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She’d been zealous and single-minded that day. Sitting here now, he could all too easily imagine her returning after that meeting, having nothing on her mind but how to make sure her father was ruined, and how she could stop Luc from getting in her way …
Thinking of her like that … on her own, fighting … made something weaken in Luc’s chest. And then he heard a sound and looked up. And couldn’t breathe for a long second.
Jesse stood on the far side of the room, obviously nervous. But all he could see were her legs, looking stupendously long and shapely in the pair of gold sandal heels that had come with the dress. The dress reached to midthigh and fell from a ruched bodice in soft folds to her knees. The bodice hugged her breasts, making them seem fuller.
Her skin glowed like a lustrous pearl next to the champagne colour, and Luc’s body tightened painfully when he thought of the freckles on her skin that were only visible up close. He carefully put Tigger down and stood up, oblivious to the kitten’s indignant miaow. Luc felt very uncharacteristically at a loss.
Jesse felt like a child trying to play at dress-up who’d ended up looking like a clown. She’d put on make-up but, not used to it, had probably put on too much. Luc was just staring at her, as if she were some kind of alien.
She turned to go back into her room and change, saying, ‘I told you it wouldn’t suit me. These kind of clothes just don’t—’
She was whirled around and she gasped. She hadn’t even heard Luc move. His hands were around her face and the look in his eyes was hot. It reminded her of how he’d looked at her before.
‘It’s beautiful—perfect. You look stunning in it. I like what you did with your hair …’
Jesse blushed and put a hand up, embarrassed. She was so happy to see it growing out a bit that she’d experimented by putting a small plait into her fringe to keep it out of her eyes. She’d completely forgotten to take it out. ‘That was just messing. I can’t go out like this …’
Luc stilled her hand with his and said, ‘It’s cute. Leave it.’
Jesse grimaced and glanced up at him, far too aware of how potent he was in dark trousers and a light shirt, open at the neck. ‘It’s silly.’
He shook his head. ‘It’s sexy.’
Jesse found it hard to breathe, and then she heard a miaow at her feet and looked down to see Tigger, winding his way between their touching toes. The image was curiously intimate, and Jesse bent down to pick him up before Luc could see her expression. She took Tigger into the kitchen and put him in his box for the night, making sure he had food and milk.
When she went back out to Luc the moment seemed to have passed, and he was looking stern again.
He put out a hand. ‘Come on or we’ll be late.’
Jesse resisted the urge to do something childish, like stick out her tongue, and instead put her hand in his. There was something so intimate about the gesture in the midst of all the tension that she stumbled a little, cursing him for not making it easier to resist his charm.
Luc looked at her in the lift. His voice sounded tight as he remarked, ‘You’re not used to high heels, are you?’
Jesse shook her head, glad that he thought it was just the shoes keeping her off balance.
In the back of his car, as they wound their way through London at dusk, Jesse couldn’t stop herself from saying, ‘You’ve been busy since—’ She stopped abruptly.
Luc supplied the missing words. ‘Since my incarceration on that island?’
Jesse looked at him for an unguarded moment. Did he really see it as just that? She answered herself. Of course he did.
She tried to get out of it, sorry she’d opened her mouth. ‘I just meant you seem to have been … going out …’
‘With a lot of women?’ he supplied helpfully.
Jesse flushed.
Luc reached across the divide and ran a finger down the line of one bare shoulder. Jesse could feel herself responding, melting.
‘Jealous, Jesse?’
‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ she snapped, and moved back so his hand dropped.
But she was. She was piercingly, achingly jealous. Jealous of any moment another woman got to spend alone with this man, talking just to him, having him look at her as if she was the only one there. Kissing her. The pain was so acute that Jesse curled right back into the corner and turned away from Luc. She shouldn’t be jealous, because this wasn’t the Luc she’d fallen for …
She forced out more forcibly, ‘Don’t be ridiculous.’
CHAPTER ELEVEN
