Seb dropped his hands to his lap and fought temptation. He could, but he didn’t—as curious as he was, he didn’t have the right to invade her privacy. She wasn’t the child they had all worried about anymore, she’d grown up.
She was now the knockout she’d promised to be. Eyes the colour of night, wild hair, creamy, creamy skin and a body that was all woman. He felt his zipper straining and leaned back in his chair, spun around and stared out of the window to the pool area beyond his floor-to-ceiling windows. He wanted her. And, equally and as intensely, he didn’t want to want her. She was everything he avoided in the opposite sex: complicated, gregarious, communicative...free-spirited and forthright.
Why hadn’t he just loaned her the money and sent her on her way? Then he wouldn’t be sitting here—being totally unproductive—with an urge to see if she slept naked.
He was such a moron.
* * *
‘Gray, I’m really sorry...’
Seb propped his shoulder against the doorframe to his newly refurbished kitchen, with its sleek cupboards, black granite and black and white checked floor. Yasmeen had designed the kitchen and, since this was where she ruled from, he’d been happy to write out the rather hefty cheque. It was filled with light, modern appliances and Yasmeen’s precious ferns and African Violets. If he let those die his life would be over.
He grinned. It was just another job he could add to Rowan’s growing list of housekeeping duties.
‘Grayson...take a breath. There’s a monkey, a tiger with cubs, a squid, a seal and a horse. Those are the highlights. And a Hotei.’
What on earth was she up to? Seb wondered as he stepped into the kitchen and headed for the coffee machine.
‘I’m pretty sure the Hotei is rare. It has that...class, a mastery that just can’t be ignored.’
Rowan nodded when he lifted a cup towards her, asking whether she wanted coffee.
‘Now that my mobile is charged again I’m about to e-mail you some photographs. Take a look and see what you think... Yes, I know that you won’t buy anything without looking at it...’
Rowan murmured a couple of soothing phrases into the mobile before disconnecting the call. She quickly e-mailed Grayson the photographs she’d promised and placed her mobile onto the kitchen table.
‘I know that you can’t buy them without seeing them. I’ve only been dealing with you for ten years. Jerk.’
Seb handed her a cup of coffee which Rowan reached for with the enthusiasm of a true coffee addict.
‘Thanks. You need a master’s degree to operate your machine.’
Seb leaned against his counter and thought that Rowan looked a great deal better than she had when he’d picked her up. That was what a solid night’s sleep did for you, Seb thought. She still had faint blue shadows under her eyes, but there was at least some colour in her cheeks. He’d checked on her a couple of times and discovered that she didn’t—unfortunately—sleep naked, that she had a slight piggy snore and that she slept on her stomach.
‘Are you trying to sell a zoo?’ Seb said, his eyes on her long legs. She wore a simple pair of denim shorts and another button-down cotton shirt and had pulled her clean hair into a fat plait. She wore no make-up except for a slick of gloss on her lips.
She took his breath right away.
‘Of sorts. I picked up some stuff in Bali which I hoped to flog when I got to Oz.’
And he’d thought that he was tight-lipped and uncommunicative. It made him want to shake her...or kiss her. ‘You know I could just avoid pulling your teeth for information and find out for myself.’
‘How?’
He wiggled his hands. ‘Magic computer fingers.’
‘Corny. And, like most men, I think you exaggerate your computer skills.’ Her expression was a mixture of pity and disbelief, as if he was a child telling tall stories.
‘Sweetheart, I hacked into the FBI’s website and left them an Easter egg when I was sixteen—’
‘A what?’
‘An Easter egg. It’s a surprise in a program that a hacker leaves...a signature or a message or a picture. It’s non-malicious. Anyway, if I wanted to I could tell you what you had for breakfast six years ago, so finding out what you bought in Bali would be child’s play.’
Rowan’s look threatened to cut him off at the knees. ‘If I find out that you’ve done that—ever—I will make it my personal mission to make your life on earth resemble the hottest part of hell.’
Seb knew that that she’d certainly try. And he’d watch her try for a while and then he’d get bored and haul her off to bed... Actually, that didn’t sound like a bad plan at all. Entertainment in and out of the bedroom. Win-win.