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“You’ll have to watch from behind the tinted windows of my limo. I mean it, Jane. That’s not negotiable.”
She pulled a face. “Yes, sir.” She mock saluted and turned to walk away. But he caught her hand, and pulled her to his chest.
His eyes raked her face, and he seemed to be about to say something. He shook his head, finally, and kissed her lips. Slowly. Seductively. She sagged at the knees a little, and he clutched an arm behind her, to hold her to him.
“Tomorrow.” She said, breathily, when he’d stepped back. “Have a good night with Karina.” She blew a kiss as the elevator doors closed.
“Tomorrow.” He said to himself, walking away from Jane and wishing he were going with her. To wherever she was going. He didn’t much care.
CHAPTER SIX
The following night, Jane arrived at the monolith that was Carter’s building drenched to the skin. Though she’d run from the subway, and ducked under awnings as much as possible, the late summer rain had left her saturated. She wrapped her coat around her body and skipped up the stairs into the lobby. A line of brass letterboxes lined one wall, and to the other, there was an impressive floor to ceiling mirror. She crossed to it, her eyes laced with self-reproach as she took in her appearance.
Drowned rat, she thought with a shake of her dark head. The style she’d arranged her hair into that evening, loose curls that fell down her back, was now limp and strand-like. The mascara of her left eye was running, and her clothes stuck to her like a second skin.
She reached into her equally sodden handbag and pulled out a packet of tissues, so that she could dab ineffectually at the smudge of black that ran down her cheek. Given that she was covered in a film of water, it shouldn’t have been so difficult to remove the tar-like tear from her face. But it took several minutes of scrubbing and prodding before she was able to return her face to a state of near-normality. She slashed some fresh red lipstick across her mouth and stepped back to take in the overall appearance.
She grimaced.
Not at all how she’d intended to arrive. She rode the elevator with a heart that was racing.
Carter pulled the door inwards and the words he’d been about to say hung silently between them. “Jane? What happened to you?” He looked at her without emotion, from the top of her drenched mane to the black leggings that shone with wetness.
“It’s raining outside,” she said weakly, feeling like the biggest idiot for arriving as she had.
“Yes. It’s raining outside. It has been most of the afternoon. Why did you not bring an umbrella?”
She looked down at her feet. She’d been too busy. Too distracted. Too beautifully busy remembering how it had felt to make love to Carter. Too distracted by pleasurable anticipation of the night they had ahead.
“I…” She blinked. She what? Lost her brain?
“Why did you not take a taxi? Or call Martins?”
She felt like a fool, and going on the defensive was the only way to defuse her embarrassment. “Are you going to leave me standing here all night, Carter?”
He shook his head with a blink of his ice-blue eyes. “I am tempted to wrap you in a towel though,” he muttered disapprovingly, opening the door wide for her. She glared at him defiantly as she stepped into his apartment.
When she saw the puddle that she dropped on his immaculate, tiled entranceway, she was torn between laughter and tears. Laughter won. “You know,” she said, stepping out of her coat, and her shoes, with great difficulty. “You have this annoying knack of making me feel totally ridiculous.”
“Do I?” He lifted his hands to the sheer pink blouse she wore and began to unbutton it.
“Yes.” Her dark eyes were glued to his face as he slowly helped her remove the shirt.
“I would not think you need much help,” he grumbled darkly, and though his words were tinged with a hint of amusement, Jane felt pained by them. She lifted her hands to his and stilled them.
“Do you mean… do you think… I mean… that sounds like you think I am ridiculous.”
His eyes were laced with cool annoyance when they met hers. “I think you take risks with yourself that only someone who’s undergone a partial lobotomy would take.”
Her mouth gaped and her eyes stung with the threat of tears. She was grateful then, for the way her hair was dribbling water down her face, as it neatly disguised the fact that she was close to crying.
“Go and shower, Jane.” He thrust his hands deep into his pockets and stepped further back, so that she could move into the apartment. His coldness hurt, so much more than his words ever could.
“Do you want me to go?”
His mood was inexplicably dark. “No. I want you to stay. But I am about to say things I know I’ll regret. So go shower. Get warm before you catch a cold.”
She crossed her arms across her chest, drawing attention to her naked breasts beneath the flimsy blouse. His expression was sparked with fury when he looked from her breasts to her face. She hadn’t worn a bra. What was the point, when they dispensed with her clothes as soon as possible? Only Carter didn’t understand that. He simply saw her near-nakedness and it made him incandescent with anger.
