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Jinx hadn’t come here with the idea of her visit turning into a social event! In fact, she regretted coming here at all now…
But once again James Stephens looked so pleased with himself and the way things were turning out that Jinx didn’t have the heart to disappoint him.
‘I’m afraid I can only stay a few more minutes; I have a previous engagement for lunch.’ She smiled to take the sting out of her words.
‘I was hoping you might let me take you out to lunch.’ James frowned. ‘Having met you at last, I really don’t want to lose you again so quickly,’ he added charmingly.
Jinx avoided looking at Nik as he gave a sceptical snort. ‘Another time, perhaps.’ She was deliberately vague, having no intention of there ever being ‘another time’.
She should never have come here, never have blown her anonymity in this way. It was Nik Prince’s fault that she had done so. He—
‘Ah, Jane.’ James Stephens stood up as a tall blonde woman entered his office after the briefest of knocks. ‘I want you to meet our author, J. I. Watson,’ he announced triumphantly as he moved forward to lightly grasp Jinx’s arm.
As if afraid she might try to escape, or at the very least evaporate in front of his eyes, if he didn’t hold onto her!
The beautiful blonde Jinx could now identify as her editor, Jane Morrow, moved forward to shake Jinx by the hand, although her smile was bland as she turned to look at Nik.
But it was Nik’s response to the other woman’s presence in the room that caught and held Jinx’s attention; she was able to feel his tension as he looked at the other woman guardedly. A tension he did his best to hide as he seemed to sense Jinx’s interest, giving her a tight smile before turning to gaze out of the window at the London skyline.
A view Jinx was almost certain he didn’t even see!
She gave her editor a closer look, noting the smooth beauty of the other woman’s face, her slender curves in the black business suit she wore, her fingers bare of rings, her legs long and shapely. Attractive enough for Nik Prince to have used his practised charm upon?
The other woman’s smile warmed as she turned back to Jinx, blue eyes glowing with enthusiasm. ‘It’s such a pleasure to meet you at last!’ she gushed.
No, Jinx decided, the arrogant Nik Prince wouldn’t find this gushing, clinging woman in the least attractive. So what had been the reason for his tension when the other woman had come into the room? Surely Jane Morrow, her own editor, couldn’t be the one to have leaked information concerning her identity? That just didn’t make sense. But, then, what did make sense about any of this situation she now found herself in?
‘Thank you,’ she accepted lightly. ‘I was actually just telling James that I have to go now.’ That she should never have come here in the first place!
‘Surely not?’ Jane Morrow frowned her disappointment. ‘We have so much to talk about, so many questions I would like to ask you. The second manuscript is wonderful, by the way,’ she added delightedly. ‘So many second books aren’t, you know, that…’
Jinx tuned out the other woman’s praise, instead turning to look curiously at Nik as she once again sensed the tension in his rigidly straight back.
‘It’s so kind of you to say so—’ Jinx nodded to Jane Morrow as the other woman paused to draw breath ‘—but I really do have to get going.’
‘But you will come back?’ Jane Morrow asked.
She swallowed hard as both Jane Morrow and James Stephens looked at her expectantly. They were both nice people, Jinx accepted that, not at all the hard-bitten monsters of the publishing world that she had imagined, and certainly neither of them could be the ‘mole’ she had told James about before Nik’s untimely arrival. But, nice as they were, Jinx knew she had no intention of repeating today’s visit…
She moistened dry lips as she formed a polite refusal in her mind. ‘I don’t really think—’
‘I think Miss Nixon is slightly overwhelmed,’ Nik was the one to cut in firmly as he turned away from that sightless contemplation out the window. ‘Maybe it might be better to let her contact you, James, when she feels up to another visit?’
If it weren’t for the fact that he made her sound like a simple-minded idiot scared of her own shadow, Jinx might have felt grateful for Nik’s intervention. As it was, he made her feel like a nervous spinster thrown into total confusion by having so much attention paid to her!
‘I think, Mr Prince,’ she bit out tartly, ‘that I am more than capable of deciding that for myself, thank you very much!’
He raised dark brows impatiently before giving a dismissive shrug. ‘Fine,’ he grated, once again turning away.
She turned back to James Stephens. ‘I—I’ll call you, shall I?’
The publisher didn’t look at all happy with this idea, but one look at the determination on her face seemed to tell him that it was the best he was going to get.
‘Fine,’ he said regretfully. ‘And I will look into that other matter we discussed,’ he added.
‘Good,’ Jinx replied.
‘What other matter?’ Nik queried.
Jinx shot him a resentful glare. ‘Nothing that concerns you, I can assure you, Mr Prince.’
James Stephens once again took her hand in his. ‘In the meantime, please feel free to drop in again any time,’ he encouraged warmly. ‘Let me take you out to lunch next time. Jane, too, of course.’
‘Lovely,’ Jinx answered noncommittally. ‘It was nice to meet you, Miss Morrow,’ she added in parting to the other woman, deliberately not so much as glancing in Nik’s direction as she hurried out of the office.
As if the hounds of hell were at her heels!
And she didn’t relax again until she was seated in the back of yet another taxi taking her home, resting her head back against the seat, her eyes closed, almost able to hear the rapid pounding of her heart.
Never again!
Never again would she allow her emotions to rule her head in that way. She knew what she had to do, knew the dangers attached to revealing the identity of J. I. Watson. And today she had almost blown that.
Because of Nik Prince.
Because he had made her angry.
Because, against all the odds, she knew she was falling in love with him…!
‘Well, well, well,’ Jane Morrow drawled as she and Nik left James Stephens’s office together. ‘Who would have thought that J. I. Watson would turn out to be a woman?’
‘Yes,’ he returned neutrally, anxious to be gone. If he hurried he might still be able to catch up with Jinx before she left. He knew without a doubt that it would be his only chance of finding her again! Whatever had driven her to come here at all—and he had a distinct feeling it was anger towards him!—he knew, even if James Stephens didn’t, that she would never come here again.
Jane quirked teasing brows at him. ‘Makes your life a lot easier, though, doesn’t it?’
‘Sorry?’ Nik deliberately kept his expression bland, having no idea yet where this conversation was going. Having little interest, either, if he was honest.
‘Oh, come on, Nik.’ Jane laughed huskily as she touched him lightly on the chest. ‘You know how good you are at charming women.’
His mouth tightened, even while he inwardly acknowledged that he probably deserved that remark from this woman. He had set out to charm her, although, to be fair, Jane had given every indication that she wanted to be charmed!
‘Possibly. If you’ll excuse me, Jane? I’m afraid I have to meet someone.’ He knew he probably sounded rude, but he was very conscious of the precious seconds ticking away on the clock.
‘Of course.’ She slowly removed her hand from his chest, blue eyes hard now. ‘You know where I am if you feel like company.’
She knew where he was too, but the likelihood of either of them actually contacting the other was extremely remote.
Although that wasn’t to say Nik wasn’t completely conscious of her glacial gaze on him all the time he walked down the carpeted corridor to the lift, that feeling confirmed as he turned once inside the lift and saw her still standing exactly where he had left her. She raised a mocking hand in parting, and Nik was relieved when the lift doors closed and shut out her image. After the way they had parted last time, he had been a little surprised by her initial friendliness, although it hadn’t taken too long for her to revert back to derisive anger at his obvious lack of interest.
Not very gallant of him, he accepted, but, for some reason he couldn’t completely explain, Jane Morrow’s hand on his chest just now had given him a distinct feeling of distaste.
It couldn’t be because he was falling for Jinx, could it? a little voice mocked inside his head. A little voice that sounded decidedly like Zak’s voice teasing him!
And the answer was…no, he wasn’t falling for Jinx. She seemed extremely vulnerable to him, very much alone, which probably brought out the same protective instinct in him that he felt towards his sister Stazy, but he certainly wasn’t falling for her.
Protesting too much, BB?
Zak’s voice again, damn it. And he had told both Zak and Rik repeatedly not to call him Big Brother.
But then, if he wasn’t falling for Jinx, exactly what was he doing chasing all over London after her in cabs?
Securing the movie rights to a book, that was what!
Lame, Nik, extremely lame. He might as well admit it, to himself if to no one else: the movie had become secondary in his pursuit of Jinx. She was what he wanted right now, every satiny inch of her naked beneath him, her legs wrapped about his hips as they took each other to the heights and back.
He was so lost in thoughts of that image as he came out of the building onto the pavement that he almost missed Jinx’s cab pulling away from the kerb. Mentally cursing himself for his daydreaming, he rushed forward to hail another cab, climbing inside to tell the driver to follow the cab ahead.
The sideways glance he received from the cabbie in the overhead driving mirror, even as he turned the vehicle out into the flow of traffic, was enough to make Nik feel like a character in a second-rate movie. And he had never made a second-rate movie in his life, let alone starred in one.
‘The lady left her purse behind,’ he leant forward to mutter.
He received another sideways glance for his trouble. ‘Course she did, mate!’ the cabbie said skeptically.
Nik decided to ignore the driver and instead concentrate on the cab ahead. He could just see Jinx’s head above the back seat, that fiery red hair unmistakable. She wasn’t going to like the fact that he was following her, so he would have to make sure—
‘I ’ate to say this, guv’ner,’ the cabbie cut in on his thoughts a few minutes later, ‘but I ’ave a feeling that someone’s following you too. The taxi be’ind is sticking pretty close, if ya know what I mean?’
Nik did know what he meant, having glanced back to see another black cab almost driving on the bumper of this one, two passengers visible in the back of the vehicle, even if their features were indistinguishable. But every turn that this cab took as it followed behind Jinx, the one behind followed.
Reporters again? Nik couldn’t think of anyone else it could be. And if it was the same two from earlier this morning, they were obviously ticked off with him enough to be dogged in their pursuit.
‘Can you lose them?’ he asked his driver.
‘I can try,’ the man came back with a cheeky grin, obviously relishing the thought. ‘But I might lose sight of the cab in front if I do that.’
Continue to follow Jinx? Or lose the cab behind?
After this morning’s fiasco, Jinx certainly wasn’t going to thank him if he should lead a reporter directly to her door. But if he had the driver divert from following her, in an effort to divert the cab following his, Nik had a feeling he might never find Jinx again.
Something that didn’t please him at all.
Neither choice was a good one as far as he was concerned.
‘Okay,’ he sighed heavily. ‘Turn off at the end of the next block and let’s lose these guys.’ And he would lose Jinx…
He gazed regretfully after her cab as his driver took the next left turn, her own cab continuing straight on.
‘Uh oh,’ his driver murmured a few seconds later.
‘What is it?’ Nik demanded sharply.
The man shrugged. ‘Guess they weren’t following you, after all.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Take a look.’ The man grimaced.
Nik turned to look out the back window, the other cab no longer in sight. ‘Where did they go?’
Surely they couldn’t both have been wrong, after all? If they had, and the cab just happened to have been going the same way that they were, that meant he had lost Jinx for absolutely no reason.
‘They continued to follow the other cab, I’m afraid, guv,’ the man told him apologetically.
Nik frowned at the empty road behind them. ‘Are you sure?’
‘Positive.’
Nik didn’t hesitate. ‘Turn back onto the other road, will you, and see if you can catch them up again?’
While he tried to work out exactly what was going on!
He had assumed, both he and Jinx—after a little persuasion on his part—that the reporter from this morning was following him in the hopes of getting a story, that Jinx’s presence there just happened to be coincidental. But what if they had both been wrong…?
Now that he thought about it, he remembered that the woman who had turned out to be a reporter had already been in the hotel when he’d met Jinx in Reception this morning, sitting in one of the chairs there apparently reading a newspaper.
She had then followed them through to the lounge, again seemingly reading a newspaper as she drank a cup of coffee.
But what if following Nik was only a means to an end, in the hopes that he’d lead the reporter and her photographer to the mysterious author J. I. Watson…?
Something he had undoubtedly done!
CHAPTER EIGHT
JINX heaved a sigh of relief as the taxi pulled in next to the kerb beside her home, so weary now that she didn’t even want to think about—
‘Get out of the cab and go into the house, Jinx! Quickly!’ Nik Prince instructed grimly as he wrenched open the door beside her.
She stared up at him dazedly. Where on earth had he come from? More to the point, how had he got here? If he had been following her again—
‘I don’t have time to explain now, Jinx,’ he muttered impatiently, starting to pull her out of the taxi. ‘Just go inside and lock the door!’
She blinked up at him incredulously as she suddenly found herself out on the pavement beside him. ‘Now just listen here, Nik—’
‘Now, Jinx!’ he rasped, taking her firmly by the shoulders and turning her in the direction of the house.
One glance at the reporter from this morning, the photographer at her side—obviously with a replacement film if the fact that he was focusing the machine on her was any indication—as the two of them hurried across the pavement towards her was enough to send Jinx hurtling in the direction of the house as if the devil were at her heels.
She almost dropped her door key in her hurry to unlock the door, shooting one last frantic glance in Nik’s direction as he stood arguing with the reporter and photographer, before she escaped into the house and closed the door firmly behind her.
