rise in the world of business had been meteoric. She knew that because, just once, she had given in to temptation and devoured everything she could about him on the Internet. She had discovered that he no longer limited himself to the company he had inherited, he had used that as a springboard for taking over failing companies and had gained a reputation for turning them around in record time. And yet, he had continued to resist the lure of marriage. Why? Was he so consumed by work that women were just satellites hovering on the periphery? Or did he just still enjoy playing the field which, as an eligible, staggeringly rich, good-looking bachelor, would have been a really huge field?
She felt the urge to burst through her self-imposed barrier and ask him and stifled it. She remembered the last time she had misread a situation.
‘You’ve grown up,’ he said so softly that she had to strain forward to hear him. ‘You’ve lost that open, transparent way you used to have.’
‘People
do
grow up,’ she said abruptly.
‘Were you hurt by that guy? That’s the question I’ve been asking myself.’
For a few seconds, Jennifer didn’t follow where he was going and then she realised that he was talking about Patric.
‘He’s my best friend!’
‘Not sure that says anything.’ James slanted her a look that made her go red. ‘Were you in love with him? Did he break your heart? Because you seem a lot more cynical than you did four years ago. Sure, people change and grow up, but you’re much more guarded now than you were then.’
Jennifer was lost for words. His take on her was revealing. He might have known, years ago, that she had a crush on him, but he obviously had never suspected the depth of her feelings.
She
had not really suspected the depth of her own feelings! It was only as she began dating that she realised how affected she had been by James’s rejection, how deep her feelings for him ran. And returning here… all those feelings were making themselves felt once again.
The last thing she needed was him trying to get into her head!
‘I love Patric,’ she told him tightly. ‘And I don’t want to be psychoanalysed by you. I know you’re probably bored, lying there unable to do anything, but I can bring you your computer and you can work.’ The devil worked on idle hands and right now James was very idle.
‘My computer’s back at my house,’ he said irritably, ‘and I won’t have you braving the snow to get it. I’ve done enough work for the day, anyway. I can afford to take a little time off.’
‘Your mother would be pleased to hear that. She thinks you work too hard.’
‘I thought you never talked about me with my mother.’
Jennifer shook her head when he grinned at her and stood up. ‘I’m going to go and fix us something to eat. Get changed when you feel your clothes are dry enough.’
‘What’s on the menu?’
‘Whatever appears on the plate in front of you.’ She leftto the sound of his rich chuckle and she sternly stifled the temptation to laugh as well.
Her head was full of him as she went about the business of turning a bottle of crushed tomatoes, some cream and some mushrooms into something halfway decent to have with some of the tagliatelle her father kept in abundant supply in the larder. James annoyed her and alarmed her the way no one else had ever been able to, but he also made her laugh when she didn’t want to and held her spellbound when she knew she shouldn’t be. So what did that say about the state of her defences? She had thought that by seeing him again, she would have finally discovered that his impact had been diminished. She had foolishly imagined that she would put her demons to rest. The very opposite had happened, and, although she hated the thought of that, she was practically humming under her breath as she prepared their meal.
When she thought about him lying on the sofa in the sitting room, a wonderful, excited and
thoroughly forbidden
heat