She swallowed hard, aware of the sensuous allure of his body as he sat beside her. Any woman could be seduced by such virility as he displayed, and she wasn’t immune to him, far from it. She could easily find herself falling for him.
‘And I don’t go in for casual affairs,’ she told him softly.
He looked at her with brooding eyes, their colour very blue. ‘I didn’t say there was going to be anything casual about it.’
‘And I don’t intend to be your bed companion for the short time you’ll be in this country either.’
‘What makes you think I’m only going to be here a short time?’
She shrugged. ‘As far as I know Mr Weston is only here for the last couple of weeks of filming. As his employee you’ll leave when he does.’
‘Then I’ll just have to make sure he enjoys his stay enough to want to stay longer.’
‘I shouldn’t bother on my account.’ She put her empty glass down on the table. ‘I think I should go and find Matthew.’
His eyes narrowed. ‘You never did tell me how friendly you are with him.’
‘Very friendly.’ She deliberately gave the wrong impression of that friendship.
Those long fingers clamped about her wrist once again. ‘Is that the truth, Stacy?’
She faced him defiantly. ‘Why should I lie?’
‘Fear. Nervousness. There could be any number of reasons.’
It was both of those, and a lot more. The trouble with this man was that he was too attractive for any woman to resist for long. Not that it made him conceited, he had merely seen something he wanted and wasn’t afraid to say so. But his age and experience made her nervous, gave her the feeling that this was a battle she was going to lose, which was why she had to stop it now.
‘Matthew and I are very good friends. We even lived together for a time.’ Which they had, on a purely platonic basis. Matthew had been thrown out of his digs and she had let him sleep on her sofa for a while.
‘But not now?’ Jake persisted.
‘Not now.’
The tension seemed to leave his body. ‘Then it couldn’t have worked out between the two of you, which means there’s nothing between you now. I’m not asking for virginity from you, Stacy.’
‘I don’t think you have the right to ask anything of me.’ She gave him a searching look. ‘I hardly know you, but I can tell you’re no novice when it comes to making love.’
‘At thirty-eight, no.’
‘Not even at my age,’ she rebuked.
‘Probably not,’ he acknowledged mildly.
‘I would say definitely not.’
He laughed softly. ‘I think you’re right.’ He stood up. ‘Let’s go for a walk in the garden.’
She looked up at him, wrenching her eyes away from his muscular thighs only inches in front of her. ‘It’s after ten o’clock at night, it’s dark out there.’
Jake pulled her effortlessly to her feet, retaining a hold on one of her hands as she would have pulled away. ‘The garden is illuminated at night,’ he said tolerantly.
‘Yes, but I—’
‘Come on, Stacy. It’s too noisy in here, we can’t talk properly.’
‘I think we’ve talked enough for one day.’
‘About certain things, perhaps, but I have other things to say to you.’ His voice lowered. ‘Things I would rather say when we’re completely alone.’