by Anne Ashby
To spend another whole day in Jase’s company was tempting fate. In fact it was almost suicidal. “I don’t know what we’re going to achieve today.”
Jase joined her at the car’s bonnet and grasped her hand. Her attempt to tug free was thwarted by his tightening fingers.
“This needn’t be about achieving anything.” Jase looked deep into her eyes. “It could just be about a girl and a guy enjoying themselves.” He hesitated a little, his hold drawing her closer before adding, “Enjoying each other’s company.”
Debra’s breath caught. She couldn’t deny the spark of excitement at the prospect. Heat crept up her neck and into her cheeks as she drowned in his eyes.
Blood rushed through her veins like a swollen river, swirling and surging past all in its path. She fought an overwhelming need to lean even closer. She could no more throttle the dizzy current electrifying her than she could stop the sun from rising.
“All you have to do is relax,” he murmured, his gaze dropping to her mouth. “And forget who you are. You definitely need to forget you’re my boss.”
Screams of frustration gathered at the back of her throat. “I am not your boss, today,” she denied through clenched teeth.
He sensed her annoyance and sought to placate her. “Well, actually you are.” Slipping his arm around her he turned them toward the market. “You could fire me any time you want.”
She glared across and a sharp shrug displaced his arm.
“You’re not thinking of me as an employee?”
Was he blind? Their professional status meant nothing. But his tone was serious as he waited for her reply. “Of course not.”
They continued in silence. A glance from the corner of her eye revealed Jase a little taller, a little broader in the chest. “I’m glad you feel like that. It’s something that’s been worrying me. It doesn’t seem quite ethical to date one’s boss.”
“We’re hardly dating. Ours is a business arrangement.” Debra immediately regretted allowing the words to escape. Jase’s face tightened.
Sourness filled her mouth and made swallowing difficult. Guilt was added to the disappointment she might have ruined the day.
She remembered Queenstown. Jase cared about ethics. Hastily she strove to fetch back her relaxed escort. “I’m sorry. You’re right. It’s a beautiful day, we should just enjoy ourselves.”
She chewed her bottom lip, knowing as an apology it was a pretty dismal attempt. But she had to rein herself in from saying what was in her heart. She couldn’t risk revealing herself. The pain of his ultimate rejection would be too great.
But there was one thing she had to make very clear. “Jase, neither Paul nor I involve ourselves with the day-to-day running of any of our enterprises. I only got caught up with the problems at Riversleigh because of my mother. I would never have done anything like that without her goading.”
He watched her as she explained. “You are hardly an employee. You are the hotel’s manager.”
An emerging smile lit up Jase’s face. “So it could be acceptable for a manager to date a CEO?” His tone was tentative, as if testing her. He avoided looking into her eyes. “I’m talking hypothetically, of course.”
Hypothetical be damned. The breath caught behind a lump in her throat. His use of the word “dating” again both delighted and terrified her.
While her face burned, her heart fluttered like a hummingbird. She couldn’t answer him. She daren’t answer him. Disagreement would destroy their wary companionship. But to give an affirmative would lay open her heart.
Her teeth chewed harder upon her lip. A man like Jase could never be seriously contemplating a relationship with her. Could he? Women like her just didn’t appeal to men—especially not charismatic hunks like Jase McEwan who could have the pick of any woman they wanted.
A smiling Jase had given up waiting for her reply. Instead he tucked her unresisting hand through his arm and held it tight against his side.
The warmth radiating from beneath his shirt lurched up her arm and relocated somewhere in the base of her stomach. She stumbled, accepting his suggested cause being the uneven ground; even as she acknowledged her inability to stay upright had nothing to do with the undulating terrain beneath her feet.
The town was already very busy. People jostled about, spilling from shops and tents, from behind produce- and craft-laden tables lining the pavements.
They wandered about in the morning sun, along the road, across the road, dodging the creeping cars and other shoppers. Some had arrived early, and were already encumbered with shopping bags filled with goodies. Others, like Debra and Jase, were happy to mosey along stopping when something interested them.
A display of hand-crafted jewellery caught Jase’s eye and he edged Debra closer. “I’m going to buy you something.” His determined tone delighted the vendor who swooped to show off her wares.
“No, Jase.” Using his name cleared the uncertain look the woman had been giving him. Damn. She’d obviously recognised him as someone she should know but hadn’t been able to put a name to him.
Of course Jase ignored both the vendor and Debra, his focus instead on the intricate jewellery on display. “What would you like? Earrings, a necklace, a ring?”
Omigod! A ring? Debra looked everywhere on the table except at the rings, trying to ignore the quivering excitement that filled her. Her heart thumped so loud she was deafened to all the jostling noises around her.
She daren’t lift her gaze in case he caught it. Caught it and read what raced through her mind—that a ring was exactly what she dreamed of him buying. A big solitaire, not a diamond, maybe a sapphire or a—
“These look great.” He pointed to some necklaces. “Do you have anything like these?”
Debra shook her head. She doubted her voice would work.
“Try this on.” He plucked one off the display. Sensing a sale the vendor held a large mirror, smiling as Jase flicked Debra’s hair aside to secure the necklace’s catch.
The mirror reflected Jase’s expression as he laid the necklace in place. Intent on fastening the tiny clip Debra doubted he was aware of his tongue playing with the corner of his lips.
His touch, first on her hair, then at the back of her neck, sent shivers through her that she was unable to conceal. As he fixed the necklace in place, her racing pulse warned—despite all her efforts to remain detached—her heart belonged to this man.
What little composure she still possessed slipped as he raised his head and their gazes met in the mirror. The smouldering flame in his eyes struck something deep inside her. The necklace was forgotten as unspoken communications leapt between them.
An arm inched around her and held her against him. His head dipped. Lips whispered across her neck and scorched their heat right through her. She floated, her eyelids drooping as she sunk into his embrace. Powerless to fight any longer, she accepted he had assailed the wall she’d built around her heart.
A discreet cough alerted them to their surroundings. With an unselfconscious grin, Jase handed across money for his purchase, telling the vendor they didn’t need a box, the necklace was perfect where it was.
Debra fingered his present, more excited than she’d allowed herself to be for many years. It was time to accept what her heart had been telling her. A wicked thrill rushed through her. She needed Jase to find her desirable. And he obviously did.
Chapter Fifteen
Today could become the best day of her life. All Debra needed to do was put worries and fears aside and relax in the company of the man she loved. There, she’d admitted it to herself. She loved Jase.
Stealing a glance as he examined a pottery display, Debra acknowledged the power he already had over her. Just being in his company had turned the sun brighter, the sky bluer. People all around them faded into insignificance. They could have been alone in the world.
Debra caught his enthusiasm to enjoy this outing to the maximum. She laughed at his teasing, even risked teasing a little in retur
n. She withstood his amusement at her wandering past the market stalls nibbling chips coated with tomato sauce. She even managed not to melt at his feet as he kissed a little of that sauce from the corner of her mouth.
His almost constant hold on her hand became so normal she felt bereft any time he released her to pick up some odd item displayed in a market stall. Refusing to consider how flat she’d feel when the day ended, Debra threw herself into having fun—genuinely surprised she remembered how.
“You bought me something,” she declared as they neared a stall covered in hats. “Now it’s my turn.” A gift of more magnitude was called for but the market wasn’t the place to find anything substantial. “I’ll buy you a hat.”
Their tomfoolery as she made him try on numerous varieties cemented the atmosphere of the day. The leather cowboy hat which he swore was like one his father always wore was vetoed. “John Wayne, you’re not.”
“What about this one?”
Debra leaned her head to one side and considered as he paraded in front of her, unembarrassed some nearby youths stopping to watch.
She shook her head. “You look like Eliot Ness or one of those Untouchables.” She handed him another.
“This?” he held it in his hand, a disdainful I-don’t-believe-you-want-me-to-try-this-one look on his face. She laughed out loud as he looked from the hat, to the watching boys, to her, back to the hat.
“Don’t be such a woose. Try it on.”
With a heavy sigh, an exaggerated shrug and a pained expression he slammed it on his head. Not even looking in the mirror himself, he turned to her.
Swallowing a giggle, Debra clasped her hands to her breast and pretended to swoon. “Oh, just like Fred Astaire.” The incredulousness of comparing this hunky rugby player to the slim, diminutive dancer from the nineteen-forties was lost on Debra. And it seemed on Jase as well.
He snared her close. Right there beside the market stall he swirled her around in a couple of tight pirouettes before dipping her over his arm. As he let her up he tipped the hat to a rakish angle and turned to the youths watching with mouths agape. “What do you think, guys? How do I look?”
Shyness had overtaken the boys, but Jase talked until they found their tongues. As Debra joined them after paying for the hat, Jase gave each boy an autograph on some scruffy paper they’d found somewhere.
“Could we get a photo?” One youth bravely asked.
Debra detected an uncertain wobble in his voice.
“Sure thing.” Jase slipped around between them, a big grin on his face. “Give your cell to my friend.” He adjusted his hat to an even more rakish angle and flung an arm around each bony shoulder. “Take a few, Deb. After all, these guys helped us choose my hat.” Not surprised at the ease Jase showed talking to the boys, she was taken aback by the time he spent with them. Debra felt a different glow inside—one far away from love or desire.
“That’s an admirable trait,” she mused as the excited youths disappeared into the crowd. At his querying look she added, “Being willing to give of yourself to others.”
Ruddy color flamed into Jase’s face. His mouth opened and shut but no words came out.
She clasped his hand. “Those boys will remember that moment for the rest of their lives. You could have just ignored them. You could have simply scribbled your signature on those bits of paper. You didn’t need to spend those moments talking to them, letting them have photos of you.” She squeezed his hand. “I think you were wonderful to do that.”
Jase’s eyes shone. His chest expanded in front of her. He struggled for words before giving up and smiling as they moved toward more stalls across the street. Once across the street, he lifted their joined hands and pressed his lips against her knuckles. Her smile robbed him of breath; at least Debra hoped that’s what caused his faint gasp.
While Jase’s affection was portrayed in his eyes and expression and the touch of his hand on hers, he made no other intimate contact. Debra chided herself for being disappointed.
Their day together was brilliant. Debra couldn’t remember a time when she’d felt so happy. She gloried in the feeling, hugging it to her like a child, refusing to even think it could end. Exhausted by the time they were ready to leave the provincial town Debra was more than willing to hand Jase the car keys.
Electrified passion kept blood rushing through her body, only to recommence the journey when accessing a heart pumping at twice its normal speed. His hold might have kept her grounded, even as she drifted on air all day, but it had also vamped up all of her senses.
“Tired?” He smiled as he placed numerous shopping bags into the boot before adding his hat. “I’m not going to risk this blowing away.”
“A little,” she admitted, “but it’s a nice tired.”
“Your shoes didn’t help.”
Debra poked her tongue out. Trust a man to be practical.
Gingerly easing the lid closed he pulled a pained face, as if expecting to hear the pottery he’d purchased breaking. When no ominous sounds rose he patted the boot and slid behind the wheel.
“Thanks for your help.” He’d decided the market was an ideal place to do his Christmas shopping. He’d called on her advice time and again as he sorted through stalls. Helping him had added to her euphoria.
For a period she’d felt as if they were a couple. It was a feeling she was scared to contemplate because she’d been filled with such joy.
But Jase probably didn’t feel the same. What if he was just being kind? She’d seen how kind he could be. Look how he’d treated those two boys.
He’s a considerate man; he’d never do anything to knowingly hurt a person. She kept her face turned out the car’s side window. What if Jase returns to Riversleigh and forgets me?
Then you’ll suck it up and get on with living. Stop tormenting yourself. Grab hold of today and forget tomorrow. Sneaking a glance at his wonderful profile, Debra determined to do just that. She was going to stop with all the what-ifs in her life.
Jase stopped the car outside his hotel. “What time shall I pick you up?”
“You don’t need to pick me up.” Debra hurried out and around to the driver’s side as Jase alighted. “I’ll meet you at the restaurant.” She named a popular eating place she’d had her PA book, her eyebrows rising as Jase began shaking his head.
“Think how that’s going to look,” he rebuked. “What time?”
The relaxed day had mellowed Debra to such an extent she answered instead of arguing. “I told Paul eight o’clock.”
“Then I’ll see you at seven-thirty.”
Propped against the door, Jase blocked Debra’s access to the driver’s seat. His lazy, intimate smile triggered a gush of ardour setting Debra alight and she waited, breathless, as Jase leant closer. Reality vanished the moment their lips met.
Debra forgot her uncertainty, her insecurity, her fear. She forgot she had paid this man to be her escort. She forgot everything but how his touch released an all-consuming hunger for the ultimate fulfilment only he could achieve.
Despite the sun’s heat blazing down on them, she shivered in his arms as his tongue invaded her mouth. His kiss deepened. His arms tightened around her, gluing them together—mouth to mouth, chest to chest, hip to hip.
Now in no doubt he was affected as powerfully as she, her hand crept up the dark column of his neck and slipped into his hair. A frustrated moan rose as he lifted his head. Unable to move, she clung to his shoulders.
Breathing heavily, he leaned his forehead against hers, his eyes closed. Then, with a second brush of his lips across hers, he whispered, “Seven-thirty then. Wear something sexy.”
She collapsed against the side of the car as he emptied his shopping from the boot, uncaring her gaze was eating him up.
With his hands full of loaded plastic bags he started toward the imposing hotel door, but a glance over his shoulder fetched him back to her side. The hard kiss he planted on her eager lips before turning and disappearing into the hotel boiled
her blood even further and left her body with a burning itch she couldn’t scratch.
Driving back to her apartment building took all of her concentration. She ordered her legs to co-operate although they were filled with cotton wool. She rolled her shoulders and hoped her hands would stop shaking. She forced the silly grin from her face. But she couldn’t slow the pounding of her heart.
She couldn’t deny the excited anticipation surging through her as she contemplated the forthcoming evening. They’d talk, they’d dine, they’d dance. Debra shivered as she imagined doing another rumba with him. Their connection would grow and then maybe later, when he bought her home...
Yikes! He asked for sexy. She needed sexy. Debra gasped as she slammed into her parking space. Her wardrobe didn’t run to sexy clothing. Leaping from her car she ran for the lift and then dashed into her apartment, throwing open the doors of her wardrobe.
With feverish intent she dragged hanger after hanger across the bar, occasionally hauling something out and holding it against her before discarding it. Finally she slumped to her knees. Her clothes were beautiful, expensive, the height of elegance—but not sexy.
She didn’t need to check her watch to know at this time on a Saturday only the chain stores would still be open. Buying a sexy little number to turn Jase on wasn’t happening.
She sat in a heap on the floor, all her pleasure draining away. A disappointed lump in her throat threatened to choke her. Staring at the clothes scattered around, her bottom lip trembled. She’d wanted to look special for Jase tonight. Special enough he might truly find her attractive.
A choked desperate laugh escaped. Arms wrapped around herself, she wallowed in an abyss of self-pity so unlike herself Debra worried she was losing her perspective.
Trying to re-focus on her crazy scheme of catapulting Jase into her life here in Wellington, she found she couldn’t. Instead her thoughts centred on today’s enjoyments, of walking hand in hand, of laughter and teasing, of being with someone who drove everything from her mind but her happiness in his company.
