Free Jordan St Claire: Dark and Dangerous by Carole Mortimer Page A

GOING back to my study to work.’ Jordan reached for his cane to stand up from the table where they had just sat in total silence eating the warming soup.
    It had been an uncomfortable silence. A silence full of awareness. Mental. Emotional. But most of all physical.
    Jordan still had no explanation at to why he was even attracted to the determined and difficult physiotherapist. He had never been attracted to green-eyed redheads of medium height and medium build before now. He had certainly never found argumentative women in the least appealing.
    Stephanie McKinley was all those things and more.
    The ‘more’ being her mulish stubbornness in refusing to leave Mulberry Hall!
    Well, just because
she
wouldn’t leave there was no reason for Jordan to have to stay in the same room as her. ‘I don’t want to be disturbed for the rest of the afternoon, but you can come and get me when dinner’s ready,’ he said autocratically as Stephanie stood up to clear the table.
    ‘Yes, My Lord.’ She turned to give him a mocking curtsy. ‘Certainly, My Lord.’
    Jordan drew in a sharp breath even as his gaze narrowed on her suspiciously. He had assumed earlier that she knew nothing about the history of the St Claire family. She had certainly given no indication when they’d talked earlier that she had connected Jordan’s family with the Dukes of Stourbridge, or that she knew he really was a lord in truth.
    There was no indication of that knowledge in Stephanie’s mischievous expression now, either—only a glint of mocking laughter in those expressive green eyes to go with that curtsy she had just given him.
    Jordan relaxed. ‘If I really were a lord, and this were a few hundred years ago, then I would have put you out onto the streets to starve by now for your insolence.’
    She gave a rueful shake of her head. ‘Then how lucky it is for me that the time of the feudal overlord is long gone.’
    Perhaps someone should have mentioned that to Jordan’s older brother? Lucan was no more inclined to use his title than Jordan and Gideon were, but there was still no doubting that Lucan was every bit as arrogant as their aristocratic ducal forebears were reputed to have been!
    ‘Yes, lucky for you,’ Jordan agreed dryly. ‘As for dinner—I believe you said that eating a healthy diet was a necessary part of my treatment?’ he reminded her.
    She smiled slightly. ‘Do I take it from that comment that it’s your intention to agree to accept only the parts of that treatment which suit you?’
    ‘Of course.’ He looked at her down his gorgeous nose.
    Stephanie had never met anyone quite like Jordan St Claire.
    Never before had she wanted to slap a man at thesame time as she so desperately wanted to experience the passion of his kisses!
    She sighed. ‘I’m afraid it doesn’t work like that.’
    ‘You aren’t afraid at all, Stephanie,’ he contradicted her flatly.
    He had no idea! ‘What work are you doing in your study?’
    ‘None of your damned business,’ Jordan said evenly.
    So much for trying to change the subject to something less controversial!
    The real problem for Stephanie was that even when they weren’t engaged in one of these irritating conversations she was still aware of everything about him. Even sitting down and eating lunch with him had been something of an ordeal in self-restraint.
    She had found herself looking at Jordan’s hands far too often as he ate, easily able to remember those hands caressing her back earlier. Igniting that fire of longing inside her.
    Oh, God! she thought, almost groaning aloud. Maybe she should just leave here, after all? Admit defeat and just go. Before she was tempted into doing something she would most definitely regret.
    No, she
couldn’t
leave.
    Between the two of them, Richard and Rosalind Newman had been making Stephanie’s life in London a living hell. She simply refused to let her awareness of Jordan force her into returning until Joey could assure her that particular