Nothing had given him any suspicion that she might be following in Naomi’s footsteps, tempted to barge past the Keep Out signs, refusing to give up even after the door had been slammed shut, but could he be sure? She remained as professional as she always was when they were in the company of their business partners, even fractionally moving off if he got too close.
To his surprise, he found her evasive measures irritating. He had perversely wanted to touch her, to remind their potential business partners that she was his. He hadn’t. Possessiveness was something he personally had no time for as a trait and, if fleetingly he had wanted to stake his claim, then that had to do with a perfectly gentlemanly desire to protect her from any developing situations she might not have been able to handle. The guys were exuberant and open in their appreciation of what they saw.
Good job the deal was practically done.
A few more days here and they would go their separate ways and, when they next met, normality would once again be resumed.
It was exactly what he wanted, and the fact that she had reassured him that she wasn’t about to get any ideas about where this was going should have made him feel better than it did.
Disgruntled, he wondered whether it would be appropriate to point out that not many men liked seeing themselves as a trial run for other guys!
That was the only reason her remarks had made him feel edgy. Truth was, he had timelines when it came to women, and she was no different, even though she might have known him better than most. Possibly better than anyone else did. Inevitable, given that she worked for him and saw him more than most men saw their wives.
What they had would run its course. Every involvement with every woman always ran its course in the end. It was the way he liked it. Nothing deep and so no messy, painful aftermath. So why the hell was he ever so slightly irked at what she’d just said?
He dropped her hand and moved a little away, creating necessary distance between them, searching for his self-control, wondering whether the sun and forty minutes worth of swimming in open ocean had done something to him—made him a bit light-headed, made him think that she’d got under his skin a little too much for his liking.
‘I’ve completed the last bits of paperwork for the deal here.’ Ellie noted the way he had stopped holding hands and stepped just fractionally away.
Did he think that he had to further remind her that this meant nothing to him but a bit of fun?
Had she somehow communicated something to him...done something to make him think otherwise...?
Anxiously, Ellie tried tothink back. The mere fact that she felt she might have somehow signalled to him that she was in deeper than she’d ever expected, despite the very sensible mantras she kept repeating to herself, sent a chill of apprehension racing up and down her spine.
Bring it back to work...
In the thick, suddenly uncomfortable silence, she chatted about everything she had managed to get through earlier while he had been in front of his laptop. Legal technicalities had been ironed out! Patents sorted! Signatures were awaited but she didn’t foresee any problems...
Eventually, her voice tapered off and she stared straight ahead. For the first time she was blind to the exotic beauty of their surroundings, to the hum of distant insects, the sound of the lapping ocean, the stunning riot of colour of all the flowers, the people and the infectious sound of laughter.
She felt the loss of his touch like a physical blow, and that scared her, making her doubly determined to keep her feelings under wraps.
Their dedicated chauffeur was waiting to take them back to the hotel. She slid into the back seat and closed her eyes for a few seconds, enjoying the cool air-conditioning after the scorching heat outside.
What was going on? Was this the prelude to the goodbye speech? Only now that it was imminent did she realise how much she had been looking forward to really enjoying the last few days with him.
Did that make her seem clingy? The very thought was mortifying. She thought of poor Naomi and felt a twinge of intense sympathy.
She clasped her hands together on her lap and stared through the tinted windows, wondering what line of conversation to take to break the increasingly uncomfortable silence between them.
‘You’ve gone quiet on me,’ James murmured. Ellie slid her gaze across and breathed a mental sigh of relief because the sudden coolness between them had filled her with horror, disproportionately so.
‘Have I? I thought I’d been talking quite a bit about closing this deal we’ve come here to do.’
‘Less work and more play...’
‘If you say so...you’re the boss, after all...’ He tugged gently and she shuffled closer to him. He closed the privacy partition, separating them from their driver, and tilted her face to his.
‘I am,’ he agreed, tracking the outline of her mouth with his finger and sending a thousand little electrical impulses reverberating through her body. ‘I’ve spent the whole day wanting to touch you. In fact, if it weren’t for the fact that we’ll be at the hotel in under twenty minutes, I would be doing a lot more than I’m doing now...’
‘Really?’ Ellie queried huskily. ‘Like what?’
‘I’d quite like to pay some attention to your breasts... Have I mentioned that you have beautiful ones?’
‘James, stop!’ But she was laughing as her whole body went up in flames at his evocative words and the searing hunger in his dark eyes.
‘Tell me I’m not turning you on...’
