by Trish Wylie
Eventually he turned towards her, inches separating them while Merrow looked directly into his eyes.
Alex studied her face, calmly took another sip of wine, then nodded, just the once. ‘How’s your wine?’
Merrow looked down at the glass, swirled the liquid around the bowl, lifting it to the light as she tilted her head to study the colour. ‘Nice deep colour.’
From her peripheral vision she saw his mouth quirk.
Lowering the glass, she held it beneath her nose and breathed in. ‘Mmm…a slight hint of blackberry on the nose…maybe oak?’
With an eyebrow quirked in challenge, she fixed her gaze on his over the rim of the glass and took a sip, crinkling her nose and smiling as she swallowed. ‘Yummy.’
‘Not a wine connoisseur, then.’
‘Not so much.’ She smiled when he finally cracked a smile, the gold glow in his eyes warming her body from the outside as the rich liquid warmed her from within. ‘I know when one tastes good, and this one does, but then I wouldn’t expect less from someone like you. I always look at the alcohol content first myself. And I might need a few oysters with this for it to have the full effect…’
Alex didn’t miss the Galway innuendo, his head tilting a little to the side. ‘You really do like playing with fire, don’t you?’
‘I have a mischievous streak a mile wide, I’m told.’
‘Are you really as confident as you come across?’
‘I work very hard at trying to be. But then in order to be confident you have to know your own limitations too. And I’m fully aware of my failings.’ She shrugged one shoulder. ‘I just choose not to make them public. Works for me.’
‘As does using your sexuality to manage a difficult client?’
Her smile faded. ‘Yes, I was wondering when we’d get to that. You lasted a whole ten minutes, well done.’
‘It’s what you did.’
‘It’s what it took. You said he was being difficult and to be honest it wasn’t something I hadn’t already heard about him. So I used what I had. It wasn’t like I offered my naked body up on a silver platter for his delectation.’
‘He’s old enough to be your father.’
‘My mother was enough of a fan to have had a go at that idea back in the day.’ Merrow moved away from him, wandering aimlessly around the room, cradling the bowl of her glass in her palm. ‘But fortunately for me she loved my dad the day she set eyes on him. I doubt Mickey D would’ve made as good a father. Sex, babies and rock and roll doesn’t have quite the same ring to it.’
‘And is that how you sell all your ideas for design to a client?’
That’s it, Alex, be an ass. She took a deep breath and turned on her heel to frown at him from across the room. ‘What is it exactly that you dislike so much about me, Alex? Is it the fact that a woman had a one-night stand with you on equal terms? Or is it the fact that a woman found it easier to sell a vision to a reputedly sex-mad rock star better than you because you don’t happen to have breasts?’
His jaw clenched briefly. ‘And what makes you so sure I dislike you?’
He got her with that one, for a split second. ‘Oh, I dunno, maybe the fact that you’re such a joy when I’m around?’
His dark blond brows quirked. ‘You have an innate ability to intrigue and irritate me in equal measure, often at the same time, as it happens, but if you recall that didn’t seem to hold me back any in Galway. And when it comes to that night, you should maybe consider for a moment that I’m not the kind of guy that does one-night stands on as regular a basis as you’d like to think. So not liking you isn’t the issue.’
What?
For the first time in a long time, Merrow was at a loss for words. And the fact that she floundered brought the smile briefly back onto Alex’s face. Then it faded.
‘I told you that first day I didn’t want the fact we slept together to get in the way. But the fact is it’s damn well in the way. And it’ll stay in the way if you make the Pavenham Project a daily foray into the world of seduction. It needs to stop—unless you want to face the consequences.’
Merrow’s shoulders dropped, and, even though she could feel a wave of sexual excitement tingling over her nerve endings, she was also swamped by a sense of artistic disappointment. ‘You hated my ideas, didn’t you?’
Alex stunned her by chuckling, and when she looked at him he shook his head, a softer smile curving his lips. ‘No, Merrow, I didn’t hate your ideas. In fact if the sketches in that portfolio even half live up to what you sold to Mickey yesterday, then I think we’re in business.’
Okay, now she was just plain old confused!
‘Then what’s the problem here again?’
The smile faded, his chin dropped, the wine swirling in the glass as he carefully worded his reply in a deep rumbling tone. ‘The problem is I can’t do business the way you did it yesterday. This firm has a reputation to protect and—’
‘You thought I was unprofessional?’
‘No, I found your method—’
‘A little too much like prostitution for your taste?’ Oh, he was walking a very thin line now.
He immediately locked gazes with her, a frown on his forehead. ‘I didn’t say that.’
‘You think I cheapened myself somehow and that might sully the professional image of the great Fitzgerald & Son by association?’
And why that thought hurt so much she had no idea! Who did he think he was?
‘I didn’t say that either.’ He waggled a long finger at her in warning. ‘Don’t put words in my mouth. What I was trying to say, before you started jumping to conclusions, was that this company has always had a certain way of doing things, and your off-the-wall methods would work better for me with a little more warning. I’d prefer not to have to stand there and watch some aged womaniser drooling over your every word. The way he was looking at you, you may as well have been doing the dance of the seven veils for him!’
Merrow pursed her lips together and looked away from him, tapping one foot on the floor while she tried to control her anger.
‘What now?’
She shook her head, thrusting the end of her tongue against the inside of one cheek while she tried to decide why it was she was still standing there.
Because she wanted this job—dammit! She’d barely stopped sketching and collaging since she’d left the hotel. Because he was right in what he’d said the day he’d come looking for her. There wasn’t an interior designer who wouldn’t be turned on by this project!
‘Just say whatever it is you’re thinking and we can get the air cleared before we start working together.’
‘Maybe I don’t want to work with you.’ And she didn’t give a stuff if that came out petulantly.
‘I saw how you were talking about it yesterday—’
‘Yes—’ she glared at him ‘—so you’ve just said!’
He took a deep breath. ‘You were excited by it. Your whole face lit up. And that’s exactly the kind of passion I want from the person working on this.’
‘Just so long as I don’t sell that passion to the client, right?’
‘Just so long as that’s the only passion you try selling to any client of mine.’
Son-of-a—
Hang on a minute. Her jaw dropped in realization. ‘You were jealous?’
He pursed his mouth into a tight line and glared at her in warning as he marched towards the kitchen. And for one ridiculous moment Merrow felt like giggling like a school-girl. He was jealous? Mr Hotness himself, who could probably have any woman he chose on the entire island thanks to his wealth and family, was jealous she’d flirted a teensy ikkle bit with Mickey D to get him on board with her ideas?
If someone had even suggested that to her twenty-four hours ago she’d have answered them with an astounded, ‘Shut up!’
As it was, a tiny part of her felt a real need to do a happy dance in the middle of his living room. Which was just plain silly, because she’d already decided it’d be
a bad idea to mix business and pleasure with Alex Fitzgerald, hadn’t she? Bad Merrow.
She turned on her heel and set her glass on the counter, tilting her chin to look up into his eyes. ‘Why would you be jealous, Alex? It’s not like we’re in any kind of a relationship.’
‘No, we’re not—’ he said the words in a curt, matter-of-fact tone, his expression deadpan ‘—but I’d like to continue to believe that night in Galway was something you didn’t do too often either, if that’s all right with you.’
She nodded, her heart thudding faster in her chest. ‘Ever, as it happens. You were my first one-night stand. Congratulations.’
The gold in his eyes blazed in response. And she could see the old temptation of a hinted smile twitch the corners of his mouth. So she damped her lips with the end of her tongue and watched as he watched the movement. It really was terribly empowering. And it played to her wicked streak no end…
‘But it was an incredible night.’
‘It was.’
Merrow took a breath, her breasts rising and falling with the action, which grazed her suddenly sensitive nipples against the lace of her bra. ‘But we’re not in a relationship and to be honest I have a very full and busy life. I don’t really have time for something serious. I’m only twenty-seven and I’d like to make a success of my career first. I’m greedy that way.’
‘I get that. I’m the same and I’m not that much older than you.’ But the hint of a smile was taking hold, and continuing holding his gaze while the gold blazed even hotter in his eyes was getting tough to do. It was like staring directly into the sun.
She tilted her head to one side in thought, studying where his dark shirt touched the side of his broad neck. ‘So unless we decided to have some kind of hot, steamy affair for the duration of the project, there wouldn’t really be any point in you going all jealous lover on me—’ she looked back into his eyes ‘—would there?’
His eyes narrowed, but the smile remained, even with the hooded gaze. He wasn’t actually going to confess to being jealous, Merrow got that. But he hadn’t actually denied it either. And judging by the heat crackling the air around them, she wasn’t the only one turned on right that second. It was just like last time.
Except this time there weren’t any oysters to blame as aphrodisiacs…
She tilted her head the other way, considering just how completely insane she wanted to be. ‘Okay, then.’
Alex reached for a piece of carrot, popping it into his mouth and chewing while he watched her with cautious eyes as she walked around the counter. He swallowed, folding his arms across his dark shirt as she got closer. ‘Now what are you doing?’
‘Consider it an experiment.’ She wrapped her hand around the back of his neck, stood up on tiptoe and pressed her mouth to his.
CHAPTER FOUR
ALEX froze.
When they were handing out sexy in heaven Merrow had been top of the queue, hadn’t she? She might have skipped the subtlety and shyness queues, but he wasn’t complaining. He’d had enough of the kinds of women who played games.
He let her lead the tempo for a while, just to see how far she would go. But he helped her out some by unfolding his arms so she could press her breasts against the wall of his chest, and he gripped the edge of the counter behind him to steady them. While her soft, hot little mouth moved over his in a teasing whisper of a kiss, her eyes open and focussed on his.
But when she tugged his bottom lip between hers and gently nipped on it with her teeth, he’d had enough. If she was prepared to play with fire…and he’d said there would be consequences…
So he lifted his hands off the counter and snaked his arms around her waist, his fingers splaying as he smoothed down from the small of her back to her backside, where he cupped her and hauled her in tight against the rapidly growing ridge pressing against the zipper of his jeans.
Her luminous eyes widened in surprise, and he smiled against her mouth before angling his head, deepening the kiss, his tongue tracing the gap in her lips so that she opened wider, allowing him access to the recesses of her mouth. When her heavy eyelids dropped, he closed his eyes, his tongue tangling with hers while his fingertips teased the edge of her short skirt higher.
She moaned into his mouth, he felt her nipples pebble against his chest, and the smile inside his chest grew. Oh, yeah, little Miss Merrow O’Connell might run rings round him during the working day, but this was his territory. And so long as she reacted this fast when he touched her, he had the advantage, didn’t he?
His fingertips touched soft, rounded skin. And he groaned low in his chest. Didn’t the woman ever wear underwear that wasn’t there specifically to torture him? He leaned forwards a little, arching her backwards as his forefinger traced under the narrow line of her lace G-string, while he shifted his hips, pushing a knee between hers to nudge her legs a little wider for easier access. But as his searching fingertip got closer to her heated centre, she wrenched her mouth from his and stepped back out of his hold, her eyelids heavy, her lips swollen, her cheeks flushed.
And Alex smiled a slow, lazy, triumphant smile at her. ‘Something wrong?’
Merrow’s eyes narrowed the tiniest amount, before she ran her tongue over her reddened lips and lifted her chin. ‘I think we’ve just established there’s absolutely nothing wrong. I swear, you should wear a danger sign.’
‘You were the one who suggested an affair.’ He was still smiling as he reached for his wineglass.
But as he took a sip her chin rose higher, and he saw the challenge spark in her eyes before she spoke. ‘An affair is all it would be, Alex, ’cos your world and mine?’ She waved a hand between them. ‘A never-the-twain-shall-meet kinda thing. Seriously. I jest you not.’
His glass froze halfway up to his mouth. What exactly did that mean?
But before he could ask, she smiled that mischievous imp of a smile again, the Galway version, that spoke of making mischief on a very adult level. ‘Just so long as you understand that…’
She turned and glanced down the hallway that ran off the kitchen, her hands reaching to her side for the zipper of her dress. ‘Which way?’
Alex’s heart thumped up against his ribs, hard, his mouth suddenly dry. ‘To where?’
He heard the soft rasp of the zip as she tugged it down, his feet carrying him forwards to follow her as she shrugged out of one shoulder, glancing back over her shoulder to inform him, ‘The bedroom, of course. I get the feeling that granite surface might be a bit chilly under me if you set me on the counter.’
Well, if he hadn’t already been turned on—
‘Merrow—’
She turned on her heel and leaned a hand against the wall as she toed one shoe off, her arched brows rising in question. ‘Alex?’
Alex felt his palms itch. If she was kidding she had about ten seconds to tell him she was kidding. After that he wouldn’t be held accountable for his own actions. ‘Just like that? Again?’
She shrugged the naked shoulder as she toed the other shoe off. ‘Well, it’s not like this is going anywhere, is it? You were the one who said it was in the way. So let’s get it out of the way.’
Alex set his glass on the end of the counter, walking towards her as he shoved his hands into his pockets. ‘You don’t have to do this to get the job. You’ll get that on talent.’
She scowled at that, standing tall on her bare feet while she folded her arms across her breasts and tilted her head, which made him smile, because attempting to look angry with him would have worked much better if she hadn’t been half undressed already.
‘I’m gonna let that one slide, ’cos you really don’t know me. This is nothing to do with work. And I am talented enough for the job. You’ll see that when you bother looking at the portfolio. This is about this. I want you. Judging by the present you have for me in your jeans, you want me too. It’s an itch. That’s all. But it’s in the way.’
‘An itch?’
Her eyes darkened as he kept walk
ing towards her, then she unfolded her arms and backed away, her hand lifting to draw the other side of her dress off her shoulder. ‘Sex is sex, Alex.’
He didn’t know why he wanted to know, and, to be honest, was an idiot to want to know when she was handing him what he wanted on a plate, without any commitment, but…‘Someone did a real number on you, didn’t they?’
The flush rose on her cheeks, even as she laughed. ‘There doesn’t have to be anything behind it. Why can’t a woman play a man’s game? So long as you play safe there’s no reason why you shouldn’t reach out for something you want. I’m not in a relationship, not that that stops a man…’
And in that statement he knew what he needed to know. ‘Is that what he did? Did he cheat on you?’
She faltered briefly, then continued walking backwards, distracting him by letting the dress slide down over her breasts, revealing enough white lace and pink bows to make Alex groan aloud.
‘This has nothing to do with anyone else, Alex. This has to do with you and me, just like it did last time.’ She reached behind her back, the movement pushing her breasts up and forwards as she unhooked her bra and shrugged the straps off her shoulder, letting them slide slowly down her arms before it hit the floor.
‘Seeing you reminded me how good we were together. Don’t you remember that? Don’t you remember how it felt?’
Alex swallowed hard, the husky words doing as much damage to his self-control as the sight of her hands lifting to her throat, where she splayed her fingers over her skin before running her palms down over her breasts, over the curve of her flat stomach, pushing the dress down over her hips.
‘I remember everything.’
‘Well, if you remember…’ she shimmied her hips, and the pale green and blue plaid pooled at her feet ‘…how can you not want to get lost like that again?’
Was that what she wanted to do—to get lost for a while? Lost from what—and why with him? What shift in luck had brought this kind of offering to his apartment after so many months of working every hour that God sent? Because she’d been right that first day when she’d offered him tea; he was tense. He’d been tense for months, had felt as if he had the weight of the world on his shoulders and, quite frankly, had days when he could have spent hours in front of the punch bag at his local gym. This seemed like a much better option to him…