Mistress by Agreement

She took a deep pull of air, praying her voice wouldn’t reveal her inward trembling. ‘Some time, I can’t remember. I’m not the sort of person who puts notches on the bedpost, unlike some.’ She turned to look at him as she spoke.

It was pointed, and she saw his mouth tighten with a dart of gratification. You can dish it out but taking it is a little harder, isn’t it? she thought bitterly.

‘Meaning I am?’ he asked grimly.

‘I didn’t say that.’ She paused purposely. ‘But if the cap fits…’

‘It doesn’t, not in this instance.’

‘Right.’ She put a wealth of meaning into the one word.

‘I have my faults, Rosalie, but promiscuity is not one of them,’ he said, very coldly.

‘Methinks the gentleman protests too much.’

For a second she wondered if she had gone too far as she cast a sidelong glance at his angry face, and then the wind was completely taken out of her sails when he laughed ruefully, turning to look at her for an instant with eyes that were smiling for the first time since she had known him. ‘Touché, mademoiselle,’ he said dryly. ‘I guess I asked for that one.’

Oh, no, don’t do this. Her mind was gabbling. Don’t step out of the mould like this. You aren’t the type who can laugh at himself. You’re arrogant and self-opinionated and a control freak. It’s written all over you in great big black letters.

‘So…’ It was a lazy drawl. ‘You’ve got me down as a philanderer, is that it?’ He glanced at her again.

She hesitated a mite too long.

‘Charming.’ It was dry but not too bothered.

‘Look, Kingsley, I didn’t exactly say that,’ she said quickly as she reminded herself he was the best client Carr and Partners had had in ages. ‘I don’t know you, do I?’

‘True.’ They had just paused at some traffic lights and he turned to watch her with narrowed eyes. ‘So how do we remedy that so you can give an informed opinion?’

‘My opinion doesn’t matter one way or the other, surely?’

His eyes travelled to her mouth, the fullness of the lower lip naturally pink and tender, and his voice was deep when he said, ‘Perhaps I object to being misunderstood?’ as he smiled again, sexily.

He was flirting with her. Rosalie stared at him for a moment and then the traffic lights changed to green and they were away. Whenever anyone had tried that in the past she had firmly repelled them, dealing with them gently or harshly depending first on their martial status, and then the nature of their persistence. Some of the married ones had been the worst, necessitating arctic freezing of the most severe magnitude, but there had been the odd young buck who had fancied his chances—along with his own sexual attraction—who had needed an icy put-down.

She hadn’t found it difficult to deal with them, whatever their age or experience, mainly—she realised right at this moment for the first time—because she hadn’t been tempted by their overtures.

Kingsley was different. She gazed blindly ahead as the car growled and leapt forward. Which made him dangerous and to be avoided at all costs. She had done the falling-madly-in-love thing and it was a con; a repeat performance would make her the biggest fool on earth. Unfortunately, however, she had learnt over the last ten years that she wasn’t the type to go in for sex without love; it just wasn’t in her make-up. Therefore she’d decided a first-class career, and all the benefits that would accrue from it, was her goal in life.

Good friends, a nice home, enough money to travel to foreign parts when the fancy took her—that would suit her just fine. But the main thing, the most important thing, which transcended anything else and negated all other considerations and benefits, was that she remained autonomous. In control, with a capital C.

‘I need an address.’

‘What?’ She came out of the maelstrom of her thoughts as his voice penetrated the turmoil.

‘A finite end to the journey?’ Kingsley could see her face even when he was concentrating on the road ahead, and he’d noticed the tight set to her mouth. He had known from the first moment he’d laid eyes on her at that damn dinner party that she spelt trouble, he told himself moodily. It was in the touch-me-not restraint of the slim, elegant body, the wary coolness in those magnificent eyes.

‘If you could drop me at the office, I’ll be fine.’

And who in hell had grey eyes anyway? He acknowledged her voice with irritation. Why not brown or blue or green? Those colours were good enough for most of the population, so why not Rosalie Milburn? ‘I’ll take you home.’ It was a statement that did not invite argument.

‘There’s things I need to do.’

‘Perhaps, but they’ll keep till tomorrow. Those pain-killers are not to be messed with,’ he said evenly. Why had she hovered on his consciousness from that first evening? He wasn’t short of female company—the thought carried no pleasure, merely irritation—so what made this woman different? But then she wasn’t, not really. She just played the game differently, that was all. Nevertheless, she stirred his blood until he couldn’t think straight.

He ran his hand through his hair, more than a little annoyed with himself. He was too realistic and too cynical to pretend he believed in anything other than animal attraction between the sexes, he reassured himself in the next moment, but this woman had the plus factor in a way he hadn’t come across in a long, long time. Which made it more strange she wasn’t with anyone.

On the perimeter of his vision he saw Rosalie shift her injured foot, wincing as she did so, and the action emphasised to him how stubborn she was in asking to be taken to the office. She needed a hot meal and some more pain-killers and sleep, in that order, he thought flatly. Crazy woman.