He’d already hung up.
She stared at the phone. “Damn you, Rex.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
REX SAT AT the bench by the window at the Fuji Hiro noodle bar and watched the street outside, eager to catch sight of Carmen’s arrival.
It was busy, the sidewalk crowded, but as soon as he saw her it was as if the rest of the people vanished and she was alone out there. She was walking along, looking up at the name above the noodle bar. Rex scanned her appearance. She was wearing stacked heels and skintight red jeans. Her filmy, long-sleeved top dipped low in her cleavage and swung out at her hips as she walked. Unusually, her hair was pinned up, making her neck appear even more graceful than he already knew it was.
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When she paused and looked through the window, their eyes met. Her smile made Rex glad to be alive. He waved, and she quickly came inside. Rex watched as she walked over. Thinking of what this elegant woman had been like with him—both at the manor and on the phone the night before—made him want to study her at length.
“Don’t look at me like that,” she said as she sat down.
“Like what?”
She arched her eyebrows. “I can tell what you’re thinking.”
Rex smiled, and kept studying her.
Her cheekbones colored.
“I’m admiring you, is that so hard to endure?”
“You’re thinking about sex.”
“So are you. That’s why you mentioned it.”
Her eyes flashed.
The waiter arrived and they placed their orders.
After the waiter had gone Rex leaned in and put his hand over hers where it rested on the table, then he drew it to his lips to kiss her. “It’s good to see you here. Anywhere, in fact. Thank you for coming. I don’t mean to make you feel uncomfortable. I can’t help admiring you and wanting to be around you. You’re a beautiful woman.”
Carmen glanced away, scoping the place while she responded. “I’m never quite sure what makes me more uncomfortable, when you tease and toy with me, or when you use your charm as a weapon.”
“You make me sound like a bad person.” Rex meant it humorously but there was an underlying edge there, too. Did she really think that way?
She smiled. There was power in that smile of hers.
“Have I dragged you away from a hectic desk?”
“Luckily for you, it wasn’t too bad. Otherwise, you might have been dining alone. It was very naughty of you to trick me into this.”
“It was. But you can’t refuse me anything. And that’s such a tempting thought, I can’t help taking a few liberties.”
She laughed. “What about you?”
“I had a meeting nearby this morning.” This felt normal. This was what they should be doing, Rex realized, sharing their day.
While they talked about commuting in London and office space and other work-related trivia, he realized he wanted all of this as well as the rest. He wanted to lock her away and keep her to be his and his alone. He couldn’t do that with anyone, let alone a woman like her—so independent, so strong and able to run her own business—whatever her proclivities in the sexual department. Her private submissive nature didn’t detract from everything else that she was. Elegant, desirable and an exceptionally capable businesswoman.
When the food arrived, he noticed the way she ate, using her chopsticks effortlessly to flake her salmon teriyaki. She savored each morsel, dividing her attention equally between the food and the conversation. He also had the feeling she knew exactly what every other person in the restaurant had ordered and at what stage the service was at. Her attention flitted about, but with consummate skill. Her observations never interrupted their current discussion. This was a side of her he’d never studied closely before—the mature, sophisticated businesswoman she’d become.
It shouldn’t be a surprise. Carmen Shelby was the director of a company with a healthy turnover, despite the hard times of the recession years. Everything that he’d read about Carmen’s work proved how much she’d pushed the business on, sourcing items everybody wanted for their homes, comfy furnishings, crockery and ornaments. Affordable but at the top end, so that having these items still felt like they were classy and desirable. There was prestige when you carried an Objet d’Art bag among your shopping.
“Have you been okay,” he asked, “since the weekend?”