The Billionaire Bodyguard(21)

       
           



       

The silence seemed immense while Andy grabbed his  jacket and put it on,  and after he had left it seemed even bigger. Keri  seemed aware of  every sound in the universe-the faint cry of seagulls  outside, the  occasional blast of a ship's horn. And her heartbeat. That  was  absolutely deafening, especially now, because he was strolling  across  the room towards her, a lazy smile on his lips.

'Do you realise we haven't said hello properly?' he questioned silkily, and pulled her into his arms.

She  had been practising for just this moment, and had planned to  resist,  but now-faced with the reality-resistance flew straight out of  the  window.

'Hello, Jay,' she said pertly.

He allowed himself a  small smile. 'Ah, Keri,' he murmured, brushing his  mouth tantalisingly  over hers. 'Haven't you been wanting to do that  all morning?'

She  had been trying her best not to think about it, with varying  degrees of  success. 'I've actually been concentrating on my painting,'  she  managed.

'And just how do you concentrate on painting?'

'I … oh,  God … I don't know,' she gasped, as he flicked his tongue out and  teased  it against her lips, and she closed her eyes and gave in,  wrapping her  arms tightly around his neck and pressing her body to his.

He  groaned, sliding his hand down over her dungarees and cupping her  breast  through the rough denim. 'I must have been out of my mind,' he   whispered. 'Thinking that I could have you anywhere near me and even   think straight, let alone do any work.'

She jerked her head back  with a monumental effort. 'Well, you're going  to have to try,' she said  shakily. 'Otherwise your business will go  bust and you'll blame me.'

'I want you.' He drifted his hand further down and heard her moan.

Someone  had to stop this and it had better be her, since Jay's eyes  were smoky  with the kind of desire which was reminding her all too  vividly of what  he was like as a lover. Any minute now and she wouldn't  be able to  resist anything.

'The … the wanting has never been in any question,' she agreed firmly. 'But, Jay, we mustn't.'

'Mustn't  what?' He dipped his head to trail a featherlight kiss along  the line  of her jaw. 'We aren't doing anything.' He nuzzled again.  'Just  kissing.'

But it was more than that. At least for her it was.  This warm sense of  homecoming, as if no place in the world could be more  perfect than in  Jay's arms. And this kind of kisses could lead you to  only one place if  you weren't very careful. Look what had happened  before.

'Andy will be back in a minute.'

'It's his lunch-hour. I'll tell him to go take a walk in the park.'

'It's the middle of winter!' she protested.

'Oh, Andy's tough,' he said easily. 'Like me. We're used to the elements, sweetheart. He'll understand.'

For  one second she was tempted as she imagined an erotic way of  spending  the rest of the lunch-hour. Jay had awoken in her a  voraciously hungry  sexual appetite and she would have liked nothing  more than to feed it.

But  then what? She would have to field Andy's curious and knowing  stares  all afternoon and live with the feeling that where Jay was  concerned she  was in danger of always selling herself short. She wasn't  going to use  sex as a weapon or a tool, but she needed her  self-respect as well as  his respect-and a quick bout of lovemaking in  between coats of paint  wasn't designed to help achieve that. Either  they did things properly,  or not at all.

She shook her head. 'No, Jay.'

He gave a faintly disbelieving moan. 'Are you trying to drive me out of my mind?'

'There wouldn't be a lot of point, would there? Not when you just told me you're already losing it!'

Reluctantly,  he laughed and let her go, which made the aching slightly  less intense,  but his eyes glittered with curiosity. 'So what had you  planned? To  keep me at arm's length?'

'Certainly during working hours,' she said steadily.

He heard the underlying message. 'You want to go out later?'

It  was unbelievable how he broke all the normal rules of conventional   behaviour and managed to get away with it. She had heard invitations   phrased far more elegantly, but she had never been so excited by one   before.

Yet she had vowed not to make it too easy for him, and if  she went out  with him tonight would she honestly be able to resist him?

He observed her hesitation. 'Or are you "busy" tonight?' he suggested mockingly.                       
       
           



       

Determinedly, she made herself focus on a pile of bills waiting to be paid. 'I'm afraid I am.'

'Oh,  I see.' Suddenly the air became full of tension. 'That's your  plan,  then, is it, Keri?' he questioned softly. 'To tempt and taunt me  and  ultimately to tease me, by saying no?'

His bad-tempered response made her realise that her instinctual refusal had been the right thing to do. She raised her eyebrows.

'My, my, my-is that always your reaction when a woman turns you down?'

He  was frustrated, and temporarily wrong-footed, but not shortsighted   enough to point out that it was the first time it had ever happened. 'So   you aren't going to go out with me?'

She paused just long enough to give him doubts. 'Not tonight, no. Ask me again.'

So  beautifully sure of herself. Had she read all those rulebooks which   told you that to hook a man you had to play games-never be free and   never return his calls? Because if she was holding out for commitment   she was in for a disappointment.

'I'm not a man who likes waiting,' he warned her darkly.

His  arrogance fuelled her indignation and she shrugged her shoulders.  'Then  don't wait,' she answered coolly. 'Go ahead-ask someone else. And  now,  if that's everything-I'm going out.'

He watched her grab her coat  from the hook, his eyes drinking in her  graceful beauty with  admiration. She must have been reading some  book-because if there was  anything which made him want something it was  being told that he might  not be able to have it.





CHAPTER ELEVEN




KERI  quickly learnt that she didn't like to be kept waiting either, and  Jay  made her wait three days before he asked her out again. Three days  which  were an agony of excitement and expectation and fear that he  might have  decided against it. Three days during which time she learnt  that he  liked his coffee black, his bread brown, that he worked  non-stop and  that he wouldn't take telephone calls from a woman called  Candy.

'Who's Candy?' asked Keri casually, as she carefully tore off a piece of masking tape.

'Just some broad,' replied Andy. 'One of many.'

Maybe her face remained quizzical.

'Like moths to a flame,' he added with a rueful kind of look. 'But half the time he doesn't notice.'

Or doesn't care? she wondered.

When Andy went out to fetch sandwiches at lunchtime, Jay wandered through, rubbing his eyes and stifling a yawn.

'Late night?' murmured Keri, but she felt the powerful tug of jealousy.

'Late-night call to the States.' His eyes drifted over her. 'You have paint on your nose.'

'Paint everywhere,' she agreed steadily.

I'd like to see it. 'So, are we going out together tonight?'

'I thought you were tired.'

His eyes widened by a fraction. 'Suddenly I'm wide awake.'

She'd  done the self-respect thing. Now surely she could relax a little.   'Okay, then.' She smiled up at him and suddenly ached to put her arms   around him. 'What would you like to do?'

I think we both know the answer to that, sweetheart. 'You choose.'


She  wanted something normal. Something which didn't involve her gazing  into  his eyes and thinking how bloody gorgeous he was. 'How about a  film-we  could grab a bite to eat afterwards?'

'A film?'

'You know. Man and woman go to into large, darkened room. Man and woman watch story told on big screen-popcorn optional.'

He gave a reluctant laugh. It wouldn't have been number one on his list. 'Okay-why not?'

'Anything in particular you'd like to see?'

He shook his head. 'You choose.

The door opened and Andy reappeared, carrying a brown bag full of food.

Jay's first thought was that this wasn't proving quite as simple as he had anticipated.

And his second was one of suspicion.

All  he had wanted was to take her to bed-so how come he'd agreed to see  a  film with her? He hadn't been to the movies with a woman for years.



The  night was dark, but there were no stars. That was the trouble with   cities, thought Jay-too much man-made light which killed the natural   beauty of the heavens. The neon lights of the cinema complex made Keri's   face look ghostly and unreal.

'Did you enjoy it?' she asked.

'It was okay,' he said. 'Though I'm not crazy about subtitles.'

'Because  you didn't need them, unlike me.' She looked up at him. 'It  isn't just  wine labels that you read, is it, Jay? You understood the  entire  dialogue of the film. You speak French.'