Fury etched into his features. “You said you’d stay with me for nights. I want you to stay.”
“I know.” She wanted that too. Desperately. “It’s okay. I’ll see you tomorrow.” She pressed a kiss against his lips, aiming for nonchalance to disguise the way her disappointment was making her queasy.
“Carter? Are you drowning under the weight of a bookcase or something?” Karina’s voice was just outside the door.
He swore softly. “I said I’ll be right out.”
He pulled on a pair of jeans and strode towards the door. “I want you to stay.” He said, his hand on the doorknob.
“There’s no point.” Jane didn’t meet his eyes.
He shook his head and pulled the door open. Jane had the impression of a red swish of hair and a hint of Joy perfume before the door swung closed again. She dressed quickly, putting her clothes on with fingers that were shaking.
Her appearance in the mirror was more or less normal. She stared at her face, wondering how she could look calm and relaxed when inside, she was a cyclone of feeling. She lifted her fingers to her lips. They were still tingling from his kisses. Along her neck, there was a hint of pink from where his stubble had grazed her, and her eyes shone with the strength of what they’d just done. But to a stranger, she would look fine. She breathed out unsteadily and forced her legs to carry her towards the lounge.
Karina was lovely. Neat hair, corporate suit, a somewhat jaded manner that was as honest as it was refreshing. Her eyes were like Carter’s. So blue they were almost arctic. “You must be Jane,” she said, standing and cutting across the room. She extended a slender hand and shook Jane’s confidently.
Jane nodded. “And you must be Karina.”
“You two are excellent at introductions,” Carter drawled from the kitchen.
“Carter tells me you have to be somewhere, but I hope I can twist your arm to at least stay for a scotch. It’s so rare for me to get to meet someone in his life.”
“Is it?” Jane queried, curious in spite of herself.
“He’s rather private, you see.” She linked an arm through Jane’s and walked her towards the kitchen. “Carter, Jane will stay for a scotch.”
Jane sighed with pointed inconvenience, but her lips were twitching with a suppressed smile. She knew the smart thing to do was to go. The only way this would work was if she kept their boundaries up. It was hard to do though, as she saw more and more of what lay behind his tycoon façade. That was before she even contemplated the spell his body was able to weave around hers. She had to go. And yet… “Okay, okay, I’ll stay. But no scotch for me, thanks.”
“You don’t like it?” Carter queried, pouring out two measures.
She shook her head. Scotch was the devil’s drink.
“Try this. It’s one of the best.” He said, his eyes on hers. He held it up, close enough for her to smell it, but she stepped back. Smell was a sense that could reliably invoke memories, and scotch never invoked good ones for her. She knew her reaction was disproportionate and so she lied to cover it.
“I had too much scotch one night, when I was still in school. I can’t go near it now.”
Karina winced. “I’m like that with Ouzo.” She shuddered.
Jane suspected Carter hadn’t bought her story. It was strange, but she just seemed to understand him. It was as though, on top of the tiny little threads that were melding their bodies together, an invisible net of comprehension was forming between their minds. He understood her too well. It terrified her. She didn’t look directly at him. “I’ll make a coffee.”
“I’ll do it.” Carter said. “Black?”
“Yeah.” How did he know that?
“Your birthday,” he said, smiling at her.
“Nothing wrong with your memory,” she murmured. “Then again, you weren’t under the influence of several cocktails and a glass of champagne.”
“How did you two meet?”
Jane’s eyes flew to Carter’s face, but he seemed unbothered by the routine question. He was in the midst of pouring coffee into a cup, and he continued without a flicker of response.
“Through a mutual acquaintance, and then quite by chance. Jane happened to be celebrating her birthday at the same place I was meeting someone.”
“A date, if I remember correctly.”
“Yes.” He shook his head. “I wasn’t prepared to let her go twice, though.”
“That sounds… incredibly romantic,” Karina said, her surprise obvious.
Jane had to clamp down on her lip to stop herself from laughing. The proposition Carter had offered her was not romantic. It was mercenary and sexy, but not romantic in the slightest.
“Yes,” Jane sighed, blinking her long lashes up at Carter. “That’s Carter.”
“Are you mocking me?” He asked quietly, his eyes teasing her, his lips smiling.
“Never!” She took the coffee mug from him and walked towards the lounge. She sat on the edge of one. Carter took up the seat beside her, and Karina opposite.
“Do you live in the city?” Karina asked.
Jane nodded. “I’ve been in the Village, all my life.”
“It must have been interesting growing up in Manhattan.”
“It was busy. Loud.”
“Sounds like a world apart from us, hey Carter?”
Jane looked at the man whose body she could describe in perfect detail and frowned.
“We were raised in Austin,” he elaborated, in response to her silent question. “Our fathers are cousins. When my parents divorced, mum kept the Austin ranch. Meaning Karina was my neighbour.”
“We’re only two years apart, so we were more like brother and sister.” She added, folding her long legs beneath her on the sofa.
“How old were you? When your parents divorced?”
“Five.” He threw his scotch down in one motion, then placed the glass on the coffee table. She looked at it thoughtfully.
“Is that an Eames original?”
He lifted a brow in surprise. “I believe it is. I’d have to check with my decorator to be sure.”
She leaned closer, running a finger over the smooth line. “Definitely Eames.”
“You know about design?” Karina asked. “Is that a hobby or a career?”
“Neither,” Jane demurred with a wistful twist of her head. “Just a passing interest.”
Carter was watching her with that intensity that made her insides turn to mush.
“You were talking about your parents’ divorce. I’m sorry, that was rude of me to interrupt.”
His frown deepened. “I never talk about my parents’ divorce. And you don’t have to apologise for anything.” He put a hand on her knee.
“Are your parents on good terms?”
Karina laughed, and held a hand up to excuse herself.
“She’s laughing because they would maul one another if they ever had to be in the same state. My father remarried a month to the day after his divorce was finalised. His new wife is the mother of my half brother, Eliot. Eliot’s a year younger than I am.”
“Oh.” Jane pulled a face. “That’s got to be tough on your mom.”
“She took Ivana’s advice and got everything she could in the divorce. Her heartbreak was neatly consoled by a huge chunk of money.”
Jane leaned back a little way, her eyes studying him covertly. The bitterness on his face was impressive. “So money was the answer and the problem.” She said to herself, but he heard it.
He turned his head sharply to look at her. “What do you mean by that?”
She flushed. “I shouldn’t comment. I don’t really know anything about it.”
“I’m interested in everything you have to say,” he contradicted, earning an appraising look from his cousin. The admission had shocked him, too. Since when? Since when had he been interested in everything any of his lovers had to say? He ran a hand through his short blonde hair, his eyes pinned to Jane.
The scrutiny made her uncomfortab
le. Her chocolate eyes held his briefly and then dropped away. Her smile was not real, but her emotions were. His curiosity, fascination and obsession all leaped ahead. “No. I really should get going.” She stood, setting her almost full coffee cup down on the Eames and smiling politely at Karina. “It was lovely to meet you.”
“Likewise,” Karina agreed with a nod. Carter recognised the expression on his cousin’s face. She, too, was fascinated by Jane. Her innocence was so at odds with her beauty; her shyness so completely strange given her intelligence and rightness. “Perhaps I’ll see you again sometime?”
Jane didn’t reply. After all, how could she? To see Karina again, she would need to remain in Carter’s life, and that decision was entirely his. She hooked the strap of her bag from the floor, where it had fallen shortly after she’d walked in the door. Memories of the way he’d pulled her to him flooded her body and she almost lost her footing. Carter, following behind her, put an arm out to grip her waist, steadying her easily.
Her eyes lifted to his face, but the simple ‘thanks’ she’d been about to mutter died on her lips when she saw the way he was staring at her. Hooded blue eyes were trained on her mouth, and his fingers on her hips were running up and down, making her insides clench.
“You won’t stay? Karina likes you.”
“She seems nice,” she said quietly, looking away.
“She isn’t. She’s a pit bull. She was being kind to you because she seems to like you.” He dragged a hand through his hair. “So stay. It’s late.”
“I have to go.” She stood on tiptoes and kissed his cheek. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Jane,” he called, stepping out into the plush hallway and closing the door. “Martins will take you home. I don’t want you using the subway while we’re together.” He reached into his pocket and detached something from his keys.
She wanted to say, But we’re not together! Only the words clogged in her throat. Curiosity kept her silent.
“Here. Press this whenever you leave my apartment, and he’ll have the car at the front for you by the time you’re in the lobby.”
She looked at the small device. “That’s a handy little thing.” She tilted her head to the side. “Are you sure you’re not really Bruce Wayne?”
He laughed. “Batman could learn a thing or two from me.”
She grinned. “I like the subway you know. Lots of interesting people watching.”
“You’ll have to watch from behind the tinted windows of my limo. I mean it, Jane. That’s not negotiable.”
She pulled a face. “Yes, sir.” She mock saluted and turned to walk away. But he caught her hand, and pulled her to his chest.
His eyes raked her face, and he seemed to be about to say something. He shook his head, finally, and kissed her lips. Slowly. Seductively. She sagged at the knees a little, and he clutched an arm behind her, to hold her to him.
“Tomorrow.” She said, breathily, when he’d stepped back. “Have a good night with Karina.” She blew a kiss as the elevator doors closed.
“Tomorrow.” He said to himself, walking away from Jane and wishing he were going with her. To wherever she was going. He didn’t much care.
CHAPTER SIX
The following night, Jane arrived at the monolith that was Carter’s building drenched to the skin. Though she’d run from the subway, and ducked under awnings as much as possible, the late summer rain had left her saturated. She wrapped her coat around her body and skipped up the stairs into the lobby. A line of brass letterboxes lined one wall, and to the other, there was an impressive floor to ceiling mirror. She crossed to it, her eyes laced with self-reproach as she took in her appearance.
Drowned rat, she thought with a shake of her dark head. The style she’d arranged her hair into that evening, loose curls that fell down her back, was now limp and strand-like. The mascara of her left eye was running, and her clothes stuck to her like a second skin.
She reached into her equally sodden handbag and pulled out a packet of tissues, so that she could dab ineffectually at the smudge of black that ran down her cheek. Given that she was covered in a film of water, it shouldn’t have been so difficult to remove the tar-like tear from her face. But it took several minutes of scrubbing and prodding before she was able to return her face to a state of near-normality. She slashed some fresh red lipstick across her mouth and stepped back to take in the overall appearance.
She grimaced.
Not at all how she’d intended to arrive. She rode the elevator with a heart that was racing.
Carter pulled the door inwards and the words he’d been about to say hung silently between them. “Jane? What happened to you?” He looked at her without emotion, from the top of her drenched mane to the black leggings that shone with wetness.
“It’s raining outside,” she said weakly, feeling like the biggest idiot for arriving as she had.
“Yes. It’s raining outside. It has been most of the afternoon. Why did you not bring an umbrella?”
She looked down at her feet. She’d been too busy. Too distracted. Too beautifully busy remembering how it had felt to make love to Carter. Too distracted by pleasurable anticipation of the night they had ahead.
“I…” She blinked. She what? Lost her brain?
“Why did you not take a taxi? Or call Martins?”
She felt like a fool, and going on the defensive was the only way to defuse her embarrassment. “Are you going to leave me standing here all night, Carter?”
He shook his head with a blink of his ice-blue eyes. “I am tempted to wrap you in a towel though,” he muttered disapprovingly, opening the door wide for her. She glared at him defiantly as she stepped into his apartment.
When she saw the puddle that she dropped on his immaculate, tiled entranceway, she was torn between laughter and tears. Laughter won. “You know,” she said, stepping out of her coat, and her shoes, with great difficulty. “You have this annoying knack of making me feel totally ridiculous.”
“Do I?” He lifted his hands to the sheer pink blouse she wore and began to unbutton it.
“Yes.” Her dark eyes were glued to his face as he slowly helped her remove the shirt.
“I would not think you need much help,” he grumbled darkly, and though his words were tinged with a hint of amusement, Jane felt pained by them. She lifted her hands to his and stilled them.
“Do you mean… do you think… I mean… that sounds like you think I am ridiculous.”
His eyes were laced with cool annoyance when they met hers. “I think you take risks with yourself that only someone who’s undergone a partial lobotomy would take.”
Her mouth gaped and her eyes stung with the threat of tears. She was grateful then, for the way her hair was dribbling water down her face, as it neatly disguised the fact that she was close to crying.
“Go and shower, Jane.” He thrust his hands deep into his pockets and stepped further back, so that she could move into the apartment. His coldness hurt, so much more than his words ever could.
“Do you want me to go?”
His mood was inexplicably dark. “No. I want you to stay. But I am about to say things I know I’ll regret. So go shower. Get warm before you catch a cold.”
She crossed her arms across her chest, drawing attention to her naked breasts beneath the flimsy blouse. His expression was sparked with fury when he looked from her breasts to her face. She hadn’t worn a bra. What was the point, when they dispensed with her clothes as soon as possible? Only Carter didn’t understand that. He simply saw her near-nakedness and it made him incandescent with anger.
Jane shook her head slowly. “What? What is it?”
He swore and turned away from her. “What must your parents think? Running around like that, on a night heavy with rain?”
Invoking her parents was the last straw. A tear slowly rolled down her cheek. She didn’t bother to check it. He wasn’t looking at her anyway.
“You took on a job that was as potentially danger
ous as it was demeaning. You got drunk the first night you were out with me – a man who had propositioned you in the most inappropriate of ways. How did you know I wouldn’t take advantage of you? How did you know I wouldn’t force myself on you?” She couldn’t see his face, but his words were laced with derision. “You didn’t. Because you take risks with yourself that are completely unnecessary.”
Jane’s cheeks were drained of colour. Seeing herself as he did, she felt an odd lurching of self-disgust. She didn’t think that highly of herself anyway, but having it mirrored back to her by Carter was a disturbing experience.
“You are beautiful, Jane. And you fascinate me. But sometimes, you are just stupid.”
He could have had no idea how his words would hurt her. How he’d found the one fear she held and pushed it back at her. It was like someone sticking their finger into an old wound.
Jane had been gifted extraordinary looks, but only passably average intelligence. Her grades in school had been acceptable, but only just. She’d been head of the cheerleading team, she’d dated a track star, and she’d been the girl everyone wanted to be friends with. What she had lacked in brainpower, she more than made up for with her ability to command a crowd. Her social skills had made her escort work easy. But she’d never let her likability make up for the big secret shame she lugged around everywhere.
She was dumb.
Dumb, not just compared to her genius sister. Dumb, not just in comparison to Jenna, her teacher best friend, or Thomas, who was helping to make her feel ‘less dumb’. She was slow on the uptake, when it came to academia. And once the sex haze Carter was in dissipated, he would see that too. He would realise she had very little of true value to offer him, and he would wonder how he’d ever let a nice body and pretty face con him into this arrangement.
Well, she wasn’t clever, but she had pride. She reached down for her handbag, shoes and coat, and stepped out of his apartment without a word.
He caught her at the lift. “Where are you going?” He demanded, his voice laced with impatience rather than the apology she’d hoped for.
“I don’t need to be insulted by you.”
To the Highest Bidder Page 7