Velvet Promise. Carole Mortimer

mouth tightened. ‘If there are any such reports I haven’t seen any of them,’ he rasped. ‘I have no interest in reading about your life secondhand. If there had been something I wanted to know about you I would have come and asked you!’

      Willow felt that fluttering awareness that was becoming all too familiar when she was around this man. ‘As you just asked me about Russell?’ she prompted unsteadily.

      He nodded coolly. ‘I needed to know that he no longer loves you.’

      That fluttering became a veritable surge. ‘Why?’ she croaked.

      ‘Because that’s the only part of your life that interests me.’

      ‘I can assure you I have no intention of acting the “siren” where Russell is concerned,’ she scorned.

      ‘I think that’s as well,’ Jordan shrugged. ‘The two of us have never found it easy to share anything, least of all the same woman’s bed.’

      All the colour drained from her face. ‘What did you say?’ she gasped faintly.

      His mouth twisted in a humourless smile. ‘I’m sure you heard me,’ he drawled, coming to a halt as she faltered and stopped beside him. ‘You see, that wasn’t a rhetorical question I asked you this morning.’ The leanness of his hands cradled either side of her face. ‘I really do wonder what it is about you that so captivated Russell and made him such a lovesick fool. I mean to find out for myself.’