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When he started walking back towards her with her coat draped elegantly over one arm, Alice steeled herself for what was to come next. She knew that if she put out her hand to take her coat he would ignore it. So she placed her purse and laptop down on a nearby armchair and waited till he got close enough before turning and lifting her arms away from her sides in expectation of his sliding the coat up them and over her shoulders. Which he did, oh, so smoothly, Alice despising the involuntary tremor that ran through her tensely held body.
‘Where do you live?’ he asked her as she struggled for total calm. ‘Maybe we could share a taxi?’
What could she say? Silly to lie. ‘I share a flat in Kensington,’ she admitted as she picked up her laptop and purse.
By the time she glanced up at him, he was looking at her with surprised curiosity.
‘That’s where I live,’ he said. ‘In Kensington.’
‘Really?’ Was fate conspiring against her at every turn? She was trying to resist the man, not be thrown into his path each time. ‘What a coincidence.’
‘But a convenient one,’ he said, smiling.
‘Convenient?’ she repeated somewhat archly.
‘We should definitely share that taxi.’
‘Well, yes, yes, I suppose so,’ she said reluctantly.
* * *
Jeremy’s sudden rise in temper startled him. Anger was not something he liked in others, or himself. He considered it poor form at the best of times. Only when severely provoked did he surrender to the temporary but often self-destructive comfort of fury. It had been many years since he’d lost it. Now that he thought about it, he hadn’t truly lost his temper since his last year at boarding school when he’d come across one of the younger boys being bullied as he’d once been bullied. The fight that ensued had seen him almost expelled, only his father’s paying for a new science block stopping that unfortunate event. Jeremy had rarely been grateful to his father for anything, but he was that day. He’d really wanted to go on to university, and he might not have been accepted if he’d been expelled. Since then, Jeremy had steered well clear of all uncontrolled outbursts.
Occasionally, when annoyed with someone, he resorted to sarcasm. But that was as far as he usually went. The temptation to say something caustic to the ever reluctant Alice was acute, but counter-productive. So he simply smiled through clenched teeth and waved her ahead of him out towards the taxi station.
The ride from the hotel to her address in Kensington was blessedly short, with Alice sitting as far from him as possible with her knees pressed primly together, her laptop resting across her thighs, her head turned steadfastly towards the window. She didn’t say a single word. Neither did he. Jeremy was half regretting his decision to pursue this girl. As intriguing as he found Alice, she wasn’t worth losing any sleep over, or spending a small fortune on. His earlier assumption that she was attracted to him could be wrong. Either that, or she had some serious issues where the opposite sex was concerned. Maybe she’d been treated badly by a past boyfriend, some arrogant rich brute who’d cheated on her perhaps, leaving her bitter and cynical over men in general, and wealthy ones in particular. It would explain so much. Her chilly responses to his overtures. Her contempt of his reputation as a playboy.
By the time the cab pulled up outside her address, Jeremy felt confident that he’d hit on the reason behind her wariness where he was concerned. He couldn’t have been wrong about her finding him attractive. No way.
‘Thank you for tonight, Jeremy,’ she said stiffly when she finally turned her head to look at him. ‘You were a brilliant auctioneer, and a very pleasant dinner companion.’
He gazed deep into her eyes. ‘Maybe we can do it again some time...’ But without the auction next time.
Despite the dim light in the back of the cab, he saw the heat that suddenly flooded her cheeks, saw the startled widening of her eyes. Clearly, Alice was not used to blushing, wasn’t used to having her composure rattled.
‘We can discuss future auctions on Friday,’ he added smoothly, his eyes still locked with hers.
‘What? Oh, yes. Friday.’ She seemed to have difficulty dragging her eyes away from his. Turning abruptly, she reached for the door handle before throwing an almost frightened glance over her shoulder. ‘Please don’t get out,’ she said before he could do so. ‘I’ll see you at your office on Friday around four.’ And she was gone, fleeing the cab with an unflattering speed, leaving Jeremy to smile ruefully at her ongoing resistance to the sexual chemistry that had just flared between them. Not just flared. It had fairly sizzled, with a heat that had left her flushed and him frustrated in a fiercely cruel fashion.
Jeremy watched her bolt up the stairs to the front door of her flat, the kind of flat that only rich girls lived in. She didn’t turn back to wave at him before letting herself into the stylish town house. A light came on immediately, showing him that her flat was on the ground floor, which was always the most expensive. The upper floor and the basement flats would be cheaper. Though not much. Since investigating property prices in London more thoroughly, Jeremy knew that the most dilapidated flat in this area cost close to a million pounds.
He sat staring at the far from dilapidated town house for a few seconds before telling the driver to go on, his mind and his body in turmoil. It annoyed him that he hadn’t found out a single personal detail about Alice tonight other than her lack of a boyfriend. He hadn’t satisfied his rabid curiosity about her at all, let alone satisfied that other urgent need that had now arisen to torment him. Jeremy could not remember the last occasion he’d gone home alone after a date with a girl he liked. In actual fact, he couldn’t recall that ever happening. Not that tonight was a proper date, he reassured his bruised male ego. Still, it rankled that for the first time in his life a girl had actually said no to him, especially one who he felt confident was sexually attracted to him.
By the time Jeremy exited the taxi in front of his stylish mews house three streets away, his resolve was firmly back in place, his ego refusing to accept her rejection. The bottom line was that he wanted Alice Waterhouse as he’d never wanted a girl before. And he meant to have her. End of story.
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