‘I’m not going to sleep with you,’ she blurted before she could stop herself, her nerves riding roughshod over her common sense.

He laughed out loud, shaking his head in mirth.

‘Don’t worry—I’m taking a break from seducing innocent young journalists, so your virtue is safe with me,’ he said, his mouth quirked in a playful smile. ‘I am interested in your body, Jess, but only on an artistic level.’

‘You can’t blame me for being wary when you make provocative statements. You do have a reputation for being a bit …’

‘A bit what?’

She paused, searching for the right word. ‘Wild.’

He gave her a bemused grin. ‘I promise to be on my best behaviour,’ he said, making a crossing motion over his heart. ‘And if I slip up you have my permission to lick me into shape.’

Oh, my God, the images he’d just conjured in her mind.

She really needed to get out of here before she totally lost her cool.

An overwhelming urge to pack up and go home, where she didn’t have to deal with these weird and disturbing feelings he provoked in her, besieged her. But she couldn’t leave. Not if she wanted to keep her job at the magazine. She was going to have to brazen it out and ignore the blatant innuendos he seemed so keen to tease her into a jittery mess with.

He was a player, all right, but she wasn’t about to let him play her.

Dear Reader

Who can resist the dangerous charms of a bad boy? Not me! Especially a disgustingly talented one with a body built for sin and the wits to win over the hardest of women. My heroine, Jess, is that hard woman, and Xander, my hero, certainly has his work cut out to get the better of her.

These two characters were such fun to write. They’re both headstrong, super-ambitious and broken in their own heart-wrenching way. Thank goodness they had me to throw them together and force them to sort out their lives!

I had the pleasure of sending them off to pass some quality time on the banks of Lake Garda—a place I have a great fondness for after spending my honeymoon there. How could they fail to fall in love in such romantic setting? I challenge anyone to resist the charms of the place.

This is a story of divine inspiration, a little bit of magic and some very messy artistic endeavours. I hope you enjoy it.

Christy x

PS I love to hear from readers. You can contact me at christymckellenauthor@gmail.com or www.facebook.com/christymckellenauthor

Lessons in

Rule-Breaking

Christy McKellen

www.millsandboon.co.uk

BK (Before Kids) CHRISTY McKELLEN worked as a video and radio producer in London and Nottingham. After a decade of dealing with nappies, tantrums and endless questions from toddlers she has come out the other side and moved into the wonderful world of literature. She now spends her time writing flirty, sexy romance with a kick—her dream job!

In her downtime she can be found drinking the odd glass of champagne, ambling around the beautiful South West of England, or escaping from real life by dashing off to foreign lands with her fabulous family.

Christy loves to hear from readers. You can contact her at: www.christymckellen.blogspot.com, http://www.facebook.com/christymckellenauthor or https://twitter.com/ChristyMcKellen

Other Modern Tempted™ titles by Christy McKellen:

HOLIDAY WITH A STRANGER

This and other titles by Christy McKellen are available as eBooks from www.millsandboon.co.uk

To the Prosecco Book Club ladies for their encouragement and friendship.

And to Clio, my fantastic editor, thanks for your positivity and unerring support.

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Extract

ONE

‘The editor wants to see you in her office.’

Jessica LaFayette glanced up from the screen of her laptop to see Claire, one of the other junior staff writers at Spark magazine, looking down at her with worry in her eyes and a speculative eyebrow raised.

Clearly Claire was as concerned as Jess about what sort of news was about to be bestowed on her.

There had been rumours flying about the office recently about staff cutbacks and everyone had been on tenterhooks for weeks, desperately worried that they were the one about to be summoned to the editor’s office in order to be given the boot.

Okay, time to buckle up.

Smoothing a hand down her hair and straightening her blouse, Jess gave Claire a curt nod and stood up, balling her trembling hands into fists at her sides, before striding over to the editor’s office.

If she lost this job she was in big trouble. She’d already raced through her meagre savings living in London as an intern for nine months, before finally securing the job here—on the proviso she made it past her three-month probation period. The thought of having to pack up and go home to live back with her parents in the burbs of Leicester, after all the excitement of finally being employed in her dream job, sent a twist of panic through her.

They thought she was crazy chasing such a competitive career, but it was what she’d always wanted to do and she’d been determined to give it everything she had.

She was stubborn like that.

It had taken her two years after leaving university to land a placement at Spark, two long years of living back at home with a woman who would surely place as a top contender for ‘World’s Most Disappointed Mother.’

Jess was not the daughter Ingrid LaFayette had hoped for. Instead of a vivacious, beauty—a carbon copy of herself—she’d been lumped with kooky-looking, strong-willed Jess.

No way was she going back to the raised eyebrows and tense silences that she’d lived with for longer than she wanted to remember. Life had moved on and so had she.

Pushing back her shoulders and taking a deep breath, Jess rapped on the glass partition of her editor’s office before walking in.

Pamela Bradley—editor extraordinaire—looked up from her computer and waved Jess into the office with a perfectly manicured hand.

All the women who worked on the magazine rocked up to work every day looking as if they’d just stepped off a Paris catwalk—all except for Jess. She preferred to stick with her smart, comfortably fitting suits. She knew her limitations when it came to fashion—she hadn’t a clue what was supposed to suit her body shape and didn’t want to make a fool of herself by looking as if she was trying too hard. She was a smart, but practical, girl through and through.

‘Jess, sit.’ Pamela gestured towards the chair facing her and Jess sat down on the edge of the seat, her hands folded neatly in her lap, and waited, her heart thumping hard against her chest.

‘So, I read your piece on nail salons.’ Pamela gave her a steely-eyed look and Jess shrank back into her seat under the confidence-wrecking force of it.

Uh-oh. That wasn’t the look of unadulterated joy and respect she’d been hoping for.

‘To be perfectly honest, Jess, it wasn’t good enough. The pieces you’ve been submitting recently have been a little... How can I put this?’ She put both hands onto the desk in front of her, her nails digging into the wood like talons, and leant forward. ‘Dry. Lifeless. Dull.’ The words snapped out of her mouth as if she found them utterly distasteful. She gave a small shake of her perfectly coiffed head. ‘I expected more, Jess, when I offered you the position here.’

Fear and embarrassment wound through Jess’s chest and pooled like burning acid in her stomach.

She’d blown it. Pamela had to make someone redundant and it looked as if it was going to be her head on the block.

‘I c-can do better,’ she stuttered out, desperate to stall the words she felt sure were about to trip from Pamela’s lips.

Pamela shook her head and her mouth twisted into a dissatisfied smile. ‘I gave you the job because I sensed there was some hidden potential there, Jess. You’re a talented writer, methodical with an accomplished style, but your writing lacks the edge you need to make your pieces really stand out. It’s too controlled, too stuffy.’

‘I can unstuff it,’ Jess yelped, feeling tears of frustration burning at the backs of her eyes.

‘How do you propose to do that, Jess?’

Jess mouthed at her, totally at a loss for how to answer.

‘To be frank, I think you need to stop living in that self-controlled little bubble,’ Pamela continued, eyeing the immaculate, but understated, suit Jess was wearing today.

Jess smoothed her skirt down, then her hair. ‘I don’t understand what you mean.’

‘Look, Jess, I think you’re a talented writer and you could build a great career with us here, but my advice to you is that you need to find that extra something to make your work sparkle. To find the life beyond your neat little world.’ She tipped her head in a motherly sort of way. ‘When did you last go out on a date, for example?’

The question made Jess uneasy. ‘What does that have to do with anything?’

‘You’re what? Twenty-five? You take life too seriously. You should be out, having wild sex and falling in love at your age. Widening your experiences.’

‘Sex is overrated,’ Jess muttered, thinking back to the awkward sexual experiences she’d had up till this point. She didn’t get what all the fuss was about when it came to sex. It was uncomfortable and messy and she was usually glad when it was all over if she was totally honest. Neither of the guys she’d slept with had rocked her world, but at the time she’d thought she ought to put the effort in, just to see what she was supposedly missing out on.

It turned out she wasn’t missing much at all.

There was a knock on the partition behind her and Jess turned to see Pamela’s assistant standing there with a slip of paper clutched in her hand.

‘Sorry to interrupt, but Maggie just phoned. She’s stuck in Greece because of an air-traffic-controllers strike and can’t make it back for her assignment today. She sounded pretty fed up because apparently she’d managed to snag an interview with Xander Heaton, that bad-boy artist everyone’s so crazy about.’

Pamela sighed. ‘Can’t she reschedule? I really need that piece in the next issue. Xander was going to be the linchpin of the article.’

‘Apparently not. He’s refusing to change the date because he’s about to start working on a new exhibition. He’ll be at his studio in Old Street today, but he’s off to Italy tonight and he never gives any press interviews while he’s working. Something about killing his muse.’

‘Yeah, okay.’ Pamela sighed, flapping a hand in a tired manner. ‘Can Marnie go?’ she asked, clearly not that hopeful.

‘She’s off with the flu. Nearly half the office has called in sick this week.’

‘I can go and cover it,’ Jess said a little too loudly, her heart racing as a sudden shot of adrenaline fired round her body. If she didn’t grab this opportunity quickly one of the other junior writers would and she really needed to show Pamela some of that spark she was so keen to see.

‘I don’t know, Jess.’ Pamela flipped her a look of deep scepticism.

‘Please, Pam, give me another chance to show you how I can make my writing sizzle.’ Jess leant forward in her chair, clasping her hands together in a prayer of hope. ‘It would be such a shame to miss out on the opportunity of interviewing him while he’s in the country.’

‘You think you’re up to handling someone like Xander Heaton, do you?’

Jess sat up straighter, pulled taut by a thread of hope. ‘Of course I am. How difficult can he be?’

She could have sworn she saw an amused smirk flit across Pamela’s face.

‘Okay, then,’ Pamela said, finally. ‘If he’s working with a model, make sure you talk to her, too, if you get the opportunity—see if you can get something interesting. What he’s like to work with, whether she’s sleeping with him, why he picked her as his model, anything to give the piece an edge. Try and get a sense of who he is, any personal details you can draw out of him. He’s got himself a reputation as a real playboy over the last year—he’s turned up to pretty much every high-profile party going and caused a scene at all of them—so see if you can get some gossip about what happened there. Oh, and try and find out why he hasn’t produced anything of note recently, too. His last exhibition was a real critical flop so that might have something to do with it. And most importantly, find out what he’s planning to do for his next project.’

Jess was nodding so much her neck was starting to ache. ‘Okay, got it. No problem.’ She stood up and smiled at Pamela. ‘Thank you, for giving me another chance.’

Pamela raised a severely plucked eyebrow. ‘Don’t waste this opportunity, Jess. If you want to keep your job on this magazine you’re going to have to pull something pretty special out of the bag.’

* * *

Pamela’s words rang in Jess’s ears as she took the tube over to Old Street.

She made copious notes on the way, determined to remember everything Pamela had asked for.

The train had just reached Moorgate station when it slowed down to a crawl, then stopped, midjourney.

The driver’s voice came over the tannoy to let the passengers know there was an electrical fault with the train, but they were hoping to get it sorted out in a few minutes.

Jess looked about her wildly; she was already running late to hit the allotted time for her interview with Xander and she didn’t want to turn up there flustered and on the back foot. She wanted him to be impressed with her cool professionalism and trust her enough to spill the sort of information she needed to make her piece stand out from the ones he’d done in the past.

She’d seen pictures of him in the press—at parties with the great and good of London society, usually with some eminently beautiful woman hanging off his arm—and she knew in her bones he was going to be a challenge. If she was going to win him over she couldn’t allow herself to be daunted by that famous dark charisma and overabundance of sexual confidence.

He was exactly the sort of man she usually avoided in real life. Bad-boy types who flitted from woman to woman like moths in a lighting shop were the antithesis of what she was looking for in a partner. She needed steady and safe. Comfortable. A relationship she could feel in control of.

A nervous shiver tickled down her spine at the thought of facing him, but she shook it off. She was not going to let his challenging reputation get to her. She was a smart, savvy, professional woman and that was exactly what he was going to see—when she finally arrived there.

She sat there for another fifteen minutes, tapping her feet and biting at a ragged fingernail until the train finally began its excruciatingly slow roll into Old Street station.

She was now officially late for her interview.

She hated being late. Hated it.

Anything that took control out of her hands like this made her so stressed she felt ill with it.

After a few more frustrating minutes of trying to figure out where she was meant to be going using the sat nav on her phone, she finally found the converted warehouse where Xander’s studio was located.

Feeling sticky and jumpy after running all the way there in her heels, she stepped into the blissfully cool entrance lobby and looked at the list of names and businesses on the large brushed-metal sign. Xander’s studio was just one of a collection of spaces used by a group of high-profile artists and creatives.

The place was shabby chic through and through with huge, squashy leather sofas scattered around a break-out kitchen area, all done out in stainless steel and black lacquer-fronted cupboards. Amazing murals had been painted on all the walls and Jess recognised one in Xander’s famously biting style. It was a social commentary on the state of reporting in the press. An open newspaper showed a picture of a child crying, with a meat cleaver slicing through the middle of it and the word HACK painted in big red bloody letters along the blade.

Okay, she really needed to stop looking at that before the fear got to her. Did he really hate journalists that much? Would that make it even harder for her to conduct a successful interview with him?

Only one way to find out.

Gritting her teeth and smoothing down the jacket of her suit, she walked up the stairs to where Xander’s studio was located on the third floor.

Taking a moment to get her breath back, she knocked loudly on the heavy wooden door to his studio and stood back to wait for him to appear, her hands grasped tightly behind her back and what she hoped was an open and friendly smile plastered across her face.

There was the sound of footsteps from the other side of the door and Jess steeled herself as it swung open to reveal Xander Heaton, with a paintbrush in one hand and a look of tense annoyance on his face.

Jess couldn’t help but stand and stare up at him as he towered over her. She’d anticipated him being somehow disappointing in the flesh, but he wasn’t. He really wasn’t.

Paint-splattered jeans hung low on his hips and a grey cotton T-shirt clung tightly to the hard contours of his chest, making no effort whatsoever to disguise the swell of muscles on his rangy frame.

Despite the hard angles of his bone structure there was something faintly boyish about him. Perhaps that was the key to his appeal? A hard alpha male on the outside with just a glimmer of a softer, more vulnerable soul inside.

There was an almost ethereal glow about him, too, as if his charisma were being overmanufactured inside his body and the excess were spilling out through the pores of his skin.

Even his just-rolled-out-of-bed, designer mess of rich chestnut-brown hair seemed to glow like a freshly shelled conker in the sunshine pouring in through the large warehouse windows.

Jess’s body buzzed with longing to reach up and run her hands over his face, to feel the hard contours of his bones under that golden skin and the gentle rasp of his barely there stubble as it caught on the whorls of her fingertips.

It took her a moment to realise he was staring at her mouth with his amazing, bright, aqua-coloured eyes and giving her an impatient frown as if he was utterly nonplussed by her appearance and thoroughly pissed off about being disturbed.

She gave herself a little shake and pulled herself together. She was a twenty-five-year-old professional woman, not some love-struck teenager, and she needed to act like it.

‘Hi, Xander, I’m here to do the interview with you today,’ she said brightly. ‘Maggie’s caught up so you’ve got me instead.’ Her smile began to falter when he didn’t give up his hard frown. ‘I know I’m a few minutes late, but it was totally beyond my control. The tube train I was on...’ She ground to a halt as he began shaking his head.

‘I have no idea what you’re talking about.’

Panic rose in her chest and her blood began pumping round her body with such vigorous force she could feel the jittery buzz of it right down to her toes. ‘The interview. With Maggie? She said you’d agreed to talk to her today about the new exhibition you’re planning.’ He continued to stare at her blankly. ‘Before you go to Italy,’ Jess said, gesticulating wildly now, as if she could somehow waft the memory of the interview back into his head through the sheer force of her determination.

Her rambling explanation must have sparked something in his brain because his eyes widened a fraction before his expression shut down into a hard frown again.

‘Yeah, okay, I’d forgotten about that...’ he shrugged ‘...but you missed your window. I’m right in the middle of something now.’

‘But...’ Jess could barely get the words past her lips in her panic.

‘Sorry, sweetheart, but you snooze, you lose.’ He turned to go.

‘What? That’s it? You can’t even give me five minutes of your time?’ she nearly shouted in her panic.

Xander sighed and turned back, rubbing a hand through his hair. ‘To be honest, I never wanted to do this interview in the first place. I only agreed because your colleague is a friend of a friend and she caught me at a weak moment. I seem to remember I was pretty drunk.’ He leant against the doorjamb and flashed her a ‘crap happens’ look. ‘I don’t have time to pander to journalists right now. I have work to do. Now, if you’ll excuse me.’ He shot her a wink before striding off into his studio, slamming the door behind him and leaving Jess mouthing like a landed fish in his wake.

* * *

Xander Heaton walked back to where he’d been sketching his model, trying to shake off an unsettling twinge of guilt as the look of utter dismay on the journalist’s face permeated through to his conscience.

He flipped it out of his head. He didn’t need distractions like that at the moment. It was hard enough holding it together without having to accommodate any old Tom, Dick or Harriet who wandered in for a bit of show-and-tell. Everyone seemed to want a piece of him at the moment and he barely had enough of himself left to keep his strung-out existence going.

His latest model—who was giving it everything she’d got to contort herself into the strange pose he’d asked her to take up—gave him a slow, seductive smile as he sat down and attempted to focus back on her.

Ah, hell. He knew he’d been playing with fire when he asked her to pose for a picture. She’d been one of a bunch of professional models he’d got talking to at a party and he’d thought she might be an interesting subject to paint. She was making it pretty clear she was interested in more than just modelling for him right now, though.

She was a beautiful woman—too young for his tastes—but she was going to be a big thing at some point, he could tell. He should be excited about working with her, but somehow he couldn’t summon the energy for it today.

A wave of tiredness crashed over him. He’d been searching for inspiration for this new exhibition for months, desperately trying to drop-kick his muse into action, but for some reason he kept missing his mark. He’d ended up destroying every picture he’d painted recently, disgusted by the banal rubbish he was coming up with. Just like the picture he’d been working on before he was interrupted.

The dark-haired journalist’s face slid back into his mind as he tore off the page in the sketchbook he’d been working on, crumpled it up and lobbed it at the bin.

She had enormous eyes, he reflected now, dark blue with bright, white flecks that had drawn him right in. She wasn’t conventionally attractive, but there’d been a kind of spirit about her that had made his blood pump faster. Thinking back, there had been something about her expression that disturbed him when he’d said no to the interview. It hadn’t been the usual sort of annoyance or disappointment he tended to invoke in journos when he refused to talk to them—she’d looked as if he’d just stomped hard on her life’s dream and left it broken and bleeding on the floor.

He had a sudden mad urge to sketch the image that had just pinged into his head. It was brighter and clearer and sharper than anything he’d envisaged in a very long time and his sluggish blood picked up speed as a long-forgotten feeling of elation coursed through him.

Rubbing his hand over his eyes, he felt the puffiness that had taken up residence there since the insomnia had set in. It had been months since he’d slept properly and no matter what he tried it wouldn’t break its hold on him.

It appeared to be making him crazy.

‘Everything okay, Xander?’ his model, Seraphina, asked, unfolding herself from the chair and sauntering over to where he sat with his now blank sketch pad on his knee. ‘Hmm, so are you using invisible ink here, or what?’ she asked.

He flashed her a look of irritation and her smile faltered.

Guilt pulled at him and he replaced the unreasonable expression with an apologetic smile to try and make up for offending her. ‘Look, Sera, I’m sorry but this isn’t working out.’

‘What? I’m not making your creative juices flow? Do you need a bit of inspiration?’ she asked, her voice laden with innuendo.

Before he could react she slipped her top over her head, stepped close and picked up his hand, pressing it to her bare breast.

He felt nothing.

Closing his eyes, he shook his head and carefully removed his hand.

He’d partied hard this year, needing an outlet for his frustration and anger after the cutting reviews of his last exhibition—where the reviewers had wondered in full public view where his talent had disappeared to—but it had all caught up with him recently.

He felt hollowed out by all the vacuous affairs with an ever-changing kaleidoscope of willing women, none of whom lasted for more than a couple of months. He’d been constantly on the lookout for something new and fresh and revitalising to draw him out of his depressed funk but he’d overindulged, leaving him feeling strung out and empty.

His work had suffered. Big time. In fact he couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt a genuine urge to pick up a paintbrush, or pencils, or even a spray can and make his mark. He felt washed up, wrung out and desiccated.

Looking up at Seraphina, he was horrified to see tears had welled in her eyes. He held up a placating hand—none of this was her fault and he felt a sting of shame at hurting her. ‘Look, you’re a beautiful woman, but you’re not what I need right now.’

‘What do you need?’

‘I don’t know, Sera. I wish I did. I’ll know it when I see it.’

‘Fine,’ she interjected, her voice wobbly and high. ‘If I’m not good enough for you I’m not wasting my time hanging around here.’ Pulling her top back on, she gave him one last accusatory look before storming out, slamming the door behind her.

* * *

Jess was smoothing her hair down with a shaking hand and trying to pull herself together in the loos across from Xander’s studio when the door flew open and a tall, beautiful woman stormed in and slumped against the porcelain washbasin, swiping away a waterfall of tears that were making her meticulously applied make-up run.

‘Are you okay?’ Jess asked, grateful for a reprieve from worrying about her own problems for a moment. She wondered whether the woman was anything to do with Xander. She wouldn’t be at all surprised.

The woman glanced up into the mirror. ‘I’m fine,’ she said, giving a shaky smile before looking away again.

Jess went into the toilet to grab some tissue and placed it on the basin next to the woman before leaning back against the wall in companionable silence. The woman nodded in surprised thanks and picked up the tissue, dabbing under her eyes.

She was incredible-looking, all Bambi limbs and delicate bone structure. Her huge blue eyes seemed to glow with life—even through the tears—and her skin... What Jess wouldn’t give for flawless, soft skin like hers.

She pulled her long suit jacket around her, feeling like a massive frumpy lump in comparison.

‘Are you sure you’re okay?’ Jess asked.

‘Yeah. Feeling humiliated and rejected, but I’ll survive.’

Jess snorted. ‘Join the club.’

The woman looked at her in confusion. ‘What happened to you?’

Jess sighed. ‘I was supposed to be interviewing Xander Heaton but he blew me off.’

The woman snorted. ‘Sounds like Xander. Does what he wants, when he feels like it and sod everyone else. He’s a law unto himself, that guy.’

Aha, so she was right.

‘What did he do to make you cry?’ Jess asked tentatively. If she couldn’t get an interview with the man himself, she could at least get some information from one of his disgruntled models to try and appease Pamela.

The model looked down at the sink. ‘I’ve been stupidly excited about working with him and I’ve been telling everyone I’m going to be in a famous painting, but apparently I’m totally uninspiring. He doesn’t think I’m attractive enough,’ she said quietly. ‘He was all sweetness one minute and cold as ice the next and I have no idea what I did wrong.’

A shot of anger fired through Jess’s veins. Just who did the guy think he was? ‘What’s your name?’ Jess asked gently.

‘Seraphina.’

‘Well, I think you’re a very beautiful woman and Xander’s an idiot to reject you,’ Jess said, giving the woman an encouraging smile. ‘From what I’ve heard about him you’ve had a lucky escape. He’s not exactly known for having meaningful relationships.’

The model snorted, but managed to raise a smile. ‘No, I guess not. And it’s not as if he made a move on me, but I hoped he might.’ She looked down at the floor. ‘I just got a bit swept away by the excitement of it all and he’s so damn hot. You can’t blame a girl for falling for him.’

Jess nodded. Okay, well, that answered the ‘are you sleeping with him?’ question. ‘Yeah, I imagine that’s easily done.’ She brushed a speck of dust off the sleeve of her jacket. ‘Right, well, I’d better go. I have to go back to work and persuade my editor not to fire me.’

Her stomach sank at the thought of returning and admitting she’d failed.

Seraphina gave Jess a sympathetic smile. ‘Good luck.’

‘You, too,’ Jess said, giving the girl’s arm a reassuring squeeze before leaving her alone in the bathroom—hot wrath at Xander rising like an out-of-control soufflé in her chest.

* * *

Xander was locking up the studio when the dark-haired journalist slammed through the ladies’ toilet door and stalked towards him. Her cheeks were flushed and disdain and anger flashed in those huge midnight-blue eyes of hers.

She jerked to a halt, a dark frown marring her face, before turning to go on her way. She’d only taken two steps before she swivelled back to face him again. ‘What the hell is wrong with you?’ she practically spat.

He took a step backwards in surprise. ‘What are you talking about?’

‘The way you treated that woman is inhumane.’

He frowned at her hard, baffled. ‘What woman?’

She threw her hands up in disgust. ‘Seraphina.’

Her reprimanding tone bothered him. Who was she to tell him how to conduct himself? ‘She needs to toughen up if she’s going to make it as a model.’

Her eyes widened in contemptuous disbelief. ‘Not everyone has rhino skin. Can’t you remember what it feels like to be young and filled with hope and excitement for the future?’

There was a hint of expectation in her face, as if she wanted to hear him admit to his weaknesses out loud.

His automatic privacy barriers shot up.

Not a chance, journo.

‘I don’t think I’ve ever been filled with hope. I may have filled a Hope in my time, though.’ He flashed her a grin and took a step towards her.

Her frown deepened and she took a shaky step away. ‘Have you always been this arrogant?’

He grinned. He couldn’t help it. It was too tempting not to tease her, to see that passion flash in those amazing eyes again. ‘Yes.’

Shaking her head, she looked away from him, over his shoulder at the closed studio door. ‘No wonder everyone’s beginning to think you’re just some washed-up playboy. I’m not surprised your reputation’s on the rocks if that’s the way you treat people.’

Indignation trickled through him. That was a low blow. He couldn’t let her get to him, though; she had no idea what it was like living in his world. Perhaps she wouldn’t be quite so quick to judge if she did.

The immense pressure to continually produce better and better work had been a killer to his self-confidence, and more importantly to his self-control when it came to distractions.

Not that he was about to explain that to her.

She turned back to face him and he stared into her eyes for a moment, lost in their depths. Her little show of snappy rebellion intrigued him—in more ways than one.

She was properly saucy, in a hands-off-the-merchandise kind of way. Her face wasn’t classically beautiful: her nose was a little too big, her eyes set too far apart, but there was definitely something striking about her. He was pretty sure there was more going on behind that guarded expression, too, that wasn’t quite reaching surface level. The suit that hung so badly on her curvy frame looked like something a fifty-year-old woman might choose to wear and the long bob of dark hair she sported dragged her already long face down. She was all buttoned up—her youth and vitality clearly being repressed and controlled.

The thought of getting beneath that well-secured facade made him want things. Things he really shouldn’t be wanting right then, not when he ought to be swearing off women until he started producing some decent art for this long-overdue exhibition.

His gaze dropped to her small, cupid-lipped mouth and he wondered for a second what it would feel like to kiss her, how she would taste on his tongue, before dismissing the idea. He really needed to focus right now.

A flash of him sitting down to capture this intriguing contradiction of a woman in paint and pencils flitted through his head. He’d love to have her pose for him. He hadn’t felt this captivated by anyone or anything for such a long time it was as if he’d been given a shot of adrenaline to the heart. His fingers itched to pick up his pencil and start sketching her face.

She threw her hands up in exasperation when he failed to respond to her last jibe. ‘Okay, well, I guess I’d better leave you and your massive ego in peace so you can get back to work.’

Turning on her heel, she strode away from him, her shoulders pulled forward with tension and her hands balled at her sides.

‘Let me draw you.’ The words came out of his mouth before she reached the stairwell, stopping her abruptly in her tracks.

She turned round to face him and her look of utter confusion made him laugh out loud. She’d make a great comic actor.

‘What did you say?’ The words seemed to catch in her throat and she gave a little cough at the end as if to clear the blockage.

He walked over to where she was standing. ‘I’m in need of a portrait model and I think you’d make a fascinating subject.’

‘You want me to pose for you?’

‘Sure, why not?’

‘Firstly, because I have a job as a serious journalist, and secondly, because I’ve seen how you treat your models and, I have to say, I’m not champing at the bit to get the same treatment.’

He startled her by lifting a hand and running it vigorously over his face before snorting with laughter. ‘Okay, Lois Lane, but in my defence Sera was the one up for more than just modelling and I was being a gentleman for once by turning her down,’ he said, resting one arm against the wall behind her so it nearly touched her shoulders. ‘That’s why she was so mad at me.’

She seemed to bristle at his close proximity and readjusted her stance to lean away from him. He tried hard not to let her casual rebuttal bother him.

‘Okay, clearly I’m off my game and I apologise for being rude to you earlier,’ he said, tipping his head to one side in an attempt to mollify her. ‘Can we call a truce and start again?’

He stared at her hard, attempting to commit her face to memory in case she refused his offer and he never saw her again. The thought bothered him more than it should considering they’d only just met. What was it about her that he found so enticing?

‘Okay. Truce,’ she agreed, smoothing her hand down the front of her immaculate blouse.

‘How about this?’ he suggested, spurred on by her acceptance. ‘You come out to Italy for a few days and let me draw you and I’ll give you an exclusive interview.’

Her eyes widened at the—admittedly rather out of the blue—offer. ‘You want me to go all the way to Italy to interview you? Why can’t we do it here, now?’

‘Because I need to leave for the airport in a couple of hours and I want to be able to give you my full attention. It’s Italy or bust.’ He had to forcibly stop himself from dropping his gaze to her own rather impressive bust that nestled beneath her shapeless, overlarge jacket. He didn’t want her to think he was asking her to do more than pose for him. He didn’t need a complication like that right now, not when he’d finally started to feel the buzz of creativity that had been eluding him for so long.

She stared at him for another minute, clearly trying to process it all, twisting her hands together as she thought about it.

‘What’s the matter, Miss Prim, too wild for you? Perhaps I should offer an exclusive to one of your rivals instead. I’m sure it would help sell a truckload of their magazines.’

Her eyes widened at the challenge and he wondered for a moment whether she’d be brave enough to rise to it. He sensed from her earlier frustration that she was hungry for an interview with him, so perhaps this would push her to say yes.

He hoped so. He really wanted her to come now he’d suggested it.

She was twisting her fingers together as she thought about it, but when she caught him looking at her hands she crossed her arms defensively in front of her. ‘Okay. I’ll come to Italy and sit for a portrait, but I want an in-depth interview, not just the usual pat answers you reel out for everyone else.’

He raised an eyebrow. There was no way he was giving her anything deeply private, but he could break his no-discussing-anything-personal rule just this once. It would be worth it if it meant finally breaking his dry spell and getting this exhibition off the ground.

‘Deal.’ He went back into the studio and jotted down the address of the villa on the banks of Lake Garda, which he was borrowing from a friend for a few weeks while he worked on his exhibition in peace and isolation. A complete change of scene was exactly what he needed right now in order to get his head straight. He felt stifled here in London. He needed space and sunshine and fresh air.

Coming back out, he handed her the slip of paper and she took it with a shaking hand. Was she nervous? The idea of it surprised him. She seemed so put-together with her straight clothes and strident manner.

‘Maybe we should formally introduce ourselves,’ he said, flipping her a cheeky grin and smiling as a pink hue tipped her cheekbones. ‘Xander Heaton.’ He extended a hand and she put her own small, cold one into it. Her grip was firm, though, which surprised him. Usually women did that limp-handed press that left him feeling as if he were an overzealous brute when he shook hands with them.

‘Jessica LaFayette. My friends call me Jess,’ she said, giving him a tight smile.

He grinned. ‘So which should I use? Clearly I haven’t made it into the friends bracket yet.’

‘Jess is fine,’ she said. ‘But I might withdraw the privilege if you do something else to annoy me.’ She flashed him a more relaxed smile this time, a hint of playfulness flashing in her eyes.

He laughed at that. ‘You have cold hands, Jess,’ he said, enclosing hers in both of his.

‘But a warm heart,’ she said, giving him a solicitous smile before pulling her hands firmly out of his grip.

She was going to be a fascinating subject to get to the heart of. The mere thought of it excited him. She was exactly the breath of fresh air he needed.

He was finally on his way back to the big time, baby.

TWO

Twenty-four hours later Jess stared out of the windscreen of her hire car in wonder as the incredible scenery around Lake Garda flew by.

Pamela had been bemused at first by Jess’s assertions that she would get a great exclusive out of Xander if she followed him all the way to Italy for the interview, but in the end she’d agreed to let Jess go if she stumped up for the flight and accommodation herself. She was also to visit some of the towns that bordered the lake and write some short ‘Best Places to Holiday in Northern Italy’ pieces for the travel section while she was there. The magazine didn’t have the resources to send their staffers off to ‘just swan around the Italian Lakes,’ or so Pamela claimed.

Jess had taken it on the chin and booked herself onto the cheapest flight she could find the next day and found a room in a rather dubious-looking two-star hotel, which was the only place available on Lake Garda at short notice that didn’t cost more per day than the rent on her flat for the entire month.

The memory of Xander’s challenging look when he’d asked her to come to Italy made her insides twist and swoop. In that moment before responding, she’d thought about what Pamela had said about how she needed to live a little to become a better writer, and how much she wanted to keep her hard-fought-for job at the magazine, and despite hating the idea of sitting for a picture for him—frankly it was her idea of hell to be scrutinised from all angles by a man who made her feel so unsettled—she found herself agreeing to it if it meant he’d give her what she wanted. Strike that, what she needed.

No way was she going to let this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity slip away from her.

Before she’d left, Pam had pulled her to one side and reminded her that Xander was notoriously difficult to interview and that she should try and stay objective. She didn’t say the words, ‘Don’t let him twist you round his finger and into his bed’, but they were very much implied.

Jess had smiled to herself; as if that were ever likely to happen. Flings were not her thing and definitely not with men like Xander.

She had more sense than that.

As the villa where Xander was staying swung into view she took a deep breath to quell a disorientating surge of jittery excitement as she took in the sight of immaculately landscaped gardens and the imposing seventeenth-century building that resided like a noble queen over spectacular views of Lake Garda.

She’d never seen anything so perfectly picturesque in her life.

She could barely believe she was here to spend a couple of days hanging out with Xander Heaton, disgustingly talented artist, womaniser and undisputable contender for sexiest man alive.

Glancing down at the neat, but unfussy, trouser suit she’d put on for travelling, she acknowledged with a sinking feeling that she was not going to feel comfortable in his world.

Still, she was determined to make the most of the time she had with him. She just needed to hold her nerve and not let him intimidate her.

Ah, hell, who was she kidding? She was going to be a wreck from beginning to end. The trick was not to let him see it.

She drove up to the front of a long sweep of sandy-coloured stone steps and parked up. Swinging the door open, she got out and stretched her back, which ached like hell after being cramped up for hours, first on the plane, then in the car as she’d swung it through the Italian countryside.

Looking up at the magnificence of the building, she felt another sting of insignificance.

Get it together, Jess, you have nothing to feel humbled about.

The door to the villa opened and a handsome middle-aged woman in a beautifully cut shift dress appeared. Her long swathe of dark hair swung across her back as she walked down the steps towards where Jess was standing.

‘Ms LaFayette?’ she asked, holding out a welcoming hand.

Jess shook it. ‘Call me Jess,’ she said, giving the woman a friendly smile back.

‘I’m Rosa. I’m the housekeeper here. If you need anything during your stay please let me know.’

Jess stared at her, confused. ‘Oh, I’m not staying here. I’ve booked a room in a hotel down the road. The Royal, I think it’s called.’

Rosa frowned, looking flustered. ‘Oh, my mistake. Well, I hope they give you a good room there.’ The uncertainty in Rosa’s voice made something pinch in Jess’s chest. Did The Royal have a bad reputation?

Ah, whatever. She was only going to be staying for two nights, so it wouldn’t matter, and it was all she could afford anyway. This wasn’t a holiday, she reminded herself, it was an assignment. The first of many more, she hoped—once she’d blown Pamela away with her fun, but insightful, piece on Xander.

Another thought struck her. Had Xander given the impression she was here for more than just business? Or had Rosa just assumed she was because of his track record?

Shaking off the unnerving tingle deep in her pelvis at the thought of getting up close and personal with Xander, she smoothed down a wrinkle in the sleeve of her jacket with shaking fingers. She should really take the thing off, it was already making her hot in the intense heat of the afternoon, but she wanted to stay formal and professional to remind him she was here as a serious journalist and not someone to be toyed with. There would be no flirting and manipulating the situation by Xander.

Control, Jess, cool, calm control.

‘Is Xander around?’ Jess asked, determined to get this interview under way as soon as possible. Pamela had only given her a week to get the article written. They were going with a Great Artists of the Twenty-First Century theme and Xander’s interview was going to be the showcase piece, so it had to be good. If she didn’t manage to produce something whiz-bang enough Pam had suggested she’d have to pass on Jess’s notes to Maggie and have her write the article instead.

No way was Jess going to let that happen. This was her big opportunity to prove to Pamela she was the right fit for Spark.

She just needed to get Xander to trust her enough to open up and talk.

Rosa nodded. ‘He’s down at the villa’s private beach. Just follow the path over there to the lake.’ She pointed in the direction she meant.

Jess thanked her and set off to the beach, pulling the hem of her blouse down where it had ridden up over her middle and swiping a rather damp hand over her hair.

The path took her through a small grove of sweet-smelling olive trees and opened up onto a small, sandy cove with spectacular views across to the other side of the lake.

There was no sign of Xander at first, but as she looked around she noticed a movement in the clear, still water of the lake.

Jess came to an abrupt halt as Xander stood up from where he’d been swimming, gleaming rivulets of water running down from his hair and cascading over his naked chest. She watched, mesmerised, as he waded towards her, his movements agile and smooth as he powered through the water.

He glanced up and saw her standing there, tipping her a mischievous grin and giving her a welcoming salute.

‘Jess, good to see you.’

She watched him advance towards her, rooted to the spot and with an unnerving pulse beating in her throat.

His golden skin gleamed in the bright afternoon light, the gentle rays highlighting every contour of his solid frame, and as he pushed his wet hair back from his angular face, making the muscles of his chest twist and flex, she had to suppress a squeak of pure delight. There was unbridled power in his stride, as he quickly covered the ground between them, that made her insides jump and twist with pleasure.

Scuffing her toes into the sand, she gave herself a lecture on the evils of letting her overactive imagination get the better of her.

‘Hey,’ Xander said, when he finally reached her, flashing her a grin that made her stomach lurch with lust. Drops of water clung to his eyelashes, making them look obscenely long and lush as they framed those incredible eyes of his.

Jess swallowed, trying to loosen up her throat, which was tight with tension. Shaking her nerves off before they took too firm a hold, she reminded herself that she was here to work, and that was what she was damn well going to do.

‘H-hello. This place is beautiful,’ she managed to stutter out, cursing the shake in her voice. She was having immense trouble keeping her gaze on his face and not allowing it to drop to the incredible physique of his chest.

‘It’s a friend’s holiday home. Pretty impressive, huh?’

‘Yup. Impressive.’ It seemed she was totally out of intelligent conversation. Not a great start for someone who was supposed to be a wordsmith for a living.

‘I’m heading back up to the villa for tea and cake. Rosa makes the best summer panettone. Come and join me.’ It wasn’t a question and she bristled a little at his bossy tone.

‘I’m not hungry. I had a late lunch.’

He gave her a slow, sexually laden smile that made her stomach swoop alarmingly. ‘Well, I’m hungry.’

The gentle breeze caught her hair and blew it across her suddenly incredibly hot face. Before she could react, he took a step towards her, lifted his hand and slid his long fingers against her cheek, then tucked the rogue curl of hair behind her ear. It was such an intimate thing to do she was utterly lost for words, and, instead of speaking, she found herself staring at his mouth, totally transfixed by the fullness of his lips as they parted slightly, revealing his perfect white teeth. The heat of his almost naked body bled into her skin and she took a deep, calming breath in, only to draw the musky fragrance of his skin into her nostrils, sending her senses spinning out of control.

Every bit of her body felt energised and tingly—the anticipation of what could happen if he just leant forward a couple of inches burning like wildfire in her chest. Was he going to...?

Kiss me.

She wasn’t sure for a second whether she’d said it out loud and she skimmed her gaze up to look into his eyes, hoping desperately it had only been an errant voice in her head.

His gaze flicked between her eyes, the bright aqua of his irises captivating her with their other-worldliness.

What the hell was going on here? A nervy panic rose inside her, causing a wave of jittery heat to rush up her neck. She couldn’t handle this. Not here, in broad daylight, totally unprepared for what might happen if he kept on looking at her like that.

Xander must have sensed her panic because he took a step away from her, giving her the space and air she suddenly craved.

‘You okay, Jess?’ he said, bemused concern clear in his voice.

‘Fine. I’m fine,’ she managed to gasp, forcing a smile onto her face. ‘Just a bit hot in the sun.’ She flapped a hand in front of her face in a pathetic attempt to cool herself down. ‘I have to go and check in to my hotel but I wanted to let you know I’d arrived. I’d like to make a plan for starting the interview so we can get started as soon as possible.’ She kept her voice clipped and businesslike, trying like mad to pull back the professional persona she’d been so keen to promote.

‘How very diligent of you. Well, to be honest, I’m not in the mood for spilling my deepest, darkest secrets right now.’ He took a step closer to her and dipped his head, his gaze capturing hers as something dangerous flashed in his eyes. ‘I’d like to get to know you a bit more intimately first.’

‘I’m not going to sleep with you,’ she blurted out before she could stop herself, her nerves riding roughshod over her common sense.

He laughed out loud, shaking his head in mirth.

Jess just stood there dumbly, flushing hot with embarrassment.

What an idiot she was. Of course he wasn’t talking about sleeping with her. She very clearly wasn’t his type if the media reports of his affairs were anything to go by. From what she’d seen in the press—and at his studio—he was more of a leggy-blonde type of guy.

And that suited her just fine. Absolutely fine. Couldn’t be finer.

‘Don’t worry, I’m taking a break from seducing innocent young journalists, so your virtue is safe with me,’ he joked, his mouth quirked in a playful smile. ‘I am interested in your body, Jess, but only on an artistic level.’

Jess pulled her arms across her chest. ‘You can’t blame me for being wary when you make provocative-sounding statements like that. You do have a reputation for being a bit...’

‘A bit what?’

She paused, searching for the right word. ‘Wild.’

He gave her a bemused grin. ‘I promise to be on my best behaviour,’ he said, making a crossing motion over his heart. ‘And if I slip up you have my permission to lick me into shape.’

Oh, my God, the images he’d just conjured in her mind.

She really needed to get out of here before she totally lost her cool.

‘Come over for dinner tonight at eight,’ he continued, going over to a rock where he’d left his towel and swiping it along his long, lean arms, ‘and we can get better acquainted.’

He flashed her one last beguiling smile before turning and walking away up the path, the bright drops of lake water that still clung to his broad back shimmering in the sunlight.

An overwhelming urge to pack up and go home, where she didn’t have to deal with these weird and disturbing feelings he provoked in her, besieged her. But she wasn’t going to leave. She was determined to keep her job at the magazine, no matter what it took. She was going to brazen it out here and ignore the blatant innuendos he seemed so keen to tease her into a jittery mess with.

He was a player all right, but she wasn’t about to let him play her.

* * *

In total contrast to the villa where Xander was staying, her hotel was the most run-down, sleazy-looking pit Jess had ever had the misfortune to set eyes on. She could have sworn she saw a rat run around the corner of the building as she parked her hire car in the tiny, litter-strewn parking lot. The thought of it made her shudder. She wasn’t good with rodents. Or spiders. Or any type of insect if she was totally honest.

It looked as if they were doing building works on the place, too, judging by the mess of rubble and steel piled haphazardly against the peeling walls of the hotel, but there didn’t seem to be anyone doing any actual work out there. Jess prayed she wasn’t going to be woken up in the early hours by workmen banging the hell out of the wall next to her head.

A disgruntled receptionist with long, lank hair and a sweat-stained blouse checked her in and handed over her key, motioning her to walk through the rather run-down reception to a door on the ground floor, next to what appeared to be a kitchen.

The Ritz it was not.

Her room wasn’t in a much better state than the reception, but at least it had a decent-sized bed and its own en-suite bathroom—even if she did have to turn sideways when in it to get the door closed.

Okay, well, it was all she needed. She was only going to put up with it for two nights. Surely it wouldn’t take longer than that to get enough info to write a decent piece on Xander?

Kicking off her shoes, she flopped down onto the bed, ignoring the unnerving sway of the bed frame, and pulled her mobile out of her back pocket. Time to do some more research on the man himself.

She’d already had a cursory look through the search engines for his name, but not much of any use had come up, mostly gossip pieces about the women he’d dated and the parties he’d made a scene at. In fact he seemed to have been in a constant state of drunken debauchery for an entire year. There were a handful of articles about his last couple of exhibitions as she trawled lower, though, the last of which had been a bit of a critical flop, as Pam had mentioned.

She wondered how his colossal ego had dealt with that. Judging by the press reports on him between now and then, not very well. He’d become belligerent and withdrawn with the press and, instead of producing more work to shut his critics up, he’d thrown himself into partying and womanising instead. In fact he didn’t seem to have produced a single thing since that exhibition.

Interesting.

It was a soothing distraction focusing on work after the nerve-jangling meeting with Xander and her eyelids grew heavy as she relaxed into the soft mattress. Perhaps she could get forty winks in now to power herself up before having dinner with Xander tonight? She wanted to be at her sharpest when she faced him again. She had a sneaking suspicion he was deliberately trying to unsettle her so he could avoid having to answer any of her probing questions.

If he thought it was going to be that easy to get around her he had another think coming.

A loud scuttling sound—which seemed to be emanating from under the bed—made her sit bolt upright in alarm.

What the hell was that?

Out of the corner of her eye she thought she saw something dart from under the bed and disappear behind the vanity unit on the other side of the room.

Goosebumps pricked her skin as all the hairs on her body stood up as one in disgust. Ugh! Bugs! Quite possibly cockroaches.

Her spirits sank to the floor. How was she supposed to sleep with large indeterminate creatures running around under her bed?

Taking care not to step on any of the little blighters, she dashed out of the room and back over to the reception and tried to persuade the woman to move her into a different room.

Denied.

It appeared—incredibly—that the hotel was fully booked.

Jess sighed and went back to her room, feeling frustrated and discombobulated. She couldn’t afford to move out of this hovel—her savings wouldn’t stand it—and she wasn’t about to leave, not when the fate of her career was in the balance.

She was just going to have to grit her teeth and suck it up.

THREE

When dinner time rolled around, Jess drove back over to Xander’s villa in an even more agitated state than when she’d left it, which didn’t bode well for a relaxed and fruitful interview with him.

She hadn’t anticipated having to conduct her interview over dinner either. She used to hate eating in front of other people after struggling with an eating disorder for most of her teens. Thankfully things had got a lot better on that front after she’d taken herself off for counselling during her time at university. After talking things through she’d been able to work out a way to deal with the feelings of shame and self-loathing that tipped her into comfort eating when she felt stressed and she hadn’t had a relapse since.

She had a suspicion that eating in front of Xander was going to be a real test of her fortitude, though. He was just so in your face with his off-the-scale charisma and haunting good looks.

Damn him.

Rosa opened the door to her with a smile and showed her through to the huge living room, which was furnished with only a sofa, small drinks table and fireplace. There was an amazing coloured-glass chandelier hanging from the ceiling, which looked a bit like an exploding bouquet of long-stemmed flowers. Refracted shards of light from it bounced off the walls, giving the room the feel of a disco paused in time. Jess had never experienced anything like it. ‘Xander’s running a little late, but he’ll be with you soon,’ Rosa said, giving Jess a kind smile. ‘Can I get you a drink?’

‘Just some water, please,’ Jess said, determined to remain sharp and focused that evening, which meant no alcohol for her. She didn’t tend to drink much anyway—hating the way alcohol messed with her head—and she had a horrible feeling that just a sniff of the stuff tonight would be a disaster in terms of keeping her cool and collected front in place.

Rosa nodded and gestured to the sofa before leaving her alone in the room.

Jess chose not to sit down, nerves making her too edgy to stay still, and instead wandered around the room. She took a closer look at the beautiful marble fireplace and the amazing glass chandelier, shifting uncomfortably in her six-inch heels as she waited for Xander to materialise. She’d chosen these shoes at the last second thinking the extra height would give her a bit more confidence, but they were already killing her feet, which set her teeth on edge.

She was dragged out of her funk by the sight of Xander finally sauntering into the room, wearing a light blue linen shirt, open at the neck, dark combat trousers and a spellbinding smile on his face.

He really was the perfect specimen of a man.

Even the loose cut of his clothes couldn’t conceal the fact he had a killer body underneath. No doubt those lean muscles were flexing and bunching under his shirt as he moved towards her. It made her mouth water to think of it.

How would he feel if she pressed her hands against his chest?

Hard and soft at the same time.

The tips of her fingers tingled in empathy with her thoughts and there was a disturbing rush of warmth in the depths of her pelvis. She had to practically cross her legs to dull the sensation in order to concentrate.

Not good, Jess. Not good.

How the heck was she going to get through the evening? Already the butterflies that had taken up residence in her stomach were flapping about like wild things, which meant her appetite was at approximately zero on the famished to sated scale.

‘Welcome to my humble abode,’ Xander said, giving her a generous smile as he came to a halt in front of her.

He seemed relaxed, insouciant even, as if he was anticipating a pleasant, gentle evening of good food and lively conversation.

Her blood fired round her veins at the realisation that this dinner might not be quite as awkward as she’d anticipated. She just needed to keep focused and keep him on her side in order to get him to open up and talk about things that would make her article sparkle.

‘Take a seat,’ Xander said, motioning to the huge red velvet-covered sofa in the middle of the room.

‘Okay, thank you.’ Jess sank down gratefully onto the soft cushions, glad to finally take the weight off her feet, and kept on sinking. The innards of the sofa were so soft she found herself nearly doubled in two with her knees up near her chin.

Not exactly ladylike.

‘I’m really pleased you decided to come,’ Xander said, flopping down next to her and almost catapulting her onto his lap. ‘I think we can both get something useful out of our time together.’

He gave her such a loaded smile she could do nothing but stare back at him.

‘Yes, I’m sure we can,’ she finally managed to mumble through lips that seemed to be malfunctioning under the force of his charisma.

He slowly dropped his gaze to her mouth and the intensity of the atmosphere stepped up another notch.

Focus, Jess, focus.

She took in a deep breath. ‘This is a wonderful room,’ she said, trying like mad not to go to pieces as the fresh and delicious citrusy scent of his aftershave hit her nostrils. My, he smelt good. Perhaps she was hungry, after all? Only not for food.

Give it a rest, Jess. You’re here to do a job, keep it professional. And he’s the personification of danger, remember, which is not something you need in your life right now.

Wriggling along the sofa away from him and swivelling her knees into the gap she’d left, she attempted to put a defensive barrier between them, only to watch him reposition himself, mirroring her action so that their knees were almost touching. Her breath caught in her throat at what appeared to be a deliberate move to unsettle her and she had to look away to gather her courage.

She was so out of her comfort zone here.

Rosa arrived with a couple of flutes of strawberry Bellini, Jess’s requested glass of water and a bowl of the most enormous olives Jess had ever seen, which she placed in front of them with a flourish.

‘Dinner will be served in ten minutes,’ she said, giving them both a gracious nod.

‘Thanks, Rosa,’ Xander replied, the deep smooth tone of his voice twisting through Jess’s head like music. No wonder women seemed to throw themselves at him wherever he went—all he had to do was speak and she was a gibbering wreck. Imagine the effect if he decided to talk dirty to her.

A deep, low throb began to pulse in the depths of her pelvis at the thought and her face flamed with heat. Good grief, what was wrong with her self-control? It seemed to have totally abandoned her.

Jess hurriedly picked up a Bellini and took a sip, grateful for the distraction from dealing with Xander’s overwhelming presence for a moment.

So much for her no-drinking rule.

But this was an emergency—she needed something to flatten out her nerves and lull her into a more relaxed state of mind if she was going to get through the evening with her sanity intact.

Turning back, she found he was studying her, a look of concentrated interest on his face. They stared at each other for a moment and Jess’s heart hammered in the pause.

Had it suddenly got hotter? She could swear they’d turned the heat up and were directing it straight at her. She was damp with perspiration under her long-sleeved blouse and even the underside of her knees was sweating.

Umm, attractive.

Thank goodness this wasn’t a real date because he’d have to swim to get close enough to kiss her at this rate.

‘You have the most expressive face I’ve ever seen,’ he murmured, a glint of mischief in his eyes. ‘I’m going to have a lot of fun drawing you.’

Jess cleared her throat and sat up taller in her seat, anxiety at the thought of having to model for him making her body hum with nerves.

‘So how exactly do these things go? Do I just sit around for a couple of hours and you produce some amazing piece of art?’

He smiled. ‘Not exactly. I prefer to hang out with my subjects for a bit until inspiration hits me. It can take a while to come up with the right idea and I like to play around with things for a while before committing paint to canvas. I’ll do some sketches over the next few days and see what works.’

‘The next few days? I wasn’t expecting to be here for that long. I thought we could get this all wrapped up in a day. Two max. In fact I’ve booked a return flight for two days’ time.’

He snorted. ‘A day? If only I could work that fast. No, I usually need at least three or four days of planning. But don’t worry, we can make it fun.’ He gave her a slow wink that made her insides flip.

‘What exactly do you mean by that?’ The question came out sounding curter than she’d intended, so she chased it with an awkward smile.

He snorted, the corner of his mouth twisting up in mirth. ‘Why are you so nervous, Jess?’

‘I’m not nervous,’ she said, the squeak in her voice totally giving her away.

He laughed, the sound rumbling low in his chest. ‘Is my reputation really that bad?’ He leant forward in a conspiratorial manner. ‘Don’t worry, I’m not going to rip your clothes off and ravish you—unless you ask me really nicely,’ he added with a flirtatious eyebrow raised.

Was he teasing her now? He was. He so was. And she had absolutely no idea how to handle it.

This was exactly why she usually avoided men like him. They rattled her so badly she could barely function.

Mercifully, Rosa returned to call them for dinner then so she didn’t have to scrabble around for an eloquent response to that little zinger.

‘After you.’ Xander gestured towards the other end of the hall.

‘Great,’ Jess said, already on her feet and making a move towards the doorway he’d motioned at, desperately trying not to skid in her shoes on the smooth marble floor. She could feel him behind her, as if he were giving off a pulse of sexual electricity that made the hairs on the back of her neck stand to attention.

Just as they reached the dining-room door her heel caught in a small hole in the marble and she stumbled forward, her arms flailing out at her sides as she tried to regain her balance.

Xander stopped her from falling flat on her face by darting forward and grabbing her arm and pulling her against his body for support.

Taking a hurried step away from the hard wall of his chest, she smoothed down her hair, then her skirt from where it had ridden up her legs, before flashing him a grateful smile. He watched her with an amused eyebrow raised. ‘You okay?’

‘Fine. Thank you.’ She gave him a friendly but controlled nod. ‘I’m not normally that clumsy, honestly.’

Xander laughed. ‘Don’t worry on my account. It’s not often I get to play the knight in shining armour. It’s usually me falling down drunk.’

‘I’m not drunk. I only had a couple of sips...’ she began to argue, horrified he’d think she was that much of a lightweight.

He held up a hand. ‘I’m joking, Jess. Jeez, I’ve never met anyone so bad at taking a joke.’

‘I c-can take a joke with the best of them,’ she stuttered, picking a rogue hair off the sleeve of her blouse before turning to stare him defiantly in the eye.

Xander shook his head and grinned back at her. ‘Do you think you can make it to the table without taking another tumble? I can give you a piggyback if you like.’

‘I’ll be fine, thank you,’ she said. ‘Wouldn’t want to be responsible for putting your back out.’

He laughed. ‘Never gonna happen. I’m as strong as an ox. See?’ He braced his arms in front of him, mimicking the stance of a bodybuilder.

Jess couldn’t help but laugh at him.

‘Yeah, okay, He-Man, but I’ll walk, thanks.’

He smiled back, and waved a hand, encouraging her to step to it. ‘After you.’

The dining room was just as impressive as the living room with an enormous, highly polished dining table sitting pretty in the middle of the room, surrounded by what looked like twenty high-backed chairs.

Another enormous chandelier, this time made from hundreds of pieces of blown glass in the shape of a flock of birds, let out a warm, low light over the room.

‘Wow, the light fixtures here are amazing,’ Jess said, staring at it in wonder.

‘Pretty cool, huh?’ Xander said, stopping next to her to admire it, too. ‘Roberto, who owns this place, made it. He’s sickeningly talented.’

He was standing so close to her she caught another waft of his amazing citrusy scent, which sent an energised prickle right up her spine.

‘How lovely of him to let you use his place,’ she said, taking a careful step into the room, away from him.

‘Yeah, he’s a really generous guy. We worked on a couple of projects together a few years back, before we both started getting successful. He lets friends come and stay here when they need to escape for a bit.’

‘So you’re escaping right now?’ she asked, turning back to look at him.

His expression closed over. ‘I need a bit of space to concentrate on a new exhibition, away from the din of the city.’

‘And away from the temptation of all those parties?’ she said, raising a playful eyebrow, hoping he’d bite and give her a bit of gossipy goodness that she could incorporate into her article.

‘Oh, I don’t know. I’m sure I can find a party round here if I really want to,’ he said, moving his shoulder in a circular motion as if trying to relieve a trapped nerve.

‘Have you hurt your shoulder?’ she asked.

‘Nah, I’m just a bit tense from being bent over drawing today. Why, are you offering to rub it for me?’ He flipped her a provocative grin.

‘You don’t want me giving you a massage—I’m terrible at it,’ she said, smoothing a lock of hair behind her ear, then flipping it back out again so it swung back to join the rest of her bob. She had a horrible urge to hide her face from him. He was so confusing with his ability to flip the conversation from something innocuous into something that made her jitter with barely contained anxiety.

He gave her a questioning frown. ‘I don’t believe it. How can you be terrible at massaging?’

She shrugged. ‘It’s just not something I count as one of my talents.’

‘Hmm.’ He was looking at her with such an intense, searching stare it made her insides twist.

She wasn’t used to dealing with such overt flirtatiousness. The men she’d dated in the past had been attractive guys, but nothing like the unwieldy package of sexual energy that Xander Heaton embodied. He was something else entirely.

Walking past her, he pulled out a chair from the table and gestured for her to sit down.

She nodded her thanks and perched herself on the edge of the leather-upholstered chair, folding her hands on the tabletop and kicking off her shoes so she could flex her aching feet under the table. She watched as he pulled out the seat opposite and dropped into it with a sigh.

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