‘You’ll find something,’ he said quietly. ‘You’re too brilliant not to find something.’
‘Charmer.’
‘Maybe.’ Patrick grinned. ‘Maybe I should write a song about you.’
My giggles filled the hotel suite. ‘Don’t you dare.’
‘Why not? You might like –’
‘Absolutely not!’ Laura and Anna would love it, but the thought had me mildly horrified. Besides, what would he even write about? Our fake-but-kind-of-not relationship? Yeah, that wouldn’t go down well.
‘You wouldn’t like one?’ Patrick’s face was teasing, his eyessparkling with danger. ‘You don’t want to be immortalized as one of my conquests?’
‘I think you’ll find that’s “many conquests”,’ I shot back with a laugh. ‘And I do not want to be included in that list.’
‘Why not?’
Crap, why couldn’t I explain this? Becoming part of a These Exiles album, written out there for the whole world to see? ‘You don’t owe me a song. I’ll never need one.’
Patrick’s smile softened his expression. ‘You are quite something, you know.’
Before I could reply, the door opened.
‘Sorry, Mr Tetlow, but another journalist has arrived,’ said the receptionist with an apologetic expression. ‘I said you were done for the day, but –’
‘But Derek left instructions, I bet,’ Patrick said throwing me an exasperated look. ‘Send them on in.’
When the door shut, he turned to me. ‘I’m sorry, Jessy. Lunch will have to wait.’
‘That’s OK,’ I said, rising and hating the distance I’d created between us. ‘I’ll just –’
‘Where do you think you’re going?’ Patrick’s face held a look of genuine confusion. ‘I need you to stay.’
I sank bank on to the sofa and into Patrick’s arms. ‘Are you sure? I don’t have to –’
‘I’m sure,’ Patrick said with a soft smile. ‘I need you here, with me.’
‘AND THIS IS ME,’ I said with a smile, turning to gaze up at the man who had suddenly come over all chivalrous. Not that Patrick wasn’t usually every part the gentleman, but thiswas a little excessive. ‘You didn’t have to walk me all the way to my door, you know.’
‘I was instructed to make sure you got home safely.’ Patrick shrugged, a strange sort of mischievous smile on his face. ‘And I wouldn’t dare upset the very scary lady who asked.’
We’d stopped outside my hotel room door, the long corridor empty, and I let out a soft laugh, the moment too fragile for anything louder.Scary lady?There was only one person that could be. ‘Anna?’
Patrick didn’t answer. He stepped forward instead, a look in his eye that had me pressing up against the door behind me for support. That heat, that need –
‘Patrick –’
‘She and your sister made me swear I wasn’t going to hurt you,’ Patrick murmured, his gaze sweeping down my body before returning to my eyes. ‘And I’m not.’
Breathing. Breathing, I remembered, breathing. I should do some of that. ‘You’re not?’
He shook his head slowly. ‘No. But I am going to kiss you.’
There was no time to argue – not that I was going to. Patrick’s kiss was swift, sharp and demanding, and my hands were already curling in his hair, pulling him closer.
All higher thinking fled my mind as Patrick’s hips pressed up into mine, pinning me to the door, his hands first cupping my face but swiftly moving to cup –
‘Patrick,’ I breathed, arching my breasts into him.
