Bestselling Authors Collection 2012(31)

‘Mr Pirelli?’ she breathed, and he drank her in.

‘Dominic,’ he corrected, his eyes not leaving lips that looked surprisingly like an invitation. Why had he not noticed that before?

‘Dominic…’

He loved the way his name looked on her lips; he liked the neat white line of teeth below and the hint of pink tongue.

And then his mobile phone rang in his pocket and the spell was broken. He wheeled away, appalled, wondering what the hell he’d been thinking.

Angie scrawled her initials on the papers, hopefully somewhere near the place he’d indicated, and made for the door. She needed to get outside and breathe, for there was no air left in the room, no life-sustaining oxygen to be had. Somehow it had all burnt up in one smouldering look from his dark eyes. But they hadn’t just been dark tonight. They’d been black.

She stumbled from the room, her heart racing as she headed for the kitchen, nearly bumping into Rosa on her way out. ‘Oh. I was just coming to see if you both wanted dessert now, or at least a warm drink.’

‘Nothing for me,’ Angie managed, knowing her cheeks were aflame with colour. ‘I think I’ll go straight to bed. Goodnight.’

‘I just think you should have got her an apartment somewhere,’ Simone protested down the line. ‘Are you sure it was such a good idea to move her into your place?’

‘I couldn’t let her stay out there where she was!’

‘Well, no. But to have her move in with you? Look, Dom, you should be careful with someone like her. Next thing you know, she’ll get used to luxury living and you’ll never get rid of her.’

‘We have an agreement. She signed it tonight. She leaves as soon as the baby is delivered.’

‘And you really believe she’ll go back to where she came from, after seeing how the other half lives?’

‘Why, Simone,’ he said, half joking, ‘anyone would think you cared.’

A moment’s hesitation. ‘I just don’t want anyone taking advantage of you, that’s all.’

He remembered the almost kiss in the study—tried to work out if it was Angie who’d precipitated what had almost happened or him—and gave up trying. In the end nothing had happened and that was how it would stay. ‘Forget it, Simone. You know me. You really think that after so many years of business I’d let someone like her take advantage of me?’

There was an uncomfortable silence on the other end of the line. ‘She’s a woman, Dominic. And, if you haven’t noticed, she’s carrying your child, and now we learn her husband’s dumped her. Of course she’s going to play on your heart strings every chance she gets. Arrangement or not, what has she got to lose by trying?’

‘Thanks for the warning,’ he said. ‘Not that I think there’s too much chance of me falling for someone like her, do you?’

At the end of the phone line Simone laughed, exactly the reaction he’d intended, but as he terminated the call a few moments later he told himself that he’d only spoken the truth. There was no chance in the world he’d be taken in by someone like Angie Cameron. Sure, maybe he thought her new haircut suited her, but he hadn’t actually kissed her, had he? Nothing had happened. Nothing would happen. He’d make sure of it. He’d stay out of her way. Take dinner in his office as if nothing had changed.

Because nothing really had changed. It wasn’t as if she was an invited guest. They had a contract, one that said nothing about him having to entertain her for the duration. Once she fulfilled the terms, she’d leave.

After all, surely he hadn’t come this far to start slumming it now.





CHAPTER SEVEN


TONIGHT sleep eluded her, despite the smooth white sheets and fluffy comforter and the crash of waves on the rocks below.

What had she been thinking in his office? He’d seemed tense. Nervy even, as if she was cramping his style. And so she’d decided to sign the damn contract so she could get out of there, except she’d sensed something fanning her hair and turned suddenly, and he’d been right there behind her—right there! And the way he’d looked at her, with those dark eyes heated and intense, she’d felt that tug, that insane longing once again.

She should have turned right back around. She should have stood up and told him she’d need to read the agreement over again in her suite, but she’d stayed there for a moment too long, and then he’d leaned towards her and she’d waited. Waited for what?

For him to kiss her?

She rolled over and dragged a pillow over her head. Oh, God she was crazy! Pregnancy hormones were making her crazy. And just why would billionaire Dominic Pirelli try to kiss her? He, no doubt, had the pick of Sydney society to entertain if he so wished.