Free A Bad Enemy by Sara Craven Page B

another excellent reason for Jake to return to London.
    She pulled off her sweater, tossed it on the bed and walked into the bathroom to wash. When she returned to her bedroom a few moments later, it was to find Jake lounging on the end of her bed, waiting for her.
    'Get out of here!' she snapped furiously, snatching up the guernsey and holding it in front of her.
    He looked her over, the firm mouth mocking, the dark brows lifted in exaggerated surprise, his gaze lingering pointedly on her tied-back hair, the patched jeans, and the well-scrubbed face.
    'What's the new image?' he drawled. 'A regression to adolescence?'
    'What am I supposed to wear to wash a car?' she snapped defensively. 'Ermine and pearls? And perhaps next time you'd knock at my door, instead of just barging in!'
    'I did knock,' he said, 'but you had the taps running. You can't have heard me. Anyway, why the sudden modesty?' Lisle was tugging the sweater over her head. 'There's nothing the matter with my memory.'
    'And there was I thinking it was all a bad dream.' Lisle lifted her chin and stared at him. 'I presume you have something to say to me. Perhaps you'd say it and go.'
    'So it's blunt speaking you're after,' he said reflectively. 'Very well. Lay off Oliver Grayson. He isn't fair game.'
    Colour burned in her face. 'I don't know what you're talking about.'
    He sighed. 'You had lunch with him today-remember?
    'Oliver happens to be an old friend,' she said stiffly.
    'Lucky Oliver,' he said jeeririgly. 'No wonder he couldn't keep his hands off you. But it won't do, Lisle. He's a decent guy with one bad marriage already behind him. You're not going to screw his life up the second time around.'
    'I've no intention of doing so.' She was shaking with temper.
    'Well, you made a good start today,' he said derisively. 'Our subsequent meeting was a shambles. He wasn't thinking straight at all, and one didn't need to be Mastermind to guess who'd tied the poor man in knots. That's one of your specific talents, beauty.'
    'Please don't call me that,' she said freezingly.
    'Why not? You are beautiful—when you aren't using that enticing little body like a weapon.'
    'And how does Miss Leighton use hers? Like a free gift?' She stopped dead, horrified. Her colour deepened. 'I'm sorry,' she apologised tautly. 'That was— indefensible. You seem to bring out the worst in me.'
    'There seems plenty of it to bring out,' he returned drily.
    Lisle was silent for a moment, mortified. Then she said huskily, 'I think it's time you stopped interfering in my life.'
    'Stopped?' His brows rose. 'I haven't even started yet. And if we're talking about interference, perhaps you'd keep your delicate nose out of Harlow Bannerman's affairs.'
    'I do work there.' She glared at him.
    'There are various schools of thought on that subject,' he said softly. 'But I didn't mean the alleged labours for which you are so generously salaried. I meant your extra mural activities in the past twenty-four hours. The phone call to your brother warning him to get his chestnuts out of the fire, for instance, not to mention your lunch with Grayson.'
    A dull flush rose in her cheeks. 'I've told you…'
    'And I'm telling you,' he said flatly. 'You're wasting your wiles, beauty. Oliver Grayson is bought and paid for, and it would take a damned sight more than having you in his bed for him to transfer his allegiance from myself to your brother. I presume that was the purpose of today's exercise?'
    'Presume what the hell you like,' she said shortly, reflecting bitterly on the rotten luck which had brought them all together in the same restaurant. 'You think you have everything cut and dried, don't you, but being too sure of yourself can be dangerous. You surely don't imagine that Gerard is just going to sit back and see control of the company just vanish from his grasp?'
    'This sisterly devotion is becoming absurd,' he said wearily. 'Gerard has never had control of Harlow Bannerman in his life, and nor will he ever