Free The Beautiful Widow by Helen Brooks Page A

throbbing with sexual frustration all afternoon and now he gritted his teeth as he walked to the Aston Martin and opened the passenger door, helping her into the car. ‘There’s no rush.’ He leant one arm on the roof of the car and smiled at her. ‘Leave them till tomorrow. Fancy a drink now the working day is done?’
    What are you
doing?
another part of his brain ground out. You’re breaking every rule in the book.
    Ah, but they were
his
rules. He was the boss. He could break them if he chose to do so. Anyway, what was the matter in two working colleagues enjoying an end-of-day drink?
    She seemed a little flustered but her voice was firm when she said, ‘Thank you, but no, I ought to get home. The girls will be having their bath soon and I like to be there when I can.’
    Steel blinked, disconcerted to find he’d forgotten her children existed in the last few minutes. ‘No problem.’ He shut her door, mentally kicking himself as he walked round the bonnet.
    When he slid into the car he saw she was sitting very straight and still. He cursed silently. During the afternoon she had relaxed with him and now they were back to square one. ‘How about I take you straight homenow, unless you need to call in the office for anything?’ he suggested quietly. ‘That way you shouldn’t miss time with your children.’
    She glanced at him and he saw her eyes were wary. ‘Thank you,’ she said after a moment or two. He got the feeling she would have liked to refuse the offer and wondered why. Was she bothered about what the neighbours would think when she was brought home in a nice car by a strange man, or didn’t she want to run the risk he might meet her family? Neither reason sat well and he felt an edge of anger to his curiosity about what made this dark-eyed, honey-skinned woman tick.
    Toni sat hugging the folder of plans and her notes to her chest during the journey as though she needed their protection. Steel wondered what she’d do if he suddenly pulled into a quiet side road and cut the engine, and toyed with doing just that to see her reaction for a second before he had the grace to feel ashamed of himself. But she made him want to do something outrageous, he told himself in justification for his crassness. She was so in command of herself, so restrained. She made him feel like one of the lecherous villains from the old silent movies. He could understand why her opinion of the male sex was at an all-time low, but did she seriously think he was so boorish as to make a move on her in his car of all places?
    The thought of having her in the back seat, of making her shake and shiver and moan beneath him as his hands and mouth explored every inch of her delectable body, nearly caused him to drive into a large family saloon. After this Steel gave all his attention to the rush-hour traffic and let his self-induced arousal subside.
    When he drew up outside the terraced house whereher parents lived Toni opened the door even as he cut the engine. ‘Wait, I’ll help you,’ he offered as she began to scramble out of the car, but by the time he’d walked round to her the inevitable had happened and the plans and papers were all over the pavement.
    He bent to help her retrieve them, wincing as their heads collided and then catching her as she stumbled.
    ‘I’m so sorry.’ She was scarlet. ‘It’s your car, it’s so low.’ And then she blushed still more if that was possible.
    He thought it showed remarkable restraint when he didn’t point out that if she had waited as he’d suggested there wouldn’t have been a problem. He managed a creditable laugh. ‘I’ll use the four-by-four next time.’
    ‘No, I didn’t mean—’
    She was still in his arms and every muscle in his body had tightened as evidence of the fact. He looked down at her face, noticing a tiny indentation in her nose—the result of an injury when she was young maybe?—and the way her full lips were slightly apart showing small white teeth. He