The Price of a Wife

'Work. Yes, I see…'

'And you must be very busy,' she continued desperately, her heart fluttering like a captive bird at his quiet scrutiny. 'I'm sure you're in a hurry to get back.'

'Strangely, no…'

He was going to kiss her. As the dark head lowered she knew she ought to protest, to make some movement to repulse him, but she found herself rooted to the spot as he curved a powerful arm round her shoulderblades and drew her against his muscled chest, so close that she was enfolded in the delicious smell of him that had been titillating her senses for the last few minutes.

She closed her eyes, her head falling back instinctively as her lips parted, but after a few seconds she opened them again to find him staring down at her, the silver gaze narrowed and inscrutable, and then he whisked her off her feet and deposited her back inside the car.

'What…?' She must have spoken out loud, because when he joined her a few moments later his dark face was mockingly satisfied.

'You were getting wet feet out there.' He indicated her sodden shoes with a flick of his head. 'I thought you would be more comfortable in here,' he said smoothly as he glanced her way.

'Did you?' she said flatly, and her face burnt hotly. He had known she expected him to kiss her, damn it; he had engineered that whole little episode to mate her look foolish. And she hadn't even noticed she was standing in two or three inches of water. How could she not have noticed? What had all that been anyway? A lesson to teach her that he could take or leave her? Was that it? Retribution for the panic he had sensed earlier?

His next words seemed to confirm her suspicion.

'You're quite safe, Josie.' He tugged his bow tie loose as he spoke, leaving it hanging either side of his collar as he undid the first two buttons of his shirt, the result of which sent her senses into overdrive as the sudden informality hit her like a fist in the chest. 'It's been years since I seduced a date in the back of my car. I prefer more… comfortable surroundings these days.'

'I'm not a date,' she said, more breathlessly than she would have liked.

'Exactly.' The silver eyes glittered for a moment. 'So you are doubly safe, yes?'

'I never thought my safety was in question,' she said with forced lightness.

'Good. In that case you will understand my reasons for not taking you on a route march across the countryside in the vain hope that we'll stumble across some habitation,' be said lazily. 'We have no idea where the nearest house is, and, romantic though the moonlight is—' he cast a mocking glance at her hot face '—it's not conducive to midnight rambles. Twisted ankles or broken legs are not on my agenda for this trip, OK? Now, some late-night traveller might well come across us before morning, and the farm vehicles are out at dawn—'

'And failing that we follow the cows home for milking?' she said brightly, determined to act as though a night spent with Luke Hawkton didn't bother her an iota.

'Just so.'

He smiled that slow, sensual smile that had the power to turn her inside out, and she gulped deep in her throat as she lowered her head, allowing her hair to fall in a veil across her burning face.

'In spite of the beautiful weather I don't think that dress is going to be warm enough…'

To her horror, her utter horror, he shrugged off his jacket as he spoke, the thin silk of his evening shirt accentuating the massive shoulders and muscled chest more effectively than nudity would have done. She could see dark body hair curling on his chest where his shirt was undone, and, as her hands went damp and her mouth went dry, her blood heated to fever-pitch and she shut her eyes tightly.

'Thank you.' Her voice was a squeak as he placed the jacket over her, and immediately the warmth and smell from his skin enveloped her with the dark material, causing her lower stomach to tighten and throb.

'You're very welcome.'

His voice was grave and she didn't dare glance at his face, keeping her eyes shut as she settled into the car seat, feigning tiredness. In fact she had never been more awake in her life, every nerve, every sinew screaming for release. She kept absolutely still for several minutes until he spoke again, his vote silky and cool in the darkness.

'Cows I can take, and even the fact that I've put the ca

r in a ditch in the middle of nowhere and there's an important call coming through from Canada to the hotel at midnight doesn't bother me too much, but what does annoy me is the fact that you're as rigid as a board. What the hell do you expect me to do to you, for crying out loud? I thought I'd reassured you that rape isn't my style?'

Josie turned slightly and looted at him carefully, trying to make her face as blank as possible to combat the brilliant colour staining her flushed cheeks. 'I don't know what you are talking about,' she said tightly.

'No?' His eyebrows expressed his disbelief as they moved into a harsh frown. 'Lady, you're so nervous you'd have me believing I was the Marquis de Sade if I didn't know differently.'

'I'm not nervous.' She glared at him now as her temper was fired. 'I was merely thinking about what we discussed today, running over a few ideas in my mind.'

'As your employer, I can only applaud such conscientiousness.' His voice was expressionless but she sensed sarcasm, although the dark, rugged features were giving nothing away, his eyes hooded and indolent as he looked back at her. 'You aren't the average sort of businesswoman, are you?' He shifted in the seat slightly as he spoke, obviously finding its tight confines too restricting for his big body, and she tensed at the movement before forcing herself to relax.

'You don't think so?' she asked quietly.

'No. No, I don't think so,' he said softly, repeating her words with musing mockery. 'You're so tiny, for a start, so delicate and…breakable. How the hell do you survive in the jungle we inhabit anyway?'