The lift doors were just closing when she heard his voice.
"Hold it."
It was reflex action that made her keep the doors open for him, but as he stepped into the lift with a brief nod of thanks she wished she hadn't. He was dressed in a black dinner-jacket, the dusky red shirt and silk bow tie enhancing his tanned skin and black hair, and the superb cut of the jacket making his broad shoulders even broader. He looked' devastating Devastating and overwhelmingly attractive, and she felt her knees grow weak. This wasn't fair, it just wasn't fair. Damn that little washroom.
"Thanks." She noticed he was still carrying his briefcase despite the evening wear, and suddenly the remembrance of the last time she had been in a lift with him turned her face crimson.
"I'm already late," he added with a slight frown.
"Going somewhere nice?" She forced the words through numb lips and was surprised at how normal her voice sounded. What was happening to her? She didn't want to feel like this; it was making a mockery of everything she had thought she was.
"A somewhat boring reception." He smiled briefly. "But then to the opera, so the whole evening won't be a _total disaster." He glanced at his watch before speaking again.
"I can drop you off on the way--it's in the right direction. "
"There's no need--' The blue eyes fastened on her, a dark, s
atirical gleam in their depths, and her voice trailed away.
"I can drop you off on the way," he repeated quietly, his voice silky with an underlying thread of iron.
A gust of rain, the drops needle-sharp and icy, met their faces as they left the warmth of the building, and as Lydia slid into Wolfs Mercedes she was aware of a small feeling of relief that she hadn't got to fight her way home with the rest of the commuters on such a filthy night. It vanished instantly as he joined her in the car, the enclosed confines of the beautiful vehicle bringing him much too close for comfort. She glanced at him under her eyelashes as he manoeuvred into a place in the fast-flowing traffic. The dark hair was slicked back and he looked as though he'd just shaved; who had he gone to so much trouble for? She was immediately furious with herself for thinking such a thing. It was none of her business, and what did it matter?
He was just her boss, after all.
He drove swiftly and competently through the cold London night as the rain beat a steady tattoo on the windscreen, the wipers labouring to clear the window at times as sudden squalls threw gusts of hail in their path. The silence between them lengthened but she felt quite unable to break it, and he seemed to be in a world of his own, his eyes concentrating on the road ahead and his mouth tight and grim.
"Thank you." As they drew up outside her house she turned to him, forcing a smile on her face.
"I hope you have a good time tonight."
_"I will." He didn't smile back.
"It's guaranteed."
"Guaranteed?" And then the penny dropped.
"Oh, it's someone special, then?" Elda. She might have known.
"Someone..." His eyes narrowed as if in puzzlement and then cleared abruptly.
"Not exactly, Lydia, no. But the company I shall be with know how to enjoy themselves. That is a prerequisite if they expect me to attend."
She stared at him, her eyes darkening at the harshness in his tone.
He sounded angry with her, and after the miserable week she'd had she fired back without stopping to consider her words.
"By company I take it you mean women?" She raised her chin as she met the ice- blue gaze head on.
"If I had meant women I would have said so," he said coldly, 'but, as it happens, I do expect my female companions to be good company, yes.
When I acquire a good suit I don't mind going to some lengths to make sure the measurements are right and the cloth suitable, and I pay for the best, but having done all that I expect it to be on time, precisely to my requirements and prepared to fit me exactly. "
She couldn't believe her ears.
"A suit. The rain still continued to drum down on the roof of the car but neither of them was aware of the outside world as they faced each other like two gladiators about to enter the ring.
"We're talking about a man and woman relationship here, not a cut-and-dried purchase of an expendable item."