AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He was handsome in a reckless bad-boy sort of way, his glossy black hair a shade or two darker than her own, not short, not long, not styled, not messy, but somewhere in between. It gave him a just-woke-up-just-had-bed-wrecking-sex sort of look, which somehow threatened Hayley’s already shaky equilibrium. She felt on edge around him; she always had.
And now more so than ever.
‘I’ve worked hard to build up my salon’s reputation,’ she said, tugging out of his hold. ‘Gerald was so proud of what I’d achieved.’
‘Only because he funded it.’
‘He did not!’ she said. ‘He offered to but I wouldn’t take it from him.’ Especially after what my mother did to him, she tacked on mentally.
Jasper gave a grunt as he examined the menu. ‘You were always good at winding him and Raymond around your little finger. No one else got a look-in once you came on the scene.’
‘And that annoyed you, didn’t it?’ she asked. ‘But it was your own fault. You seemed intent on annoying your father every chance you could.’
He tossed the menu to one side. ‘You sucked up to him every chance you could, telling tales about me all the time, sticking your little snub nose into everyone else’s business.’
Her jaw dropped. ‘Snub nose?’
‘Yeah, snub nose.’
She put a hand up to her nose and traced its contours. ‘You really think it’s that bad?’ she asked.
Jasper frowned at the crestfallen look on her face. He was being a bastard, but somehow he couldn’t help it when he was around her. She got under his skin. Made him feel things he didn’t want to feel. One minute he wanted to throttle her for her stupid little tattle tales that had made his life hell, the next he wanted to kiss her senseless.
‘Well, maybe not a snub exactly, but it does sort of tip up at the end a bit,’ he said.
‘And you think that’s unattractive?’ Her tone was suddenly full of insecurity. ‘God, no wonder Myles wouldn’t—’
‘For God’s sake, Hayley, your nose has nothing to do with it,’ he said. ‘He’s a two-timing idiot and you’re well rid of him. He slunk out of here twenty minutes ago, by the way, and didn’t once look back this way. It has nothing to do with how you look. You look fine. Great, in fact. You’ve got great legs.’
Her expression brightened. ‘You think so?’
He gave her a skewed smile. ‘Yeah, shame about the nose, but the legs more than make up for it.’
She reached over and slapped his arm. ‘You’re a jerk,’ she said.
‘I know, but you love me anyway.’
‘I do not love you,’ she said with a flick of her dark mane of hair.
‘I know, but only you and I know that,’ he said. ‘The rest of the world has to believe otherwise.’
‘Does this mean you’re going to have to tone down your monumental sexual activity over the next month?’ she asked.
‘How do you know about my sex life?’
She gave him a contemptuous look. ‘I read the gossip pages occasionally. You’re in every one, a different woman hanging off your arm every week. It’s disgusting.’
‘It’s exciting, that’s what it is,’ he said with a twinkling smile. ‘You’re just jealous because Myles wasn’t giving you any.’
She tightened her mouth at his crudity. ‘How will you cope being celibate for a month?’
‘Don’t worry. I’ll be discreet.’
She frowned at him, her heart suddenly squeezing painfully inside her chest. ‘You mean you’ll sleep with other women while living with me?’
He gave a casual lift of one shoulder. ‘Why not?’
She sat back in her seat and folded her arms crossly. ‘No way,’ she said. ‘If I’m going to agree to this ridiculous marriage I want you to play by my rules.’
