Was there a touch of admiration in his voice? He was a strong-willed man; perhaps he liked women who mirrored that strength? Suddenly she was a tigress. What was so different between a commercial jet and a light aircraft anyway? As long as it went up and stayed up!
‘Okay, I’ll give it a go,’ she agreed, and was rewarded with a smile that took her breath away, the curve of his mouth a sensual invitation that she longed to accept.
‘You’re a star, gorgeous.’ He was so relaxed, so different from the hard-faced barrister she had grown used to, and his throwaway compliment caused goosebumps to prickle her skin.
She stood by the plane and watched him complete his pre-flight checks. He was a man who was way out of her reach, and in his eyes she was a married woman. It was time she started to act like one.
‘Why do you have to waggle the wings?’ she queried nervously. ‘Are they likely to fall off?’
‘Of course not. Come on—in you get.’ There was a high step into the plane and he simply lifted her off her feet and deposited her in the cabin. ‘It’ll be fun, trust me. If you get scared I promise I’ll hold your hand.’
‘Just keep your hands on the steering wheel, or whatever it is.’ She glanced around the cockpit at the levers and dials and shuddered; the tigress was feeling as weak as a kitten!
It was claustrophobic in the small cockpit, and Jenna couldn’t quell her feelings of panic as Alex handed her a headset and taxied the plane to the runway. Trust me, he had urged, and she found that she did so utterly. There was an air of strength about him, of dependability, and she was sure he would pilot the plane with the same level of expertise that he did everything else, but even so she screwed her eyes shut as they rose into the air.
‘That wasn’t so bad, was it? You can look now.’ His hand curled around both of hers, offering moral support, but the clasp of his strong fingers burned her skin and did nothing to steady her racing heart.
Cautiously she peeped from beneath her lashes to see the fields and trees spread like a colourful patchwork of autumn hues, the houses already the size of a model village. It was a beautiful day, the sky a cloudless blue, and she let out a shaky breath and gradually relaxed.
‘Want to take the controls?’
‘Absolutely not!’
Her eyes were like saucers and he grinned and squeezed her hand. ‘It’s really not difficult. Maybe I’ll do a couple of loops.’
‘Don’t you dare! Alex, promise me. I just want to go in a straight line. No clever stuff.’
She could become seriously addicted to the sound of his laughter, the way his eyes crinkled at the edges and his mouth curved, she thought as her heart lurched in her chest. She could become seriously addicted to him. And with a determined effort she wriggled her hands from his grasp and concentrated on the scenery below.
CHAPTER FIVE
PARIS was everything Jenna had imagined: elegant, exciting—and romantic, she added to her list with a groan of despair. Paris was a city for lovers. Everywhere she’d looked during her brief sightseeing trips with Alex there had been couples wandering hand in hand, young lovers kissing with unrestrained passion in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower.
She was always glad to return to the hotel, where their meetings with Sebastian Vaughn had provided a break in the unspoken tension between her and Alex. Glad too that she had been bullied into buying her new clothes, she conceded. The hotel was an oasis of discreet grandeur that exuded wealth, and she shuddered to think of the pained glances she would have received had she worn her ill-fitting suit.
That evening, as she slipped into her black evening dress, ready for Sebastian’s grandmother’s party, her confidence rose by several notches. The dress was deceptively simple, but the exquisite cut of the material, the way it sheathed her body, more than warranted its exorbitant price tag. Despite its simplicity it was an overtly sexy dress, something she hadn’t appreciated when she had tried it on, and for a moment she quailed at the way the neckline dipped to reveal a daring amount of cleavage, her breasts full and pale against the black silk.
Hearing her knock on the interconnecting door to his room, Alex took a deep breath before he swung away from the window and the night-time view of Paris.
‘I’m ready—on time too. You did say seven.’
‘So I did.’ For a second he was unable to disguise the flare of hunger in his eyes, but almost instantly his lashes lowered and when he looked at Jenna again his expression was cool and aloof. ‘You look charming, I like the dress.’
‘Thank you,’ Jenna murmured, instantly deflated.
What had she expected? she chided herself. She had wanted to wow him, the insidious voice in her head prompted. She had wanted him to find her gorgeous and irresistible, but instead he had shown no more than polite interest in his married secretary.