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‘What if I offered you a permanent position? Would that help you see things differently?’
‘No.’ Maya had no hesitation in making that clear. ‘I’m afraid it wouldn’t.’
‘What a shame,’ Jonathan sneered. ‘And I thought you were such a bright girl too. Still…you’re not getting off that easily.’
‘What do you mean?’ Her green eyes flashed her alarm.
‘You’re just playing hard to get, aren’t you?’
Suddenly there was an expression on his face that put every impulse in Maya’s body on red alert. This is going to be trickier than I thought… She panicked. Letting go of the doorknob, she raked her long hair away from her face, letting her hand splay protectively across her chest.
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m only here tonight because my job required it.’
‘Don’t tell me you’re that naïve?’ Jonathan breathed, yanking her towards him. ‘Common or garden assistants don’t get invited to my house just to take dictation! I’ve been flirting with you for weeks now—don’t pretend you didn’t know what it was leading to.’
‘I’m here because Caroline was called away at the last minute. She told me you needed someone to stand in for her,’ Maya protested, even as Jonathan shook his head.
‘Caroline stayed away because I ordered her to stay away!’ he growled. ‘Seeing as you turned me down every time I asked you out, it was the only way I could think of to get you alone. Has the penny finally dropped, Miss Hayward?’
She twisted her face away as his mouth descended, pushing hard against his chest with both hands, in a split second seeing all her effort and hard work wasted as she denied Jonathan Faraday the prize he craved, knowing she would get nothing for her pains but her marching orders.
Oh, well. She’d just have to tell the agency to find her something else. It would be a cold day in hell before she succumbed to sexual coercion from a man just to keep her job—that was for sure!
‘Come on, Maya—giving me the runaround is one thing, but I’ve been working myself up to fever-pitch knowing you were coming to my house this weekend. Just one little kiss, eh?’
He might have been drunk, but Jonathan was physically no push-over. He easily hijacked her arms to pin her against the wall, breathing heavily as he pressed his body hard against hers, seeing the sudden fear darkening her lovely green eyes and no doubt getting off on the thought of having his way.
That was until an authoritative male voice a few feet away said coolly, ‘I must say I’m surprised, Jonathan. For all your reputation as a ladies’ man I never thought you’d descend to physically forcing your attentions on a woman.’
‘What?’ More than a little discomfited, Jonathan abruptly released Maya to negotiate an unsteady step backwards. Wiping his hand across his mouth, he straightened, then looked Blaise Walker defiantly in the eye.
‘Don’t be daft, man! She’s been making eyes at me all evening. She was practically—’
‘Gagging for it?’ Blaise finished smoothly.
Maya wished the ground would open up and swallow her. Humiliation made her burn with rage at the injustice of it all. Did Jonathan’s famous client really believe that? She could hardly bring herself to look at Blaise Walker as she pushed back her hair, then twisted her hands anxiously together in the sensuous velvet folds of her frock.
‘From where I was standing, it looked like the lady was very definitely protesting at your attentions. Why don’t we just check with her to verify the matter?’
Maya found herself in the worst dilemma. If she made Jonathan look like a would-be rapist then what would that do for his client relationship with Blaise Walker? On the other hand, she had her own reputation to consider, and she was damned if she was going to trash it all in the name of public relations…She’d more or less just kissed goodbye to her job anyway.
‘As I told you before, I work for Mr Faraday,’ she said evenly. ‘If he mistakenly got the impression I was considering anything else by agreeing to come here this weekend then I’m sorry—but he’s most definitely wrong.’
Colouring in spite of her determination to stay strong, Maya flicked a glance at the handsome playwright, then tore it away again before his darkly brooding stare could make her reveal even more than she’d intended. Like the fact that she’d been genuinely frightened by Jonathan’s unwanted attentions. Blaise was a tall man, whose breadth of shoulder alone seemed to dominate the long, high-ceilinged corridor, and in his black tuxedo and crisp white shirt his impressive physique and confident stance instantly commanded the kind of jaw-dropping attention that was hardly commonplace in her day-to-day reality. No wonder he’d been such a successful screen actor. It wasn’t just his looks that would hook the audience in either. The man had genuine presence.
