Free A Little Revenge Omnibus by Penny Jordan Page A

her.
    Admit it, she told herself sternly ten minutes later as she locked the shop and disappeared into the small back room to have her lunch, you just hate the thought of anyone thinking you could possibly be attracted to him. Anyone...or a specific someone...a very specific someone.
    Pushing aside her half-eaten sandwich, Kelly started to frown. Don’t start that again, she warned herself. He’s not much better than Julian... Look at the way he treated you. Kissing you like that.
    Kissing her... Abruptly she sat down, her insides starting to melt and then ache.
    Watch it, she warned herself, deriding herself fiercely. It isn’t just your insides he’s turning to mush, it’s your brain as well.
    Her frown deepened as she heard someone ringing the shop doorbell. Couldn’t they read? They were closed. The ringing persisted. Irritably Kelly got up. There was no way she could finish her lunch with that row going on.
    Opening the communicating door, she marched into the shop and then stopped abruptly as she saw Brough Frobisher standing on the other side of the plate-glass window.
    Her hand went to her throat in an instinctive gesture of shock as she breathed in disbelief, ‘You.’
    Shakily she went to unlock the shop door. Brough was frowning as he stepped inside.
    ‘I’m looking for Kay Harris,’ he told her abruptly. The sense of shock that hit her was so strong that for a moment Kelly was unable to reply.
    ‘She does work here, doesn’t she?’ Brough was demanding curtly, looking at her, Kelly realised, as though he doubted her ability to answer him competently.
    ‘Yes. Yes, she does... I do... It’s Kelly, not Kay,’ Kelly corrected him shakily. ‘K is just my initial.’
    ‘You!’
    Sensing his reluctance to believe her, Kelly drew herself up to her full height and told him in her most businesslike voice, ‘My partner and I run this shop.’
    ‘You paint china?’ His disbelief was palpable and insulting.
    Kelly could feel her temper starting to ignite. There were many things she was not, and she had her fair share of human faults and frailties, but there was one thing that she was sure of and that was that she was extremely good at her chosen work—and that wasn’t merely her own opinion.
    ‘Yes, I do. Perhaps you’d like to see my credentials?’ she suggested bitingly.
    ‘I thought I just did—last night.’ The long, slow, arrogantly male look he gave her made her face burn and her temper heat to simmering point.
    ‘What is it exactly that you want?’ she demanded angrily, adding before she could stop herself, ‘If it’s simply because you’re some sort of weirdo who gets off on insulting women, I should have thought your behaviour towards me last night would have more than satisfied you.’
    Kelly knew that she had overstepped the mark. She could hardly believe what she had just heard herself say, but it was too late to withdraw her remarks. Retaliation couldn’t be long in coming, she recognised, and she was right.
    ‘If you’re referring to the fact that I kissed you...’ he began silkily, and then paused whilst he looked straight into her eyes. ‘Allow me to say that you have a rather...unusual...way of expressing your...displeasure...’
    He didn’t say anything more—he didn’t need to, Kelly acknowledged; the expression in his eyes and the tone of his voice along with the masterly understatement of his silky words was more than enough to leave her covered in confusion and angry, self-inflicted humiliation.
    ‘I... You... It was a mistake,’ was all she could think of to say.
    ‘Oh, yes,’ he agreed dulcetly. ‘It certainly was. Now, I’m afraid that I am rather short of time. I have a commission I would like to discuss with you.’
    Kelly blinked. All that and he still wanted to talk business with her.
    Her thoughts must have shown in her face because he explained gently, ‘You’re my last resort. You have, or so I am told, a very particular and rare skill. It will