Free Sweet Seduction by Stella Whitelaw Page B

you get out of this?" said Kira, still mentally kicking herself at the way he was manipulating her. He was wrapping his jacket round her shoulders.
    "I get dinner with a prickly female," he said with a wicked grin. "A new experience for me. My car is over here."
    "Charm doesn’t run my business," said Kira, flaring. He was teasing her. "I’m serious about my work. It’s more than a butterfly image. My consultancy is based on efficiency and hard work."
    He chuckled in the darkness. "I meant no disrespect, ma’am. You ain’t no butterfly, that’s for sure. More like a tiger cat, I’d say. I guess you’ve got claws hidden under that pretty dress."
    "I’m eating with you because I’m hungry, that’s all. Don’t think it’s going to lead anywhere." It seemed a stupid thing to say but the warmth of the night air was intoxicating. Something strange was happening, over which she had no control.
    The words took her back into a private empty world where she was really lonely. She was starved for the touch of a man yet she was saying the words that would send him away. A terrible ache filled her that Giles might get the message and go, leave her. Sudden tears stung behind her eyes and she brushed them angrily away.
    "Nothing further from my mind. No, lady, I’ve booked a table for two and afterwards I will bring you back to the hotel."
    He leaned towards her and his mouth was a breath’s caress away from her lips. His hand ran lightly down her arm, disturbing the fine hairs in a feathery touch. She found her lips parting in soft anticipation and her body leaning towards him. He was standing very close in the evening’s balmy darkness, every plane of his face etched like a river running black.
    "But I’m damned hungry," he said. "And not just for food."
     
     

Nine
     
    Kira turned her face away. He was not going to get to kiss her and she was not going to make herself cheap. Bruce had taught her that. It was dangerous to succumb to male magic even when the silvery moonlight was adding to that magic and a sheen hung on the evening air. Giles was too close, towering beside her.
    "I do appreciate your hospitality to a complete stranger but I assure you I’m no helpless lady. I’ve been looking after myself since I was a little girl, and eating alone is the least of my worries," she said.
    "You mean you’ve been living on your own?" He sounded surprised, his voice also tinged with apprehension as if he suddenly saw a child at home alone. The Barbados culture was family orientated. A child would never be left alone.
    Kira shook her head, unaware of the red lights forming an aura round her hair. Giles was watching her, suddenly seeing a different person emerging from the cool businesswoman; someone vulnerable and afraid.
    "Not exactly. My mother died when I was young. I was sent to a convent and the nuns were good to us but it was still a lonely existence. They are not given to hugs and kisses, more a pat on the head and ‘hurry along, there’s a good girl’."
    "Then I insist on taking you out to supper and spoiling you." There was a new awareness in his voice. "My car is here. Allow me to play Prince Charming for one evening."
    "Cinderella has to be home early."
    "Of course. Though I’d rather like to see my Merc turn into a mouse."
    "It was a pumpkin," she corrected.
    She should have known he would have a white Mercedes. At a touch of a button, the roof folded back. Kira felt the last of her resistance slide away, as if she was walking into another life and taking that walk as if it was the only course open to her. She was being tempted by a car and ran her hand along its smoothness. She did not know that Dolly, her grandmother, had been tempted by a bathroom. She had never ridden in an open car before.
    "Nice car," she said more abruptly than she meant to, as he opened the passenger door for her. The upholstery was pale blue with cream trim. The floor was carpeted in the same blue. She sank back into the comfort