If You Can't Stand the Heat... (Harlequin Kiss) (12 page)

‘That might be it.’ Ellie rested her hands on his arm, feeling the veins under his skin. ‘Tell me about yourself. Mother? Father? Siblings?’

‘Like you, I was an only child. I’m not sure why,’ Jack replied.

Ellie half smiled. ‘Tell me what you were like as a kid.’

She felt him stiffen at her question. ‘At what age?’

Strange question. ‘I don’t know...ten?’

Jack’s laugh rumbled through his chest. ‘Hell on wheels. Maybe that’s why my folks didn’t have another kid. They probably despaired in case they’d have another boy.’

Ellie laughed. ‘You couldn’t have been
that
bad.’

‘I was worse. Before I was eight I’d broken a leg, had three lots of stitches and lost most of my teeth.’

Ellie’s mouth fell open. ‘How on earth did you manage to do that?’

‘The broken leg came from ramping with my BMX. The ramp I’d built myself collapsed. The teeth incident was from a fight with Juliet Grafton. I called her ugly—which she was. She was also built like a brick outhouse and her father was a boxing champion. Her mean right hook connected with my mouth. Stitches—where do I start? Falling off bikes, roofs, rocks...’

Ellie raised an eyebrow.

‘But I was cute. That counted for a lot.’

She wanted to tell him he was still cute, but she suspected he already knew that, so instead she just watched night fall over the sea.

SIX

Ellie walked into
the ballroom on Jack’s arm and looked around the packed space, filled with black-suited men and elegant women. His appearance caused a buzz and Ellie felt the tension in Jack’s arm as people turned to watch their progress into the room. To them he was a celebrity, and well respected, and a smattering of applause broke out.

Jack half lifted his hand in acknowledgement. When he spoke, he pitched his voice so that only she could hear him. ‘Those are the most ridiculous shoes, Ellie.’

Ellie grinned at the teasing note in his voice. He’d already told her that he liked her shimmery silver and pink froth of a cocktail dress, and she knew that her moon-high silver sandals made her calves look fantastic. She
felt
fantastic; she was sure it had a lot to do with the approval in Jack’s expressive eyes.

‘And, as I said, that is a sexy dress. Very you. Bright, colourful, playful.’

Ellie looked around and half winced. ‘Most women are wearing basic black.’

‘You’re not a basic type of girl. And colour suits you.’ He touched the hair she’d worked into a bohemian roll, with curls falling down her back. ‘Gorgeous hair...make-me-crazy scent...’

‘So I’ll do?’

Jack took her hand and his words were rueful. ‘Very much so.’

Ellie smiled with pleasure, then lifted her eyebrows as a tall blonde with an equine face stalked up to Jack, took his hand and kissed his cheek. Jack lifted his own eyebrows at her familiarity as she introduced herself as the Chairperson of the Press Club. Ellie forgot her name as soon as she said it.

‘I have people who’d like to meet you,’ she stated in a commanding voice.

‘I’d like to get my date a drink first,’ Jack said, untangling himself from her octopus grip.

‘Ellie?’

Ellie turned at the deep voice and looked up into laughing green eyes in a very good-looking face. ‘Luke? What are
you
doing here?’

‘St Sylve is one of the club’s sponsors,’ he told Ellie, after kissing her on the cheek. He held out his hand to Jack. ‘Luke Savage.’

‘You drink Luke’s wine all the time at home, Jack,’ Ellie told him after they’d been introduced. ‘Where’s Jess, Luke?’

Luke looked around for his fiancée and shrugged. ‘Probably charming someone for business.’

‘Jack, I really
must
take you to meet some people.’

The blonde tugged on Jack’s sleeve and Ellie caught the irritation that flickered in his eyes.

Jack looked at Ellie and then at Luke. ‘Will you be okay?’

Ellie smiled at him. ‘Sure. I’ll hang with Luke and Jess and see you at dinner.’

Jack nodded and turned away.

Ellie looked up at Luke and pulled a face. ‘We’re going to be placed at some awfully boring table, I can tell, with Horse Lady neighing at Jack all night.’

Luke grinned. ‘Well, we’re sitting with Cale and Maddie—’

Ellie squealed with excitement. ‘They’re here too?’

‘Cale
is
a sports presenter and journalist, El.’

‘I
so
want to sit with you guys!’ Ellie fluttered her eyelashes up at him.

Luke winked at her. ‘We’ll just have to see if we can make that happen.’

Ellie felt a feminine arm encircle her waist and turned to look into her friend’s laughing deep brown eyes.

‘Are you flirting with my husband-to-be, Ellie Evans?’

Ellie laughed and kissed Jess’s cheek. ‘’Fraid so.’

‘Can’t blame you. I flirt with him all the time. Now, tell me—why and how are you here with the very yummy Jack Chapman?’

* * *

Luke had somehow organised that they were all at the same table, and Jack felt himself relaxing with Ellie’s charming group of friends. They were warm and down-to-earth and Jack was enjoying himself.

He leaned closer to Ellie and lowered his voice. ‘How do you know all these people?’

Ellie sent him a side-glance out of those fabulous eyes. ‘Maddie and I went to uni together. I met Luke through her, and Cale—he and Cale are old schoolfriends. But I’ve known Jess for years and years—before she and Luke met. Her company does Pari’s advertising.’

‘So, El,’ Luke said as he picked up a bottle of wine from the ice bucket on the table and topped up their glasses with a fruity Sauvignon, ‘what’s this I hear about you having to move your bakery?’

Ellie wiped her hands on a serviette and pulled a face. ‘I have to find new premises in less than six months.’

‘And have you found anything?’ Cale asked.

‘Maybe. There’s an old building close to the bakery that might work. It’s supposed to be on the market, but I need to find an architect—someone who can look at the house and tell me if it’s solid and if I can do the alterations I’m thinking of—before I put in an offer.’

Luke looked at Cale and they both nodded. ‘James.’

‘Another friend from uni?’ Jack asked with a smile on his face.

Luke and Cale laughed, but didn’t disagree with him. Luke told Ellie that he’d send her his contact details and the rest of the table moved onto another subject.

‘Are you seriously considering that building for the bakery?’ Jack asked Ellie, resting his cheek on his fist.

‘Maybe. Possibly.’ Ellie fiddled with her serviette. ‘I’ll speak to James and see what he says. Then I’ll have to run it by my mum.’

‘Understandable, since Pari’s will be paying for it.’ Jack saw something flash across her face and frowned. ‘
You’re
paying for it? How would you...? Sorry—that has nothing to do with me.’

‘How would I pay for it? It’s fine. I don’t mind you asking. Ginger—my grandmother—set up a trust for me when I was little and she’s pretty wealthy. Pari’s would pay me rent. That’s if I actually decide to buy and renovate the building.’

There it was again—that lack of confidence in her eyes. ‘Why do you doubt yourself?’

‘It’s a lot of money, Jack.’ Ellie twisted the serviette through her fingers. ‘What if it’s a disaster? What if I end up disappointing my mother, Merri, my grandmother Pari’s memory...? God, my
customers
?’

‘That’s a lot of disappointing, El. And a lot of what-ifs.’ Jack placed his hand on hers and held them still. ‘You love that building. Yours eyes light up when you talk about it. When are you going to start trusting yourself a little more?’

Ellie bit that sexy bottom lip—the one he wanted so badly to taste again.

‘Merri says that I’m too much of a people-pleaser. That I have this insane need to make the world right for everyone.’

He didn’t think Merri was wrong. ‘You need to start listening to yourself more and to underestimate yourself less.’

Ellie twisted her lips. ‘And not to think that I’m indispensable and the world will stop turning if I say no... I’m a basket case, Jack.’

Jack sent her an easy grin. ‘We’re all basket cases in our own way. You’re just a bit more...vulnerable. Softer than most.’

‘I need to grow a bit more of a spine.’

‘I think you’re pretty much perfect just as you are.’

Jack sighed as the Master of Ceremonies started to talk. He’d much rather talk to Ellie than listen to boring speeches. He heard the MC introducing him and grimaced. His was probably going to be the most boring speech of all. He felt Ellie’s hand grasp his knee and a bolt of sexual attraction fizzed straight through him.

‘You didn’t tell me that you were making a speech!’ she hissed.

He stood up, buttoned his jacket and looked down at her. ‘Yeah, well, for some reason they find me interesting.’

‘Weird. I simply can’t understand why,’ Ellie teased.

Jack swallowed his laughter before moving away from her and heading for the podium, thinking that he could think of a couple of things he’d rather be doing than giving a speech. Top of the list was doing Ellie. In the pool, in the kitchen, in the shower...

Jack reached the podium, looked at the expectant faces and let his eyes drift over to his table. Luke raised his glass at him. Maddie rested her arms on the table and sent him a friendly smile. Ellie, being Ellie, pulled a quick tongue at him and he swallowed a grin.

There wasn’t much wrong with the world if Ellie was in it, making him laugh.

* * *

It had been heaven to be in Jack’s arms, even if it was just for a couple of slow dances around the edge of the dance floor. In her heels she’d been able to tuck her face into his neck, feel his warm breath in her hair, on her temple. There had been nothing demure about their dancing. They’d been up close and personal and neither of them had been able to hide their desire. Her nipples had dug into his chest and her stomach brushed his hard erection. Their breaths mingled, lips a hair’s breadth apart. She was certain that someone would soon notice the smoke and call the fire brigade.

The music had changed now, from slow to fast, and Jack’s broad hand on her lower back steered her back to their empty table. He pulled out a chair for her and looked from her to a hovering waiter.

‘What can I get you to drink? G&T? A cocktail? Or do you feel like sharing a bottle of red wine?’

‘That sounds good.’

Ellie crossed her legs as Jack took the chair next to her and flipped open the wine list he’d been handed. He held it so that Ellie could scan the selection with him.

Ellie tapped the list with her finger. ‘I don’t really care as long as it has alcohol and is wet. Any of Luke’s wines are good. St Sylve’s.’

She sounded nervous, Jack thought. So she should, even if she had only a vague idea of how close she’d come to being ravished on the dance floor.

Jack rubbed his forehead.
Ravished.
Only Ellie could make him think of such an old-fashioned word. Pulling himself together, he ordered the wine, then slipped off his suit jacket before loosening the collar on his white dress shirt and yanking down his tie in an effort to get more air into his lungs. Now, if only he could sort his tented pants out.

‘That’s better.’

Ellie touched her hair and smiled wryly. ‘I wish I could do that to my hair.’

He wished
he
could do that to her hair. He’d spent many hours thinking about that hair brushing his stomach, about wrapping it around his hands as he settled himself over her... Jack shifted in his chair. What was
with
this woman and her ability to short-circuit his brain? He dropped his eyes to her chest, where the fabric of her dress flirted with her cleavage and showed just a hint of a lacy pink bra.

Kill me now
, Jack thought.

Ellie draped a leg over a knee and looked across the room. He could see her rapidly beating pulse at the base of her neck and knew that she was just as hot for him as he was for her. Not that he needed any confirmation. The little brush of her stomach across his body on the dance floor had been a freaking big clue.

Their wine was delivered and their conversation dried up. Jack didn’t care. He just wanted to drink her in, lap her up... He gulped his wine, thoroughly rattled at how sexy he found her. Deep blue eyes, that sensual mouth, the scent of her sweetly sexy perfume. She had such beautiful skin, every inch of which he wanted to explore, taste, caress...

Sitting there, looking at her, he became conscious of something settling inside of him... To hell with being sensible and playing it safe. He knew what he wanted and he was damn well going to ask for it.

He reached over and lightly rested the tips of his fingers on the inside of her wrist, smiling wryly when he felt her pulse skitter. He lifted his hand, pushed a strand of hair that had fallen over her eyes behind her ear.

He leaned over and spoke in her ear. ‘I can’t do this any more. I’ve tried everything I can to resist you but enough is enough. Let’s go home. Let me take you to bed.’

He saw the answer in her eyes and didn’t wait for her nod before taking her hand and leading her—wine, function and friends forgotten—out of the room.

* * *

Jack waited while she locked the front door and then backed her up against it, his body easily covering hers. He’d removed his jacket and she could feel the heat from his body beneath his shirt. His chest flattened her breasts and her breath hitched in response. This was so big, she thought, so overpowering...

His hands were large and competent, stroking her waist and skimming her ribcage in a sensual promise of what was to come. His hands skirted over her bottom and he lifted her up and into him, forcing her to wrap her legs around his waist. His hands held her thighs, steaming hot under the frothy skirt of her favourite dress. One heel dropped to the floor and it took a slight shake of her other foot for her remaining shoe to drop as well. Jack’s mouth finally brushed hers and his tongue dipped into her mouth in a long, slow slide.

Jack walked with her to the stairs and at the first step allowed her to slip down him. He cradled her head in his hands and rested his forehead on hers.