by Maggie Cox
He applied the same passionate approach to his writing. Hopefully, when this current circus of media attention was over, he could return to Hawk’s Lair and pull up the drawbridge—for a little while at least. But, that said, it didn’t stop him continuing to speculate about the gorgeous brunette who’d inadvertently wandered in on him, with all that creamy cleavage so tantalisingly on display and a temper that—did she but know it—made her even more provocative than she was already.
His creative mind was already speculating on how that pent-up passion might be expressed in bed. Even more, it made him fantasise about helping her out of that sexy little dress later on tonight if even so much as half a chance came his way…
They stopped outside her bedroom door, with Maya twisting her arm behind her back to clutch anxiously at the doorknob as she desperately sought an escape route out of her predicament. Her boss swayed in front of her, alcoholic fumes making her grimace. Jonathan’s drinking was legendary, but he had surpassed his own reputation tonight. In fact, Maya was amazed that he was still standing, never mind trying to coerce her into bed. His chameleon-like hazel eyes—a little cloudy now from the effects of alcohol—dropped lasciviously to her cleavage. He put a hand out to the side of her, to help balance himself against the wall.
Ignoring her seriously startled expression as he loomed over her, he capitalised on the opportunity to move his body even closer, so that along with the fumes of alcohol her senses were assaulted by the overpowering smell of his French cologne.
‘I thought the dinner went really well tonight, didn’t you? But I’m really tired now, and I—’ Maya moved suddenly and darted to the side of him, just in time to deflect an oncoming caress, her heart racing so fast she was almost dizzy.
Frustrated and cross, Jonathan swore. ‘Screw the dinner! All I want to do right now is take you to bed. Think about it, darling. A girl like you deserves so much more than an admin assistant’s pay to get by on. Be nice to me and I’ll make it more than worth your while…You get my drift, don’t you, sweetie?’
He raised a perfectly groomed silver eyebrow to drive home his clumsily executed innuendo, reminding Maya so much of a dastardly rogue in one of those old silent movies that she almost laughed out loud. All that was missing was the famous handlebar moustache and the scene would be complete.
‘Yes, Jonathan. I do get your drift. But at the end of the day you’re my boss, and I make it a rule never to complicate professional relationships by allowing them to become personal.’ She sucked in a deep breath, trying not to let her voice falter. ‘I’m one of your employees…albeit a temporary one. That said, I’m going to decline your invitation and say goodnight. In the cold light of day I’m sure you’ll be glad I did.’
‘What if I offered you a permanent position? Would that help you see things differently?’
‘No.’ Maya had no hesitation in making that clear. ‘I’m afraid it wouldn’t.’
‘What a shame,’ Jonathan sneered. ‘And I thought you were such a bright girl too. Still…you’re not getting off that easily.’
‘What do you mean?’ Her green eyes flashed her alarm.
‘You’re just playing hard to get, aren’t you?’
Suddenly there was an expression on his face that put every impulse in Maya’s body on red alert. This is going to be trickier than I thought… She panicked. Letting go of the doorknob, she raked her long hair away from her face, letting her hand splay protectively across her chest.
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m only here tonight because my job required it.’
‘Don’t tell me you’re that naïve?’ Jonathan breathed, yanking her towards him. ‘Common or garden assistants don’t get invited to my house just to take dictation! I’ve been flirting with you for weeks now—don’t pretend you didn’t know what it was leading to.’
‘I’m here because Caroline was called away at the last minute. She told me you needed someone to stand in for her,’ Maya protested, even as Jonathan shook his head.
‘Caroline stayed away because I ordered her to stay away!’ he growled. ‘Seeing as you turned me down every time I asked you out, it was the only way I could think of to get you alone. Has the penny finally dropped, Miss Hayward?’
She twisted her face away as his mouth descended, pushing hard against his chest with both hands, in a split second seeing all her effort and hard work wasted as she denied Jonathan Faraday the prize he craved, knowing she would get nothing for her pains but her marching orders.
Oh, well. She’d just have to tell the agency to find her something else. It would be a cold day in hell before she succumbed to sexual coercion from a man just to keep her job—that was for sure!
‘Come on, Maya—giving me the runaround is one thing, but I’ve been working myself up to fever-pitch knowing you were coming to my house this weekend. Just one little kiss, eh?’
He might have been drunk, but Jonathan was physically no push-over. He easily hijacked her arms to pin her against the wall, breathing heavily as he pressed his body hard against hers, seeing the sudden fear darkening her lovely green eyes and no doubt getting off on the thought of having his way.
That was until an authoritative male voice a few feet away said coolly, ‘I must say I’m surprised, Jonathan. For all your reputation as a ladies’ man I never thought you’d descend to physically forcing your attentions on a woman.’
‘What?’ More than a little discomfited, Jonathan abruptly released Maya to negotiate an unsteady step backwards. Wiping his hand across his mouth, he straightened, then looked Blaise Walker defiantly in the eye.
‘Don’t be daft, man! She’s been making eyes at me all evening. She was practically—’
‘Gagging for it?’ Blaise finished smoothly.
Maya wished the ground would open up and swallow her. Humiliation made her burn with rage at the injustice of it all. Did Jonathan’s famous client really believe that? She could hardly bring herself to look at Blaise Walker as she pushed back her hair, then twisted her hands anxiously together in the sensuous velvet folds of her frock.
‘From where I was standing, it looked like the lady was very definitely protesting at your attentions. Why don’t we just check with her to verify the matter?’
Maya found herself in the worst dilemma. If she made Jonathan look like a would-be rapist then what would that do for his client relationship with Blaise Walker? On the other hand, she had her own reputation to consider, and she was damned if she was going to trash it all in the name of public relations…She’d more or less just kissed goodbye to her job anyway.
‘As I told you before, I work for Mr Faraday,’ she said evenly. ‘If he mistakenly got the impression I was considering anything else by agreeing to come here this weekend then I’m sorry—but he’s most definitely wrong.’
Colouring in spite of her determination to stay strong, Maya flicked a glance at the handsome playwright, then tore it away again before his darkly brooding stare could make her reveal even more than she’d intended. Like the fact that she’d been genuinely frightened by Jonathan’s unwanted attentions. Blaise was a tall man, whose breadth of shoulder alone seemed to dominate the long, high-ceilinged corridor, and in his black tuxedo and crisp white shirt his impressive physique and confident stance instantly commanded the kind of jaw-dropping attention that was hardly commonplace in her day-to-day reality. No wonder he’d been such a successful screen actor. It wasn’t just his looks that would hook the audience in either. The man had genuine presence.
‘Well. You have your answer, my friend.’
At Blaise’s mocking stare, Jonathan had the grace to look momentarily repentant. Maya saw the sudden flush of colour beneath his artificial tan.
‘Too much to drink, I expect,’ he mumbled, shrugging his shoulders. Then, recovering quickly, he issued Maya with a belligerent glance that spoke volumes. ‘You know what it’s like—women are notorious for saying one thing when they mean another. I’m sorry you didn’t feel you c
ould join us at dinner, Blaise, but perhaps we can talk about the campaign in the morning?’
‘I’m an early riser,’ the other man responded coolly, ‘and I like to go for a run before breakfast. Seven-thirty okay with you?’
Jonathan swayed a little, as if the mere thought of getting up so early on a Sunday morning after wining and dining the night away was like asking him to swim the English Channel when he could barely swim a stroke. He touched a slightly unsteady hand to his immaculate silver hair.
‘Seven-thirty’s fine. I’ll see you then.’ Without so much as a backward glance at Maya, he made his way carefully along to the opposite end of the corridor, pushed open a door right at the end and slammed it shut behind him, the sound resonating off the walls with the same jolting impact as cannon-fire…
Allowing herself the momentary luxury of leaning against the wall in support of her quaking limbs, Maya knew her sigh was hugely relieved. She’d had a lucky escape for sure. There was only one flaw. She was dependent on Jonathan for giving her a lift home tomorrow, because he’d insisted she travel with him. She couldn’t leave now even if she wanted to. Unless, of course, she was willing to blow the last of her precious month’s salary on an expensive cab ride to the nearest train station—and it was so late that she doubted any trains would still be running.
‘Are you all right?’
Her eyes widened a little at the unexpected concern in Blaise Walker’s voice, and the warm, gravelly resonance caused an involuntarily tingle in her body that reached all the way down to her toes.
‘I’m fine…thanks.’
‘Tell me straight—did he completely misread the situation?’
‘There wasn’t a situation to begin with! Except in his own twisted little mind, that is…It certainly wasn’t in mine’
Maya could have died, knowing Blaise Walker’s disturbing concentrated gaze was noting everything from the plunging cleavage of her tight-fitting velvet dress to the giveaway quiver of her fulsome lower lip. Flushing angrily, she tucked a glossy strand of black hair behind her ear and jutted her chin, green eyes flashing indignant emerald fire.
‘He admitted to me that he got me here under false pretences. Is it likely, under the circumstances, that I would encourage him? Look, Mr Walker…I’m just a temp who was hired to work for his PR company. I work hard to earn my pay, and at the end of the day I go home. I shouldn’t have to submit to the unwanted attentions of my boss for the privilege, should I?’
Considering the question, Blaise let his avid gaze fall on the agitated rise and fall of her chest. Her lush creamy breasts looked fit to burst from her gown at any moment, and God help him but all the blood in his body marched unerringly south.
‘Clearly you shouldn’t have to submit to anything of the kind, Miss Hayward. By the way—you do have a first name, I presume?’
‘Maya.’
She hesitated at the door of her bedroom, exhaling a long, resigned breath as she twisted the brass doorknob and pushed it open.
‘I’m sorry you had to witness that distasteful little scene. I really hope you won’t let it prejudice you against using Mr Faraday’s company to promote you. He has some good people working for him—I shouldn’t like what happened to backfire negatively on them.’
‘Your concern is admirable in the light of his quite appalling behaviour. But I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what the outcome will be, won’t we?’
After assessing her with a maddeningly enigmatic glance, Blaise turned and started to walk back down the corridor. When he’d travelled just a couple of feet away he looked back, and with a confident little smile said, ‘I don’t think you’ll have anything more to fear from your troublesome boss tonight. With the amount of alcohol he’s consumed no doubt he’ll enjoy the sleep of the dead. One word of caution, though—I’d really advise against wearing that dress at any future function, unless you’re prepared to handle the very particular kind of attention it generates…’ Lacking the courage just then to even meet his eyes, Maya mumbled a barely audible goodnight, hurried inside her room and bolted the door firmly behind her—as hurriedly as if she’d just been chased up the corridor by a herd of wild buffalo…
CHAPTER TWO
AWAKE since dawn, Maya chose not to linger in bed. Instead she got up, took a brief hot shower, then quickly dressed. Leaving her bags momentarily in the silent corridor, where behind closed doors Jonathan and his guests were still sleeping off the excesses of the night before, she took the risk of slipping a note under her boss’s door. A note that clearly outlined the reasons why she couldn’t stay and act as his assistant for the rest of the weekend and concluded with telling him that as soon as they returned to the office he could expect her resignation. Then, with her heart nervously tripping, Maya carried her bags downstairs.
If truth be known she couldn’t wait to get away from this house—away from her licentious boss and the cloud of deceit that had brought her there—away from his shallow moneyed friends who, when she’d been trying to make conversation, had looked right through her but had not really ‘seen’ her at all. It gave her an uncomfortable sense of déjà vu, being around people like that. It was too reminiscent of her childhood and those interminable painful gatherings of her father’s, with his so-called ‘friends’—acquaintances who had petted Maya like a puppy when it suited them and told her to get lost when it hadn’t, because she was cramping their style when they were drinking, drug-taking or trying to seduce someone.
Right now all she wanted was to return to her own little place, to what was comforting and familiar. She would have said to what was safe too, but since Maya had almost never experienced such a condition she bit her lip on the thought and shelved it away in some clandestine corner of her mind, where she would endeavour to forget about it for a while.
‘So…I’m not the only early riser around here, I see.’
Intent on leafing through the Yellow Pages she’d found in the hallway for a cab number, Maya glanced round, startled at the appearance of the owner of that low, provocative male voice. Lord, have mercy!
Dressed from head to toe in enigmatic black, Blaise Walker resembled a dangerous secret fantasy come to blood-pounding, heart-racing life, with his dark gold hair swept sleekly back from his strong sculpted face and his sizzling bold glance that now, in the light of day, she saw was a magnetic Mediterranean blue. She couldn’t attest to breathing at all as she stared back at him, but for several dizzying seconds the same roaring exhilaration pounded through her bloodstream that she imagined a Formula One driver must experience when he’d successfully negotiated a treacherous bend at devastating speed…
‘Good morning. I’m always up early, I’m afraid…I’m not one of those people who can lie in bed ‘til late. Besides…’ sensing heat suffuse her, Maya defied any woman with a libido to say the word ‘bed’ in front of a gorgeous male specimen like Blaise Walker and not be consumed with heat’…just as soon as I can get a cab I’m making my way home.’
‘So you’ve decided not to stay?’
‘To be honest, I don’t think that would be a very good idea—and I think my boss would probably agree. I don’t doubt he can’t wait to be rid of me after last night.’
‘You mean because you didn’t play along with his drunken and rather crass attempt at seduction?’
Casually sliding a hand into one of his trouser pockets, Blaise moved with compelling masculine grace towards Maya. A tantalising smile played round his well-cut lips that might have been mockery, curiosity, or perhaps even sympathy—who knew? That aside, his blunt description brought back afresh the sickening fear that had shuddered through her when Jonathan had been leering down into her cleavage and pinning her up against the wall.
‘You call that seduction? It was horrible! Just horrible! He had no right to—’ Her face flaming with embarrassment and a silent deepening fury at her boss’s totally reprehensible and rough treatment of her, Maya raked a shaky hand through her newly washed hair. ‘He’ll be do
ubly embarrassed that you saw it happen. I expect he’ll also be furious that I rejected him. I’d rather not stay here and find out his reaction, to tell you the truth.’
Moving her still trembling fingers down the appropriate thin page of the phone book, she located a number, then glanced back at the six-feet-something of powerfully arresting, hard-muscled male standing less than a foot away from her. Every cell in her body seemed to be drowning in the most compelling, exquisitely painful awareness of him, and she didn’t feel a bit prepared to deal with the fact.
Feeling as if his sharp gaze saw every self-conscious move she made, she turned to lay the book back down on the polished chiffonier.
‘I’d better phone for a cab. Excuse me…’
‘Where do you need a lift to?’
‘The nearest station.’
‘To catch a train to where? London?’
‘Yes…Camden.’
‘Don’t bother phoning a cab. I’ll take you.’
‘But the nearest station is fifteen miles away! What about Jonathan?’
‘What about him?’
‘Don’t you and he have a meeting this morning?’
The blue eyes that reminded Maya of perfectly still twin oceans that could no doubt seethe and turn stormy along with the best of deceptively calm seas stared back at her, as if the agreed meeting was of very little account indeed. Knowing from Jonathan’s assistant Caroline what mercenary methods her boss regularly employed in order for his agency to represent the ‘hot’ names of the moment when up against the competition, Maya couldn’t help but wonder what her boss had done to pull off this particular coup. In the world of theatre Blaise Walker’s name was definitely hotter than hot. She knew that was true because she regularly scanned the Entertainment and Arts pages of the papers, to see what was on in the West End, and she had read the fulsome and glowing accolades his work commanded as well as seeing the ‘Sold Out’ notices on the billboards.