Turning the Good Girl Bad. Avril Tremayne

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СКАЧАТЬ Stopped. Turned. Charged back, another string of curses accompanying him.

      Catherine raised herself on her other elbow. ‘No wonder you wanted the files cleared out,’ she said, with only a faint wheeze. ‘They’re a health hazard.’

      ‘I’ll tell you what you can do with the files,’ Max ground out. Kicking loose pages out of his way, he shoved the errant drawer aside with such ferocity that Catherine hoped he’d refrain from filling her in on the intricacies of that particular suggestion.

      In seconds he was kneeling beside her. ‘What happened? Should I call an ambulance? I’ll call an ambulance.’

      ‘You will not call an ambulance,’ Catherine said. ‘Because I’m fine.’

      ‘You’re not,’ Max contradicted flatly. ‘You didn’t answer when I called. Did you hit your head?’

      ‘Yes, but—’

      Without waiting for the rest, Max delved one of his hands into her hair and Catherine groaned. There went her tight chignon; she could feel waves of hair springing out all over the place.

      All it took was the groan for him to dig deeper. ‘There? Does it hurt there?’

      ‘No, it doesn’t hurt there,’ Catherine said waspishly. She reached a hand up to her head. ‘Oh, what are you doing to my hair? Do you know how long that takes to pin?’

      ‘So don’t pin it,’ Max said. He got to his feet, effortlessly drawing Catherine up beside him, then put his arm around her. ‘My office,’ he said, and started shepherding her along.

      Catherine groaned again. This was too awful. Not only the embarrassment of being discovered in such an undignified position, but the fact that Max had his arm around her, so she was breathing in that erotic scent of his—that mixture of special cologne, ultra-clean clothes, and Max’s own personal essence. At close range it was too wonderful to be borne.

      ‘I’m fine, I promise you,’ she said feebly.

      ‘Nearly there,’ Max soothed, shouldering open his office door, settling her on the leather couch against the wall, crouching beside her. ‘All right, now just lie there.’

      Catherine would have preferred one of the matching chairs where she normally sat. A couch was so...intimate. It reminded her of an Alex-Jennifer scene—Jennifer reclining on a chaise-longue, hair tumbling over her shoulders; Alex staring down at her with burning eyes...

      Max smoothed a hand across the top of her head and Catherine groaned again.

      ‘See?’ Max said accusingly. ‘You are hurt!’

      ‘Oh, for goodness’ sake,’ Catherine grumbled and, using her hands for leverage, tried to sit up.

      ‘Look,’ Max demanded, grasping the hands pushing against the leather of the couch and lowering her again. ‘You’re shaking like a leaf.’

      It was true. And Catherine was very glad to have the fall as an excuse—because her body’s trembling reaction had nothing to do with that fall and everything to do with Max’s proximity to her.

      ‘All right, a headache and a teensy bit of shock,’ she lied. ‘Now, can I get up?’

      Max squashed himself onto the edge of the couch beside her and put his hand to her forehead—feeling her temperature, of all things. Well, he was an engineer, not a doctor.

      ‘I guess that’s a no,’ Catherine said dryly. ‘Although I think you should consider doing a first-aid course.’

      ‘I thought I was managing pretty well.’

      ‘Hmph. It’s a good thing I didn’t injure my back, the way you dragged me off the floor.’

      ‘What—was I supposed to leave you there?’

      ‘And I don’t have a fever, so you can move your hand.’ Next thing he’d be asking her to stick out her tongue—and there was no saying what she’d do with it once it was out of her mouth!

      Max removed his hand. ‘How am I supposed to know if I don’t check?’

      ‘Because you don’t get a fever from—’ Catherine broke off in exasperation. ‘Oh, never mind! Just tell me when you’re free for that first-aid course.’

      ‘Why didn’t you answer when I called?’

      ‘I was flat-out at the time.’

      The bone-melting smile. ‘A double entendre—so your brain’s working at least. Are you sure you didn’t break anything? Perhaps I’d better check—’

      ‘If you do, I’ll walk out of this office and never come back.’ Just to think of those hands wandering over her bones was enough to heat her blood to boiling point.

      ‘All right, all right.’ Short laugh. ‘God, you’re such a firebrand, Cathy. I love it.’

      Firebrand. Catherine’s breath jammed. Jennifer was the firebrand. Catherine wrote her that way because she couldn’t be like that herself any more, not since RJ... Uh-oh. Not a good idea to be thinking about RJ. Or Passion Flower. Or tongues. Or fires in the blood.

      ‘Stay there,’ Max commanded, standing in one smooth, decisive movement. ‘Five minutes.’

      But it was less than three minutes later when Max returned, a glass of water in one hand and two tablets in the other.

      ‘For your headache,’ he explained, and watched as Catherine downed them. ‘Now,’ he said when she’d finished her last swallow of water. ‘Explain.’

      Catherine looked at him blankly. ‘Explain what?’

      ‘What the hell you were doing.’ He passed a hand that was none too steady over his eyes.

      Whaaaat?

      ‘I was doing the filing. As requested by my boss.’

      ‘I didn’t mean for you to kill yourself!’

      ‘And I didn’t.’

      ‘Couldn’t you get someone else to get the files for you if they were too high?’ He started pacing in front of her. ‘In fact, why are they so high?’

      ‘I have no idea. I guess your last assistant was taller.’

      ‘Elise,’ Max said, matter-of-fact. ‘Yes, I guess she was.’ He looked at Catherine’s feet, her hideous flat shoes. ‘She wore high heels, too.’

      ‘Well, it seems your various Elises—’ oozed Catherine, dripping poisoned honey ‘—never threw out a piece of paper in their lives! I’ve found files so old they should be given a gold watch!’

      ‘Do you need help going through them?’ Max asked, ignoring her sarcasm to cut straight to the point.

      Instantly Catherine’s back was up. No way was she going to get landed with a leggy blonde ‘Elise’ to help her. ‘I’m nearly finished. I can handle СКАЧАТЬ