nveniently forgot the last one too.’
‘You can still go. We aren’t too busy this afternoon.’
‘No, thanks. I have an aversion to dentists. Just the thought of it has made me feel ill. I’ll see you later.’ Lauri collected her jacket and handbag and made a hurried exit. If Alex came down here she intended being conspicuous in her absence.
‘And just where do you think you’re going?’ A hand shot out and stopped her progress—and she didn’t need two guesses who her assailant was.
She slowly turned to face Alexander Blair. ‘I’m going to lunch,’ she told him defiantly. Oh, she thought, he looked handsome today! The iron-grey suit fitted him perfectly, the white silk shirt taut across his muscular chest.
His eyes narrowed to blue slits. ‘To avoid me?’
She met that look without flinching. ‘What do you think?’
The anger seemed to ebb out of him. ‘I think,’ he said, huskily soft, ‘that you look beautiful when you’re angry. There’s a slight flush to your creamy cheeks, and your eyes are sparkling like emeralds.’
That flush changed to a brilliant blush. ‘Don’t change the subject!’ Already she could feel herself weakening towards him. Damn the man!
‘You are the subject.’ The warmth in his gaze was unmistakably desire.
Lauri looked about them selfconsciously. Luckily they were the only two people in the corridor, but they couldn’t be that lucky for long, and if someone should see them together … ‘I’m going to lunch,’ she turned on her heel and walked off.
Alex fell into step beside her. ‘What a coincidence,’ he grinned. ‘So am I.’
Lauri came to a halt, glaring at him furiously. ‘Not with me you aren’t.’
He quirked an eyebrow. ‘Willingly I thought you said.’
She flushed. ‘That was for Saturday.’
He shrugged. ‘So, I wanted to see you before then.’
‘You’ve seen me, now leave me alone.’
His hand came out to grasp her arm. ‘You don’t mean that.’
She trembled. ‘But I do!’ she insisted forcefully, knowing just how weak she sounded.
‘Like me to prove otherwise?’ Alex taunted.
She remembered only too well the way he had proved her attraction to him the last time. ‘Not here, Alex,’ she pleaded.
He smiled. ‘For calling me Alex so naturally I’ll let you off—for the moment,’ there was a promise in this last comment. ‘But you are having lunch with me,’ he added firmly.
‘No—’
‘Yes!’ His grip tightened. ‘I’ll meet you outside in the car park in five minutes. And remember, I couldn’t give a damn about people knowing about us, so if you aren’t there in that five minutes I’ll come looking for you.’
‘I’m having lunch with Daryl,’ she said desperately.
‘Not any more you aren’t. I need you more than he does.’
‘You—you need me?’
He nodded grimly. ‘You’re becoming a necessary part of my day. Saturday was too damned far away. Daryl will just have to learn to do without you.’
‘Not because you say so!’ Her rebellious nature surfaced against. ‘I don’t—’ she broke off as a man from the Accounts Department came towards them. ‘No, I’m sorry, Mr Blair, I have no idea where my aunt could be.’ The glitter in her eyes dared him to refute her effort to provide an excuse for them to be talking together. ‘Perhaps Mr Davies has seen her,’ she added when he didn’t reply. ‘If you’ll excuse me …’
She gave a triumphant smile as Alex had no choice but to engage in conversation with the other man, the expression in his eyes warning her of the reprisals he would make the next time he saw her.