‘Mr Maitland—’
‘I thought we had agreed that, for this weekend at least, it’s to be Marcus and Kit?’ he reminded her dryly.
‘But that’s my whole point!’ she said frustratedly. ‘Andrea—Miss Revel—knows that the two of us aren’t a couple.’
‘Does she?’ He looked at her with steady blue eyes.
Kit blinked. ‘Doesn’t she?’
He shrugged. ‘A little hard to tell, wouldn’t you say, considering the changes in your appearance, and the fact that we’re sharing a suite?’
‘Yes, but—okay, let’s just forget the broken-record remarks,’ she offered. ‘Until yesterday the two of you were—well, you were!’ she accused.
‘And now we’re not,’ he dismissed unconcernedly. ‘Life moves on very fast sometimes, doesn’t it? And at other times…’ he stood up, moving purposefully towards her ‘… it moves very slowly…’ Before Kit even had time to gauge what he was doing, his head lowered and his mouth claimed hers.
There was no thought of denial on her part as she melted into his hardness, her lips parting beneath his.
She had longed for this all those months of working beside Marcus, had lain awake at nights wondering what it would be like to be kissed by him. And now she knew.
It was wonderful!
His arms moved about the slenderness of her waist as he moulded her body against his, his tongue moving in exploration of the sensuous warmth of her bottom lip, her groan of capitulation all the encouragement he needed to deepen the kiss.
Kit felt like liquid fire in his arms, her body pressed against his, groaning low in her throat as she felt the caress of his hand against the curve of her breast.
Quite what would have happened next, Kit had no idea, if a door banging noisily shut further down the corridor hadn’t made her start back guiltily to stare up at Marcus with disbelieving eyes.
His expression was unreadable, his blue eyes shuttered as he looked back at her.
Kit swallowed hard, her tongue moving to moisten her lips as she searched for something to say. What could she say? Except the obvious!
‘Didn’t you just violate your own rule where employees are concerned?’ she ventured—desperately hoping to divert his attention from the fact that she had very definitely responded to him!
His mouth quirked. ‘I read somewhere once that “rules are made for the guidance of wise men and the blind obedience of fools”!’
Kit raised auburn brows. ‘And which are you?’
‘At this moment? Anybody’s guess!’
She couldn’t help it—she laughed. A light, relieved laugh that seemed to release some of the tension that had surrounded them.
Marcus’s smile was sheepish as he ran a hand through the dark thickness of his hair. ‘I apologize, Kit. I suppose it’s no good asking you to forget it ever happened?’
Well… she could try. But did she really want to? As regards the two of them continuing to work together, she knew that she had to, but as Kit McGuire… she had enjoyed the kiss too much to ever really want to forget it had happened.
‘We could try,’ she answered as noncommittally as she could, her gaze not quite meeting his now. ‘But for the moment,’ she added briskly, ‘shouldn’t we be changing for dinner?’
Marcus sighed heavily. ‘That was the plan.’
‘Well…?’ she prompted as he made no effort to go to the adjoining bedroom.
He gave a perplexed frown as he looked at her. ‘Incredible!’ he exclaimed. ‘And after my self-righteous claim of never becoming involved with my employees…’
‘I promise not to tell anyone if you don’t!’ Kit’s cheeks burned with embarrassment.
‘Kit—’
‘I really do need to change,’ she reminded him firmly before turning away.
But she could sense his presence in the room behind her for several more long seconds before he moved away, the adjoining door closing softly behind him and telling her when she was at last alone.
What had they done?
What had she done?
Her obvious course of action should have been to have stopped the kiss before it had even started. If she hadn’t been enjoying it so much she might just have done that!
But it had been wonderful. All she had ever thought kissing Marcus would be. And she had spent quite a few hours during the last six months wondering exactly that.
Besides, the kiss had certainly taken Marcus’s mind off discussing her ‘friend’, Mike Reynolds!
She paused from unpacking the black dress she intended wearing this evening. Mike Reynolds, of all people. And he’d had the cheek to greet her as if the two of them hadn’t parted on such bad terms seven months ago!
And just how much longer was she going to delay thinking of that other—even less welcome!—guest? Kit asked herself candidly.
The rest of her life, she could have hoped. But it was no good trying to deny the fact that Catherine Grainger was also a weekend guest here.
But would the lady have a clue as to who Kit was? If she did, Kit knew only too well that the other woman wouldn’t be interested.
Kit’s mouth tightened. Irrational though it was, how she disliked Ms Grainger! Her arrogance. Her coldness. Just her complete air of superiority.
But what would Marcus say if he were to know Kit’s secret? Especially since there seemed to be a security leak in his company where Catherine Grainger was concerned… He could think it very odd that Kit hadn’t told him the truth in the first place. But other than telling Marcus everything—something she had no intention of doing unless forced—there was no way she could explain away her knowledge of the older woman. She would just have to keep hoping—and praying!—that Catherine never guessed the truth.
If only she could avoid so much as talking to Catherine for the brief time they were here!
Something she didn’t look like doing when the first person she saw as she came down the stairs twenty minutes later was—Catherine Grainger, who was standing in the entrance hall talking on her mobile telephone.
Kit had knocked on the adjoining door between Marcus’s room and her own a few minutes earlier, only to find that he had just come out of the shower, wearing nothing but a towel wrapped about his waist.
After a first glance Kit’s eyes had remained fixed on the picture on the wall behind him, wings of colour burning in her cheeks. ‘And they say women take a long time to get ready!’ she joked weakly.
‘I was delayed by a telephone call,’ he came back swiftly.
Kit glanced at him. ‘Andrea?’
He gave an acknowledging inclination of his head. ‘How very astute of you!’
‘Not really,’ she assured him; Marcus might have calmly dismissed Andrea’s presence here as being none of his business, but it was a certainty that Andrea, having had time to think about the abrupt end of her relationship with him, wasn’t going to do the same where he was concerned. ‘I’ll wait for you downstairs, shall I?’
‘Unless you want to sit down and wait while I get dressed?’ he taunted, dark brows raised in invitation.
‘No,