‘Jack!’ she snapped frustratedly. ‘The reason I’m here!’ she reminded him.
‘What about it?’
Mattie sighed her impatience with what she was sure was his deliberate obtuseness. ‘How on earth is the two of us having dinner alone together on a river boat supposed to politely show this woman Sharon that you aren’t interested in her?’ she reasoned.
‘I would have thought that was obvious,’ Jack returned. ‘The fact that we are having dinner alone together, on a river boat or anywhere else, must surely prove that I would rather be with you than with my family.’
Mattie couldn’t deny that he had a point there. Although she was still far from convinced. Mainly, she knew, because she would rather have been somewhere else than alone with Jack, on a river boat or anywhere else!
‘You didn’t have to go to all this expense to do that; we could have just ordered room service or something,’ she muttered awkwardly as their first course was delivered, a delicious pâté de foie gras.
Besides, if they had stayed at the hotel, Mattie knew she could have retreated to her bedroom, and Jack to his! Sitting in close proximity with him like this, his arm resting along the back of her chair, was doing absolutely nothing for her already disturbed senses!
‘Don’t be silly, Mattie,’ Jack dismissed easily, straightening in his chair so that they could begin their meal. ‘I didn’t bring you to Paris to keep us both shut up in a hotel room.’
Mattie was beginning to wonder exactly what he had brought her to Paris for…
‘Not unless it was in your bedroom, of course,’ he turned to murmur huskily in her ear, his breath warm against her already sensitized flesh. ‘After all, you do have the king-size bed,’ he added throatily as Mattie turned wide eyes on him.
She turned sharply away, staring down at her plate of pâté, sure she would never be able to eat any of it; something seemed to have become lodged in her throat. Her heart, probably!
‘Tell me, Mattie,’ Jack continued conversationally beside her, calmly smoothing pâté onto a piece of warm toast. ‘Just when did you decide there was a possibility I might try to have my wicked way with you while we’re in Paris?’
She gasped, her eyes once again wide as she turned to look at him, incredulous. ‘I—’ She hesitated, chewing briefly on her bottom lip. ‘I didn’t—’
‘Yes. You did.’ Jack turned to smile at her. ‘How about I make you a promise, Mattie?’
She swallowed hard before speaking. ‘What sort of promise?’
He shrugged broad shoulders. ‘I promise not to try to seduce you if you promise not to try to seduce me.’
Mattie was momentarily lost for words. ‘I—I—I have no intention of trying to seduce you!’ she finally managed indignantly.
‘That’s okay, then,’ he responded, turning his attention back to his pâté.
While Mattie continued to stare at him. Really, the man was incredible, incorrigible! As if she would ever—as if she would ever what? Try to seduce him? Not intentionally, she acknowledged slowly. How did you seduce someone accidentally, Mattie? she instantly chided herself. Okay, she didn’t intend seducing Jack Beauchamp in any way whatsoever!
Unless…
Unless what?
Unless she couldn’t help herself!
She freely admitted that all of this was getting to her. The luxury of the hotel. The beauty of Paris. This romantic setting. Jack! Mainly Jack, she admitted with a sigh. He was just so—so—
‘But if you do feel the urge, don’t feel you have to hold it back, hmm?’ he advised her.
Infuriating! Mattie concluded, shooting him an impatient glance, only to find him looking back at her with laughing brown eyes.
She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction, she decided irritably. Even if she ached for him to kiss her, she would fight against the feeling. Even if—? She already ached for him to kiss her. And she was fighting against the feeling.
For all the good it was doing her!
Oh, how she wished she had never agreed to come here with Jack, that she were safely back at home in England, with her mother for company, and her work to keep her busy. She didn’t—
She looked sharply at Jack as she realized he was chuckling softly. ‘What’s so funny?’ she prompted suspiciously.
He sobered slightly. ‘You are,’ he answered. ‘Despite what you obviously think, my love, I really don’t have designs upon your gorgeous body.’
Mattie might have felt more convinced of that if he hadn’t said, ‘my love’. Not that she thought she was his love, it was just an endearment she could have done without.
Gorgeous body… She suddenly realized what else he had said. Did Jack really think she had a gorgeous body? Oh, help!
And she certainly needed all the help she could get as the meal, and the river cruise, progressed. All around them were other couples visibly deeply in love, completely wrapped up in each other as the romance of the evening cast its spell.
As it was casting its spell over Mattie…
How could it not, when, for all the notice anyone else on board took of them, they might just as well have been alone, Jack’s arm resting along the back of her seat when they weren’t eating, often leaning close to her as he moved forward during the leisurely journey to point out a particular landmark?
By the time they left the boat it was almost midnight. The air was filled with the perfume of flowers and food. Mattie could only describe it as a seduction of the senses.
Jack hadn’t needed to try to seduce her; she was fast losing the will to do anything but fall into his arms!
‘I ordered the taxi to come back for us.’ Jack pointed to the waiting car. ‘But I think it might be nicer to walk back; what do you think?’
She thought that the sooner she put a stop to this evening, the better—safer!—it would be all round!
‘That sounds lovely,’ she heard herself reply.
She was unaccustomed to champagne, she decided; it had obviously addled her brain as well as her senses. She—
‘I was hoping you would say that.’ Jack grinned at her in the moonlight. ‘I’ll just tell the taxi driver about the change of plans. Don’t go away,’ he added huskily, squeezing her arm lightly before strolling over to the taxi.
Where could she go? Back to the hotel? What was the point of that when she was sharing a suite with Jack? Not back to the hotel, then? What was the point of that, either? She would have to go back there some time, if only to collect her things. To the airport? Dressed like this, her money, credit cards and—more importantly—her passport, still in her hotel room, she wasn’t going to get very far.
‘Sorry to keep you waiting,’ Jack apologized as he rejoined her on the quayside, the warmth of his smile in those dark brown eyes.
As Mattie looked at him she knew she had been waiting for this man all her life!
The knowledge hit her with the force of a sledgehammer. Taking her breath away. Leaving her weak at the knees. The colour flooding and then as quickly fading from her cheeks.
‘Hey, are you okay?’ Jack asked, reaching out to clasp her arms as he looked down at her quizzically.
Mattie wasn’t sure she would ever be okay again. This had to be the most irresponsible, the most stupid thing she had ever done in her life. Jack Beauchamp. Of all men!
‘Mattie…?’ he pressed concernedly at her lack of reply.
She swallowed hard, giving a slight shake of her head. The last thing she wanted—needed!—was for Jack to even guess how she felt. That would be just too humiliating!
‘Of course I’m okay,’ she finally answered, determined to put an end to this. ‘And, despite what you may have said earlier, I’m curious as to what usually happens now.’
‘Sorry?’ He frowned his confusion.
‘Oh, come on, Jack.’ She forced herself to laugh derisively. ‘It’s pretty obvious you’ve done all this before, so what happens next?’
His hands fell away from her arms, his gaze watchful
now. ‘I’m not sure I understand what you mean.’
‘Seduction, Jack,’ she returned scathingly. ‘We’ve had the romantic dinner for two.’ She indicated the boat behind them. ‘Paris has obviously worked its charm. We’re about to take a romantic stroll in the moonlight; what comes next?’
His gaze narrowed. ‘You’re under the impression that I make a habit of bringing women to Paris and wining and dining them into submission?’
Mattie deliberately ignored the warning in his tone and expression; she had to put distance between them. For her own sake!
‘It does seem rather an expensive method of seduction,’ she acknowledged mischievously. ‘But one hundred-per-cent foolproof, I would have thought.’ She quirked mocking brows as she smiled at him knowingly.
There was no answering warmth in those dark brown eyes, his mouth a thin, uncompromising line. ‘What comes next, Mattie,’ he rasped abruptly, ‘is we walk back to the hotel, say goodnight, and then go to our respective bedrooms!’
‘Jack, you aren’t annoyed with me for seeing through all this, are you?’ she teased. ‘After all, the only reason I’m here at all is because I messed up your relationships with four other women, one of whom was originally meant to accompany you this weekend,’ she reminded him. And she had better keep remembering that, herself!
‘After the promise I made you earlier, is that really what you think has been happening this evening?’ he responded hardly.
She nodded. ‘Not that I don’t appreciate all this.’ She fleetingly indicated their romantic surroundings. ‘But, honestly, it’s completely wasted on me,’ she added with a lightness she was far from feeling.
‘Obviously,’ he bit out tersely.
‘You are annoyed that I wasn’t taken in by all this!’
‘Not at all,’ Jack drawled, visibly relaxing. ‘But you can’t blame a man for trying!’
Possibly not, Mattie inwardly conceded. It was the fact that he had succeeded that bothered her!
‘Shall we go?’ Jack held out his arm for her to take.
Mattie hesitated only slightly before slipping her hand into the crook of his arm, just touching him was enough to make her tremble all over again. But not to take his arm would give the impression she wasn’t as controlled as she appeared. And the last thing she wanted was for Jack to guess that his roundabout method of seduction had succeeded!
None of this evening had been wasted on her, she acknowledged miserably as they walked briskly back to their hotel; in fact, it had been all too successful, but probably not in a way that Jack could even begin to guess.
She was in love with the man. She loved the way he looked, the way he talked, his sense of humour, his closeness to his family, even his affection for his dog! In fact, the only thing she didn’t love about him was the fact that he obviously enjoyed the company of women so much that he had had four girlfriends at the same time.
That ‘only thing’ again…!
As far as Mattie was concerned, it had to be the most important thing. It wasn’t just Richard’s subterfuge the previous year that made her feel this way. She also had the example of her parents’ short but happy marriage, her mother’s devotion for the last twenty years to the memory of her dead husband; anything but a one-to-one relationship was completely out of the question for Mattie. Something she already knew, from Jack’s past behaviour, she would never be able to have with him.
Which meant she couldn’t have any sort of relationship with him at all.
Devastating, but true.
Even more devastating when she reviewed the evidence of other couples strolling along hand in hand beside the river and near the Eiffel Tower, the structure all lit up now, its golden glow filling the night sky.
But neither she nor Jack had spoken as they walked back to the hotel, a definite distance between them now, despite Mattie’s hand still resting in the crook of his arm.
By the time they reached the hotel Mattie felt completely miserable.
What was wrong with her, for goodness’ sake? She had decided that she had to end the intimacy that had developed between Jack and herself throughout the evening, had known that for her own peace of mind she had to do that. Now that she had done it, why was she so unhappy?
Because she wanted to throw caution to the wind, wanted to give herself up to the moment, to lose herself in Jack’s arms, not to think too deeply, especially about tomorrow.
She turned to him as they travelled up in the lift together. ‘Jack—’
‘Mattie—Sorry.’ He grimaced as they both began talking at once. ‘Ladies first,’ he invited lightly.
The lift had come to a halt, the two of them stepping out into the carpeted corridor.
Mattie looked up to meet his searching gaze. ‘I just—I—’
‘Mattie, if I don’t soon kiss you…!’ Jack groaned before his head lowered and his mouth took warm possession of hers.
All her earlier objections, all caution, deserted her as she responded to that kiss, her arms up about Jack’s shoulders as she clung to him, knowing this was where she had wanted to be all evening.
Their bodies moulded perfectly together as that searching kiss continued, Mattie’s breasts aching with desire, all of her body feeling as if it were on fire with—
‘Jack! Oh, Jack, thank goodness you’re back!’
Mattie pulled sharply out of Jack’s arms at the first sound of that female voice. She hadn’t been aware earlier of anyone else in the carpeted corridor that led to their suite, but as she saw a figure now running down the corridor towards Jack she realized the other woman must have been standing in the doorway of their suite all along. Waiting for Jack.
Mattie took in the other woman’s appearance at a glance. She was beautiful: tall, with flowing blonde hair, her features exquisitely lovely, with a figure to match.
And Mattie could only stand by and watch as, a sob catching in the woman’s throat, she launched herself into Jack’s arms.
‘Tina!’ Jack recognized instantly. ‘What is it?’ he prompted worriedly. ‘What’s wrong?’
Tina!
Mattie had no idea what the other woman was doing here, but she had no difficulty in recognizing Tina as one of the names that had accompanied those four bouquets she had delivered—wrongly!—on Saturday!
Which meant that Tina was probably the woman who should have been here with Jack this weekend…
‘It’s Jim,’ the woman looked up to choke emotionally, her beautiful face streaked with tears. ‘I—I’ve left him!’
‘You’ve done what?’ Jack rasped disbelievingly, holding the woman at arms’ length now.
Tina’s head went back defensively. ‘I’ve left Jim,’ she repeated determinedly.
The married woman who should have been here with Jack this weekend, Mattie realized heavily.
Jack shook his head dazedly. ‘You can’t have done.’ He shook his head.
‘But I have,’ the woman said firmly, quickly gaining control, the tears held firmly in check now, too.
Mattie had the distinct feeling that she shouldn’t be here. In fact, it was much more than a feeling—she didn’t want to be here! ‘Jack.’ She reached out and touched his arm, the fazed look on his face as he turned to look at her telling her that, for the moment, despite their earlier closeness, he had forgotten she was still there. ‘I think it would be better if I left the two of you alone to talk,’ Mattie told him stiltedly.
‘I—Yes.’ He still looked totally stunned. ‘Perhaps that would be best. I—’ He shook his head, clearly totally disoriented by the other woman’s arrival. ‘I need time to sort out this situation,’ he added apologetically.
Mattie didn’t need to be told twice, holding back her own tears as she walked quickly away from the other couple, relieved when she reached the sanctity of her own bedroom and closed the door behind her.
She threw herself down on the bed, pulling the pillow over her head so that she shouldn’t hear Jack and the beautiful Tina when—if—they
came into the suite.
This was awful. So much more awful than anything else that had ever happened to her.
It was pretty obvious that Tina was the woman who should have accompanied Jack to Paris, before those plans had fallen through—with or without Mattie’s deliberate mistake over the flowers…? It didn’t really matter; Tina was here now. Not only was she here, she seemed to have walked out on her husband as well.
Which left Mattie precisely where?
CHAPTER SEVEN
‘MATTIE? Mattie! Are you awake?’ A second knock on her bedroom door accompanied this last question.
Of course she was awake. Awake and miserable. And she didn’t think letting Jack into her bedroom at this late hour—a quick glance at the glowing digital bedside clock showed her it was two-thirty in the morning!—was going to do anything to alleviate that misery. Thank goodness she had thought to lock the connecting door to her bedroom after getting ready for bed!
‘Mattie?’ he called again urgently. ‘I really do need to talk to you.’
She would just bet he did! Well, it could wait until later when all he intended doing was explaining to her that, now Tina was here after all, she might as well return to England!
‘Mattie…?’ he urged frustratedly.
Go away, she pleaded under her breath. Just go away and leave me alone.
Maybe later she would be better able to deal with this. Although she wouldn’t count on it!
Not that it was exactly Jack’s fault that Tina had turned up in Paris after all, but that didn’t make Mattie feel any better. Or any more kindly towards Jack. If his life hadn’t been such a complicated mess in the first place then none of this would have happened.
She wouldn’t have met and fallen in love with him, either!
What an idiot, she groaned self-derisively.
The situation was made all the worse, as far as Mattie was concerned, because of that kiss the two of them had shared before they’d been so rudely interrupted! In fact, if Tina hadn’t announced her presence in that dramatic way, Mattie knew she would have told Jack she had changed her mind about the whole seduction.
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