For Revenge...Or Pleasure?

скачать книгу бесплатно


‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘Of course I’m happy working here.’

‘Then don’t let me hear any more about you trying to talk people out of surgery. You have a gift, and these people need you. They’ll do anything to look better.’ Grace reached out and grasped her forearm, squeezing it so hard her acrylic nails bit deep into Jade’s flesh. ‘You, more than anyone, should appreciate that.’

She’d been so close. If he’d taken her somewhere else, if he’d found somewhere private, she would have been his. Even now, leaning against the door of her champagne-coloured Mercedes convertible in the palm-tree-lined car park behind the Della-Bosca Clinic, he could still feel her in his arms, feel her shuddering response to his touch.

She’d wanted him that night!

She’d melted into his arms like warm syrup and he could have had her. If it hadn’t been for the Mayor and his young bimbo beating them to it, he would have had her. She’d been his for the taking. Ripe and luscious and so hot to touch that he was aching to have another chance to unleash the passion he knew was lurking beneath that polished exterior.

He smiled to himself as he pocketed his sunglasses. If she thought her rapid departure meant she’d escaped him, she had another think coming. He wasn’t done with this strategy just yet.

So far he’d accomplished none of the things he’d set out to do to comply with his father’s request to keep his sister safe; he’d found out none of the information he needed to pull the rug out from underneath Dr Della-Bosca’s Manolo-clad feet. But there was still no better way to find out what he needed to than to coax it out of her young colleague.

And next time he’d make sure there was no chance for her to change her mind. Next time she wouldn’t get away.

His body hummed with anticipation of the hunt. The information couldn’t come more enticingly gift-wrapped. The idea of extracting what he needed to know couldn’t possibly give him more of a charge.

She might be as plastic as the industry she worked for, and the celebrities she practised on, but at least she was making his quest more entertaining than he’d ever imagined possible.

He pulled one hand from his pocket and glanced down at his watch, but it only confirmed what the sun was already telling him as it dipped lower in the sky—the doctor kept long hours. The nip and tuck business was obviously booming.

Then a movement at the side door caught his eye. It was her. As she stepped from the door her hand went to the back of her head, and with a toss she pulled a clip from her hair, releasing it. He growled his approval as the wave swung around her face and tumbled over her shoulders like a sweep of honey.

He liked the way she looked with her hair down. Even more than how it looked, it appealed to his sense of economy.

One less thing for him to remove.

She couldn’t wait to get into that bath. Grace might be content to stay and deal with paperwork till all hours, but Jade had had enough for one day. And there was absolutely no need for Grace to stay back. They had enough staff that Grace need never bother herself with administration, but she’d always been hands-on, always been involved, even with matters as mundane as the accounts. She was a total inspiration.

Her neck and shoulders aching, Jade unclipped her hair as she stepped from the building, already mentally unwinding as she shook her hair free. She took two steps into the car park and froze.

It was him. He was leaning against her car and looking for all the world as if he owned it. Did he know it was hers? In the same instant she asked herself the question she’d already answered herself in the affirmative. Of course he knew. Why else would he be sprawled all over it? How he knew wasn’t even an issue. This man didn’t strike her as the sort who would have trouble getting anything—least of all information.

But what the hell was he doing here? Even in the gathering twilight the foolishness of her actions at the ball came back in stark detail to taunt her. And she didn’t want to be reminded of that night. Didn’t want to be reminded of what had nearly happened. Didn’t want to be reminded of how his firm body and his sultry mouth had made her feel…

She swallowed down an urge to turn around and walk the other way. She’d run from him once before, and be damned if he’d see her bolt again. It was her car he was leaning on. He was the one who was going to leave.

So she forced her legs to move once more, forced herself closer to where he stood so casually regarding her approach, his hands in his pockets, one leg bent over the other, while she wound tighter and tighter inside like a coiled spring.

She stopped two metres shy, wondering how the hell she was going to get into her car while he leaned against her door.

She nodded. ‘Mr Demakis.’

‘Loukas,’ he corrected. ‘How are you, Dr Ferraro?’

If he thought that was an invitation to ask him to call her Jade he was very much mistaken. ‘You seem to be blocking my car door.’

He looked around as if surprised. ‘This is your car? Now, there’s a coincidence.’

‘An unbelievable coincidence, I would have thought,’ she said, making it clear she knew it was no accident of fate that had brought them together today.

‘It seems we have a mutual liking for this particular marque,’ he continued, indicating the car alongside hers. Another sleek Mercedes Sports, although so clearly the top of the line it made her smaller soft-top look like a basic city run-around. ‘I wonder what else we have in common?’

His easy banter grated on her nerves, especially as his eyes gave her different messages entirely. In what remained of the light of day they were nowhere near as dark as they’d seemed in the evening lighting, more a rich chestnut colour—though right now they contained a noticeable absence of warmth. And yet she felt a heat emanating from them that burned into her senses and touched parts of her deep down inside, where the humming his touch had set in train Saturday evening was coming alive once again.

How could he do that? Look so cold and imperious in the same instant he was setting her skin aflame?

She shifted her stance, trying to quell her mutinous flesh and disguising her purpose by digging through her purse for her keys.

‘Who can say?’ She took a step closer, holding her keys pointedly. ‘Now, if you’ll excuse me?’

He didn’t move an inch, still leaning against the car door, and she was left wondering about the wisdom of moving closer to him.

‘You’re not curious enough to find out?’

She tilted her head up to his face, taking in the challenging glint in his eyes and the crooked smile. Why was he here? Did he see her as an easy target? Did he expect her to fall into bed with him the moment he reappeared in her life and take up where they’d left off in the library?

Or was there just the remotest chance he was really interested in getting to know her?

Oh, yes, she was curious all right. And it had nothing to do with what they had or didn’t have in common. But, whatever he wanted, there was no chance she’d be swept away by irrationality again. Once was more than enough.

And, if he was honestly interested in getting to know her better, he’d soon work out that ambushing someone in the car park after a long day was hardly the way to win friends.

She forced what she hoped would pass as a smile to her face. ‘Not in the least bit curious,’ she lied. ‘And I really have to be leaving now, so if you’ll kindly sprawl over your own car instead, I’ll get going.’

He laughed out loud, pushing himself upright, away from her car. At last, she thought, sensing escape was near at hand. But still he didn’t move his feet. And now he was even closer. Close enough to bring memories of that night, of being next to his body, held by his arms against his muscled torso, crashing over her. Close enough that if she just reached out her hand she could once again touch him, could feel his heated skin through her fingertips, feel the beat of his heart pulse its way into hers.