Free In the Market for Love by Nina Blake Page B

many times he tried to explain, she’d never understand.
    Bianca waved her hand vaguely in the direction of the two larger offices down the hallway but she was already on her way out. She didn’t want a reply.
    Then h e saw her.
    Rachel.
    Being led down the hallway by Marcus.
    With Bianca head ing towards them.
    Jake stood still, unable to stir, as the world around him moved slowly.
    Bianca crept gradually towards Rachel. Marcus stopped, as if sensing something might be amiss. And Rachel, uncorrupted and pure, was gliding towards disaster with innocent grace.
    Jake watched as if it were happening in slow motion. It was as though a baseball bat were being swung into a window and he was too slow, too far away to stop it.
    A ll he could do was watch and wait for the glass to shatter.
    *          *          *
    The vision of Jake, darkly handsome as he stood in his office doorway, brought a smile to Rachel’s lips.
    He cupped his chin in one hand, his expres sion intense. He looked a bit ruffled this afternoon which was unusual but the slightly tousled hair and gentle frown made him more handsome. The imperfections, if you could call them that, only highlighted his good looks.
    Suddenly a bright halo of long blond hair took Rachel’s attention as a voluptuous woman strutted past. She was a striking figure with her blouse gaping as she thrust her chest out. Rachel looked away, embarrassed to find herself staring at another woman’s breasts.
    Behind her, Marcus’ voice took her attention and she turned, thinking he was saying goodbye to her. Instead he’d linked arms with the blond woman as he led her away.
    Rachel shrugged. She hadn’t come here to see Marcus, after all.
    She bounded towards Jake.
    *          *          *
    Jake ushered Rachel into his office. Down the hallway, he saw Bianca leave and Marcus slip into his own office.
    It was a miracle . Rachel and Bianca had slid past each other as though magnetic forces of repulsion kept them apart. If Rachel had arrived two minutes earlier, he didn’t know what he would have done. Bianca and Rachel in the same room. He shuddered at the thought. That was never meant to be.
    His relief was immeasurable but short lived. He had to tell her. Now. He should never have let it get this far.
    He closed his office door, something he never did. His door was quite literally always open to his staff. Today he needed privacy.
    Rachel tossed her dark hair behind her shoulders, looked around, then turned to face him. “You have a lovely office.”
    Floor to ceiling windows looked out onto the harbour. Inside, an enormous abstract painting hung on one wall. The pin-up board showing off Connor’s colourful drawings sat on the other side.
    The wall behind Jake’s desk was clear glass and looked out onto the surrounding offices and an open plan work area.
    “Oh , I get it,” she said. “This is like the central hub, the heart of the agency. You can look out at what’s happening and you’re in the middle of things so your staff all know you’re here.”
    Instinctively, she had understood. He’d been married to Bianca for years and she never got it. Never understood why he didn’t make a statement of his position as owner of the agency and stake out the biggest office. She couldn’t see that he simply didn’t need to.
    H e reached across and pulled the cedar venetian blinds closed across the window so others couldn’t look in.
    Rachel perched her bottom gracefully on the edge of his desk and pushed her shoulders back. “Now why would you think you need some privacy?”
    With an almost desperate desire to kis s her came a thick pain in his chest. As much as he wanted to be alone with her, it wasn’t for the reason she believed.
    She pointed to one wall . “That painting’s an original, isn’t it?”
    “Yes, but so are those .” Jake nodded towards the pin-up board filled with Connor’s artwork. “The interior designer chose the abstract