He’d spent the last two days considering the best way to seduce Chloe Summerville. Seduction had never had much to do with the kind of recreational sex he enjoyed; usually it wasn’t about anything but slaking a hunger and for a short space of time blocking out everything else. Mutual attraction was certainly involved, but comparing it with what had sparked into life between himself and Chloe would have been like comparing a light shower with a monsoon!
And the attraction between them was mutual, he knew that without question, which made her rejection of him all the more teeth-grindingly frustrating.
He didn’t make the mistake of reading anything deep and meaningful into their attraction; it was more to do with the timing and circumstances of their first meeting than anything else. Those circumstances had just intensified the chemistry that existed between them, that was all—a chemistry that would inevitably fade.
If when it did, so did his nightmares, that was only an added bonus. Getting her into bed was definitely going to happen; it was just a matter of when. His instincts could not be that far out, surely?
‘Get in the car,’ he repeated to his niece, digging into reserves of tolerance that had already been seriously depleted.
Chloe took a deep breath and came to a decision. Stepping forward, she put herself between the angry male and his niece. ‘Actually, I promised Tatiana that I would deliver her personally, so, Eugenie, get in my car.’ The slam of the car door told her that the girl had obeyed. Chloe felt a stab of relief; she would have looked pretty silly if Eugenie had ignored her.
Nik growled. He wasn’t used to having his decisions challenged or his instructions ignored and suddenly the emotions that ran rampant through him had nothing to do with their natural chemistry and everything to do with the fact that Chloe was a pain in his backside! He made to move past her but Chloe mirrored his move.
She held up her hands, her expression determined.
‘You think my niece needs protection from me?’ he demanded incredulously, his voice pitched to a low, private rumble.
Not half as much as I do,Chloe thought, despising the part of her that couldn’t help but notice how incredibly good he looked clean-shaven. ‘Don’t be absurd!’ she snapped, fighting the urge to follow his lead and respond in kind. Instead she modified her tone. ‘Of course I don’t! It’s just that in a situation like this—’
‘And how many times have you been in a situation like this, Lady Chloe?’
‘You might be surprised,’ she retorted, but as the antagonistic glitter faded from his eyes she admitted, ‘Fair enough, I’ve never been arrested, but I think you’re the last person in the world to be throwing my life of imagined privilege in my face.’
‘You’re encouraging Eugenie to think this is a joke.’
She flung him a pitying look; for an intelligent man he was being pretty dense. ‘She doesn’t think it’s a joke. She was scared stiff. I just think you’re making a big thing out of this when—’
‘My niece has been arrested. I call that a big thing!’
‘She was only cautioned, and according to the sergeant I spoke to—’
A hiss of impatience left his clamped lips and she changed tactics.
‘Look, Tatiana wants to keep this low-key, so you could force Eugenie to travel with you, but what would be the point? I mean, do you even know what you’re letting yourself in for? Teenage girls tend to have a taste for melodrama and, I can assure you, she’d make the journey hell for you.’
‘Is there a problem here?’
Chloe turned to see the policewoman from earlier standing looking at them. Well, actually she was looking at Nik and her mouth was ajar.
Chloe cleared her throat and gave the girl time to recover, as she had some sympathy for her dilemma.
‘You know what it’s like—you wait for a bus and two come along at once. This is Eugenie’s uncle and we were just discussing it.’ She turned to Nik. ‘So is it OK if Eugenie comes with me?’
He didn’t miss a beat. ‘Absolutely and we can catch up on the way. Fred, my driver, can follow us.’
Her air of complacence vanished in an eye blink. ‘You want me to give you a lift to the airport?’ she squeaked, forgetting to avoid his eyes. They were shining with malicious amusement as if he knew perfectly well that the very thought of being confined inside her car with him for an hour was already making her break out in a cold sweat.
She closed her eyes and breathed out through her nose as she subdued her panic; he’d called her bluff and now she’d have to live with it. An hour was only sixty minutes, she reminded herself, yet somehow the maths wasn’t particularly soothing so she decided not to work out the seconds as she watched him speak to the driver of the car.
* * *
Maybe it was wishful thinking but lately she liked to think that she was not quite as tense behind the wheel, but either way this journey was going to put her back months.
Nik was not a relaxed passenger; she could feel the tension rolling off him. Maybe he didn’t like women drivers...or perhaps it was just her... He certainly couldn’t be comfortable as he had to draw his long legs right up in order to squeeze himself into the space.
Served him right, she decided uncharitably as she stared doggedly ahead, ignoring him and the subtle spicy notes in the male fragrance he used.
The expression on her face when Nik had invited himself had seemed worth it at the time...but the decision had come back to bite him. The physical discomforts aside, and there were several—he had intermittent cramp in his left leg, and was losing the feeling in his foot, and the torture didn’t look like being over any time soon, if ever—she drove at a maddeningly slow speed that he found at odds with her personality.