ONTHEMOTORWAY, Lex hit a puddle, eased off the accelerator and flicked her windscreen wipers onto a higher setting. She darted a look at Cole, who sat in the passenger seat next to her, his expression as remote as the endless, empty Skeleton Coast. When he’d sent her the text message earlier telling her he required her services this evening, her heart had bounced around her chest and she’d wondered if, like her, he couldn’t stop thinking about their almost kiss.
She mentally slapped herself. Cole was a guy in his mid-thirties, someone who’d probably had a few serious relationships, many affairs and more than a few one-night stands. He hadn’t given their encounter any more thought than the brand of fuel she put in her car.
She might not have been able to think of anything else, but he was far more experienced and sophisticated than she could ever be.
Sitting next to him and wishing he’d kiss her again, hoping that he was seeing her as a woman, not an employee, was an exercise in sheer stupidity. ‘Thank you for making yourself available,’ Cole said. ‘I know it was short notice.’
‘It’s my job and not a problem. Why did you change your mind about driving yourself?’
‘I haven’t,’ Cole replied. ‘I wasn’t happy with the hire car my assistant organised and had it returned. Somehow, the message that I required a replacement car was lost along the way.’
Lex grimaced at the annoyance she heard in his voice. She was glad she hadn’t been on the other side of the phone when Cole demanded to know why he didn’t have a car at the end of the day. In casual clothes he was impressive and sexy but, dressed in a deep-grey suit and a patterned tie in metallic shades of copper and gold, he looked powerful and remote.
Yet she wasn’t intimidated. And her attraction to him had nothing to do with the fact that he wore ten-thousand-dollar designer suits, sported an outrageously expensive wristwatch and splashed designer cologne on his face—she really wouldn’t mind burying her nose in his neck and staying there—but everything to do with their very combustible chemistry.
She still, rather desperately, wanted to know how his mouth tasted and whether, when she was plastered against him, her body would stop missing his. How could she miss something she’d never experienced? She had no idea, but she did.
The Chauffeur’s Inconvenient Attraction to the CEO... Her life could be the title of a romance novel.
‘I was out of line earlier and I apologise.’
Lex grimaced and turned her head away.
Be cool...pretend it didn’t mean anything. Do not let him know that you’ve thought of nothing more since leaving him yesterday.
‘It wasn’t...optimal,’ she agreed. Optimal? Where had that word come from?
‘I want to assure you it was an aberration.’Wow. And how was she supposed to take that statement? Was she an aberration? Was almost kissing his driver an aberration? Kissing at all?
She stopped at a traffic light, turned to face him and lifted her arched eyebrows. In the dim light of the inside of the car, she saw colour touch his cheeks.
‘I never lose control like that,’ he admitted, shoving his hand through his hair and looking genuinely confused. She thought about pointing out that nothing had happened, that they hadn’t actually kissed, but honesty had her admitting that, had they not heard those voices in the hallway, they would’ve kissed. And, possibly, done more.
‘Are you tired? Overworked? Stressed?’ Lex asked him instead, interested, despite her irritation—anaberration?—in what made him tick.
‘All of the above,’ Cole replied, ‘All the time. It’s my default mode.’
His deep sigh filled the car. ‘It’s been a very long, tough six months.’
What did that mean and how did it relate to what had almost happened between them? Did he only kiss strangers when he was stressed?
‘I apologise, Ms Satchell.’
The traffic light turned green and Lex pulled away. They could discuss this to death, but she suspected she wouldn’t get any satisfactory answers, so maybe it was better to put this behind them. Yes, she wanted him but that was her impetuosity talking, her long-neglected libido. It was time to be sensible and sober, to remember what was important—kissing him again wasn’t, working as his driver was.
And this was the perfect opportunity to raise the subject. ‘Cole—Mr Thorpe—I need to ask you whether I can get back to work as your driver.’
‘I told you, I prefer to drive myself.’
Lex swallowed her growl. Fine, she got that he liked driving himself, but he didn’t understand that his wanting to haul himself around Cape Town was making a serious dent in her income. She was paid a piddly retainer, but she earned the bulk of her money when she put in the kilometres behind the wheel. Driving Cole around would be an excellent way to bring cash to their communal table. And she wasn’t too proud to tell him that. She needed money, and his being independent was blocking her from getting it. She wasn’t asking for charity. She was asking him for the opportunity to do her job.
‘Thorpe Industries only pays me a small retainer to be on call, but I only earn decent money when I drive. So your independence is affecting my earnings,’ she said, keeping her tone as business-like as possible. He didn’t need to know that the girls needed new winter pyjamas, that she needed to pay for next term’s module and that her car desperately needed some work.
She felt his gaze on her face, but Lex kept her eyes on the traffic, watching for any sudden moves by impatient truckers or taxi drivers. He did, of course, have the right to drive himself. Nothing in her contract with Thorpe Industries stated that the owner or employees were obliged to use her services. But, damn, she hoped he would because, A, his was a very nice face and body to drive around and, B, she hoped he was nice enough to put aside his needs, wants or preferences so that she, or anyone else, could earn a reasonable wage. It was just the decent thing to do...
‘Pick me up from my hotel at seven tomorrow morning,’ Cole told her, his voice gruff. ‘When I get to the office, I can give you my schedule for the day, but I usually end quite late.’
Lex did a mental fist-pump as she turned down the road to where Snell’s, the restaurant, was situated. Looking for parking, she was grateful Storm was on leave from her au pair job, as she could do the school run for the next week or so, and then it would be the winter holidays. Surely Cole would be gone by mid-July? Lex reversed the car into an empty parking bay—her parallel parking skills were on point tonight—and briefly closed her eyes. Cole was prepared to let her drive him so she didn’t have to worry about her income for the next few weeks.Yay.