like me away.’
At the low, throaty sound she looked up to see Dane’s jaw knotted. He nodded brusquely. ‘Go on.’
‘He liked my designs, but he liked my face better so I modelled for him. We went into business together. The money rolled in, we got involved, I moved into his apartment. It never occurred to me not to trust him. But it turns out Luc’s a drug dealer and he was having a fling on the side. I was just a useful addition to his cashflow. He was arrested on Christmas Day. I was taken in for questioning, too, and fingerprinted before being released.’
‘The bastard.’
‘Yes.’ Remembered humiliation washed through her. ‘My family knows nothing of this, and I want to keep it that way.’
‘You have my word on that.’
The reassuring touch of his hand on hers threatened to open the floodgate on unshed tears. And unwanted desire. She tugged her hand away, swiped at her eyes. ‘So…anyway, I want to set up business here, but finances are a little tight right now.’
His brow lifted. ‘I’d have thought you’d be laughing all the way to the…Don’t tell me…’
‘Yep. It’s gone.’ She rubbed at the tension in her neck. She felt like such a fool. ‘And I’m afraid now my name’s been in the press here—and linked with you—that they’ll dig up the dirt I left behind.’
‘Not if we give them something else to focus on and write about. Keep them interested in the here and now.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘We give them the impression we’re a couple.’
‘Couple?’ she choked out.
‘With eyes only for each other.’
A strangled noise escaped her throat. As if. ‘There must be another way.’
‘If you can think of one I’d like to hear it.’
Thing was, she couldn’t—because her stunned mind was on overload, trying to process his outrageous idea. Still, maybe if they went on a few dates. Movies, theatre, a dinner or two…
‘I need a regular companion to take some of the heat off this Bachelor of the Year thing,’ he continued. ‘Someone to accompany me to functions. It’ll be good publicity for you, too, and if they do find anything about Paris my influence with the media here could come in handy. As for finance—I have an empty ground-floor room near my office that you can use rent-free to get your business started.’
She was still stuck on ‘regular’. ‘How regular are we talking?’
His eyes were like charcoal now, and intense. ‘You’ll move in with me—’
‘Whoa. Hold it. Move in with you?’
‘It’s safer that way.’
‘Safer for who?’ Her gaze narrowed. ‘And what’s your definition of safe?’
‘Your parents are away; you don’t want to be up in that big house all by yourself. No one has to know what goes on behind closed doors, Mariel.’
Not an answer. Not an answer at all. ‘So in the public’s eyes we’re a couple?’
‘Lovers,’ he corrected.
Heat spurted through her veins at the mental image. ‘So we’ve gone from companion and a couple of dates to lovers?’
His gaze remained steady on hers. ‘I won’t pretend not to want you in my bed, Mariel.’
‘What makes you think I’d want to be there?’ she shot back.
What made her think she could resist?
‘Vibes,’ he said. ‘Zings. Whatever you call them, they’ve been humming between us since last night. Can’t say I’m happy about it. It complicates things.’
‘For once we’re in total agreement.’
‘Problem is, we both want the same thing—but I’m the only one here willing to talk about it.’
Pressing her lips together to stop herself from giving in, she willed herself to look at him. Were his eyes a deeper colour?
‘Your eyes are answer enough.’ His gaze lowered to her breasts, which suddenly felt full and heavy. ‘Then there’s the way your body respon—’
‘All right, stop right there.’ She struggled to find air. Why was there no air in here? Damn him for making her feel vulnerable.
For making her feel more alive than she had in years.
His expression didn’t change, she noted with envy. How could he sit here so cool and casual and discuss the term ‘lovers’ and what amounted to a business arrangement in the same sentence?
She took another swift breath. It didn’t matter; let him think what he liked about sleeping arrangements. Getting her business up and running was the most important thing right now. Good publicity and a place to set up. Forget vibes. And zings.
And if that meant living in Dane’s house and masquerading as his lover…An affair. She swallowed…She’d bite the bullet and do it.
‘Okay. Two sophisticated people like us should be able to pull it off without too many dramas. But this is a business arrangement. I’ll pay you back once my business starts making money.’
She reminded herself he wasn’t the type of man she dated. She loved glitz and glamour, and sophisticated men with a sense of style, whereas Dane still obviously didn’t give a hang about appearances.
She needed to keep that in mind and put this unwanted, unhelpful attraction she had aside. For her career’s sake.
For her sanity’s sake.
As for Dane and his women…‘Though this is not in any sense a proper relationship, I do have a proviso.’ She wanted to jump up and pace, but made herself sit still, lean back and meet his eyes. ‘Men are very low on my priority list at the moment, so it won’t be a problem on my part, but I won’t tolerate any indiscretions from you while we’re…together.’
‘That goes without saying.’
‘No. It doesn’t. I won’t be made a fool of again.’
‘You’ve got it wrong, Mariel. The Frenchman was the fool.’ Dane rose, returned the chair to its proper place and, with a gesture obviously aimed at taking her mind off her troubles, jangled the keys in front of her face.
‘Oh…’ Somehow he’d managed to steal them away. How had she allowed that to happen?
He opened her hand, dropped them in her palm. ‘Let’s go look at your new business premises and pick up this car of yours.’
Moments later Mariel ran her fingers over the Porsche’s polished silver finish. ‘Nice.’
‘Nice? It’s a 911 Carrera. A very expensive piece of precision machinery.’
‘So am I, darling.’ His eyes met hers over the bonnet and she wished she could unsay the flirty words which once would have brought a laugh to his lips. This time his lips didn’t even begin to crack a smile.
She slid into the driver’s seat, adjusted the mirrors while Dane made himself comfortable beside her—if sitting ramrod-straight and listing her way like a sinking ship could be termed comfortable.
‘Relax, I’m not seventeen any more,’ she reassured him.
‘You’ve been driving in Europe for ten years. Don’t forget which side of the road you’re supposed to be on,’ he told her. ‘And remember, driving a car’s like making love. You handle her gently.’
‘Really?’ She caressed the steering wheel a moment, studying him closely until he turned a quiet shade of pink. ‘That’s where I disagree with you. I’d say it’s more about passion. Fast and furious.’ She flashed him a quick grin and pressed her foot hard on the accelerator.
‘What’s the dress code for tomorrow night’s do?’ she asked ten minutes later as they coasted down the freeway towards the haze-covered city. ‘Black tie? Formal?’
‘Yes.’
‘I’ll need to buy a dress.’
His head was tilted back on the headrest, and his sunglasses hid his eyes, but she felt his gaze on her. ‘Just keep in mind that I want to be able to slide my hands down your spine when we smooch on the dance floor.’
The way he said it—slow, sexy and appreciative—sent hot and cold shivers down her back. To make sure he didn’t get the wrong idea, she said, ‘To give everyone the impression we’re a couple, right?’
