Unlike her he seemed in complete control of the situation. He pressed a button and pushed the door open.
Storm scrambled out with undignified haste, her mouth going dry with fear when Jago’s lean form uncoiled itself from the driver’s seat. All at once she experienced the most ridiculous sensation of anticlimax.
As though he guessed what she was feeling, Jago took her arm. ‘Disappointed?’ he drawled infuriatingly, his lips teasing a tendril of her hair as his hands slid down to hold her hips. Reaction shuddered through her, but she fought not to betray it, saying lightly;
‘Why should I be?’
‘Oh, no reason. I just got the impression that you were waiting for something. Like this, perhaps.’
He feathered a kiss across her cheek, teasing her lips slightly with a moist tongue before releasing her to say quietly. ‘Well?’
‘I can’t think of anything I’d like less,’ Storm told him acidly.
’No?’ Iron-hard fingers gripped her chin, an unresisting wall of solid muscle meeting her trembling fingers. ‘I don’t make love in cars, Storm. I’m too old for that sort of adolescent escapade now. I prefer privacy and comfort for my lovemaking…’
It was uncanny how he managed to send her nervous system into chaos with nothing more than a handful of words.
‘I don’t care what you prefer, Jago,’ she told him coldly. ‘And you’ll never get the opportunity to make love to me!’
‘Is that so? Be careful, Storm. Some men might take that as an implicit invitation to prove to you just how wrong you are.’
A light went on in her parents’ bedroom and to Storm’s relief Jago stepped back, raising his hand in a brief salute before he strode round to the driver’s door and slid into the car. The powerful engine made hardly any noise at all as it moved away, and Storm did not stop to watch him go.
Only later, when she was lying in bed, sleep evading her, did she give way to frightened tears. She felt like some small animal faced with a trap which was slowly but inexorably closing on her.
CHAPTER FOUR
TO Storm’s dismay she was nearly late for Jago’s meeting, and this time through no fault of her own.
Her mother’s Mini, obviously remembering Storm’s less than respectful treatment the last time she had driven it, completely refused to start, and Mr Templeton had had to make a detour to drop Storm off.
She hurried into the office in Sue’s wake just in time to hear the other girl saying apologetically that David had phoned from Oxford to say he had decided to stay on with his friends for a few days and would not be back until later in the week.
Jago received this news in silence, his eyes resting fleetingly on Storm’s face as she stared at Sue.
‘Did David ask for me?’ she asked the other girl, sitting down next to Pete. Sue shook her head.
David hadn’t been in touch with her at all over the weekend, and Storm wondered why not. They had never been the sort of couple who lived in one another’s pockets, but all the same she had expected him to phone her at the very least.
‘Any ideas what David’s up to?’ Pete whispered while Jago?
?s attention was elsewhere.
Storm shook her head. ‘Why should he be “up to” anything?’ she whispered back. ‘You know David. He’s as straight as a die.’
‘Oh yeah?’ Pete drawled, but before she could take him up on the comment, Jago was enquiring coldly;
‘Have you two quite finished?’
On her lap lay the folder containing her financial projections and her outlines for several publicity schemes she wanted to put forward. She had spent all weekend working on the projects, painstakingly typing out columns of figures, and she was forced to admit that the situation was even worse than she had envisaged. If Mr Beton cancelled his commercial—as he had threatened—it would be catastrophic. She sighed and tried to marshal her thoughts.
Jago was getting up. Today he was wearing an immaculate navy suit, looking every inch the invincible businessman, his eyes glittering over her as though he was aware of the response she fought hard to control. What was the matter with her? she asked herself in dismay as awareness flooded through her, but she already knew. Hard though she had tried to deny the truth, she could not deny her response to Jago’s dynamic sexual magnetism. The knowledge shocked and frightened her, making her hands tremble as she straightened her papers.
‘Right, if everyone’s ready?’
No one dissented. Jago glanced round the room, then leaned forward, resting his palms on top of the desk.
As far as Storm could see he had not prepared any notes—certainly he wasn’t reading from anything, but the verbal castigation he gave them came with all the decimating impact of a hail of machinegun fire.