‘How did he know that you were concerned about it being vegetarian?’ King gave her another raking gaze. ‘Unless they knew you were coming? You phoned them or spoke to them?’
‘Yes.’ Clare took another mouthful of the divine soup. It was her cousin Paul’s creation. She’d had it several times before, while he was learning to be a chef, but this was her first opportunity to dine where he worked without him. Paul was like a brother to her, only two years older than her twenty-seven years, and they were close. They’d grown up under the same roof.
‘Yes to which one?’ King brandished his soup spoon at her as though it were a weapon.
‘Whatever.’ Clare shrugged. Paul had smuggled her into the charity dinner, and all she’d had to do was promise she’d accompany him to the next social event to enhance his image. Some career strategy, she guessed.
She broke her bread roll apart and buttered it lazily, very aware of King’s eyes on her. ‘How do you know Mark?’ she asked the girl in red, whose face kept appearing over King’s shoulder.
‘I’m a close friend of the family,’ she bit out defensively. ‘I’m Sasha Taylor-Jones.’
‘Beautiful name.’ Clare tried to swallow the smile that was threatening to erupt. The look on King’s face at being ignored was priceless. ‘You’re very kind, doing Mark the favour of accompanying him. He would have been embarrassed to have arrived solo.’
Sasha blushed. ‘Actually, he’s doing me a favour—though you wouldn’t think it.’ She cast his back a dirty look and ran a hand over his shoulder. ‘Did you know he’s just been nominated for Most Eligible Bachelor of the Year?’
‘Has he?’ Clare smiled her amusement. If only the organisers knew what he got up to with poor innocent young girls, they’d crown him the most opportunistic bastard of the year. She gave Sasha a second look. Was she the next victim?
King’s eyes darkened. ‘Will you ladies stop talking about me as though I wasn’t here?’ He swung back to Sasha.
‘Mark, don’t be angry with her,’ Clare chastised him.
‘And don’t call me Mark. Hell, I don’t even know you.’
She could tell it was killing him. If he knew her name then he’d find out everything he needed to know in about two minutes flat, and that wasn’t what she had in mind. She had something more memorable planned.
Something that King wouldn’t ever forget.
CHAPTER THREE
HOW her little sister had ended up in King’s bed concerned Clare. It wasn’t as though they frequented the same circles. King’s realm was a world unto itself. Even with her own lucrative transport company’s success, she couldn’t hope to come anywhere close to it.
The sort of wealth and position he’d built for himself were what dreams were made of. Clare let her gaze wander over his dark hair, his strong jawline, and the quirk of his lips. Surprisingly, he looked quite normal for a millionaire, apart from being aggravatingly handsome.
Meeting King made her goal of owning her entire company seem not so far-fetched. If this guy could do it she was certain she could, too. One day.
‘You may not know me. But I do know you.’ Clare laid her spoon in her empty bowl and met King’s stormy eyes. ‘I know your parents split up when you were ten and you spent the next eight years moving from one to the other while your mother searched for love. Your father was declared bankrupt in seventy-nine and eighty-six—when you were ten and seventeen respectively.’
Mark’s eyes flickered, and a shadow flashed across his features.
She suppressed a smile of satisfaction—the investigator had been worth the money. ‘You studied business economics overseas, then returned to invest your inheritance from your grandparents. Do I need to go on?’
‘So you’ve done your homework.’ His voice hardened. ‘Are you going to tell me what you’re after?’
‘No. But I’ll tell you this—’ She leant close to him, breathing in his spicy cologne. ‘We have mutual acquaintances.’
His eyes widened at her admission. ‘Ha, it was one of the guys, wasn’t it?’ He laughed, darting looks around the table. ‘Which one of you jokers is responsible?’
Two of the men cleared their throats, three others shrugged, and they all cast curious looks at King.
King snapped his attention back to her, his eyes smouldering.
Clare tried to smother a laugh at his confusion. She had him going. This was even better than she’d planned.
The waiters removed the empty bowls and King dodged around them to see her. ‘How long are you going to play this game?’
Clare waited until the table had been cleared, then she leant close to him again. ‘Are you bored with me already?’
‘Yes.’
But the fire in his eyes told her otherwise. ‘Oh, my.’ She patted his hand lightly. ‘You have it worse than I thought.’
‘What?’ King’s eyes were glued to where her hand covered his.
‘Boredom,’ she said knowingly, lifting her hand and placing it on her lap, still tingling from the contact. ‘You know you age prematurely if you’re bored? It can lead to depression and all sorts of mental conditions.’
‘Is that true?’
She allowed herself a smile. ‘No idea, but it sounded good.’ It was like dangling candy in front of a child. Too easy.
A waiter presented Clare with her entrée: a miniature risotto. It was shaped in an oval and topped with caramelised onions. She cast a casual glance around the table—the others had each received a mushroom and ham torte, garnished with snow pea shoots and long curls of carrot.
The touch of King’s hand on her thigh almost made her jump. Almost. She hadn’t expected it. For some silly reason she’d assumed she wouldn’t have to endure physical contact with him until later—much later. There was no doubt now that he was a fast mover.
His fingers stroked her skin, arousing every nerve in her leg, in her stomach, in her entire body. His hand was so warm, so firm and so maddening! He had probably swept her little sister away with his charms before she’d had a chance to think.
‘I hope you’re not bluffing, Miss…?’ His thumb massaged her muscle, working higher up her leg. ‘What the hell am I meant to call you?’
‘What do you want to call me?’ she said calmly. Clare steeled herself against the disturbing sensations his hand on her thigh caused through her body. She took a small bite of the rich rice dish, another of Paul’s, focusing on the meal rather than her body’s traitorous response to King.
‘How about Scarlet?’ Sasha offered. ‘From that old classic movie.’
‘But you’re in red, not me.’ Clare couldn’t help but notice the way Sasha touched King, lightly but possessively. Poor Sasha was laying herself open to King, as good as screaming Ready, willing and waiting. If she had any idea where his other hand was…
‘You’re right.’ Sasha chewed her bottom lip, running a hand absently up King’s arm, over his nicely built muscles and resting it on his shoulder.
‘How about the Black Widow?’ King’s hand reached the top of her split and traced the edge of the fabric with his fingertip.
Tingles of awareness shot to her toes. ‘I’m in black, but I’m no widow.’ Clare took another portion of the risotto and put it in her mouth as casually as she could manage, willing herself to chew and swallow without choking, without balking.