Her mouth went dry. ‘But this morning you said—’
‘I can’t believe you were naïve enough to believe me. You’re a woman, a sensual, passionate woman, and there was a lot more than sex going on between us last night. That’s why you were running scared this morning and trying to set limits on our relationship, to restrict our contact—it was your fight or flight response to danger. And in some ways you’re right to worry; I am dangerous to you—because I’m not going to meekly accept limits and restrictions,’ he said rawly. ‘I’m not going to let you push me away because I might disrupt the nice, cosy set-up you have here. I do want to disrupt it; I want to disrupt you. I need you to look at me and see me—not a reflection of your own fears, not Sebastian’s son or your baby’s father, but me, Rafe Jordan the man—your lover...’
His unconscious use of the word ‘need’ rather than ‘want’ ravished Jennifer’s resistance. To be desired was a powerful aphrodisiac, but to be needed was infinitely more desirable. It gave her the courage to recognise and accept that her own need to love was greater than her fear of being destroyed by the loving. The blood beat heavily in her veins as she made her decision.
‘As long as you realise my baby is more important to me than anything else,’ she warned him unevenly, stepping forward as her hands went to the buttons of her yellow blouse. ‘Whatever happens between us from now until the time you leave—my baby stays with me...’
His eyes darkened, a corona of flaring gold ringing his expanding pupils within the outer halo of green as he stilled her hands on her buttons. ‘Always. I would never, ever separate a loving mother from her child; that’s one promise that’s easy for me to make.’
The dark intensity of his expression was suddenly slashed by a dazzling smile, a sinful, sexy challenge. ‘I hope you’re as hungry as I am, darling, because the appetiser is about to be served...’
Holding her gaze, he ripped open the rest of his shirt and threw it on the floor. He unbuckled his belt and unzipped his jeans, again stopping her tentative move to unfasten her blouse.
‘No, let me do that.’ He stepped back and rapidly stripped off the rest of his clothes. Naked, he slowly unstrapped the watch from his wrist, and dropped it on his clothes. Then, equally slowly, legs astride, he raised his arms and raked his hands through his hair, letting her watch the lift and play of lean, hard muscles, displaying himself unashamedly to her blushing fascination.
‘Do you like me?’ he asked. As if there was anything
‘How long have you known? How did you find out?’ she mumbled, reaching behind her to pull the duvet over her bare body.
He tugged it to include himself, enfolding them both in a fluffy cocoon of enforced intimacy before slinging his arm back over her waist.
‘I’m no mathematician, but I can add two and two,’ he told her. ‘I had the feeling you were hiding something else from me, but I had no idea what it might be until the books turned up and you really began to act guilty—far more so than was warranted by my finding the female equivalent of a stack of Playboys stuffed under the mattress. Everything I was learning about you seemed to hint to me in a certain direction, but I couldn’t bring myself to really believe it. Not until I happened across your E-mail. You have one, by the way, from a certain firm of lawyers—’ His voice turned whimsical ‘—passing on a message from some guy called Sariel who would like to arrange a meeting with you while he’s in New Zealand to discuss a new book contract...’
He had known all evening!
That angelic behaviour at dinner had merely been a calculated attempt to lull her into a false sense of security.
‘You happened across my E-mail? You logged onto my Internet connection? But you couldn’t have!’ she protested bitterly, cursing the fact that things had been so hectic in the past few days that she hadn’t bothered to check her messages. She knew he had been up to no good puttering around her computer. ‘I have a secret password!’
He shook his head, baffled at her stupidity. ‘Are you kidding? What’s secret about it? Don’t you know you’re never supposed to use the names of pets for security passwords? It took me about thirty seconds to find out that it was “Fergus”.’
‘You shouldn’t have been snooping around my computer in the first place!’
He grinned at her rosy-cheeked annoyance. ‘I do a lot of things I shouldn’t; that’s why I’m so successful. Besides, around you, snooping is the only way I get to find out anything interesting. I take it my father was the one who hooked you up with an English publisher?’
She nodded jerkily.
‘Lucky for you I rescued it from my blockhead stepbrother, or we wouldn’t be celebrating the secret of your success today. He was letting the Velvet line sink into oblivion, but I knew that it had untapped potential.’
His eyes crinkled. ‘Rather like our relationship, wouldn’t you say?’
Where he saw potential, she saw complications.
‘So...what happens now?’ she asked warily, wondering what he intended to do with his new knowledge.
He shifted his thigh suggestively over hers.
‘Now, my sinful, sexy authoress—we negotiate a new contract!’
CHAPTER NINE
JENNIFER pulled off her helmet and laughed up through her spattered glasses at a saturated Rafe, the adrenaline still pumping through her veins after the swooping ride down the foaming waters of the Tongariro River.
‘See, I told you it would be easy!’ she teased, flexing arms which ached from paddling under the shouted instructions of the rafting guide. Clad in wetsuits and bulky yellow padded life-jackets, they had got thoroughly wet but not cold, and Jennifer felt as if she was ready to go back up-river and do it all over again. She had rafted down the Tongariro on other occasions, but never had she felt so full of the joy of living.
‘I think your “easy” work-out might require a massage with liniment tonight,’ he replied wryly, removing his helmet and life-jacket, amused by her bouncing excitement. ‘Or if not liniment, something equally stimulating to the circulation. Perhaps...whipped cream?’
The flaring heat in her tawny brown eyes was matched by the sudden glow drying her wet cheeks.