'Keri,' he said smoothly. 'What a surprise.'
She stood there and looked at him. She certainly wasn't going to force an entrance.
'Come in.'
'Thank you.'
She walked inside and looked around. The apartment was huge, and had spectacular views of the river, but it was so … so bare that it made his office look positively overcrowded. There was essential furniture only-a giant sofa in tough, masculine leather in the sitting room, and a bleached oak dining table with matching chairs in the dining section. There was a frighteningly modern kitchen, which looked like the inside of a spacecraft, and a superb sound system, and that, basically, was that.
It was like his office, only more so, because this was where he lived, for heaven's sake. But there was little in the way of decoration, only objects which were useful. It looked, she thought, like a temporary place. As if he was renting and about to leave at any time. Transitory and temporary. As if anyone at all could have been living there, for there was nothing of Jay within its four walls.
'Sit down,' he said. 'Can I get you a drink?'
Unlike him, she didn't refuse. 'Yes, please.'
She sat down on the sofa, leaning back and trying to relax, but feeling about as relaxed as someone on a job interview for a position they really wanted. 'Have you lived here long?'
'Just over a year.' He could see her frowning. 'You like it?'
'I … well, yes. Yes, I do-though it's pretty basic.'
'Well, that's how I like it,' he said.
My, but he was touchy! And she would have had to be the dumbest woman in the world not to read the not-so-subtle warning in that.
He opened a bottle of white burgundy, poured out two glasses and handed her one, his mouth softening in a smile. 'I'm cooking some Cajun food-ever tried it before?'
She shook her head and sipped at her wine, impressed yet not surprised at his self-sufficiency. No tin-opener and a can of beans for Jay. 'Never.'
'Then you haven't lived.'
The wine hit her stomach, and by the time he sat her up at the table she realised she was very hungry. He served up a concoction of okra and shrimps and rice, which he called Gumbo.
'Eat,' he said.
She did. It was delicious, and she gave a little moan of greed as she tucked in.
He watched her for a while. 'You're really enjoying it, aren't you?' he observed.
She looked up. 'Don't sound so surprised!'
'But I am. When I first met you, you seemed to have made food your enemy.'
'Well, not any longer! Dinner every night and sandwiches for lunch most days!'
His eyes roved over her. 'You're looking well.'
'If by that you mean I've put on weight, then, yes, I have. I could hardly do up the zip of my jeans this morning.' She put her fork down and recklessly drank another mouthful of wine. 'God only knows what's going to happen when I have to go for my next modelling job!'
The statement hung in the air like a bubble waiting to burst.
'You'll have finished the painting soon,' said Jay carefully.
'That's right.' She certainly couldn't drag it out much longer.
'But you'll carry on modelling?'
He was talking about the future, and suddenly she was scared, but she hid her fear in bravado. 'Of course I will-that's what I do! What did you imagine? That I would set myself up as an interior designer?'
'Why not? You're good.'
'Well, for a start I have no qualifications and very little experience.'
'So what?'
'Because things don't work that way, Jay, that's why not!'
She felt frustrated now, the warmth of the wine evaporating with his words. She was terrified of the job ending, because she didn't know whether she would see him again. He hadn't said, and she was afraid to ask … afraid of what the answer might be.
'You've stopped eating,' he said softly.
Well, damn him! Damn him for his indifference and his stubborn determination not to let her spend the night with him!
Keri pushed the plate away, stretched her arms high above her head and yawned. 'I'm tired too,' she confessed.
He watched while the T-shirt spread tightly across her breasts, their tips outlined in provocative display with the dark glossy hair spilling down all over them. He knew what she was doing. It was a blatant demonstration of her physical power over him. For a few moments he had a silent tussle with himself. So, did he give in? Sometimes he liked to deny himself, just to feel fully in control. To prove he could. And it would certainly make it easier. If he made love to her now, he could hardly ask her to leave …
But if she stayed, then where was that going to lead? To more nights, and then still more? Soon she would be cluttering up his very masculine bathroom with all kinds of feminine junk and leaving drifts of lace underwear everywhere. Then she would start asking him what time he was coming home and keeping tabs on him. Very soon after that they would be shopping at the supermarket together-dithering over which brand of juice to buy-and wouldn't that be a kind of living hell?
'Come here,' he instructed silkily.
There was something in his expression which made it impossible to disobey him, even if she had wanted to. And some new, hard light in his eyes, both cautioning and yet inviting.
Like a robot she got up and went to sink onto his lap, but he shook his head.
'No. Not yet.' His eyes glittered. 'First of all, take your clothes off.'
Keri blinked. 'Just like that?'
'Wouldn't you like to strip for me, Keri?' His voice hardened. 'I thought that was what you were working up to.'
Some feeling like fear tiptoed down her spine. He was making her feel like … Like what? Like a live exhibit? A good-time girl? She looked at him, shaken. 'Oddly enough, no. I wouldn't.'
He raised his eyebrows, but in his heart he knew he had been testing her. Now she was hurt; that much was plain. And it told him something that maybe he had been blind to, or had maybe simply chosen not to see. That she saw more in what they had than just a very enjoyable affair. And, if they continued it, wouldn't she get hurt even more? That was his track record, after all-causing pain to women because he couldn't give them what they really wanted.
But he saw the tremble of her lips and something inside him melted. If fighting it didn't seem to work, he found he didn't even want to. He reached out to pull her down onto his lap, because the physical act was easy-he could lose himself in that and forget all the troublesome questions which nagged at his mind.
'Kiss me,' he whispered.
For a moment she resisted, was ice in his arms, but he drifted his mouth to her neck and the thaw began and there was nothing she could do to stop it.
Her eyes fluttered to a close. 'Oh, Jay,' she said weakly, hating that weakness even while his hands began to stroke her into molten submission.
He took her to his bedroom and took her clothes off himself, slowly-agonisingly slowly-kissing her flesh as he laid it bare.
And she tiptoed her fingers down over his torso, down over his hips, and down further still …
'Keri,' he groaned.
'What?' This was better. The cold-eyed man had gone, and in his place was someone who could be as weak as she was. He loved to control-well, now let him be controlled.
She wriggled from beneath him and slithered down his body, her tongue sliding its way to his belly, loving the way he squirmed, holding himself tense, as if he couldn't quite believe that she was going to …
'Oh, God-yes!' he moaned.
She had never done it to a man before, not even with Jay, but she just followed her instincts, her mouth gentle, caressing, teasing and inciting. She found what he liked and then she did it some more. And then some more.
And when at last he moved to push her head away she wouldn't let him. She wanted to possess that most essential part of him in a way which made her feel almost primitive as she tasted the salt which was present in blood and sweat and tears, too.
He shuddered, lost in the mists of pleasure and, for a moment, totally vulnerable.
He lifted her off him and flipped her over onto her back, moving to lie above her, his eyes glittering with a hectic green-grey light, his expression unreadable. She was going to stay in his bed all night, he realised.
'Your turn now,' he said, in an odd kind of voice.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
JAY seemed edgy and distracted when they showered and dressed to go to work the following morning, and it was obvious that he felt relieved when she went off to find a cab on her own, though he did his best to hide it.