'Okay,' she said, wondering if he had deliberately tried to make himself sound important. Paperwork! What paperwork did he have that couldn't wait-his timesheets? 'Tell me where to find you.'
Jay put the phone down and frowned.
'Andy!' he called. 'I'm expecting someone.'
Keri found the building easily and took the stairs rather than the elevator to find herself in a large office which was high-ceiled and wonderfully dimensioned. True, the walls were dull and dingy, but the reflected light from the river helped, and the view of the swirling waters from the windows was spectacular.
An enormous man with the widest pair of shoulders Keri had ever seen crinkled up his blue eyes as she walked in. 'Hi.' He smiled. 'Jay's expecting you.' He clicked an intercom button on his desk. 'She's here, boss!'
Jay silently cursed, and then said, 'Send her in.' How many times had he told Andy to lose the handle by which he had been known for years?
'Go right through.' Andy grinned, pointing to the door of an inner office.
Keri's forehead pleated in a small frown. Boss? 'Thanks.'
She walked into the inner sanctum and it was not what she was expecting-though, to be honest, what exactly had she been expecting?
Jay was seated behind an impressive wooden desk, the sleeves of his dark sweater rolled up and a computer quietly humming away. Behind him was a map of the world, and there were lots of different coloured pins stuck in it. It looked, she thought suddenly, like a powerhouse. As if this was a place which mattered and he was a person who mattered.
Something didn't add up.
She stared at him.
'Hello, Keri.' Her hair was tied back like a schoolgirl's and she wore a knee-length leather coat, with long boots to match. She was very fond of leather, he thought, and the hot kick of lust became as scorching as the desert.
She looked around the office again. 'Would you mind telling me what's going on? Why did that man call you boss?'
He guessed he could play the evasion game for as long as it took, but what would be the point?
'Because I am. It's my company. I own it. I supply the drivers, and the guards, and private investigators too.' He didn't mention his significant portfolio of property. That might have seemed like a little too much information all at once.
It was like having a gauze curtain whisked away from her eyes so that her vision suddenly became crystal-clear. Of course. Of course. It all began to make perfect sense now-why things had not quite added up.
The confident, almost arrogant way he had behaved towards her when most men were slightly intimidated. His knowledge of French wines. You didn't need to wear fancy clothes or splash money around to prove you were a rich man-sometimes success could just ooze from every pore-and, my God, it certainly oozed from him.
'You … you lease these offices?'
'Well, I own them, actually. There are a couple more on the floor beneath.'
Her eyes widened as the significance of that sank in. Offices in this part of London didn't come cheap. 'You aren't a driver at all, are you, Jay?' she said quietly.
He met the accusation full-on. He could see the sudden stiffening of her body, but worse than that was the fleeting look of hurt which clouded her big dark eyes. As if he'd betrayed her. Hell, one night in her arms and she was acting as if he owed her something! 'Well, that's not strictly true-'
The confusion began to evaporate and anger took over-and in a way that helped dissolve the feeling that he had left her looking like a fool. 'Oh, please don't play with words! I'm not doubting your ability to drive a car!' She drew in an angry little snort of breath. 'Did it amuse you to deliberately deceive me?'
'I did not deliberately do anything. Why would I want to deceive you? Don't read more into it than there was, Keri-one of my drivers went off sick at the last minute so I stood in for him.'
'Why didn't you tell me that at the time?'
'Why on earth should I?' He gave a slightly incredulous smile. 'Can you just see the scenario if I'd suddenly just announced it to a client? Hi, my name is Jay, and actually what you see isn't really what you get. I'm not a driver; I own the company! How crass would that have been?'
'You're missing the point!'
'Am I?' His gaze was very steady as he moved across the room towards her. 'I fail to see how. Would you have treated me differently if you'd known?' He gave a slow smile as he remembered the way she had treated him. 'Maybe that would have been something worth telling you for!'
'That is cheap!'
He shook his head as he allowed himself the rare luxury of recall. How long had it been since that had happened? A woman taking him on the most basic terms of all, without trappings or status? 'No, it's true,' he contradicted softly.
She backtracked through her memory. Maybe he hadn't actually told her any lies, but he must have been laughing fit to burst-especially when she had falteringly suggested that he was wasted as a driver and he might be able to find other work. 'Did it give you pleasure to masquerade as something you weren't?' she demanded bitterly.
'Of course it didn't give me pleasure!' He sighed, held the palms of his hands up in a gesture of peace. 'It just seemed irrelevant at the beginning, and if I'd told you during or afterwards then it might have seemed like boasting. As if I was trying to impress you with what I was rather than who I was.' And hadn't playing his wealth down become second nature?
She glared at him. 'Well, if you're so bloody rich then I suggest you do something about these offices-I've never seen anything so dingy in my life!'
He started laughing. 'Are we still on for lunch?'
'I've lost my appetite!'
'No change there, then.'
She didn't smile back. 'Very funny.'
He was aching to take her in his arms, but something in her eyes was warning him off-and in a way that excited him almost as much as it frustrated him. 'Have you any work lined up?' he asked suddenly.
Keri narrowed her eyes. 'Why?'
'Is that a yes or a no?'
'I have a … ' She wasn't about to start telling him about the lingerie contract-she could just imagine his reaction to that. 'A job in a few weeks' time.' Other than that she was free-a welcome space in her workload after jobs being booked back-to-back for months.
'And in the meantime? What do you normally do in between jobs?'
She filled in her time as usefully as possible, that was what she did. She visited galleries and friends, and shopped and saw films. 'Depends.'
My, but she was paying him back for his supposed 'deception'. 'Do you want to do something for me?'
Her suspicious body-stance did not alter. 'Like what?'
'Why not paint my offices?' He saw her mystified look and it amused him. 'Is it such a crazy idea?' he mused. 'You told me that you're good at it. You told me that was what you originally wanted to do, and you've just torn the place to pieces. You're right-they are dingy.'
The suggestion pleased her more than it had any right to. It was, she realised, a way to maybe find out who the real Jay Linur was. And a chance to show him that she was not just some mindless clotheshorse who paraded in front of the camera. To show him what she could do-maybe more importantly to prove to herself what she could do.
She stared at him. 'Why, Jay?'
Because I want to make love to you again. Because you've left me with a fever in my blood and I need a little saturation therapy to make it go away. But maybe it was more than that. There had to be more to life than standing in a snowy field in the middle of winter wearing very little. Hadn't she said so herself?
He shrugged. 'You told me you sometimes were bored with standing in front of a camera, that interior design was what you planned before modelling came out and grabbed you-so why not explore it as an option? I can be your first legitimate assignment, if you like.'
Keri stared at him, at the grey-green eyes which were surveying her quizzically. He was offering her an opportunity to do something different, allowing her to indulge the creative side of her nature, but it wasn't that which was making her mouth dry with excitement.
She knew deep down that they would be lovers again-she wasn't that self-deluding. But this time she wasn't going to make it easy for him-not in any way. Sex wasn't supposed to be a battle, but even so she had given in too easily before. If Jay Linur wanted her then he was going to have to try a whole lot harder.