Like their lord and master, Natalie thought bitterly as she accepted the chilled melon placed in front of her. The conversation for the main part passed over her, although she noticed Adam was very terse towards Jason, a fact the other man recognised with an amused and triumphant smile in her direction.
‘Natalie?’
She looked up to find Tracy watching her curiously, a dull red tinge entering her cheeks as she realised the other woman must have been talking to her for some minutes—and she hadn’t heard a word! She should have known this evening was going to be a disaster when Lester had arrived at her flat so unexpectedly. It had only got worse!
‘Sorry?’ She plastered an over-bright smile to her lips, forcing a look of interest to her face.
Tracy smiled, bearing no chagrin for Natalie’s inattentiveness. ‘I was just saying how exciting it must be to head an agency like yours,’ she repeated with quiet sincerity.
‘Oh, Natalie—works very hard,’ Jason put in softly.
Natalie drew in an angry breath, her knuckles showing white as she clenched her hands. ‘I—’
‘She’s very important—to the company,’ Adam put in with quiet intensity, the double edge to his words missed by no one, except maybe Tracy, who looked so innocently naïve at the moment that Natalie doubted she even knew the meaning of the word innuendo.
But Jason didn’t miss it, and for the first time this evening he looked disconcerted, frowning at Adam, finding his gaze met in arrogant challenge. Finally it was the younger man’s gaze that fell.
‘It must be very exciting being a model.’ Tracy’s face glowed as she completely missed that moment of tension.
‘Hard work,’ Natalie smiled at the other woman’s enthusiasm.
‘Were you ever a model?’
‘Once,’ she nodded.
‘Did you like it?’
‘Yes. But I like being an agent better.’
‘I suppose—’
‘Really, darling,’ Jason drawled mockingly, ‘don’t bore Natalie with your ceaseless questions!’
Natalie could quite cheerfully have hit him for the way Tracy momentarily lost all her sparkle, and her expression turned fleetingly wistful, hauntingly so as she changed from a beautiful woman to an unsure little girl.
Adam’s mouth tightened, and he set about charming his young sister from the sudden mood of melancholy she had drifted into because of her husband’s sharpness.
Natalie joined in their conversation now and again, although Jason remained triumphantly silent as his young wife tried in vain to get back into his favour. Natalie’s dislike of the man grew as the evening progressed, so much so that she wondered how Adam kept his hands off him. Jason Dillman had to be the most obnoxious man she had ever met—and Tracy had to be one of the sweetest people she had ever met. God, what a mess! If only Tracy didn’t love her husband so much, Jason and Judith certainly seemed to deserve each other; both of them were selfish in the extreme. The two of them would surely destroy each other in the end.
As Adam feared Jason would destroy Tracy before he was finished with her! She could now understand his concern for his sister, and she echoed that concern after having met Tracy.
Tracy smiled at her as she and Jason took their leave shortly after eleven. ‘I hope we meet again,’ she said with a sincerity that couldn’t be doubted.
Natalie was once again aware of Adam’s possessive arm about her waist as they stood at the door as the other couple took their leave; she knew by the tension about his mouth as he glanced down at her that he was totally aware of the tactics she had used to avoid contact or conversation with him all evening. She was still furiously angry about his arrogant claim to a relationship with her, and she had no intention of letting him get away with such a liberty.
‘I’m sure you will,’ Adam assured his sister smoothly.
Tracy’s eyes widened with understanding. ‘Maybe the two of you could come to dinner with us one evening?’
‘I—’
‘We would like that. Wouldn’t we, Natalie?’ He looked down at her warningly.
She nodded wordlessly, hating him with her eyes, and knowing he knew of her resentment.
‘I’ll call you, shall I?’ Tracy suggested to her brother.
‘I think that would be best,’ he nodded.
Natalie moved away from him as soon as the other couple had left, slipping out of the arc of his arm to face him rebelliously. ‘Could you ask Morton for my jacket too, please,’ she said stiffly.
Adam moved to pour himself a whisky, his eyes narrowed at her over the rim of his glass. ‘You aren’t leaving,’ he stated calmly, his gaze challenging.
Her mouth tightened. ‘But I am.’
‘No,’ he shook his head, the glass landing on the table with a resounding thud as he came towards her. ‘We haven’t finished our conversation yet.’
He was towering over her, totally daunting, and yet she refused to be intimidated. ‘Which conversation is that?’ she met his challenge, her gaze unflinching. ‘The one about how I’m your woman, and everyone is going to know it?’ Her voice shook over the latter, her anger making her tremble with reaction.
‘Natalie—’
‘But we didn’t even start the conversation, Adam,’ she bit out furiously. ‘I certainly never agreed to it.’
‘Didn’t you?’ he taunted harshly. ‘I had the distinct impression the other evening that being my woman was exactly what you’d agreed to.’
She breathed shakily. ‘That was unfair!’
He sighed his impatience. ‘What else was I supposed to tell them, Natalie?’ he demanded. ‘That you’re just a business acquaintance?’
‘Why not?’ Her eyes flashed. ‘It’s the truth.’
‘Is it?’
‘Yes!’ she flushed at his derision.
Adam shook his head, his exasperation a tangible force. ‘Then who was the woman who pleaded with me to make love to her two days ago? I’m sure it was the same woman I kissed so passionately only three hours ago.’
‘That was before—’ She broke off, chewing on her bottom lip.
‘Before…?’ he prompted hardly.
‘Before you introduced me so—so intimately to your sister and Jason,’ she muttered reluctantly.
‘I introduced you as a friend—’
‘And we all know what that means!’
‘Do we?’ His eyes were narrowed.
‘Don’t be so dense, Adam,’ she snapped. ‘Men like you don’t have woman friends.’
The blue eyes glittered dangerously. ‘Men like me?’ he repeated softly.
She swallowed hard, knowing by the grim set of his jaw that Adam was very angry too now. She sighed. ‘I didn’t mean it like that—’
‘Then how the hell did you mean it?’ he rasped. ‘I introduced you as a friend, you take exception to it. Are you a woman or a child, Natalie?’
‘I’m a woman!’ she flushed.
‘Then damn well act like one. Are you ashamed of the attraction we have for each other, is that it?’ His mouth twisted. ‘Do you usually choose men like Lester, men who think themselves lucky to be allowed to touch you?’
‘And don’t boast of it, you mean?’ she accused heatedly.
Adam became strangely still, his narrowed eyes icy cold as his gaze ripped into her. ‘Are you saying that’s what I did?’
Natalie drew in a ragged breath. ‘You certainly let them know what role I play in your life!’
‘You’re becoming hysterical—’
‘And you’re damned arrogant!’ Natalie glared at him, her breasts heaving in her agitation. ‘Now, I’d like to leave.’
‘Don’t worry, I’ll get your jacket so that you can do just that.’ Adam rang for the butler. ‘One thing about “men like me”,’ he ground out, ‘is that we never keep a woman against her will.’
She flushed at the barb of his tone, turning away as he asked the butler to bring her jacket.
What a disaster of an evening! She had a
nticipated this time together since they had parted Thursday evening, and now they were parting like strangers.
Adam tersely dismissed the butler after he had brought her jacket, holding it out to her himself, moving slowly round her to pull the lapels together.
Natalie swallowed hard, looking up at him with eyes swimming in tears, then saw his expression soften, the harshness go out of his eyes.
‘Dear God, woman,’ he groaned, ‘let’s not have our second argument!’
‘I think we’ve already had it,’ she said miserably.
‘Do you really want to leave?’ He cupped either side of her face with his hands.
‘No,’ she admitted huskily.
‘I think the only way to stop us arguing is for me to kiss you,’ his head lowered.
Natalie welcomed the warmth of his mouth, instantly melting against him, feeling the surge of his body as his hardening thighs told of his arousal.
His lips moved to the warm throb of her throat. ‘Do you still mind being thought my woman?’ he teased softly.
From the moment his mouth had touched hers she had felt that familiar melting feeling, had wondered if she couldn’t be a little in love with this man after all. But his teasing tone didn’t rob the words of the truth. If she ever allowed Adam to make love to her she would just be another of his women, discarded when she no longer held his attention. As the Princess had been…?
‘What is it, darling?’ Adam frowned down at her.
‘Let me go,’ she ordered coldly.
‘Natalie—’
‘I’d like to go now.’
‘What the hell did I say or do now?’ he burst out impatiently.
‘Nothing.’ She pulled her jacket more comfortably about her shoulders. ‘It’s late, I’d like to leave.’
‘Perverse woman,’ he rasped, shrugging. ‘Okay, let’s go. I’m not in the mood to play the games you seem intent on.’
Her eyes flashed. ‘I’m sure your other women don’t play such games.’
‘So that’s it,’ he sighed. ‘I’ll answer my own question of earlier—you’re a child, Natalie. And it’s time you were tucked up in your virtuous little bed.’ He picked up some car keys from the hall table, his intention obvious.
‘I—But—Jamieson?’ she frowned her consternation, not welcoming being alone with him on the drive to her home.
His mouth twisted. ‘At home with his family long ago. I’ll drive you myself.’
Not the Rolls this time but the silver Porsche she had seen that first day she had visited Adam at his office. The sleekly lined car ate up the miles to her home in no time at all.
Natalie sat as far away from Adam as she could get in the confines of the car, knowing that all the accusations he had levelled at her were true. The liberated woman of two days ago had taken a hard knock the moment she knew being his ‘friend’ meant being known as his mistress, having people like Jason Dillman know that. Having to withstand his insults had more than brought home to her the precariousness of such a relationship. If that meant she was still a child then she didn’t dispute the fact, she accepted being the coward that made her. She wasn’t ready to be anyone’s mistress, not even a man she desired as much as Adam Thornton.
And she did desire him. She just wasn’t ready to commit herself to a relationship that had no commitments for her in return.
She had no idea they had reached her home until Adam leant past her to unlock her door, pushing it open from the inside. Natalie had recoiled as soon as his arm brushed against her breasts, her gaze dropping from his as she saw contempt in the blue depths.
Adam sat back in his seat. ‘Goodnight, Natalie,’ he said distantly. ‘I’ll be in touch.’
‘Our—bargain still stands?’ She wetted her lips nervously with the tip of her tongue.
‘Yes,’ he bit out, his foot pressing down impatiently on the accelerator of the powerful car, revving up the engine pointedly.
‘Adam—’
‘Just go, Natalie,’ he sighed. ‘We’ll talk again when you’re feeling more—sensible.’
More adult, he meant, and she knew it. Oh, why couldn’t she be more like Judith, why cling to her virginity like a talisman? Her sister had lost her virginity to a summer acquaintance when she was only seventeen, and she didn’t seem to regret it for a moment. How ridiculous that her own capitulation to a man should have to mean more. And yet it did.
* * *
With the perversity of the woman Adam had accused her of being Natalie wanted him to call her all the next day, kept expecting the telephone or the doorbell to ring. But it didn’t, and she couldn’t exactly blame Adam, in fact she couldn’t blame him at all. And maybe it was better this way. Maybe…
She took advantage of her suddenly empty day to do more work on the folder she had prepared for a proposed Fantasy Girl, reassessing the three girls she had already picked out, but she now felt a dissatisfaction with them all. A fantasy girl should be exactly that, a woman of complete fantasy, and while all her models were beautiful, none of them quite seemed to fit the description of a fantasy girl. Still, she wasn’t going to be the one to make such an important decision, she only had to submit the most suitable models she had. Adam had the hard part.
Dee was already in the office when Natalie arrived the next day. ‘Have a good weekend?’ she asked curiously.
‘Fine, thanks,’ she answered absently, knowing she hadn’t spent such a terrible weekend in a long time.
Dee frowned, saying no more as Natalie went through to her office. But she wasn’t deceived by Natalie’s nonchalant air for a moment, knew that the ecstatic glow of Friday had gone. Had Adam Thornton also gone…?
Natalie was wondering the same thing herself as she sat behind her desk. Adam had said their bargain still stood, but she knew their own friendship, brief as it had been, was over.
And she was so miserable about it. She was a twenty-five-year-old virgin, something as outdated as the liberty bodice, and she was likely to stay that way too if she carried on the way she was doing. If only she dared tell Adam she was sorry! But he had made his disgust with her obvious, had probably spent last night in the Princess’s arms. Pride held her back from telephoning him.
Mid-morning he telephoned her.
Dee buzzed through to her just after eleven. ‘It’s him, Natalie,’ she said breathlessly. ‘Want to talk to him?’
Natalie had instantly tensed. ‘Who is he, Dee?’ she delayed, knowing exactly who it was but needing time to compose herself.
Her friend laughed. ‘It could only be one man—Adam Thornton!’
That was what she had thought, and his temper wouldn’t have been improved by this delay.
It wasn’t. ‘I want to see you, Natalie,’ he told her abruptly as soon as Dee had put him through.
‘Well, I—’
‘This is business, Natalie,’ he bit out, his leashed anger just as effective over the telephone.
She stiffened. ‘I didn’t think it was anything else,’ she said tartly.
‘Didn’t you?’
‘No!’
‘I wish it was,’ Adam snapped.
‘Adam—’
‘Can you come over here now?’ he asked tersely. ‘And bring some possible Fantasy Girls with you. Photographs, not the girls themselves,’ he derided. ‘We may have to bring the publicity forward on it.’
Natalie’s interest quickened. ‘May I ask why?’
‘No, you may not. Just get over here, now. I’ll expect you in twenty minutes.’
‘But I—’
‘Twenty minutes, Natalie,’ and the receiver was slammed down the other end.
Arrogant man! She could have any number of other appointments this morning, and he would expect her to break them all so that she could go and see him. And didn’t he have a right to expect just that? Yes, damn him, he did!
Her anger was increased as she saw the knowing gleam in Dee’s eyes as she told her where she was going. Dee was much too astute not to have noti
ced how deeply attracted Natalie had become to their most important client.
This time Natalie wasn’t kept waiting at all, but was shown straight into Adam’s office. Adam allowed no time for more than cursory greetings, demanding the folder she had with her and instantly becoming immersed in its contents. Thank goodness she had had the forethought to get the file ready!
While Adam studied each girl thoroughly Natalie had time to study him, to once again feel that stirring of her senses to this vibrantly alive man, her fingers aching to lace themselves into the dark thickness of his hair, to run down the rigid hardness of his jaw, to know the muscled firmness of his body against hers.
Suddenly he looked up and caught her softened gaze on him, his brows raising questioningly at the hot colour that flooded her cheeks. She turned away sharply before he could read the desire in her eyes.
He closed the file with a snap. ‘None of these women are suitable,’ he dismissed harshly.
‘None?’ she grimaced, dismayed that he should think the same as she did. And if he should decide that none of her models were suitable then she would lose the contract for Fantasy Girl anyway. She moved quickly to his side, bending forward to open the file, her perfume soft and elusive. ‘What about Joanna? I thought—’ She had made the mistake of looking down at him, finding herself dangerously close to him, unable to resist that urge now, her hand coming up almost of its own volition to caress the hardness of his cheek.
His gaze held hers, but he didn’t touch her. ‘What did you think?’ he asked huskily.
‘I thought—I—Oh, Adam,’ she groaned. ‘Adam, I—’
‘God, I’ve found my fantasy girl!’ His arms came fiercely about her as he pulled her down on to him, his mouth claiming and parting hers as he knocked down the last of her barriers, her sigh of capitulation swallowed up in the savage sweetness of the kiss.
Natalie buried her face shyly in his throat as he looked down at her with unleashed desire. ‘I’ve been so stupid,’ she murmured against the warmth of his skin. ‘Forgive me?’
‘Anything!’ He kissed her again until her lips clung to his. ‘I ought to beat you for the hell you’ve put me through the last couple of days!’ He rested his damp forehead on hers as she lay across his chest.
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