The Billionaire Boss's Bride(38)

She realised how much she had misread his obliging silence when, as soon as she had finished eating, he removed the tray to ask her what time her sister was expected back.

‘Tomorrow morning,’ Tessa said dryly. ‘She’s out with a crowd of her college friends and I told her to stay with one of her friends who lives in central London rather than risk trying to find a taxi late at night to bring her back here. I’ve booked her one for the morning.’

‘In which case—’ he held out one hand, which Tessa looked at dubiously ‘—you need to have a bath and I intend to help you.’

‘You must be mad!’

‘I think I must be…’ Curtis muttered under his breath. He leant down and, before she could launch into her routine of shoving him away, he picked her up, ignoring her shrieks and flailing limbs.

The bathroom was very easy to locate, sandwiched next to the airing cupboard and between the main bedroom and the guest room which, judging from the art on the walls, would belong to Lucy.

‘Now,’ he said in a steely voice, ‘are you going to carry on kicking and screaming, in which case I’ll just continue holding you till you tire yourself out, or are you going to be a nice little girl and do what you’re told?’

‘Put me down!’ she snapped.

‘Sure. In a minute.’ Still carrying her, he clicked the key to the bathroom door, locking them both in, and pocketed it. Tessa let out a howl of outrage.

‘How dare you?’

Curtis placed her on the wooden linen basket and stood up, arms folded. ‘Don’t get into a state, Tessa. I said I would help you have a bath, not get in it with you!’

‘I don’t need a bath and I don’t need your help!’

‘I’m going to run the bath. You can get out of your clothes. You should be able to do that just fine but you’ll need me to help you in, especially as this Victorian bath is so high-sided.’

He began running the bath, tipping bath foam in and testing the temperature with his hand. ‘Okay. I take it from the lack of tell-tale rustling that you haven’t removed a stick of clothing. If, when the bath is run, you’re still glaring at me and trying to pretend that you’re comfortable with being grubby, then you’ll leave me no choice but to abandon my gentlemanly approach and undress you. On the other hand, you have my word that I’ll look away if you undress yourself and leave the bathroom as soon as you’re in the water. Deal?’

‘Deal? Deal? You’ve got a nerve, Curtis Diaz! You know that, don’t you?’ Under the simmering anger, she could feel her heart hammering inside her and her heightened state of awareness was making her limbs go weak, and it had nothing to do with her sprain. In fact, the tablets had reduced the sharp pain to a bearable discomfort.

‘I reckon you’ve got roughly two minutes,’ he answered, with his back still to her.

He meant it! The arrogance of the man left her speechless, but that didn’t take away the fact that he meant every word. If she didn’t clamber out of her clothes, he would do it for himself. Tessa hurriedly removed her blouse, leaving her bra in place, then, standing on one leg, she shuffled her skirt down, leaving her underwear similarly in place.

He switched off the bath.

‘The bra and pants stay on,’ Tessa said, folding her arms. ‘If they get wet, they get wet. I’ll get them off myself once I’m in the water.’

‘Fair enough.’ He lifted her up, breathing in, catching the mutinous set of her mouth out of the corner of his eye. Also catching the way the bra gaped as he held her, the way he could see the curve of her breast, the hint of her nipple just partially hidden by the lacy fabric. His breathing thickened and he had to tear his eyes forward as he placed her gently in the water and her body was hidden from view by the layer of bubbles.

‘Right,’ he said roughly, turning away and not looking over his shoulder as he slotted the key back into the door and opened it, ‘I’ll be back in fifteen minutes. Okay?’

He cleared out of the bathroom as quickly as he could. One more minute in there and he would be in need of a bath himself, an ice-cold one.

What was happening here? he wondered. The woman was not the type he was drawn to. When the work was over and the office door was shut, he liked his women to be fun. He enjoyed the chase, knowing where it would lead, enjoyed the beautiful packaging even though he always knew that he would inevitably get bored with the toy inside. He suspected that if this particular woman was ever chased by him, she wouldn’t hesitate to whack him over the head with a hard object, just as he suspected that what was inside the packaging was way too complex for him. Was that why he couldn’t take his eyes off her? Because she took challenge to new heights and what red blooded male could ever resist a good challenge?