Brand Of Possession. Кэрол Мортимер

truthfully. She held back as he opened the door for her. ‘Could we go in another way?’

      ‘Why?’ He looked at her suspiciously.

      ‘Well, because I—I——’

      His teeth gleamed whitely in the darkness. ‘Your lipstick isn't smudged, if that's what you're worried about.’ He gently touched her lips as if to emphasise the point.

      Her breath caught in her throat. ‘It isn't that.’

      ‘Then what is it?’ His hand dropped away from her mouth.

      She gave an impatient sigh. ‘I don't want to simply walk through the room and us to go upstairs together. I know exactly what conclusion the people in there would come to.’

      ‘You do?’

      ‘Yes,’ she snapped. ‘And don't pretend you don't too.’

      He shut the door with a shrug. ‘Okay, we'll sneak in the back way.’

      ‘I didn't mean——’

      ‘Grow up, Stacy!’ He was angry now. ‘Do you think the fact that we just disappear is going to give them any less food for thought? I would have thought it would have given them even more to get their teeth into.’

      ‘Damn you!’ Her eyes blazed angrily. ‘Damn you, damn you!’ She flung open the door and marched into the room, uncaring about whether or not he followed her in.

      She walked gracefully across the room with unhurried steps, looking to neither left nor right, a defiant look to her mouth and an angry glitter to her eyes. As she reached the reception area the anger started to leave her tensed body. After all, she shouldn't let a comparative stranger annoy her like this.

      It wasn't until she put her hand out to press the lift button and a long tanned muscular hand beat her to it that she realised Jake was standing beside her. She stubbornly refused to look at him, although all her senses told her it was him, from the pleasant aroma of his aftershave to the much more potent male smell that belonged exclusively to him. He had done nothing but anger or excite her since the moment they had met, and she would no longer give him that satisfaction.

      Once inside the lift she still kept her eyes averted, although it was becoming increasingly difficult to do so. Finally she just had to look at him, the silence between them oppressive, only to find his caressing gaze fixed on her face.

      ‘Oh!’ she gasped, looking hurriedly away again.

      He moved to stand in front of her, a hand on the wall either side of her head, his body only just separate from her own. He looked at her beneath lowered lids. ‘I told you I like the tempter. You won't get rid of me that way.’

      ‘I wasn't trying——’

      ‘Oh yes, you were, and we both know why. If what I said earlier bothers you that much just forget I said it.’

      ‘It isn't the sort of thing you can forget,’ she retorted. ‘It isn't every day a man tells me he'd like to go to bed with me.’

      ‘Maybe other men don't tell you, but they think it.’ He lifted her chin so that she had no choice but to look at him. ‘Is it because I'm so much older than you that you find the prospect so daunting? Or is it that you think I only want you for one night and then I'll pass on to another conquest?’

      ‘Both of those things,’ she croaked. And more, much more!

      ‘I can't refute the latter, I have no idea how a relationship between us would turn out, and I've never considered my age a barrier before. Or is it the experience that goes with the age that bothers you, the other women I've known and left?’

      ‘Yes! And—and we've known each other such a short time.’

      Suddenly he had moved away and was standing on the other side of the lift, extracting a long thin cheroot from a gold case before lighting it. ‘I wouldn't insult you by asking you to go to bed right now,’ he said. ‘All the best things in life are worth waiting for—and you're one of them. It will happen in your time, not mine. Will you go swimming with me in the morning?’

      She should be perfectly safe with him in the hotel swimming pool, and she would like to see him again. ‘What time?’ she asked.

      ‘Ten o'clock?’

      She could be making a mistake, and yet she wanted to see him. ‘Fine. I'll meet you in the reception area.’

      Jake held the doors open so that the lift couldn't move. ‘Off you go to your room—I won't come any further and frighten you any more. Ten o'clock downstairs,’ he reminded her as she hurried to her room.

      As she let herself in with her key Stacy had a last impression of him leaning against one of the lift doors, watching her progress with dark brooding eyes.

      She heaved a sigh of relief as she leant back against the door. These sort of things didn't happen in real life, being pursued by tall, dark, handsome men with a stated intent on her virtue. But it was happening to her.

      She was in bed pretending to be asleep when Juliet came up to bed. She had no wish to answer questions about Jake, especially questions she had no answer to. It was for this reason that she also pretended to be asleep the next morning as Juliet got ready to go down to breakfast. Once her friend had left Stacy got up and ordered herself some coffee. She didn't intend seeing anyone who could ask embarrassing questions.

      Jake was already waiting for her when she arrived downstairs at ten past ten, looking at her impatiently as she moved to the desk to leave a message for Matthew telling him she wouldn't be needing transport into London after all.

      ‘Good morning,’ Jake greeted softly. He was dressed in cream slacks and a matching short-sleeved shirt opened almost to his waist in the heat of the day. He looked very attractive, his skin appearing very dark against his cream clothing.

      Stacy eyes alighted on the picnic basket at his side. ‘What's in the basket?’ she asked lightly.

      ‘Our lunch.’

      ‘Lunch?’ she frowned. ‘Surely we won't need that by the pool.’

      ‘We aren't going to the pool.’

      She looked up at him. ‘We—we aren't?’

      He shook his head. ‘I've borrowed Payne's motor launch. We're going for a ride along the coast to find a secluded beach where I can seduce you in private.’