Kitabı oku: «The Prince Brothers: Satisfaction Guaranteed!: Prince's Passion / Prince's Pleasure / Prince's Love-Child», sayfa 3

CHAPTER THREE

WHAT was she doing?

Whatever it was, Jinx knew she couldn’t stop it. Not yet. Oh, please, not yet!

Nik was kissing her as if he wanted to make her a part of him, to devour her, to take her completely inside him. Or for him to be completely inside her. His thighs were moving restlessly against hers, rubbing, tormenting, frustrating, until Jinx wanted nothing more than to throw off all their clothes and be taken by him right now, the two of them lost in the heat of the sexual arousal that drew them nearer and nearer to a climax that was completely beyond their control.

‘Let’s go to a hotel!’ Nik managed to take his lips from hers long enough to groan achingly, long hands framing her face as he looked down at her with glittering silver eyes. ‘I don’t know what you’re doing to me, Jinx Nixon, but if I don’t make love to you soon then I’m going to self-combust!’

She knew it, could feel the force of his need. A need she easily matched.

‘Feel it, Jinx.’ Nik’s thighs moved erotically against her, hard, pulsing with desire.

A desire that made her own thighs moist, burning, aching, throbbing with a need that she knew would explode if Nik’s flesh should so much as touch hers.

But she couldn’t just book into a hotel with a man—especially not this man! And while her body might think that it recognized and knew his, she knew she had every reason to distrust him. More reasons than he realized.

‘No!’ Nik protested as he seemed to feel her moving emotionally away from him, his arms tightening about her as he tried to hold onto the moment. ‘Jinx, I know you want me too!’ he groaned.

Oh, yes, she wanted him. But she would never give in to that want—she had too much to lose if she ever did.

She straightened determinedly away from him. ‘And do you always get what you want, Nik?’ She sighed.

‘Almost always,’ he confirmed, his arms falling back to his sides.

‘Then a little self-denial could be good for you.’

‘It isn’t self-denial, it’s Jinx-denial,’ he corrected huskily. ‘And men have been known to go insane trying to draw back from the brink you just took me to!’ His eyes glittered with the intensity of his feelings.

‘Women too, or so I’m told,’ she came back dryly, some of her own normal reserve returning now that she was no longer held in his arms. Although the desire he had aroused hadn’t abated in the slightest…

‘Then why—’

‘Because it would be a mistake!’ she cried frustratedly. ‘Can’t you understand?’ she continued as he looked at her blankly. ‘You are positively the last man on earth I ever want to become involved with!’

He became very still, his expression guarded now, a shutter coming down over grey eyes, his mouth a grim line. ‘Because I want to make a movie of No Ordinary Boy?’

‘Because you want to film No Ordinary Boy,’ she agreed flatly.

‘Damn it, woman—’

‘Nik, swearing at me isn’t going to help this situation one little bit—’

‘Maybe not,’ he admitted grimly. ‘But it makes me feel a hell of a lot better!’

She gave him a bleak smile. ‘I’m sure it does,’ she conceded. ‘But it isn’t going to change a thing. Because I’m not stupid enough to go to a hotel or anywhere else with you. Neither do I have any intention of taking you home with me—’

‘You really are the most stubborn—’

‘And if you attempt to follow me home,’ Jinx continued as if he hadn’t spoken, ‘then I shall contact the police and have you arrested for stalking me.’

‘Wouldn’t that rather null and void this phobia you have about your father’s privacy?’ he mocked. ‘I’m quite well known, Jinx; there is no way having me arrested wouldn’t appear in some tabloid newspaper or other.’

Nik Prince’s much-photographed face and highly recognizable profile were aspects of this situation that she was well aware of. They were yet more reasons she intended avoiding him at all costs.

‘That’s your problem, not mine,’ she dismissed with much more confidence than she actually felt. ‘My priority is to keep any publicity from even touching my father. It’s the reason a pseudonym was used, for heaven’s sake!’ Her eyes flashed warningly.

Nik’s frown deepened. ‘What exactly is wrong with your father?’

Jinx turned away. ‘Just stay away from us, Nik.’

‘And if I can’t do that?’ he challenged.

She shrugged. ‘Watch this space.’

‘Damn it, he wrote the book; surely it must have occurred to him, to both of you, that it might be a bestseller—’

‘Of course it didn’t occur to us!’ Jinx protested heatedly, the colour back in her cheeks now. ‘Writing a book is a very personal thing.’ She shook her head. ‘Who could possibly have imagined that No Ordinary Boy would be as popular as it was?’

‘As it still is.’

‘Yes,’ she conceded quietly.

‘Aren’t you being just a little selfish, Jinx?’ he pursued relentlessly. ‘You’ve made your own feelings about my filming No Ordinary Boy more than clear, but until I’ve actually spoken to him I have no way of knowing that’s your father’s opinion too…’

Jinx looked up at him, tears glittering in her deep blue eyes.

‘Why don’t you just leave us alone?’ she choked.

‘Because I can’t do that.’

One of the tears spilled over onto her cheek and she immediately brushed it away. ‘How I wish none of this had ever happened!’

‘Oh, come on, Jinx,’ he scorned. ‘All that money your father is earning has to have its advantages for you too. That dress you’re wearing, the diamond earrings—’

‘That’s enough!’ she exclaimed.

‘Quite enough,’ he agreed.

‘I bought these things myself,’ she told him angrily. ‘With my own money. Earned by my own endeavours.’

‘If you say so.’

‘I do,’ she snapped.

‘Fine,’ he replied.

Jinx looked up at him searchingly, knowing by the determined glitter in his eyes that he wasn’t the sort of man to back off just because she asked him to. Considering the lengths she knew he must have gone to in order to meet her this evening, she shouldn’t be surprised by that.

And she wasn’t. Surprise certainly wasn’t her primary emotion.

‘If I so much as think you’re following me home I will contact the police, Nik,’ she declared.

He gave an inclination of his head. ‘I know that.’

‘And?’

‘And I’ll find some other way,’ he answered unhesitantly.

Looking at him, she could see that he would, as he had arranged their meeting this evening, by fair means or foul.

‘I have to go,’ she told him coldly.

He shrugged. ‘Your prerogative.’

She suddenly realized from the harshness of his expression, that whatever had happened between them a few minutes ago was definitely over now as far as he was concerned.

Which was what she had wanted. Wasn’t it…?

Of course it was. Any relationship with Nik Prince was dangerous. To her own peace of mind, as well as her father’s.

She nodded abruptly before turning and walking away, knowing from the way she felt no tingling of awareness down her spine that Nik wasn’t watching her this time. And why should he? He had failed in his objective, which meant she was of no further use to him.

What would Nik say, Jinx wondered, if he were to ever learn the truth?

He was less than proud of himself, Nik acknowledged uncomfortably as he sat across the dinner table from Jane Morrow, the pretty blonde thirtyish-year-old making no effort to hide the attraction she felt towards him, touching him constantly as they talked.

The last six days of searching for Jinx’s home address had proved even more frustrating than the previous two months.

There were several J. Nixons listed in the London telephone books, none of them the right ones. Jackson Nixon’s previous publishers—of those serious historical tomes—had informed him that Professor Nixon had recently moved and hadn’t yet supplied them with his new address. Although, they had also added firmly, they wouldn’t have been able to reveal that information even if they did have it!

Nik hadn’t been any more successful when he’d decided to turn his attention to investigating Jinx instead of her father.

Cambridge University had been of no use at all in supplying him with an address for Dr Juliet Nixon, claiming they weren’t at liberty to give out that information, although they had offered to forward any letter he cared to send to Dr Nixon at the university. Very helpful!

A visit to Jinx’s friend Susan Fellows two days after her party, on the pretext that he had lost a cufflink on Saturday evening, had proved totally unfruitful, both with regard to the non-existent cufflink and in garnering any information on Jinx. Apart from confirming that, yes, the Nixons had moved in the last year—with no address forthcoming, naturally!—and that Jinx’s father had been ill for some time, the beautiful blonde hadn’t wanted to discuss her friend at all.

None of Stazy’s friends seemed to know Jinx personally, let alone where she lived. Which had brought Nik full circle and left his only possible source of information to be Jane Morrow at Stephens Publishing…

But, strangely enough, even though he had felt no qualms about calculatingly charming this woman a month ago, he now felt distaste at the possibility of taking it any further. As Jane seemed to want him to do. Oh, Jane was attractive enough, but his reason for asking her out again was certainly less than honourable.

Honourable…

Now there was a word to be reckoned with, Nik acknowledged self-derisively. Was he an honourable man? He had always thought so. But his behaviour these last few weeks concerning meeting Jackson Nixon was certainly questionable. In fact, since meeting Jinx, it seemed to have become something of an obsession with him.

As had Jinx!

In fact, Nik had found himself thinking altogether too much about Jinx Nixon the last six days, about the way she had felt in his arms that night, and not enough about her father, and the movie he wanted to make of the man’s book.

‘—had some really good news today.’ His attention returned to Jane Morrow as she spoke excitedly, her almost boyish slenderness due to the nervous energy that marked all of her quick movements.

‘Tell me about it,’ he invited.

‘J. I. Watson sent in his second manuscript this morning!’ Jane told him, her face flushed with the triumph of being able to tell him that. ‘James has it, so I haven’t had the chance to read all of it yet, but the little I have tells me it’s going to be another runaway success. Which doesn’t always happen with second books, you know…’

‘Is it another No Ordinary Boy book?’ he asked.

‘Oh, yes,’ Jane confirmed. ‘Of course, it won’t have that title, but it has all the same characters, and…’

She continued to talk, but Nik had faded her out after her initial announcement that they had received the second J. I. Watson ‘Boy’ manuscript.

Was Jinx aware that her father had written a second book? From her vehemence on Saturday evening concerning the commercial success of the first one, he would have thought she would rather her father never put fictional pen to paper again. Or fingers to keyboard, depending on which method Jackson Nixon preferred to use in order to write his books, Nik allowed ruefully.

But this second manuscript made it even more urgent that he meet the other man; the publication of the second book, coinciding with the possible release of the movie of the first book, would be tremendous publicity for all concerned.

If only he could get past Jinx and talk to her father!

‘I suppose he’s requested the same conditions as before?’ he quizzed Jane lightly, knowing she had been as puzzled by the author’s behaviour as James Stephens was.

In fact, Nik having learnt that the J in the author’s name stood for Jackson, the I for Ivor meant that he probably now knew more about the author than the publishers did!

Jane made a face. ‘No publicity? No interviews? No book signings?’ She nodded. ‘Pretty much. Except there was rather an interesting footnote this time…’ She broke off teasingly as she gave him a pointed look.

Nik moved uncomfortably under that predatory gaze. ‘Yes…?’

‘Well, it’s strange, really,’ Jane confided huskily, once again touching his hand. ‘You’re actually mentioned by name too this time.’

He stiffened warily. ‘I am?’

‘“Absolutely no further correspondence from Nik Prince to be forwarded on” was how I believe it was worded.’ She gave him an assessing look. ‘I think you must have really upset him with all your approaches regarding making the film.’

No, he hadn’t upset Jackson Nixon—how could he have done when it was virtually impossible to meet the man? The person who was so annoyed with him was his daughter, Jinx. And Nik wasn’t altogether sure that it was a totally impersonal annoyance, either.

There was no getting away from the fact that the two of them had had an explosive response to each other on Saturday evening. In fact, in any other circumstances, Nik was sure his pursuit of Jinx Nixon would have culminated in the most passionate affair he had ever been involved in. Something he was sure Jinx had been only too aware of, too.

Jackson Nixon’s adamant refusal now to have any further contact with Nik, he was sure, had been instigated by his daughter’s reluctance to have any further contact with him!

Making Nik all the more determined that he wouldn’t back off, either from Jackson Nixon or his beautiful daughter. The sooner he got Jinx into his bed, the easier this might all be resolved! In fact, just the thought of that slenderly curvaceous body curled nakedly in his arms was enough to arouse him.

Which accounted for the reason, he told himself, that he felt so reluctant to accept Jane Morrow’s invitation to join her for coffee when he took her back to her apartment later that evening. ‘Coffee’ in this case, he knew, was really Jane’s way of inviting him into her bed—something, for all her touching and innuendos, he had so far managed to avoid. And intended continuing to do so! Because at the moment all of his desire was centred on a tiny, rebellious redhead with violet-blue eyes…

He gave a regretful shake of his head. ‘Perhaps another time; I have a really early appointment in the morning that I need to be fully awake and alert for,’ he invented to nullify any insult Jane might feel at his refusal.

Jane moved closer towards him, her hand resting lightly on his chest as she looked up at him, her tongue moving suggestively across her lips. ‘I’ll make sure to set my alarm,’ she persisted.

‘I really can’t, Jane.’ He smiled to take the edge off his rejection.

‘Why not?’ She frowned her disappointment, her smile fading. ‘Or is it that I’ve served my purpose now that I’ve told you as much about J. I. Watson as I know?’ she guessed astutely, eyes starting to glitter with anger.

She was too close to the truth for Nik’s comfort, he acknowledged self-disgustedly. He also didn’t like that slightly possessive edge he detected in her tone; a couple of dinners together certainly did not give her that right. ‘I truly am sorry—’

‘Not as sorry as I am.’ Her voice was sharp with fury.

Nik didn’t like her tone at all now, finding it slightly threatening. It only confirmed his decision that to have pursued any further sort of relationship with this woman would have been a mistake.

However, he also knew that his own reluctance wasn’t entirely due to any noble sentiment on his part—it had more to do with the haunting memory of a pair of violetblue eyes, poutingly kissable lips, and a slenderly seductive body.

Although Jane Morrow was already angry enough at his reluctance to share her bed, without knowing that he was actually attracted to the daughter of J. I. Watson!

‘Hell hath no fury’…and all that, Nik thought with an inner wince.

Jane’s pretty face was no longer pretty at all. ‘I should have known that Nik Prince wouldn’t really be interested in me, but rather in what I might be able to tell him about the elusive J. I. Watson!’ She gave a disgusted shake of her head, agitatedly searching through her evening bag for her apartment key now. ‘Well, if it’s any consolation,’ she bit out, having found the key at last and unlocked the door, ‘I have a feeling the reason J. I. Watson shuns the limelight may be because he has—slightly feminine tendencies, shall we be kind and say?’

Nik, having been about to apologize yet again, became suddenly still instead, his eyes narrowing. ‘What makes you say that?’

She shrugged too-narrow shoulders as she paused in the open doorway. ‘Either that or someone else writes his letters for him; the last two we’ve received definitely had a female perfume about them.’

Jinx’s perfume…?

That elusive, but at the same time heady perfume of Lily of the Valley that he had commented on on Saturday and that Jinx had so summarily dismissed?

‘Did you recognize—’

‘No, I didn’t!’ Jane turned to glare at him indignantly, her face twisted in anger now. ‘You really are all that they accuse you of in the press, aren’t you?’ she accused scornfully.

Arrogant. Hard. Cold. Calculating. Single-minded. Brilliant. Gifted. He really had lost track of the names the press had bestowed on him over the years, rarely read anything they wrote about him nowadays, although he did know that the latter two comments were usually the exception to the rule. Most reporters preferred to dwell on his cold arrogance or the latest woman in his life rather than the skill that had earned him those five Oscars Jinx had referred to so scathingly on Saturday evening.

Jinx, again…

He really was becoming obsessed, wasn’t he? Although, what Jane said about the perfume on those last two letters was interesting. More than interesting, in fact. Perhaps, as he was reported to have been ill for some time now, Jackson Nixon had had more than a little help from his daughter in the writing of No Ordinary Boy? Perhaps—

Nik froze as another—totally amazing!—alternative suddenly occurred to him.

No—it couldn’t be!

They couldn’t all have been so wrong.

Could they…?

CHAPTER FOUR

‘JULIET INDIA NIXON.’

The name, softly but firmly spoken by Nik Prince as he sat opposite Jinx in the lounge of this large, impersonal London hotel, hung in the air between them like a dark, threatening cloud.

Or maybe that was only the way it seemed to her, Jinx allowed heavily; after all, Nik had absolutely no reason to feel in the least threatened by this meeting. In fact, the opposite, she would have thought.

As evidenced by his air of satisfaction as he leant further over the coffee-table that divided them, that silver gaze easily holding hers as he murmured, ‘That is you, isn’t it, Jinx?’

She forced herself to turn calmly away from those allseeing eyes, not in the least surprised to see the woman sitting alone two tables down in this hotel lounge staring avidly at Nik Prince; he was the sort of man who attracted female attention wherever he went! Not that Nik seemed at all aware of that interested female gaze—no, all of his attention was firmly fixed on her.

Jinx gave the other woman a sympathetic smile before turning away, deliberately adding sugar to one of the two cappuccinos they had ordered, to give herself a little time before answering Nik.

Not that she thought for a moment that time was going to be of any help to her whatsoever; it had already been two days—two excruciatingly tense days!—since the letter had arrived in the post office box from Nik Prince with, ‘Juliet India Nixon or just J. I. Watson? I think we need to talk, don’t you? Reception, The Waldorf, Wednesday at 10.30 a.m.’ written on it. And Jinx was no further now towards knowing how to deal with this forcefully determined man than she had been then!

She could try continuing to bluff her way out of it, of course, although she didn’t hold out much hope of this astutely intelligent man putting up with that for too long. She could try telling him the truth and appealing to his better nature—but did he have a ‘better nature’? The press seemed to think not—and, judging by his tenacity in tracking her down this last week, Jinx was inclined to agree with them.

Her chin rose slightly. ‘What do you want from me?’

Silver eyes gleamed. ‘The truth, of course.’

Her mouth twisted contemptuously. ‘Would you know that if it were to jump up and bite you on the nose?’

That silver gleam became slightly opaque now as his gaze narrowed. ‘Tell me, is this dislike personal, or just a general one towards movie directors?’

A week ago she would have said the latter, but Nik’s behaviour over the last week and a half hadn’t endeared him to her in the slightest. ‘Tell me, Mr Prince, exactly how did you come to the conclusion that I am J. I. Watson, rather than your initial assumption that it was my father?’ She made no effort to keep the derision from her voice.

He looked so much in control sitting across from her, so sure of himself, so—so damned arrogant. Because he was arrogant. And ruthless. A man who didn’t care about the how or why, as long as he got what he wanted. And this week he wanted to meet J. I. Watson. In fact, he believed that was exactly what he was doing.

She had no intention of telling him how wrong he was…

But even now, disliking him as much as she did, it was impossible to deny that just looking at him, so selfassured in casual trousers and a cream silk shirt, made her pulse race, sent a shiver of awareness down the length of her spine.

It had been this way since she’d first looked at him at Susan and Leo’s party. This complete awareness, just his gaze resting on her mouth—as it was now!—making her feel as if he had actually touched her there, caressed her.

‘Does it matter how I found out?’ He shrugged those powerful shoulders dismissively. ‘It is you, isn’t it?’ It was a statement rather than a question.

How to answer that?

She had never expected to have to answer questions like this. Because she had never thought the book would become such a runaway bestseller, with cries from all directions for the appearance of the author. And an offer to buy the film rights from such a prestigious director as Nik Prince…

He was still and silent as he waited for her to answer him, like a stalking tiger with his prey, that silver gaze almost hypnotic.

Jinx gave a deliberate smile, if only to show him that she wasn’t in the least mesmerised. Or in the least daunted by the fact that he believed he had discovered her real identity. ‘And what if it is?’ she evaded. ‘Surely I’ve made it more than obvious that I’m even less interested in your offer for the film rights than my father would have been?’

He arched one dark brow. ‘You haven’t heard my offer yet.’

‘Because I don’t need to.’ She gave a shake of her head, red hair silkily vibrant. ‘I’ve said no. Several times. As James Stephens has obviously informed you.’

Nik Prince once again sat forward in his chair, seeming to fill the whole of Jinx’s vision now. ‘What are you so afraid of, Jinx? Maybe if you tell me that—’

‘You’ll give up on the idea for the film and just go away?’ she scorned.

‘Well, no…I couldn’t exactly say that,’ he conceded wryly.

‘I thought not,’ she rasped.

‘But I might be able to understand your stubborn refusal a little more,’ he continued.

‘Really?’ Jinx gave a disbelieving snort. ‘And why do you imagine that I need your understanding?’

He drew in a harsh breath, his expression grim now, eyes narrowed, lips thinned. ‘Right now, taking your paranoia into account, what you need is my silence, young lady,’ he rapped. ‘Let’s go from there, shall we?’

‘Are you threatening me, Mr Prince?’ she said slowly, replacing her cup and saucer back on the table.

‘No, I’m—’ He gave an exasperated sigh. ‘No, Jinx, I’m not threatening you—’

‘It certainly sounded as if you were.’ She met his gaze unflinchingly.

Nik gave a sigh of obvious frustration. ‘I didn’t ask for this meeting with you today in order to argue with you—’

‘You didn’t ask for this meeting at all, Mr Prince—you demanded it,’ she reminded him forcefully. ‘And you did it with the belief that you had the leverage to talk me into allowing you to purchase the film rights of No Ordinary Boy. So how do you think you’re doing so far?’

‘Badly,’ he conceded heavily.

‘Very badly,’ she confirmed.

‘That’s because you—’ He broke off, staring at her impatiently. ‘Jinx, what do you have against the movie being made?’

‘By you?’ she delayed.

‘By anyone.’

How astute of him to realize that her stubbornness really wasn’t personal, that she would have been just as adamant in her refusal concerning the approach of any film company.

Although she had to say, since meeting Nik Prince, her determination had grown where he was concerned.

Because she recognized his powerful force? Because she knew he wasn’t a man who took no for an answer? Or was it simply that the fierce attraction she felt towards him, from that first moment of meeting him at Susan and Leo’s, made her doubly wary?

She couldn’t remember the last time she had felt attracted to any man, let alone one as forcefully compelling as Nik Prince. She had a good idea where such an attraction could lead if she allowed it to. Which was why she was determined to hold this man, in particular, completely at arm’s length.

‘Jinx?’

She looked across at him, frowning as she tried to remember what his last question had been. ‘Have you read No Ordinary Boy?’

His expression darkened. ‘Well, of course I’ve read it! The whole damn world has read it—’

‘I think that’s somewhat of an exaggeration,’ she scoffed.

‘It’s been published in over ninety countries, in twenty-five languages—’

‘Having received one set of royalties already, I do have all that information,’ she cut in.

‘Then you must also realize that the majority of the people who have read the book believe that J. I. Watson is a man—’

‘As you did,’ she pointed out.

‘As I did,’ he agreed. ‘The book is about a twelve-year-old boy confined to a wheelchair who suddenly discovers he has super mental abilities—’

‘I know what the book’s about, thank you! But you think me incapable of imagining being a twelve-year-old boy?’ she challenged, her unease increasing if that should prove to be the case.

That silver gaze swept over her with slow deliberation, lingering on the curve of her breasts in the cream silk blouse, before moving down the slender length of her legs in fitted black trousers.

Again, it was almost as if he touched her, as if those big, capable hands had actually caressed her, leaving heat wherever they touched.

‘I think,’ he finally said huskily, ‘that you might have trouble imagining being a boy of any age!’

Her heart gave a leap at the warmth she could see in his eyes, the complete awareness of her treacherous body making her answer him sharply. ‘How typically sexist of you, Mr Prince!’

He shrugged broad shoulders. ‘Not at all, Jinx.’ It seemed he deliberately used her nickname, the name only close friends used. ‘Merely stating it as I see it.’

‘Well, it would appear that you see it wrong, wouldn’t it?’ she taunted.

He looked at her with narrowed eyes now. ‘It would appear so…’ he slowly echoed her words.

Too much, Jinx, she reprimanded herself, she had said far too much; she wanted this man completely out of her life and that of No Ordinary Boy, not to make him all the more curious about its author!

She shook her head. ‘I simply don’t believe that the book would transfer to the big screen.’

He looked derisive now. ‘You don’t?’

Her cheeks flushed angrily at what she sensed was his amusement at her lack of faith in his ability as a film director. Oh, she knew all about this man’s successes, the awards, the Oscars—just as she knew that No Ordinary Boy was so personal to her that she couldn’t allow a third party to rip it apart in order to make a ‘marketable’ film.

‘No, I don’t,’ she snapped.

‘Why don’t you let me be the judge of what does and doesn’t transfer to the big screen?’

He was laughing at her, damn him. When she found little or nothing about this situation in the least amusing. ‘My answer is no, Mr Prince,’ she told him with finality, bending to pick up her bag from the carpeted floor. ‘It will remain no.’

She was leaving!

This tiny slip of a woman, with ice in her eyes and fire in her hair, was walking out on him!

That definitely had to be a first…

He had thought at the weekend, once he had established that Juliet India Nixon was more probably the author of No Ordinary Boy than her father, that he finally had her at a disadvantage, that it would simply be a case of meeting with her today to tie up the loose ends regarding the movie rights. But Jinx Nixon was anything but amenable, was just as determined as she ever had been to thwart him.

‘Just what is it with you, Jinx?’ he challenged as she stood up. ‘Could it be that it’s beneath the highbrow Dr Juliet Nixon to be associated with a work of fiction like No Ordinary Boy?’

If he had thought her eyes cold before, they now turned to fire, her beautiful face flushed with the same anger as she flicked that blazing red hair back over one slender shoulder to glare down at him.

Nik had hoped to evoke some sort of response by his challenge—he just hadn’t been quite prepared for the one he got.

This woman was so beautiful when roused, so vibrantly alive, that he immediately saw her aroused in a completely different way, the image of her lying naked and wanton in his arms causing him to shift uncomfortably as his body responded to that image.

It was totally amazing; he hadn’t physically responded like this just at the thought of a woman in his bed since his college days, but ten minutes in Jinx Nixon’s company and he was doing exactly that.