Читать книгу Tall, Dark & Rich - Кэрол Мортимер, Кэрол Мортимер - Страница 10

‘SO, WHAT do you think?’ Jonas asked as he stepped back from Mac.

‘What do I think about what?’ She blinked up at him as she straightened away from the wall to push the tangle of her hair back from her face; her eyes fever bright, her cheeks flushed, and those sensuously enticing lips slightly swollen from the fierce hunger of their kisses.

A hunger that had made Jonas forget, not only who they were, but where they were. All that had mattered to him at that moment was tasting Mac, devouring those tempting red lips, pressing the heat of his body against hers, her fingers becoming entangled in his hair as she responded to his desire.

Jonas knew he hadn’t been this physically aroused, so totally lost to reason, since he was an inexperienced teenager. And he didn’t like the sensation of being out of control. He didn’t like it at all.

His mouth twisted. ‘The two of us getting a hotel room for the afternoon.’

Mac’s eyes widened. ‘Certainly not!’ she exclaimed indignantly.

‘Why not?’ he taunted.

‘Why not?’ Mac repeated as she glared up at him. ‘I have no idea what sort of women you usually associate with, Jonas, but I can assure you that I do not go to hotel rooms with men for the afternoon!’

‘I wasn’t suggesting you went with men plural, Mac, just me,’ he drawled.

‘I said no!’ She was breathing heavily in her agitation, the fullness of her breasts rapidly rising and falling.

Something that Jonas was all too well aware of as he looked down at her and his still heavily roused manhood pulsed achingly in response. ‘You want me, I want you, so why the hell not?’ he rasped.

He would have felt happier about this situation if Mac had just said yes to the two of them going to a hotel for the afternoon. That way he would have found her less of an enigma than he did now. Less intriguing than he did now.

Because Mac had definitely returned his passion. Yet it was a passion she made it clear she had no intention of doing anything about, probably not now nor in the future. He already knew his own afternoon was going to be as uncomfortable as his morning had been, but how did Mac intend dealing with her own unsatisfied arousal?

‘Unless you’re trying to tell me you don’t want me?’ he murmured.

Mac wasn’t sure which of her emotions was the strongest—the urge she had to slap Jonas’s arrogant face or the one she had to just sit down and cry at her own stupidity.

Because he was right, damn him. She did want him. She had never physically wanted a man more, in fact, her whole body one burning ache of need. Something Mac knew was going to bother her long after he had gone back to his office to attend his afternoon meetings.

But she definitely wanted to slap him too. For bringing that physical awareness down to a purely basic level by suggesting they get a hotel room for the afternoon and satisfy those longings.

She really wasn’t that sort of woman. She had never done anything so impulsively reckless as kissing a man so heatedly on the premises of a restaurant before, let alone gone to a hotel room with him, and she had no intention of doing the latter now with Jonas, either. Much as she might secretly ache to do so. It sounded wild. Liberating. Dangerously exciting…

She deliberately fell back on anger as the solution to her predicament. ‘Whether I want you or not, an afternoon in a hotel bedroom with a man I barely know—and who I really don’t want to know any better—is really not my thing,’ she told him scornfully. ‘If you’re feeling frustrated, Jonas, then I’m sure there are any number of women you could call who would be only too happy to spend the afternoon satisfying you!’

Jonas’s eyes narrowed to icy slits. ‘I’ve never been that desperate for sex, Mac.’

Including sex with her, she knew he was implying. Which was no doubt true. Jonas was young, handsome and rich enough to attract any woman he decided he wanted. He certainly didn’t need to trouble himself over one stubborn artist, who obviously irritated him as much as she aroused him.

And Mac had aroused him. She’d felt the hard evidence of that arousal pressed against her own thighs as Jonas kissed her.

Her mouth firmed. ‘I suggest we just forget about lunch,’ she said abruptly. ‘I’m really not hungry any more, and I doubt you are either—’

‘Not for food, anyway,’ Jonas muttered.

‘I—’ Mac broke off suddenly as the woman who had interrupted them earlier now came back out of the ladies’ room, her gaze averted as she passed them and returned to the dining room of the restaurant. Mac’s embarrassment returned with a vengeance. ‘Don’t worry, I’ll explain to Luciano that you had an appointment you had to go to rather than intending any slight to the preparation of his food.’

‘I moved my afternoon around. My next appointment isn’t for another hour,’ Jonas told her.

Her eyes widened. ‘You want us to go back to the table and finish eating lunch together?’

After what just happened between us? Jonas inwardly finished Mac’s question. And the answer to that was no, of course he didn’t want them to return to the table and carry on eating lunch together as if nothing had happened. But neither did he appreciate Mac dismissing him as if the last few minutes had never happened at all.

His mouth thinned. ‘Obviously not,’ he bit out tersely. ‘I’ll settle the bill and explain to Luciano that you had a previous appointment.’

Mac frowned. ‘I asked you out to lunch—’

‘I’m paying the bill, Mac,’ Jonas repeated firmly.

Mac continued to look up at him frowningly for several long seconds before giving an impatient shrug. ‘Fine. Whatever.’ Her tone implied she just wanted to get out of here. Away from him. Now.

A need she followed through on as she turned swiftly on her heel and marched down the hallway back into the restaurant, the door swinging closed behind her.

Jonas remained where he was for several more minutes after Mac had gone, eyes narrowed and his expression grim as he recognised that she was no longer just a problem on a business level, but had also become one on a personal level, too.

Perhaps one that would only be resolved once they had been to bed together…

Mac was barefooted and belatedly eating a piece of toast for her lunch when she went to answer the knock on her door later that afternoon, a brief glance through the spy-hole in the door showing her that she didn’t know the grey-haired man standing at the top of the metal staircase dressed like a workman in blue overalls and a thick checked shirt. ‘Yes?’ she prompted politely after opening the door.

‘Afternoon, love,’ the middle-aged man returned with a smile. ‘Bob Jenkins. I’ve come to replace ya window.’

Mac’s brows rose. ‘That’s great!’

He was already inspecting the broken window next to the door. ‘Had a break-in, did ya?’ He gave a shake of his head. ‘Too much of it about nowadays. No respect, that’s the problem. Not for people or their property.’

‘No.’ Mac grimaced as she recalled the mess that had been left in her studio.

‘It will only take a few minutes to fix.’ Bob Jenkins gave her another encouraging smile. ‘I’ll just go and get my things from the van.’

Mac had made him a mug of tea by the time he came back up the stairs with his tools and a pane of glass that appeared to be the exact size of the one that had been broken. ‘How did you know which size glass to bring?’

The glazier took a sip of tea and put the mug down before he began working on the window frame. ‘The boss is pretty good at judging things like this,’ he explained.

Mac sipped her own tea as she watched him work. ‘Was that the man I spoke to on the telephone this morning?’

‘Don’t know about that, love.’ Bob Jenkins looked up to give her a grin. ‘He just told me to get over here toot sweet and replace the window.’

Mac had no idea why, but she had a sudden uneasy feeling about ‘the boss’. Maybe because she didn’t recall telling the man at the glazier company she had called this morning what size window had been broken. Or expected anyone to arrive from that company until tomorrow…

She eyed Bob warily. ‘Exactly who is the boss?’

He raised grizzled grey brows. ‘Mr Buchanan, of course.’

Exactly what Mac had suspected—dreaded—hearing!

After their strained parting earlier Mac hadn’t expected to see or hear from Jonas ever again. Although technically, she wasn’t seeing or hearing from him now, either; he had just arrogantly sent one of his workmen over to fix her broken window.

Why?

Was Jonas treating her like the ‘fragile little woman’ who needed the help of the ‘big, strong man’?

Or was Jonas replacing the window because he knew that he—or someone who worked for him—was responsible for it being broken in the first place?

‘Of course,’ Mac answered the workman distractedly. ‘If you’ll excuse me, Bob?’

‘No problem,’ he assured her brightly.

Mac was so annoyed at Jonas’s high-handedness that she didn’t quite know what to do with all the anger bubbling inside her. What did he think he was doing, interfering in this way, when she had already told him that she had arranged for a glazier to come out tomorrow?

An arrangement he had instantly expressed his disapproval of. Enough to have arranged for one of his own workmen to come out and replace the window immediately, apparently! Were Jonas’s actions prompted by a guilty conscience? Or by something else? Although quite what that something else could be Mac had no idea. It was enough, surely, that Jonas was sticking his arrogant nose into her business?

Too right it was!

‘What can I do for you this time, Mac?’ Jonas took his briefcase out of the car before locking it and turning to face her wearily across the private and brightly lid underground car park beneath his apartment building.

He had been vaguely aware, as he drove home at the end of what had been a damned awful day, of the black motorbike following in the traffic behind him. He simply hadn’t realised that Mac was the driver of that motorbike until she followed him down into the car park, stopped the vehicle behind his car and removed the black crash helmet to shake the long length of her ebony-dark hair loose about her shoulders. The black biking leathers she was wearing fitted her as snugly as a glove, and clearly outlined the fullness of her breasts and her slender waist and hips. Jonas couldn’t help thinking of how they were no doubt moulded to her perfectly shaped bottom, too!

But there was no way that Jonas could mistake the obviously hostile demeanour on her face for anything other than what it was as she climbed off the motorbike; her eyes were sparkling with challenge, the fullness of her lips compressed and unsmiling.

Jonas’s afternoon had been just as uncomfortable as he had thought it might be. So much so that he hadn’t been able to give his usual concentration to his business meetings.

What was it about this woman in particular that so disturbed him? Mac was beautiful, yes, but in a wild and Bohemian sort of way that had never appealed to him before. There was absolutely nothing about her that usually attracted him to a woman. She was short and dark-haired, boyishly slender apart from the fullness of her breasts, and not in the least sophisticated; she even rode a motorbike, for heaven’s sake!

Jonas wasn’t particularly into motorbikes, but even he recognised the machine as being a Harley, the chassis a shiny black, its silver chrome gleaming brightly. For what had to be the dozenth time, Jonas told himself that Mac McGuire was most definitely not his type.

So why the hell couldn’t he stop thinking about her?

His eyes narrowed. ‘Don’t you think—whatever your reason for being here—that following me home is taking things to an extreme?’

Her mouth tightened further at the criticism. ‘Maybe.’

He raised mocking brows. ‘Only maybe?’

‘Yes,’ she admitted grudgingly.

He eyed her coldly. ‘And so you’re here because…?’

She glared at him. ‘You sent a glazier to repair my window.’

‘Yes.’

Her eyes widened. ‘You aren’t even going to attempt to deny it?’

Jonas grimaced. ‘Presumably Bob told you I had sent him?’

‘Yes.’

‘Then what would be the point of my trying to deny it?’ he reasoned impatiently.

Mac was feeling a little foolish now that she was actually face to face with Jonas. Anger had been her primary emotion, as she waited the twenty minutes or so it had taken Bob Jenkins to replace the window, before donning her leathers and getting her motorcycle out of the garage and riding it over to Jonas’s office. Just in time to see Jonas driving out of the office underground car park in his dark green sports car.

Frustrated anger had made her decide to follow him home; having ridden back into the city for the sole purpose of speaking to him, Mac had had no intention of just turning round and going home without doing exactly that.

At least, she had hoped Jonas was driving home; it would be a little embarrassing for Mac to have followed him to a date with another woman!

The prestigious apartment building above this underground car park—so unlike her own rambling warehouse-conversion home—definitely looked like the sort of place Jonas would choose to live.

She stubbornly stood her ground. ‘I told you I had a glazier coming out tomorrow.’

Jonas nodded tersely. ‘And I seem to recall telling you that wasn’t good enough.’

Her eyes widened. ‘So you just arranged for one of your own workmen to come over this afternoon instead? Without even giving me the courtesy of telling me about it?’

Jonas could see that Mac was clearly running out of steam, her accusing tone certainly lacking some of its earlier anger. He regarded her mockingly. ‘So it would seem.’

‘I—but—you can’t just take over my life in this way, Jonas!’

He frowned. ‘You see ensuring your safety as an attempt to take over your life?’

‘Yes! Well…not exactly,’ she allowed impatiently. ‘But it was certainly an arrogant thing to do!’

Yes, she was definitely running out of steam…‘But I am arrogant, Mac.’

‘It’s not something you should be in the least proud of!’

He gave her an unapologetic, smile. ‘Your objection is duly noted.’

‘And dismissed!’

Jonas gave a shrug. ‘I presume Bob has now replaced the broken window?’

Mac gave a disgusted snort. ‘He wouldn’t dare do anything else when “the boss” told him to do so “toot sweet”.’

Jonas had to smile at her perfect mimicry of Bob’s broad Cockney accent. ‘Well, unless you want me to break the window again just so that you can have the satisfaction of having your own glazier fix it tomorrow, I don’t really see what you want me to do about it.’

Those smoky-grey eyes narrowed. ‘You think you’re so clever, don’t you?’

Jonas straightened. ‘No, Mac, I think what I did was the most sensible course of action in the circumstances,’ he stated calmly. ‘If you disagree with that, then that’s obviously your prerogative.’

‘I disagree with the way you went about it, not with the fact that you did it,’ she continued in obvious frustration.

He gave a cool nod. ‘Again, your objection is duly noted.’

‘Right. Okay.’ Mac didn’t quite know what to do or say now that she’d voiced her protest over the replacement of her broken window.

She should have just telephoned Jonas and told him what she thought of him rather than coming back into town to speak to him personally. She certainly shouldn’t—as he had already pointed out so mockingly—have followed him home!

The wisest thing to do now would be to get back on her motorbike and drive back home. Unwisely, Mac knew she wasn’t yet ready to do that…

Just looking at Jonas, his dark hair once again ruffled by the breeze outside, the hard arrogance of his face clearly visible in the brightly lit car park, was enough to make her knees go weak. To remind her of the way he had kissed and touched her earlier today. To make her long for him to kiss and touch her in that way again.

To make her question whether that wasn’t the very reason she had come here in the first place…

Jonas had been watching the different emotions flickering across Mac’s expressive face. First the fading of her anger, which was replaced by confusion and uncertainty. And now he could see those emotions replaced by an unmistakable hunger in those smoky-grey eyes as she looked at him so intently…

A hunger he fully reciprocated. ‘I intend to have several glasses of wine as soon as I get up to my apartment—would you care to join me?’ he offered huskily.

She visibly swallowed. ‘That’s probably not a good idea.’

Again, here and now, Jonas was more than willing to go with a bad idea. His body physically ached from the hours he had already spent aroused by this woman today; the thought of an evening and night suffering the same discomfort did not appeal to him in the slightest. Besides, he really did want to see her perfect little bottom in those skin-tight leathers! ‘Half a glass of wine isn’t going to do you any harm, Mac.’

‘Isn’t it?’

Maybe it was, Jonas acknowledged with dark humour. If he had anything to do or say about it. ‘Scared, Mac?’ he taunted.

Her cheeks became flushed. ‘Now you’re deliberately challenging me into agreeing to go up to your apartment with you!’

He gave her an amused smile. ‘Is it working?’

Mac knew that her temptation to go up to Jonas’s apartment with him had very little to do with annoyance. Just talking with him like this made her nerve endings tingle, the low timbre of his voice sending little quivers of awareness up her nape and down the length of her spine, the fine hairs on her arms standing to attention, and her skin feeling as if it were covered in goose-bumps. She also felt uncomfortably hot, a heat she knew had nothing to do with the leathers she was wearing to keep out the early evening chill, and everything to do with being so physically aware of Jonas.

All of which told Mac she would be a fool to go anywhere she would be completely alone—and vulnerable to her own churning emotions—with Jonas.

Except she ached to be alone with him.

She nodded abruptly. ‘I—Fine. Will it be safe to leave my helmet down here with my bike?’

‘I’m sure your bike and helmet will be perfectly safe left down here,’ Jonas assured her.

The implication being that it was Mac’s own safety, once she was alone with him in his apartment, that she ought to be worried about.