Hired For His Pleasure: The Talk of Hollywood / Keeping Her Up All Night / Buttoned-Up Secretary, British Boss. Susanne James

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СКАЧАТЬ danger to all those barriers she had so carefully built about her emotions. So much so that she knew even a week of being Jaxon’s lover would be six days and twenty-three hours too long …!

      ‘Where are you going?’ Jaxon reached out to firmly grasp Stazy’s arm as she would have turned and walked away.

      ‘Back to the house—’

      ‘In other words, you’re running away?’ he scorned. ‘Again,’ he added, those grey eyes taunting.

      Just the touch of his fingers about her arm was enough to rob Stazy of her breath. For her to be completely aware of him. Of his heat. His smell. For her fingers to itch, actually ache to become entangled in the long length of his hair as his lips, that sensuously sculptured mouth, claimed hers.

      What was it about this man, this man in particular, that made Stazy yearn to lose herself in his heat? To forget everything and everyone else as she gave in to the rapture of that sensuous mouth, the caresses of his strong and capable hands?

      Danger!

      To her, Jaxon represented a clear and present danger.

      Physically.

      Emotionally.

      At the same time Stazy knew she had no intention of revealing her weakness by running away from the challenge of his taunt. She pulled her arm free of his steely grasp. ‘I happen to be walking away, Jaxon, not running. And I’m doing so because I’m becoming bored by the constant need you feel to live up to your less than reputable image!’

      The hardness of his cheekbones became clearly defined as his jaw tightened harshly. ‘Really?’

      ‘Really,’ she echoed challengingly.

      Jaxon continued to meet the challenge in those glittering green eyes for several long seconds as he fought an inner battle with himself, knowing the wisest thing he could to do was to let Stazy go, while at the same time wanting to take her in his arms and kiss her into submission. No—not submission; he wanted Stazy to take as much from him as he would be asking of her.

       In your dreams, Wilder!

      Stazy might have had a brief lapse in control the evening before, but he had no doubt it was that very lapse that made her so determined not to allow him to get close to her again. If he even attempted to kiss her now she would fight him with every part of her. And he didn’t want to fight Stazy. He wanted to make love to her.

      He also had no doubt that at the first sign of a struggle between the two of them those two watching bodyguards would decide that Stazy was the one in need of protection. From him.

      He stepped back. ‘Then I really mustn’t continue to bore you any longer, must I?’ he drawled dryly.

      Stazy looked up at him wordlessly for several seconds, slightly stunned at his sudden capitulation. What had she expected? That Jaxon would ask—plead—for her not to go back to the house just yet? To stay and have lunch with him here instead? That he would ask her for more than just to have lunch with him? If she had thought—hoped for—that then she was obviously going to be disappointed. Jaxon Wilder could have any woman he wanted. He certainly didn’t need to waste his time charming someone who continued to claim she wasn’t interested.

      ‘Fine,’ she bit out tautly. ‘Enjoy your lunch.’ Her head was held high as she turned and walked away.

      Jaxon watched her leave through narrowed lids, knowing that he had allowed Stazy to get to him with those last cutting remarks, and feeling slightly annoyed with himself for allowing her to do so. And, damn it, what ‘less than reputable image’ was she referring to?

      Okay, so over the past ten years or so he’d had his share of relationships with beautiful women. But only two or three in a year. And only ever one at a time. He certainly wasn’t involved with anyone at the moment.

      He was allowing Stazy’s remark to put him on the defensive, when there was nothing for him to feel defensive about!

      Jaxon turned slightly as he saw the nearest guard had moved off the headland and was now following Stazy back to the house. His smile became rueful as he watched the second guard leave his position in order to follow behind them, nodding curtly to Jaxon as he passed by several feet away, at the same time letting him know he wasn’t the one being protected.

      Just watching the way the two men moved so stealthily told Jaxon they were attached to one of the Special Forces, and even though neither man carried any visible weapon Jaxon was certain that they were both probably armed.

      That knowledge instantly brought back the feelings of unease Jaxon had felt when he had arrived yesterday.

      ‘Ready to call it a day …?’

      Stazy had been wary of Jaxon’s mood when he’d returned to the house an hour after she had left him so abruptly on the beach, but her worries had proved to be unfounded. Whatever Jaxon felt about that heated exchange, it was hidden beneath a veneer of smooth politeness she found irritating rather than reassuring; either Jaxon had a very forgiving nature, or her remarks had meant so little to him he had totally dismissed them from his mind!

      She glanced at the plain gold watch on her wrist now, as she leant against the back of her chair, surprised to see it was almost half past six in the evening.

      ‘Jaxon, I—’ She drew in a deep breath before continuing. ‘I believe I owe you an apology for some of the things I said to you earlier.’

      ‘You do?’ Jaxon raised dark brows as he flexed his shoulder in a stretch after hours of sitting bent over the table, the two of them having only stopped work briefly when Little had brought in a tray of afternoon tea a couple of hours ago.

      Stazy had been just as distracted by Jaxon’s physical proximity this afternoon as she had this morning, and now found herself watching the play of muscles beneath his tee shirt as he stretched his arms above his head before standing up. His waist was just as tautly muscled above those powerful thighs and long legs. Damn it, even that five o’clock shadow looked sexy on Jaxon!

      And she was once again ogling him like some starstruck groupie, Stazy realised self-disgustedly.

      ‘My grandfather would be … disappointed if he were to learn I had been rude to guest in his home,’ she said.

      ‘I’m not about to tell him, Stazy.’ Jaxon gave a rueful shake of his head. ‘And technically we weren’t in your grandfather’s home at the time.’

      ‘Nevertheless—’

      ‘Just forget about it, okay?’ he bit out tautly, no longer quite as relaxed as he had been. ‘But, for the record, that disreputable image you keep referring to is greatly overstated!’

      Obviously she had been wrong. It hadn’t been a case of Jaxon having a forgiving nature or her remarks meaning so little to him he had dismissed them at all; Jaxon was just better at hiding his annoyance than most people!

      ‘I only said that because—’ She broke off the explanation as she remembered exactly why she had felt defensive enough to make that less than flattering remark earlier. Because she had once again been completely physically aware of Jaxon. Because she had been terrified of her own aching response to that physical awareness, of the danger СКАЧАТЬ