And there was no point in parting on bad terms. It had, after all, been pretty … well … He shook his head in slight disbelief. 'Come here,' he said softly, and held out his hand.
A stronger woman might not have taken it, but Keri was not feeling particularly strong right then. Was this the price that you paid for the beauty and the closeness which went with the kind of sex she had shared with Jay? The feeling that he was now somehow part of her? As though he had captured something of her and now she belonged to him, unable to shake free the invisible chains which bound them?
You're being fanciful, she told herself. But his mouth was in her hair, and on her neck, his breath hot and warm and rapid, and she felt an instant response, threading her fingers greedily into the tangled thickness of his dark hair.
In an instant he was aroused, but he forced reason to take over from sheer physical desire. He lifted his head and stared down at her, a diamond-hard smile angling his mouth. 'The sooner we get moving, the less chance there is of the police being alerted. Could waste a lot of money if they mount an abortive rescue campaign. Unless, of course, you have a secret fantasy about being winched to safety by a helicopter?'
Keri blinked rapidly. How could he remain so calm and so reasonable, be able to switch off so thoroughly while she was at the mercy of a swirl of emotions which left her reeling?
All she could hear was the pounding of her heart and the swishing rush of her blood. She didn't want to go, or move from this place, and yet clearly he did. And he was right. There were people waiting for them back home who would be beginning to worry-she couldn't just turn her back and pretend they didn't exist.
Yet surely a man of his calibre was wasted, just driving round the country like this? Couldn't his undoubted gifts of strength and resourcefulness be put to some better use? And couldn't she be the one to point him in the right direction? Broach it gently, carefully, she thought. Don't offend his pride or his masculinity.
'Jay?'
Something was coming, and she wasn't about to ask him what he thought the road conditions would be like.
He kept his voice neutral. 'Yes, Keri?'
'It's been … well … '
'Wonderful-yes, it has.' He kissed the tip of her nose.
'And … well, haven't you ever thought that you're-well, wasted doing this kind of thing?'
He raised his eyebrows. 'In what way, exactly?'
His face looked so forbidding that she regretted having started, but she couldn't really stop now. 'Well, driving for a living.'
'There's something wrong with driving?'
There was some undercurrent to his voice that she didn't quite understand. 'Oh, there's nothing actually wrong with it-'
'Well, thank heavens for that,' he murmured sardonically.
'It's just that you seem to have so much else to offer … ' She saw the slight twist of his mouth and rushed on, terrified that he might think she was alluding to his prowess in the lovemaking department. 'I mean your SEAL background, your resourcefulness. The way you got us out of a jam and made the best of it-not a lot of men could do that.'
Which, translated, meant I want to go to bed with you again. He kept his gaze steady. 'Well, thanks,' he murmured.
'Someone like you could make a fortune,' she continued softly, 'if you really set your mind to it.'
As in-house stud to beautiful but unfulfilled women like you? he wondered. But he couldn't admit he wasn't tempted-what man wouldn't be? He looked down into the wide dark eyes and thought fleetingly of telling her, and seeing her reaction then. But it wouldn't work-it couldn't work.
Would he call her up and ask her to dinner? To talk about what, exactly? The fact that her mascara had run? That she'd gained a pound? In other words ruin it-and ruin the memory into the bargain. He had told her more than he had intended to, but he could blame the weather and the isolation on that false intimacy.
But women always misinterpreted confidences-which was why he didn't usually fall into the trap of allowing any. They read more into them than they ought to, started thinking things which made him want to run a mile.
He hadn't been lying when he'd told her that it had been wonderful, but it was nothing to do with her world. Or his. And he was pragmatic enough to walk away from something before reality ruined even the memory of it.
'Well, I'll bear that in mind,' he said evenly, and his eyes glittered. 'Any time I'm thinking about a career change.'
Her face had gone very pale, and he was reminded of that look of trust and fear when he had lifted her onto his lap in the middle of the night, and he relented, sliding his fingertips down over the silken skin of her cheek.
'Listen, Keri,' he said. 'What happened last night was great.' His voice became a silken caress. 'You've proved to yourself that you can have satisfying sex-you just have to find the right man.'
The words hung on the air as clearly as if he had painted them on a banner in letters six feet high. But that man isn't me.
She knew that anyway.
A shudder of distaste ran through her. He thought all she was talking about was physical satisfaction. She had wanted not to hurt his pride and now it seemed that it was going to take a monumental effort to salvage her own. She pretended that there was a camera trained close up on her face, and smiled as coldly as the air outside.
'Didn't you say something about dropping me at the nearest train station?' she questioned.
He nodded. So she wasn't going to cling. Predictably, he found himself a little disappointed-but wasn't that just human nature for you? Contrary as hell-just like he was.
He looked down at her, drinking in the perfection of her one last time. She looked, he realised, the very antithesis of the ice queen he had first met-warm and sensual and alive. Had he done that to her? Brought life to her sexual desert? He remembered the eagerness with which she had opened her body to him during that long, exquisite night and some primitive emotion flitted across his soul. He wondered why he was feeling some kind of misplaced loyalty to this guy David she had been due to meet. If a man couldn't bother to learn how to give a woman pleasure, then surely he got what he deserved.
And why not complete this assignment himself? 'I guess I'll catch up with you at the launch,' he said casually.
She had been mentally resigning herself to the fact that this was the last time she would see him, and his words startled her. 'The l-launch?' she stumbled.
'Sure. For the diamond campaign,' he elaborated. 'If you're the face which is about to sell a thousand gems, then won't they expect you to be there?'
Yes, of course they would. A lavish party at one of London's top hotels, which normally she would have considered a necessary duty in the line of work. But now … Keri's heart leapt with excitement and there was nothing she could do to stop it-because she wanted to see this man again more than she could ever remember wanting anything in her life. 'You mean that you've been invited too?' she questioned, equally casually.
'Hardly, sweetheart.' His mouth twisted into an odd kind of smile as he heard the note of surprise in her voice. 'I'll be there guarding the jewellery.'
CHAPTER EIGHT
ARRIVING back in London was like being on a different planet; there had been no snow in the capital other than a brief flurry of flakes which had melted before they touched the pavements. And Keri felt like a different woman from the one who had left there the day before.
She let herself into her apartment to find the Ansaphone flashing. Five messages. But she didn't play them straight away-for once having other things on her mind. She wandered from room to room feeling displaced, as if she were seeing the gleaming apartment for the first time and comparing it to the very basic standard of the house where she had experienced such intense physical love.
Keri shivered.
It was as if Jay had pervaded her senses with a power which seemed to throw everything else into the shadows. Acutely, she could remember the magic of his touch, the hard brilliance of his eyes and the fleeting softness of his features relaxed in the act of love. And she knew she couldn't even think straight until she had washed every trace of him from her body.