AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘Miss Foster didn’t look too pleased.’ She tried hard to keep the satisfaction out of her voice. Since she scarcely knew the other woman it wasn’t fair to dislike her so heartily.
He gave her a wry look that told her she hadn’t quite succeeded. ‘She wanted to come, but I suggested that, since you live on the opposite side of the city and it might take some time, it would be more sensible if she went home in the limo with the others.’
‘But I hadn’t told you where I lived—’
‘I had your personnel file on my desk this morning, remember?’
‘I’d rather not,’ she blurted out involuntarily, but the reminder made her add cattily, ‘I’m surprised she didn’t insist on riding along as chaperon.’
‘She tried to, but I said that I wanted to spare you any further embarrassment, that you preferred not to draw attention to your distress.’
‘There was no need to make me sound like such a wimp,’ she grumbled.
‘There was every need. Why do you think I didn’t invite you over there with me to say goodbye?’ he said drily. ‘At close range your status as a victim might be questionable, especially if you chose to make one of your unpredictable remarks. Damsels in distress don’t normally wear skintight dresses or boast about their provocative behaviour.’
‘So it was to save yourself embarrassment rather than me,’ she said tartly. ‘I suppose I’m not good enough to be introduced to your friends—’
‘It depends in which context you use the word “good”,’ he said coolly. ‘You certainly don’t look good in that dress.’
Was he criticizing her for wearing something bodyhugging when she didn’t have much of a body to hug? She placed a defensive hand across her small breasts. She knew that she had grown far too thin over the past year. She had tried hard to eat wisely but it was almost impossible when your appetite was as depressed as your spirits.
But that, too, had changed over the weekend. Suddenly her taste buds were back in full cry, and tonight she had eaten three full courses while Michael had looked on in bemused wonder. At this rate she would soon have her former healthy shape back.
In the meantime she refused to allow Marcus to undermine her shaky confidence. ‘Well, I happen to like the way I look!’
‘You see what I meant about context? I simply meant that you’re obviously flaunting the sultry, bad-girl look tonight. You don’t look like the kind of woman who would be unduly distressed by the advances of an overeager lover.’
‘Michael Fleet is not my lover,’ she denied, her hand clenching between her breasts, feeling her heart beat nervously against her knuckles. So he didn’t think that she looked like a child masquerading as a woman. He didn’t just see her as a silly little prude who had got out of her depth. He thought she looked sultry…sexy…
‘Potential lover, then.’
‘Not that either,’ she said abruptly. ‘I’ve decided that Michael’s not really my type—’
‘If you’ll recall, I tried to point out to you this morning—’
‘Don’t you dare say I told you so!’ she hissed.
He spun the wheel lightly between his hands as the powerful car took a long, fast curve, driving with the same calm confidence that he seemed to bring to every aspect of his life.
‘I told you so.’
His soft words fell into the silence. She made an inarticulate sound under her breath.
‘Well?’ he enquired gently. ‘Now that I’ve dared, Harriet, what do you intend to do about it?’
She ignored the taunt. ‘Take this next exit,’ she said, indicating the illuminated sign, ‘or you’ll have to go the long way round.’
He obeyed, swooping up the ramp and pulling up at the stop sign at the top, where he turned to look at her, resting an arm across the back of the seat behind her head.
‘Be as provocative as you like, my dear, but don’t dare a man to action unless you’re prepared to deal with the consequences of his accepting the challenge. And remember, a dare doesn’t necessarily have to be put into words to exist. The way you dress can be a very potent public challenge to a man to prove his masculinity. He might have a right to feel taken in by false advertising if a woman who chooses to wear something overtly sexual in his company proves indifferent to his sexual approaches. I can almost find it in me to feel sorry for Fleet…’
‘Are you suggesting that I’m to blame for Michael’s unseemly behaviour?’ Harriet demanded raggedly, infuriated by that tacked-on remark.
‘“Unseemly”?’ His eyes glimmered at the primness of the word. ‘“Blame” is too strong a word, I think. But, whether you set out with that intention or not, you created a false expectation in him from the moment he first saw you in that dress.’
‘Well, how was I to know that…that…?’
‘That he would be so susceptible to your charms?’ He sounded distinctly amused now. ‘Why shouldn’t he have been? He’s a man who judges people by their appearance, and your charms do appear very…’ his eyes wandered over the subdued glitter of her gown ‘…available.’
