‘Of course not. It was an accident.’
He tossed the soiled napkin on the table. ‘You seem very good at attracting accidents, don’t you, Dr Willoughby?’
‘Is everything all right?’ Gina asked as she came back in.
Ben turned to face the Italian woman with a reassuring smile. ‘It’s OK, Gina,’ he said, ‘just a little accident. I’ll settle the bill and take Dr Willoughby home before we do any more damage.’
‘You are both tired from working all day,’ Gina said as she cleared the table. ‘You doctors are all the same. Working, working, working.’
Georgie waited until Gina had gone to fetch the bill before saying, ‘I’d like to pay my share.’
‘No.’
She frowned at him. ‘What do you mean, no?’
‘I asked you out for a meal so I pay. That’s rule number two.’
She folded her arms and waited while he paid the bill. After saying their goodbyes to Gina and Roberto, he escorted her out to his car, his hand at her elbow a little too forceful for her liking. She tried to edge away but he was having none of it. His fingers tightened as he swung her round to face him.
‘What are you doing?’ she asked as his pelvis brushed against hers.
His dark brooding gaze locked down on hers. ‘You’re rather attached to the stuck-up-little-princess role, aren’t you?’ he asked.
She tossed her hair back with a flicking movement of her head. ‘I am nothing of the sort. You, on the other hand, are performing rather brilliantly the role of the overbearing boss.’
His mouth lifted in a smirk. ‘I bet you’re expecting me to kiss you right now. I can see it in your eyes. That’s how it goes, isn’t it, Georgie? Seduce the difficult boss so he gives you a glowing report at the end of your term.’
She looked at him in outrage, her face flaming with colour. ‘I’d rather kiss a cane toad,’ she bit out.
He laughed and pulled her even closer, the dampness of his coffee-soaked groin seeping through the thin cotton of her drawstring trousers. ‘Have you ever kissed a cane toad?’ he asked.
Georgie felt her heart begin to leap about in her chest. She had to get out of his arms before she was tempted to press even closer to his hard warmth. ‘Let me go.’
Ben’s eyes went to her mouth, the temptation to lower his to cover its soft pouting contours almost overwhelming. He could feel his body stirring, the hot surge of pulsing blood making him feel like throwing caution to the winds and offering her a brief fling just for the heck of it. He didn’t think it would take too much to convince her to sleep with him. She was clearly fighting her attraction to him, as he was to her. He could feel it every time they touched, the current of sexual energy like the zap of a laser gun. Her body was so close to his he could feel the outline of her feminine mound, the thought of cupping it in his hand and exploring her with his fingers almost tipping him out of the bounds of self-control.
‘If you do not let me go this instant, I will open my mouth and scream so loudly the police will hear it out at Parramatta,’ she threatened, with flashing eyes.
Ben had no reason to believe she wouldn’t do it. She was a feisty little thing and the last thing he needed was a trumped-up assault charge thrown at him to ruin his reputation. He dropped his hands from her arms and stepped back from her.
‘I’ll make my own way home,’ she said with an imperious hitch of her chin.
‘Rule number three is I make sure you return home safely.’ He opened the car door and nodded his head towards the passenger seat. ‘Get in.’
Georgie stood her ground. ‘Get lost,’ she shot back, and then added insultingly, ‘Anyway, I don’t want to get dirty in that stupid farm car of yours with its bits of hay and smell of cows. I’m going to get a cab.’
His jaw locked with anger as he watched her stalk to a cab parked a short distance away. Stuck-up, little city-girl snob, he thought. Slamming the passenger door of his utility, he strode around to the driver’s side, still muttering under his breath as he arrived at his apartment block ten minutes later.
CHAPTER EIGHT
‘GOSH, whatever happened to your brand new trousers?’ Rhiannon asked as soon as Georgie came in later that night.
Georgie looked down at the brown stain on the front of her white cotton drawstring trousers, a funny sensation passing deep and low through her belly at the thought of how it had got there. ‘Um … I spilt my coffee.’
Rhiannon’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. ‘Who’d you have coffee with?’
Georgie avoided her friend’s piercing gaze by making a show of emptying her gym bag. ‘It wasn’t a date so stop looking at me like that,’ she said.
‘So who was it? Someone from the gym?’