The Mistresses Collection. Оливия Гейтс

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СКАЧАТЬ to feel bad if that’s all you can manage.’

      He leaned forward, his smile appreciative. ‘I don’t feel bad because I’m always nice to my partner.’

      ‘But you get tired of having to be nice? Why?’ She let herself look directly into his intense, intoxicating, eyes. ‘You want to get naughty sometimes?’

      The fire in his expression flared into an inferno. He flung back the sheet and stood up from the bed. ‘I’m not allowed to get naughty,’ he said softly.

      Why ever not? ‘But you’d like to?’ she pointedly asked, refusing to glance down and check out his legs. Or recognise the rapid pounding of her pulse. ‘Aren’t you all man? In control of your own destiny? If you want to be wicked, be wicked?’

      ‘Things are never that simple.’ He walked towards her.

      ‘No?’ She lifted her chin free of the rollneck of wool and fought the instinct to step back. ‘Seems they are to me. See, I’m bad. Bad news for anyone who comes near.’

      ‘You’re bad news?’ His eyebrow quirked, as if he didn’t believe her.

      ‘Oh, yeah.’ In the last few weeks the gossip columns had been filled with it. Only because they needed some kind of cannon fodder to fill the inches of newsprint and populate their webpages with salacious scandal. They all needed a villain. This month, she was it. She’d forgotten how awful it was to be vilified. She’d thought she’d escaped it years ago. ‘You’re right not to be attracted to me. I’m the wild child who’ll ruin a man.’

      ‘I never said I wasn’t attracted to you,’ he replied calmly. ‘And your supposed badness can’t ruin me.’ He whisked the grey T-shirt off and tossed it onto the bed. ‘I’m bulletproof, didn’t you know?’

      She stifled a gasp at his gesture. At the expanse of skin he’d exposed. Yep, the bullets would bounce off those bristling muscles. Dear heaven, this man was hewn.

      ‘Nothing you can do could tarnish my image,’ he said boldly.

      ‘You’re that perfect,’ she sarcastically humoured him. But though he was joking, she knew he was about as perfect as it got.

      ‘Apparently.’ A teasing gleam lit his chocolate eyes. ‘Though you and I know different.’

      ‘True.’

      ‘And what about what I could do for you?’ he said softly.

      ‘There’s no redeeming me,’ she said bluntly. ‘And you should be more careful. Reputations can only go down. Never up.’

      ‘What did you do that’s so bad?’ His amusement told her he thought she was kidding.

      He’d find out eventually. And no matter what she said in response, he wouldn’t believe her. Nobody did. Not even her sister. And her father perpetuated it—not caring about the veracity of any of the stories spread over the Internet. ‘Any publicity is good publicity’ was his mantra. He was wrong.

      It was only a matter of time until she saw the judgment enter James’ eyes. Hell, she’d seen it last night. ‘You took one look at me and thought I was trouble.’

      ‘And I was right about that.’ Softly, he didn’t deny it. ‘But haven’t you heard? I like trouble.’ He walked right up to her. ‘I go out of my way to find it.’

      ‘Only so you can fix it.’ She glared up at him. ‘And sorry, Handsome, I don’t need fixing.’

      ‘No?’ he asked, so close she could feel the warmth of his body hitting her even through the baggy layers she wore. ‘You need something else from me?’

      She could hardly breathe for the heated tension in the room. ‘All I need is a space in this bed to sleep. Nothing else.’

      His gorgeously outrageous smile returned. ‘Maybe.’ He stepped to the side and then walked past her into the bathroom. ‘But you might be surprised what I can come up with.’

      She couldn’t resist turning to watch him walk. Goaded by his jaw-dropping back view, she asked the worst possible question. ‘You think you’re irresistible?’

      He glanced back from the bathroom door, his thumbs hooked into the waistband of his boxers, that wry-but-wicked smile on his lips. ‘I guess we’re about to find out.’

       THREE

      Caitlin turned away, hearing his laughter and the click as the bathroom door closed. He was being deliberately outrageous, trying to make her laugh and put her at a funny kind of ease.

      She did feel somewhat better. At least they’d established an arrangement for the next few days. But oh, boy, was he a vastly different guy to the exhausted grouch who’d tried to boot her out of his bed last night. Still gorgeous, yes. Driven, yes. Determined—most definitely. But amusing, teasing, mercurial in his mood...not to mention arrogant. It all added up to appallingly attractive.

      Still, Caitlin could resist anything, right? It was peace and quiet she was after really. She only had to get through a couple of nights next to him. Easy peasy.

      She wasn’t thinking of being easy.

      She pulled her straggly ponytail free and found her comb in her bag. She sat cross-legged on the lower corner of the bed and worked out the knots before twisting her hair into a plait. She’d just finished when he emerged from the bathroom, a white towel around his waist. Once more Caitlin was stunned into silence at the sight of his shoulders, chest, and sheer lean strength. Not bodybuilder bulky, but not skinny. Just right. He winked outrageously at her before walking into the wardrobe and closing the door behind him. A bare minute later he reappeared clad in a fresh grey tee and clean combat pants. She couldn’t help grinning at what was so clearly his uniform. Clean-shaven, dressed, uber-alert, he’d switched on his inner action man.

      ‘Now for the practicalities,’ he said.

      She drew her legs up and wrapped her arms around her knees. ‘Practicalities?’

      ‘Food.’ He jerked his head to the side. ‘There’s not even a fridge in this place. We’re going to have to forage.’

      That easily he made her smile. ‘In the wilds of New York city?’

      ‘It’s a challenge.’ He nodded seriously. ‘You up for it?’

      Truthfully she’d been going to go with a container of yoghurt. She was on bread and cheese rations for this trip. But she needed to get out of here and inhale some fresh air. Cool the little inferno bubbling inside.

      ‘Okay.’ She swiftly twisted her plait into a flat bun—and then hid the lot under her black beanie, and grabbed her oversize sunglasses.

      ‘What are you doing?’ he asked, staring at her.

      ‘Getting ready to go out.’

      ‘You don’t like the sun?’

      ‘I don’t like being seen.’

      ‘You’re СКАЧАТЬ