But that was where the similarity ended.
‘Oh, my,’ Lisa said in a soft, uncharacteristically breathy voice.
By the time he disappeared under the front porch, Lisa was shaking her head. Who would have believed that a change of clothes—and a shave—could make that much of a difference? Jack now looked just like his car. Sleek and powerful and sexy.
Sexy?
Lisa was taken aback. Since when did she start thinking any man was sexy?
Whirling away from the window, she marched off in the direction of downstairs, reminding herself the whole way down that being superficially attracted to a man was just that. Superficial.
She’d been attracted to Greg, who’d been a very handsome man. But she still hadn’t liked sex with him.
Nothing has changed, she warned herself, so don’t start hoping that it has.
The front doorbell rang on the way downstairs, Lisa’s wayward thoughts back in check by the time she reached for the door knob. There were still some butterflies in her stomach over the evening ahead, but she had every confidence she could hide those. She’d been hiding her anxious nature for years.
Jack appreciated, the instant she opened the door, why he hadn’t been able to get Lisa out of his mind all day.
He’d dated a lot of blondes in his time, as Helene had pointed out. But none had ever exuded what this one did.
She reminded Jack of an Alfred Hitchcock heroine. Lovely to look at. Sexy, in an understated way. But so icily self-contained that you wanted to reach out and pull her into your arms. Wanted to break her down. Wanted to make her lose her much prided self-control.
Her smile was polite. But her eyes remained annoyingly unreadable as they swept over him. ‘My, don’t you look simply splendid? Like James Bond on his way to a casino.’
It was a type of compliment, he supposed.
‘And you look like Grace Kelly, in To Catch a Thief,’ he countered.
Only with less underwear, he suddenly noticed.
Actually, if Jack hadn’t known better, he might have thought she was totally naked underneath her dress. She certainly wasn’t wearing a bra.
What he wouldn’t give to reach out right now and slip that thin strap off her shoulder. In his mind’s eye the dress was already slithering down her delicious body onto the doorstep, leaving her standing there wearing not much more but those sexy gold shoes.
When his own body began to respond to his mental fantasy, Jack forced himself to get a grip, clearing his throat and adopting what he hoped was a gentlemanly expression before reefing his eyes back up to her extremely beautiful face.
Her sudden blush startled him.
Because ice princesses didn’t blush. They accepted compliments with cool little smiles. Their cheeks didn’t go a bright red. Their composure was rarely rattled.
But Lisa was definitely rattled at that moment.
How interesting.
‘Thank you,’ she returned, confusion in her eyes, as though she was well aware she was not acting like her normal self.
Even more interesting.
‘Are you ready?’ he asked, quite pleased at how the evening was going so far. Who knew? He might not have to be super-patient after all. If he wasn’t mistaken, his little ice princess was already on the thaw.
Ready?
No, Lisa suddenly wanted to scream at him. No, I’m not ready. Not ready at all! I need a few minutes to find myself again. To find control. And composure. And to work out what happened when you looked me up and down just now.
Lisa was no stranger to men staring at her. She was used to hot, desire-filled glances. Even lecherous ogling.
Jack’s gaze, however, had not been at all lecherous. His eyes had betrayed nothing but a natural interest in her appearance. In truth, Lisa would have been piqued if he hadn’t complimented her.
What had upset her was her own reaction when he’d looked her up and down. Her skin had burned under the silky lining of her dress, her nipples tightening in a most disgraceful fashion.
She’d felt naked before him. Naked, and excited.
Yes, excited. That was what she’d felt.
No wonder she’d blushed.
‘Have you got your house keys with you?’ Jack prodded when she made no sign of moving.
‘What? Oh. Yes. Yes, I think so.’ She opened the gold clasp on her bag and made a pretext of inspecting its contents. ‘Yes. They’re here.’
‘Lock up, then, and let’s get going. I don’t like being late.’
Lisa used the few seconds it took to lock up to calm herself. But any headway she’d made was obliterated when Jack took her arm and started steering her down the front path towards his car.
Such a simple gesture. A gentlemanly gesture, really. But the moment his large palm cupped around her elbow, electric currents went charging up and down her arm, making Lisa stiffen all over.
She smothered a sigh of relief when he let her arm go to open the passenger door of his car, grateful when he allowed her to settle herself into the seat, unaided. But she could feel his eyes on her bare legs as she swung them inside, once again making her hotly aware of her semi-naked body underneath her clothes.
She clutched her bag in her lap as he swung the door shut after her, keeping her eyes steadfastly ahead, resisting the temptation to glance up at him, for fear of what he might see in her face. But when he came into view through the front windscreen, striding round the low front of his car, Lisa surrendered to the temptation to gaze openly at him, her thoughts reflecting her ongoing shock at how he was affecting her tonight.
Just before he opened the door and climbed in behind the wheel Lisa wrenched her eyes away, hopeful he hadn’t noticed her staring at him.
But what if he had?
Embarrassment curled her stomach. Please don’t let him have noticed. Please let me get through this evening without making a fool of myself.
Because that was what Lisa was suddenly feeling like. A fool. Not a frigid fool any longer. Just a fool.
Chapter Eight
JACK frowned as he gunned the engine. Talk about one step forward and three steps backwards.
For a split-second, when she’d blushed, he’d thought she was warming to him.
But just when Jack had started counting his chickens, the hatching had ground to a halt. She’d acted like a marble statue when he’d taken her arm. And now she was staring out of the passenger window and clutching that bag in her lap as if she was scared stiff he was about to pounce.
Clearly, he hadn’t hidden his desire for her as well as he thought he had.
Time to calm her fears with some distracting conversation, or this evening was going to be a total disaster.
‘Very nice place you’ve got there, Lisa,’ he said as he executed a U-turn and accelerated away. ‘It’s a credit to you.’
Her head turned and there was no mistaking the relief in her eyes. Obviously, she didn’t mind his complimenting her house.
‘I do like keeping it nice,’ she said. ‘But my mother says I’m too house-proud.’
‘Nothing wrong with being house-proud. Have you always lived here?’
‘Ever since my marriage. Though