Читать книгу Out of Hours...His Feisty Assistant - Heidi Rice - Страница 14

KATE STOOD IN THE DOORWAY of the palatial open-plan kitchen, cinched the tie on the silk kimono she’d found on the end of the bed and studied Zack’s back. He seemed surprisingly at home standing over the gleaming steel hob, spatula in hand. The buttery perfume of cooking eggs filled the air. The smell wasn’t the only thing making her mouth water. He looked tall and gorgeous as always in a pair of worn jeans and a faded sweatshirt with the sleeves torn off at the elbows.

What was it about watching macho guys cook that made a woman’s head spin? The sight wasn’t helping Kate’s nerves one bit.

‘Hi.’ Her voice came out on a silly little squeak. She cleared her throat and tried again. ‘Um, good morning.’

He stopped stirring, turned slowly and gave her an easy smile. ‘Morning.’ He nodded towards the breakfast bar and pointed at one of the stools with the spatula. ‘Take a seat. Breakfast’s done.’

She didn’t move. ‘What am I doing in your penthouse?’ she said blankly, trying hard not to be charmed.

Why was he cooking her breakfast? And what exactly had happened last night? All she remembered was passing out. She’d woken up from a deep, dreamless sleep ten minutes ago to discover herself in his bed with only a few scraps of underwear on, the mid-morning sunshine peeking through the curtains on the huge picture window.

It didn’t look good.

‘We’ll talk after we eat,’ he said, dishing the eggs onto plates already loaded with bacon and toasted muffins. ‘You want to grab the coffee?’

She didn’t want coffee, or breakfast for that matter. Her stomach was tied in greasy knots of apprehension. The only thing she did remember was making a complete fool of herself last night—swooning like the heroine in a bad B-movie. But she had absolutely no clue as to what had happened afterwards.

Had they made love?

If they hadn’t, why was he being so friendly now? He’d as good as ordered her off the premises last night in the bar.

If they had, she didn’t think her pride would ever recover.

Zack transferred the plates to the breakfast bar, which he’d already laid with cutlery and glasses of orange juice. He frowned when he looked up.

She was still rooted in the doorway.

‘Okay, spill it, whatever it is,’ he said, sounding exasperated. ‘I spent twenty minutes cooking breakfast—I don’t want to eat it cold.’ He placed the coffee pot and a couple of mugs next to their plates and waited.

Kate had always believed in being direct. Still she had to force the words out. ‘Did we sleep together last night?’

His eyebrows shot up and then he laughed. Kate’s back stiffened like a board. He slid onto one of the stools, keeping his bare feet on the floor, and poured himself a cup of coffee, still chuckling.

Heat rose in Kate’s cheeks. She wrapped her arms round her waist. ‘What’s so funny?’

He looked at her over the cup, still grinning at the private joke. ‘Sweetheart, you’ve given my ego some major-league hits in the last couple of days.’

The self-deprecating shake of his head and the warmth in his voice made Kate relax a little. ‘How so?’

He took a gulp of his coffee, put the cup down and patted the stool beside him. ‘Sit down and I’ll tell you.’

She hesitated, then walked to him and lifted herself onto the stool. Propping her feet on the foot bar, she tugged the silk over her bare legs.

He put a hand on her knee. She tensed, only too aware of the warm pressure through the cool silk, and the clean, devastatingly familiar scent of him.

‘All I’m saying is, when I make love to a woman, the lady usually remembers it in the morning.’ He lifted his hand. ‘And I don’t take advantage of women when they can’t say no.’ He fixed his eyes on hers. ‘You were out cold last night. So I took one of the other bedrooms.’

‘Oh, well, that’s good.’ She should have been relieved, but for some inexplicable reason she wasn’t, quite. ‘Thanks.’

‘You’re welcome,’he said, picking up his fork. ‘Now, eat up.’

She did as she was told, suddenly at a loss as to what to think. Okay, so they hadn’t slept together, but why was he being so nice to her, then? They’d hardly been on good terms the night before.

As soon as she tasted her breakfast, Kate’s appetite pushed the doubts to one side in a surge of hunger. She tucked into the light fluffy scrambled eggs, crispy bacon and hot buttered muffins, savouring every delicious bite. She was polishing off her second cup of coffee when she noticed he’d finished his breakfast and was watching her.

She put down her cup.

‘I see you found the robe,’ he said casually. ‘It suits you,’

Kate looked down at the luxurious blue silk kimono embroidered with a flame-breathing dragon down one side. ‘It’s beautiful,’ she murmured, pulling on the lapels. ‘Whose is it?’

As soon as she’d asked the question, she wished she could take it back. No doubt one of his other conquests had left the silk robe behind. She knew she had no claim on him, but somehow the thought of sitting in his kitchen in some other woman’s clothes made her lose her appetite.

‘I was given it on a business trip to Japan,’ he said, refilling his coffee-cup. ‘Over there, guys wear those things, too. It’s not really my style, though.’ His gaze wandered over her figure. ‘It looks better on you.’

Kate let out the breath she’d been holding, and then felt annoyed by her reaction. Why should she care who the kimono belonged to?

She wiped her mouth with her napkin. ‘Breakfast was delicious, Zack. Thanks, it was nice of you.’

‘Not really,’ he said, his expression unreadable. ‘I owed you an apology.’

‘You did?’ Why did she feel as if she was missing something vitally important here? ‘What for?’

‘For behaving like a jerk yesterday morning and last night in the bar.’

She blinked, surprised by the admission. She had assumed apologies weren’t his style any more than silk kimonos were. ‘Apology accepted, then.’

Time to leave, she decided, before she let that smouldering look get the better of her again. Popping off the stool, she reached for his plate.

He took her wrist, stilled her hand. ‘What are you doing?’

‘I thought I’d clean up, before I go.’

‘No need,’ he said, turning her hand over. ‘The housekeeping staff’ll get it later.’ He stroked his thumb across the pulse point, making her shiver. Then he lifted her hand to his lips and bit softly into the pad of flesh at the base of her thumb.

A sharp dart of desire shot straight down to Kate’s core.

‘Don’t,’ she said, curling her fingers into a fist. She tugged on her hand.

His eyes locked on hers, making her feel both trapped and needy. ‘Why not?’ he said, his voice gentle but firm. ‘What are you afraid of, Kate?’

You, she thought, the panic making her throat constrict. It had been hard enough walking away from him yesterday morning. Kind and considerate were the last things she would have expected from him. They pulled at a place deep inside her she didn’t want pulled at. There was nothing between them except one night of spectacular sex, and it would cost her if she ever forgot it.

‘I have to go,’ she said, struggling to ignore the jackhammer thumps of her heartbeat. ‘I need to check out of my suite today, and then I have to find another job.’

He let her hand go, swore under his breath. ‘Why are you so hung up on paying your way?’

‘I’m not hung up on it.’ She’d rather die than tell him the real reason—it was far too personal. ‘It’s just, it’s important to me, that’s all.’

‘Yeah, I get that.’ Frustration hardened his voice. ‘I was the one who stopped you falling on your face after you’d worked yourself into a coma, remember.’

The words came out harsher than Zack had intended. When he saw her flinch he could have kicked himself. Here he was trying to persuade her to stick around and he’d blown it, already. How did the woman get him worked up quicker than a wolf at a rabbit convention? He was famous for being smooth with women, and yet with her he found it all but impossible to keep his cool.

‘Yes, I do remember,’she said, her shoulders ramrod straight under the floating silk. ‘I also recall you telling me to leave your hotel. Which is what I intend to do, so you won’t have to pick me up off the floor again.’

‘Kate,’ he said, aiming for easygoing. ‘I’m not having that same argument all over again.’ Okay, maybe easygoing was going to be a stretch.

‘Good, because neither am I.’

She tried to walk past him. He stepped in front of her.

Defiance flashed in her eyes but behind it was something else. Something he’d seen the night before when he’d held her. Something that looked a lot like vulnerability. It gave him the cue he needed to say what he had to say.

‘I’ve got a proposition for you.’

Her eyes flared and he had to suppress a grin.

‘Not that kind of proposition.’Well, not quite anyway. ‘It’ll be worth your while. I swear. If you’ll sit down and listen.’

She still looked mutinous.

‘Please.’ The word made him feel uncomfortable, but when she huffed and sat back on her stool he figured it had been worth it.

‘All right, I’m listening,’ she said, her chin still thrust out.

She looked stiff as a poker, perched precariously on the edge of the stool, but at least he wasn’t watching her cute rear end walking out the door.

Now, how to say what he wanted to without setting her off again?

Luckily for him, he’d spent most of the night giving the problem a whole lot of thought and he had a plan. All he had to do was stick to it.

When he’d got her up to the penthouse the night before, his first concern had been getting her out of her outfit without waking her up.

It had been an exquisite kind of torture, the flowery scent she wore making him instantly hard as he’d recalled just how hot and ready she’d been in his arms the previous evening. He’d had no trouble keeping his thoughts G-rated, though, once he’d eased off her shoes and seen the raw, reddened skin on her heels and toes.

The guilt had swamped him. He’d tried to tell himself it wasn’t his fault that she’d worked herself to exhaustion. He wasn’t the bastard who’d stranded her in a foreign city with no clothes, no money. But he hadn’t quite managed to convince himself. The feeling of responsibility and the urge to keep her safe were as strong, if not stronger, than they had been when he’d carried her out of the bar.

He’d never met a woman as independent, as self-sufficient as she was or as determined to prove it. And he’d certainly never met a woman he wanted to take care of before. That the thought was arousing as well as infuriating was just another one of the contradictions that made his reaction to this woman unique.

He’d spent the previous day sulking, telling himself she could go hang herself for all he cared. But once he’d been sitting on the edge of his bed, watching the gentle rise and fall of her breathing, he’d had to admit that whatever it was that was between them, it wasn’t over. Not by a long shot.

While he’d been sitting there in the half-light considering that startling fact, a part of the conversation they’d had during their first meeting had poked at the back of his brain. Had she told him she’d been working as Andrew Rocastle’s PA? The possibility had seemed almost too fortuitous to be true so he’d had the concierge pull out Rocastle’s registration details and then made a late-night call to Rocastle’s company offices in London where it had been already morning. He’d spoken to a very helpful personnel woman who’d pointed out that Kate Denton had indeed worked as Rocastle’s PA until an ‘unfortunate incident’ two days ago. He knew all about the ‘unfortunate incident’and it hadn’t put him off in the least. Anyhow, he only need offer her a two-week contract. If she wasn’t up to the job he was offering her it hardly mattered. Her typing skills weren’t the main reason he wanted her at his beck and call.

Kate Denton was a fire in his blood he needed to get out. A few weeks with her working as his PA ought to cure him of his obsession once and for all—and if she did a halfway decent job, all the better.

Having decided to give the idea a shot, the only remaining obstacle was figuring out how to make Kate go for the deal. He’d stayed up half the night working out his strategy. Cooking her breakfast had been the first part of the plan. He’d stumbled, badly, by letting his frustration show a moment ago. Now he had her back on the stool and marginally willing to listen to what he had to say, he wasn’t about to make the same mistake again. Keep calm, he thought, keep cool and give the carrot the hard sell. He could get to the stick later, if he had to—he had the connections to stop her from getting any other jobs in Vegas—but for now, he figured the carrot was his best option.

‘The truth is, Kate, I’m in a fix and I need your help.’

‘What kind of a fix?’

‘My PA quit yesterday and I need someone with me in California for the next couple of weeks. How about it?’

‘You want to employ me? As your PA?’ Kate was so astonished, it was a miracle she didn’t fall off the stool.

‘Yeah. I can only offer you a two-week contract,’ he said, as if he were discussing the weather, ‘but it’ll be a lot more dough than you can get doing bar work and I’ll cover your expenses during the trip, naturally.’

‘You’re not serious?’ Surely this must be some kind of joke? He didn’t say anything, just looked at her, his eyes steady, his lips curving ever so slightly. ‘You are serious,’ she said, completely incredulous.

‘I need to close a deal I’ve been setting up for over two years. I’m selling my holdings in Vegas, buying a resort hotel in Big Sur called The Grange. Great coastal location, established clientele, with loads of potential for expansion and modernisation. I need someone to handle my planner, do the secretarial stuff as I hammer out the final details of the negotiation with the owner.’

‘Oh, I see,’ Kate murmured, her pulse scrambling into overdrive as her mind whizzed through the possibilities.

This could be the answer to all her prayers. A proper job, a challenging and exciting job that didn’t involve wielding a loo brush or toting a tray of margaritas looking like a pornographic sports groupie. She might not have liked Andrew much, but she’d adored being his PA and she’d been good at it too. Just from the lowly jobs she’d done over the last day, she knew The Phoenix franchise had a much higher profile than Andrew’s piddling Covent Garden design firm. Of course, it was only for two weeks, but in two weeks she could pay off her debts, get some invaluable experience to add to her CV and prove her…

Whoa, there, girl.

Kate’s enthusiastic ramblings slammed to a stop as they ran full tilt into a brick wall. There was one humongous problem with the sparkling career opportunity she was being offered—and it was sitting right in front of her with a sinfully tempting smile on its face.

‘So what do you say? You want to be my Girl Friday?’ the devil said.

Kate gave her head a quick shake, trying to clear out the burst of stardust that had momentarily short circuited her brain cells.

The problem was, she wouldn’t be working for Andrew. She’d be working for Zack. Gorgeous, irresistible, domineering Zack, who insisted on having everything his own way and would be entitled to demand it if he were her boss. As his PA she’d be working closely with him. Handling all those minute details that could feel so personal, so intimate. Hadn’t Andrew once joked that Kate was so efficient she was part personal assistant and part wife? Coming from Andrew it had seemed like an innocuous compliment. If she allowed herself to get into that role with Zack she’d be in considerably more danger. Maybe she ought to clarify what it was he was expecting of her. ‘Do you mind if I ask you something?’

The corners of his mouth quirked up in a knowing grin and she cursed the blush that worked its way up her neck. ‘Sure, ask whatever you want,’ he said.

She licked her parched lips. ‘What do you expect from me, exactly?’

‘What do I expect?’ He rolled the question off his tongue as if he were savouring the words. ‘Hmm, let me see.’

The blush scorched Kate’s cheeks as she waited for his answer and she clutched the silk tighter. She wondered if the penthouse’s air conditioning had suddenly gone on the fritz, because she could have sworn the temperature in the kitchen had just shot up by a good ten degrees.

‘Apart from typing, shorthand, that kind of stuff, I expect you to be available twenty-four-seven. I’ll be honest—I’m not always the easiest guy in the world to work for.’ His gaze flicked to her cleavage. ‘At times I can be real demanding.’ His eyes moved back to her face, the dimple winking in his cheek. ‘But then you already know that.’

Kate felt the melting sensation between her thighs and squeezed the muscles tight. How infuriating that she was unable to deny her instinctive response to him even though she knew he was being deliberately provocative.

‘Stop teasing me,’ she said firmly. ‘It’s not remotely funny.’ The very last thing she wanted to do was look this gift horse in the mouth. She wanted this job, desperately, and probably not just for the career opportunity it offered if she was being completely honest with herself. But she wasn’t about to serve herself up on a platter, job or no job.

He laughed easily, held up his hands in surrender. ‘Okay, Kate, I’m sorry. But the look on your face. It was irresistible.’

‘Answer the question. Why are you offering me this job?’

He skimmed his thumb across her cheekbone, his eyes bright with appreciation. ‘We were pretty spectacular together our first night out. You’re smart, you’re beautiful and you’re desirable and I had a hard time forgetting about what we got up to after you walked out on me yesterday morning. So I’ll admit, one of the reasons I want you with me in California is so we can get up to a lot more of the same.’

It was just as she had suspected. Kate sighed. He was only offering her this job so he could jump back into bed with her. The fact that she didn’t feel nearly as indignant about it as she should made her feel like a besotted fool. ‘I can’t accept the job under those circumstances and you know it.’

Zack leaned against the breakfast bar, but he didn’t look disappointed—just the opposite, in fact. ‘Hear me out here. I’d like to make love to you again. I’m not going to pretend otherwise. We were good at it. But I don’t pay for sex. While we’re in California, you’ll be working your butt off as my PA, and while you’re doing that I’ll be calling the shots, because I’m the boss. But what happens in the bedroom is private and between us. It’s not part of your job description. And I sure as hell don’t intend for it to be a chore,’ he finished, sounding exasperated.

She let out an unsteady breath. At least he’d been totally honest with her. But could she even consider such a proposal? ‘What if I said I won’t sleep with you?’

He shrugged. ‘If you wanted to say that you could and it wouldn’t affect your employment.’ A sensual smile spread across his face. ‘But I’ve gotta warn you now, I’ll do my best to change your mind.’

Fabulous, Kate thought weakly, feeling the familiar inferno flare to life in her belly. What she had here was essentially a frying-pan-or-fire situation, then. Whatever way you looked at it she was liable to get burned. Because she knew she wasn’t going to say no to what he was offering. Unfortunately, she had a bad feeling that the real temptation wasn’t just the promise of a fulfilling day job or the night-time fun and frolics that were going to be even harder to resist. The simple pleasure of spending time with him, working side by side with him, getting to know what made him tick, was by far the most tempting possibility of all. And that was the reason why she should say no. If she let her guard down, if she allowed him to insinuate his way into her heart, she could get badly hurt.

But somehow she couldn’t bring herself to do the sensible thing and say no. He was looking at her expectantly, the intensity in his face playing havoc with her pulse rate.

Surely, if she was careful, if she knew the risks going in, she could take what he offered, enjoy it and survive with her heart intact. Men did that sort of thing all the time. Why shouldn’t she? Independence was the key. She had to make sure that if she compromised anything, she didn’t compromise that. Then her heart would be safe. Never need anyone who doesn’t need you and never sacrifice anything you can’t afford to lose. Her father had taught her that lesson as a child, she had to make sure she didn’t forget it.

She breathed out, her mind made up. ‘I’ll take the job.’

His eyes widened. She’d surprised him. Truth was she’d surprised herself more.

‘Great.’ He stroked her arm. ‘That’s fantastic. I’ll get Monty to work up a contract and then we’ll discuss your salary. But I guarantee you, it’ll be enough to get you back to London next month in style with a nice chunk of change in your pocket.’

‘Okay,’ she said, the thought of going home so soon making her feel as if she were standing on the edge of a very deep precipice already.

‘So we’ve got a deal?’ he asked.

‘Yes, I suppose we have.’ All she had to do, really, was make sure that, whatever happened between them, she kept a good, firm grip on reality at all times. That had always been her mother’s mistake. It wasn’t one she was about to repeat.

She thrust out her hand. He looked down at it, but shook his head. ‘Not good enough,’ he said quietly, pinning her with a gaze that scorched her skin. ‘Not nearly good enough.’ Threading his fingers through her hair, he tilted her face up to his, slanted his lips across hers.

The kiss was so sudden and so hot, it seared her down to her toes.

When he finally lifted his head, she felt as if she’d been branded.

‘There,’ he said, framing her face in large palms. ‘Now we’ve got a deal.’

Twin tides of joy and dread swelled inside Kate as she stared at her new boss.

What had she gone and done now?