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‘You take it correct,’ he confirmed grimly, his gaze still fixed on Jinx. ‘But whatever you’re going to do, do it quickly, will you?’ Jinx was starting to move towards the door now!
‘I’m gone,’ his sister assured him—before doing exactly that.
And by the speed with which his sister and brother-in-law made their excuses to their host and hostess, before immediately leaving, Nik had a feeling that the suggestion of seduction might have worked on Jordan, after all!
Nik shook his head. Stazy had made her choice, and it was a choice he wholeheartedly approved of; it was his own problem if he was still having trouble coming to terms with another man being more important to Stazy than he was.
At this moment he had a much more serious situation to deal with!
‘Sorry I was delayed.’ He hurried to Jinx’s side just as she reached the front door, taking a firm hold of her arm before turning to smile warmly at the older couple who accompanied her. ‘I hope you don’t mind including me in that offer of a lift home?’ His tone was deliberately charming. ‘My sister was going to drop me at my hotel, but she and Jordan had to get straight back to their house—some sort of emergency…’
The couple shot each other a briefly knowing look before assuring him they didn’t mind at all, that there was plenty of room for him in their car.
Not that Nik had thought they would be a problem; it was Jinx’s response that could turn this situation around.
He raised questioning brows as he looked down at her, his expression deceptively calm, only the tightening of his fingers on her arm showing evidence of his inner uncertainty as to what her next move would be.
Her eyes were purple as she looked right back at him, anger flaring in their depths, even though she too managed to look outwardly calm.
Come on, Jinx, Nik inwardly encouraged; at least give me a chance.
If he lost sight of her now, then he would have to start all over again tomorrow. Not that he minded doing that, but it would save a hell of a lot of time if she would just be a little more cooperative now.
‘Actually—’ she turned back to the older couple, smiling ‘—it really isn’t that far. Nik and I can easily walk it.’
‘Are you sure, Jinx?’ The other woman frowned her uncertainty with the suggestion. ‘It’s at least a couple of miles,’ she explained to Nik.
‘But it’s such a lovely evening.’ Jinx released her arm from Nik’s grasp to lightly link it with his. ‘I think it would be so much more fun to walk. Don’t you, Nik?’ she asked sweetly.
Beware the smile of an angry female, he acknowledged ruefully, at the same time happy to fall in with whatever Jinx suggested—as long as it included him. ‘Much more fun,’ he agreed dryly; a two-mile walk through the Saturday-night revelry of London sounded more like hell to him, but if it ultimately ended up at Jinx’s home, the home she shared with her father, then he was willing to put himself through it if she was.
If it ultimately ended up at Jinx’s home…
Somehow, after what she had said to him earlier, he had a feeling that wasn’t her intention.
‘Tell me,’ he murmured softly once they had been walking together in silence for some minutes through the balmy streets, Jinx’s arm still linked with his own, despite her efforts to release it, ‘will we be crossing any bridges on this fun walk home?’
‘Several,’ she snapped back tautly, obviously not happy with his reluctance to release her.
‘That’s what I thought.’ He grimaced—having a distinct feeling she was considering pushing him over the side of one.
‘One thing I can assure you of, Nik,’ she bit out tautly. ‘I’m not violent.’
‘Just private, hmm?’ he said knowingly.
‘Just private.’
‘I’ve heard several people refer to you as Jinx this evening,’ he said in an effort to divert her thoughts.
‘Close friends, yes,’ she confirmed stiffly—obviously not counting him amongst their number.
Nik disregarded that for the moment; she might not think they were going to be close friends, but he knew better! ‘How on earth did you come by such an unusual nickname?’
She shot him a mocking glance. ‘Changing the subject?’
‘Rapidly,’ he confirmed, laughter gleaming in his eyes; the chances of this petitely beautiful woman being able to force his six-foot-three, one-hundred-and-eighty-pound frame over the parapet of a bridge were ludicrous to say the least. Which wasn’t to say she wouldn’t give it a damn good try!
She gave an uninterested shrug. ‘When I went to school the other children quickly latched onto the fact that my initial was J. followed by Nixon, and when you say the two of them together…’ She trailed off pointedly, giving him a sideways glance. ‘You aren’t coming home with me, you know.’
Of course he knew. After the last two months of sending letters to her father, just in the hopes of being able to meet him and discuss the movie rights to his book, of the use of a PO box for that correspondence, of the author never agreeing to so much as meeting with his own publisher, it would be expecting too much now for his daughter to just take Nik home with her and introduce the two men.
‘You mentioned earlier that your father isn’t well…?’ he said instead.
She stiffened, all expression suddenly erased from her face. ‘I mentioned it, yes,’ she acknowledged guardedly.
‘Nothing life-threatening, I hope?’ Nik persisted.
‘It depends on what you call life-threatening,’ she returned evasively, a frown now marring her creamy brow.
He shrugged, having an idea that in the case of Jackson I. Nixon the writing and subsequent success of No Ordinary Boy didn’t fit in too well with his other literary achievements. Nik didn’t happen to agree with him, and neither did the millions of other people who had bought and enjoyed the book, but that was just his opinion…
His mouth twisted wryly. ‘It usually means resulting in premature death.’
‘Mr Prince—okay, Nik,’ Jinx conceded impatiently as he scowled his displeasure at the formality. ‘Just stay away from my father, okay?’ Her expression was fierce with emotion now.
‘But I only want—’
‘I know what you want, Nik!’ Her eyes flashed deeply purple in the illumination of the street lamp, her tiny hands clenched into fists at her sides. ‘You want to make a film of No Ordinary Boy. In the hopes, no doubt, of adding yet another Oscar to the five you already have in your trophy cabinet!’
God, this woman was beautiful when roused, whether to anger or passion. And at this moment Nik knew exactly which one he wanted it to be!
‘Perhaps I should feel flattered that you know I have five Oscars—’
‘And perhaps you shouldn’t!’
‘Another Oscar would be nice,’ he conceded huskily. ‘But at this moment I’m damned if I wouldn’t settle for a night in bed with you!’
Colour flared suddenly in the paleness of her cheeks, her lips full and inviting, her breasts moving with the same rapidity of her breathing.
‘I wasn’t aware that was an option,’ she retorted, the nerve pulsing in her raised jaw giving lie to that challenge.
Because Nik was experienced enough to know that, no matter how she might try to deny it—and she was denying it!—Jinx was as physically aware of him as he was of her.
‘Not as an instead of, no,’ he admitted gruffly, moving closer to her, not quite touching, but nevertheless feeling the heat given off from her body. He reached up to touch the pouting softness of her mouth, feeling the quiver his caress invoked. ‘You want me too, Jinx,’ he said with certainty.
Her eyes were so dark now they appeared black, her mouth trembling moistly, a becoming flush to her cheeks, the hardened nubs at the tips of the gentle sweep of her breasts visible beneath the thin material of her dress. And Nik was sure, if he could have touched the very centre of her desire, that she would be moist there too, as ready for him as he was for her.
And they hadn’t so much as kissed each other yet!
But that was easily rectified, Nik decided, no longer able to resist the urge to take her into his arms, to mould her body fiercely against his, to let her feel the surge of his desire against her warm thighs, before he bent his head and his mouth took hers—and his previously well-constructed world fell apart!
Drowning.
It was like drowning.
Every other woman he had ever known was instantly consigned to a black void and could never be recalled. Only Jinx existed, only the touch, the warmth, the smell, the taste of her.
This woman, this tiny, stubborn, five-foot delicacy of a woman, was taking possession of him, body and soul…!
CHAPTER THREE
WHAT was she doing?
Whatever it was, Jinx knew she couldn’t stop it. Not yet. Oh, please, not yet!
Nik was kissing her as if he wanted to make her a part of him, to devour her, to take her completely inside him. Or for him to be completely inside her. His thighs were moving restlessly against hers, rubbing, tormenting, frustrating, until Jinx wanted nothing more than to throw off all their clothes and be taken by him right now, the two of them lost in the heat of the sexual arousal that drew them nearer and nearer to a climax that was completely beyond their control.
‘Let’s go to a hotel!’ Nik managed to take his lips from hers long enough to groan achingly, long hands framing her face as he looked down at her with glittering silver eyes. ‘I don’t know what you’re doing to me, Jinx Nixon, but if I don’t make love to you soon then I’m going to self-combust!’
She knew it, could feel the force of his need. A need she easily matched.
‘Feel it, Jinx.’ Nik’s thighs moved erotically against her, hard, pulsing with desire.
A desire that made her own thighs moist, burning, aching, throbbing with a need that she knew would explode if Nik’s flesh should so much as touch hers.
But she couldn’t just book into a hotel with a man—especially not this man! And while her body might think that it recognized and knew his, she knew she had every reason to distrust him. More reasons than he realized.
‘No!’ Nik protested as he seemed to feel her moving emotionally away from him, his arms tightening about her as he tried to hold onto the moment. ‘Jinx, I know you want me too!’ he groaned.
Oh, yes, she wanted him. But she would never give in to that want—she had too much to lose if she ever did.
She straightened determinedly away from him. ‘And do you always get what you want, Nik?’ She sighed.
‘Almost always,’ he confirmed, his arms falling back to his sides.
‘Then a little self-denial could be good for you.’
‘It isn’t self-denial, it’s Jinx-denial,’ he corrected huskily. ‘And men have been known to go insane trying to draw back from the brink you just took me to!’ His eyes glittered with the intensity of his feelings.
‘Women too, or so I’m told,’ she came back dryly, some of her own normal reserve returning now that she was no longer held in his arms. Although the desire he had aroused hadn’t abated in the slightest…
‘Then why—’
‘Because it would be a mistake!’ she cried frustratedly. ‘Can’t you understand?’ she continued as he looked at her blankly. ‘You are positively the last man on earth I ever want to become involved with!’
He became very still, his expression guarded now, a shutter coming down over grey eyes, his mouth a grim line. ‘Because I want to make a movie of No Ordinary Boy?’
‘Because you want to film No Ordinary Boy,’ she agreed flatly.
‘Damn it, woman—’
‘Nik, swearing at me isn’t going to help this situation one little bit—’
‘Maybe not,’ he admitted grimly. ‘But it makes me feel a hell of a lot better!’
She gave him a bleak smile. ‘I’m sure it does,’ she conceded. ‘But it isn’t going to change a thing. Because I’m not stupid enough to go to a hotel or anywhere else with you. Neither do I have any intention of taking you home with me—’
‘You really are the most stubborn—’
‘And if you attempt to follow me home,’ Jinx continued as if he hadn’t spoken, ‘then I shall contact the police and have you arrested for stalking me.’
‘Wouldn’t that rather null and void this phobia you have about your father’s privacy?’ he mocked. ‘I’m quite well known, Jinx; there is no way having me arrested wouldn’t appear in some tabloid newspaper or other.’
Nik Prince’s much-photographed face and highly recognizable profile were aspects of this situation that she was well aware of. They were yet more reasons she intended avoiding him at all costs.
‘That’s your problem, not mine,’ she dismissed with much more confidence than she actually felt. ‘My priority is to keep any publicity from even touching my father. It’s the reason a pseudonym was used, for heaven’s sake!’ Her eyes flashed warningly.
Nik’s frown deepened. ‘What exactly is wrong with your father?’
Jinx turned away. ‘Just stay away from us, Nik.’
‘And if I can’t do that?’ he challenged.
She shrugged. ‘Watch this space.’
‘Damn it, he wrote the book; surely it must have occurred to him, to both of you, that it might be a bestseller—’
‘Of course it didn’t occur to us!’ Jinx protested heatedly, the colour back in her cheeks now. ‘Writing a book is a very personal thing.’ She shook her head. ‘Who could possibly have imagined that No Ordinary Boy would be as popular as it was?’
‘As it still is.’
‘Yes,’ she conceded quietly.
‘Aren’t you being just a little selfish, Jinx?’ he pursued relentlessly. ‘You’ve made your own feelings about my filming No Ordinary Boy more than clear, but until I’ve actually spoken to him I have no way of knowing that’s your father’s opinion too…’
Jinx looked up at him, tears glittering in her deep blue eyes.
‘Why don’t you just leave us alone?’ she choked.
‘Because I can’t do that.’
One of the tears spilled over onto her cheek and she immediately brushed it away. ‘How I wish none of this had ever happened!’
‘Oh, come on, Jinx,’ he scorned. ‘All that money your father is earning has to have its advantages for you too. That dress you’re wearing, the diamond earrings—’
‘That’s enough!’ she exclaimed.
‘Quite enough,’ he agreed.
‘I bought these things myself,’ she told him angrily. ‘With my own money. Earned by my own endeavours.’
‘If you say so.’
‘I do,’ she snapped.
‘Fine,’ he replied.
Jinx looked up at him searchingly, knowing by the determined glitter in his eyes that he wasn’t the sort of man to back off just because she asked him to. Considering the lengths she knew he must have gone to in order to meet her this evening, she shouldn’t be surprised by that.
And she wasn’t. Surprise certainly wasn’t her primary emotion.
‘If I so much as think you’re following me home I will contact the police, Nik,’ she declared.
He gave an inclination of his head. ‘I know that.’
‘And?’
‘And I’ll find some other way,’ he answered unhesitantly.
Looking at him, she could see that he would, as he had arranged their meeting this evening, by fair means or foul.
‘I have to go,’ she told him coldly.
He shrugged. ‘Your prerogative.’
She suddenly realized from the harshness of his expression, that whatever had happened between them a few minutes ago was definitely over now as far as he was concerned.
Which was what she had wanted. Wasn’t it…?
Of course it was. Any relationship with Nik Prince was dangerous. To her own peace of mind, as well as her father’s.
She nodded abruptly before turning and walking away, knowing from the way she felt no tingling of awareness down her spine that Nik wasn’t watching her this time. And why should he? He had failed in his objective, which meant she was of no further use to him.
What would Nik say, Jinx wondered, if he were to ever learn the truth?
* * *
He was less than proud of himself, Nik acknowledged uncomfortably as he sat across the dinner table from Jane Morrow, the pretty blonde thirtyish-year-old making no effort to hide the attraction she felt towards him, touching him constantly as they talked.
The last six days of searching for Jinx’s home address had proved even more frustrating than the previous two months.
There were several J. Nixons listed in the London telephone books, none of them the right ones. Jackson Nixon’s previous publishers—of those serious historical tomes—had informed him that Professor Nixon had recently moved and hadn’t yet supplied them with his new address. Although, they had also added firmly, they wouldn’t have been able to reveal that information even if they did have it!
Nik hadn’t been any more successful when he’d decided to turn his attention to investigating Jinx instead of her father.
Cambridge University had been of no use at all in supplying him with an address for Dr Juliet Nixon, claiming they weren’t at liberty to give out that information, although they had offered to forward any letter he cared to send to Dr Nixon at the university. Very helpful!
A visit to Jinx’s friend Susan Fellows two days after her party, on the pretext that he had lost a cufflink on Saturday evening, had proved totally unfruitful, both with regard to the non-existent cufflink and in garnering any information on Jinx. Apart from confirming that, yes, the Nixons had moved in the last year—with no address forthcoming, naturally!—and that Jinx’s father had been ill for some time, the beautiful blonde hadn’t wanted to discuss her friend at all.
None of Stazy’s friends seemed to know Jinx personally, let alone where she lived. Which had brought Nik full circle and left his only possible source of information to be Jane Morrow at Stephens Publishing…
But, strangely enough, even though he had felt no qualms about calculatingly charming this woman a month ago, he now felt distaste at the possibility of taking it any further. As Jane seemed to want him to do. Oh, Jane was attractive enough, but his reason for asking her out again was certainly less than honourable.
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