She stiffened her jaw and turned her body slightly away from his, facing the lift door—hoping that her body language would send out off-putting signals.
Glancing at the panel in front of her, she noted that they were slowly approaching the third floor. Barely halfway!
If she hadn’t been feeling so edgy, with David’s ultimatum at the back of her mind and this disturbing stranger adding to her nervous tension, she might have seen the amusing side of this interminable lift ride and shared a wry smile with her fellow passenger.
But she didn’t dare. Even though she wasn’t directly facing him now, she knew—she just knew—that he was still looking at her.
It wasn’t that she’d never had a man stare at her before. Her eyes, being such an intense blue, tended to attract attention—from men in particular—though in her own opinion they were spaced too widely apart. And her hair, which was long and straight, except for a slight curl where it swirled round her shoulders, was an unusual colour too, she guessed. People had described it at various times as rich chestnut, deep honey, even as burnt gold…it seemed to change with the light.
Her figure wasn’t too bad either, thanks to all the bike-riding, swimming and running she did. On the other hand her nose was too long, her mouth far too large and her lips too full. ‘Kissable lips’, David had called them once, but then, he was biased. As for her neck…well, swans weren’t in it!
Still, whatever she looked like, she didn’t deserve to be eyed in the way this stranger was eyeing her. Never before had she been so pricklingly aware of a man’s scrutiny, so…confused by it. She didn’t know whether to find it flattering, irritating, tiresome…or alarming.
From her own fleeting appraisal of him, he didn’t look the type of man who would stand and stare at a woman, even surreptitiously. He looked more the type who would be used to being stared at.
Which she was tempted to do…and she just might have risked a quick glance if she hadn’t felt so alone and exposed, stuck in this confined space with him. Instead, she darted another anxious peek at her watch. And at the same moment the lift gave a ghastly jolt.
Her darkly fringed eyes sprang wide, her gaze colliding with the narrowed black eyes of the stranger opposite. She gave a weak smile, holding her breath as the lift gave another frightening jolt before coming to a shuddering halt.
Her eyes leapt to the numbered panel. ‘Oh, no,’ she groaned aloud. They were stuck between the fifth and sixth floors! So near and yet so far.
‘About time they installed some new lifts,’ her companion commented drily, and, despite her alarm, she noted how deep and softly vibrant his voice was. It seemed to coil right down into the pit of her stomach.
She caught her breath as he lunged forward suddenly, his hand shooting out to press button ‘6’ on the panel. She almost had to catch her breath all over again as a waft of his aftershave drifted past her nostrils. Not that it was strong—it was extremely subtle, extremely…well, male. Disturbingly male. As he was, she realised, headily aware of his close proximity…his tall, athletic physique…his strong, chiselled face…those eyes.
‘Damn!’ he swore when nothing happened. He pressed another button, then another, stabbing at each one with an increasingly vicious finger. ‘Come on, damn it.. .move!’
‘What are we going to do?’ she burst out, alarm mingling with dismay. David wasn’t going to wait for her. Well, not for much longer. He’d warned her. If she didn’t turn up by twelve-fifteen at the very latest he was leaving. And he would too. He had an afternoon plane to catch.
‘This is the last time I’m going to ask you, Lu,’ he’d pronounced only yesterday. ‘I’ve waited long enough. If you don’t turn up tomorrow, I’ll know your answer. That’ll be it. It’ll be over.’
He’d meant it too. She’d never seen him more decisive. And she couldn’t blame him. She’d kept him dangling for far too long. Even elastic could only stretch so far.
Why did I leave it so late to drive into town? she berated herself. And why didn’t I run up the stairs when I saw the lift was taking so long to come? What’s six flights of stairs when your future’s at stake?
She felt a wave of mingled mortification and panic. She’d taken David too much for granted. Expecting him always to be there, patiently waiting…waiting until she was ready to make up her mind, to make a commitment. She had been so unfair to him!
For the first time she paused to think about what she might be losing if she missed today’s appointment with him. She’d be losing one of the gentlest, most decent, most dependable men a girl could ever hope to find. Was she crazy?
‘Can’t you do something?’ she cried. ‘I’m supposed to be meeting someone at twelve!’
The man turned his head, his mouth quirking into a crooked smile which, despite its mockery, was startlingly sensual. ‘He’ll wait, won’t he?’ The black eyes raked over her.
A surge of heat scorched up her slender neck. She clutched her handbag to her chest in an instinctively protective gesture, feeling suddenly stripped bare.
Despite the predicament they were in, and despite her fevered wariness, she found herself covertly examining his face from under her fringe of thick lashes, trying to work out just what it was about him that she found so disturbing.
His face was lean and hard, slashed with cynical lines on either side of his square jaw. His sensual mouth had a sardonic twist. His hair was very dark, almost black, its wiry thickness tamed by a stylish cut. But there was nothing tame about him. She only had to look into the glittering black eyes to sense that. He exuded a dangerously potent masculinity that made her intensely aware that she was a woman.
She dismissed the treacherous thought with a firm thrust of her dimpled chin.
‘My friend can only wait fifteen minutes.’ She tried to sound tart and crisp, but the words came out husky and defensive.
‘Any man who will wait only fifteen minutes for you needs his head read,’ the man drawled.
Hot prickles broke out all over her skin. It wasn’t the words so much—flirtatious comments of that nature normally left her cold, or brought a derisive curl to her lips—it was the fact that the words had come from the mouth of this suave, self-assured stranger, this stunningly attractive businessman, who had success and privilege written all over him.
What is it with this guy? she pondered in confusion. He just didn’t add up. First the way he’d stared so intently at her, when he didn’t look the type who would stand and gawp at a woman—any woman, let alone a stranger in a lift. And now here he was making silvertongued personal remarks, when he didn’t strike her as the type who would sink to oily flattery either.
‘My friend has a plane to catch,’ she informed him curtly. ‘He can only wait until twelve-fifteen.’ She looked pointedly at her watch, her heart sinking when she saw that it was ten past already.
‘Then we’d better try to do something,’ the stranger responded easily. He thrust out a hand and she tensed, until she realised that he was reaching past her for the emergency phone mounted on the wall. It was an old-fashioned telephone, its ancient dial lacking numbers.
But there was no need to dial. The moment he snatched it from its hook, a voice answered, ‘Emergency lift service.’
He explained their predicament, and after an exchange of words he grimaced and hung up. ‘They’ll send someone straight away. There are no engineers in this building, apparently. We’ll just have to wait until help arrives.’
‘Did they say how…how long they’d be?’ She felt a sinking feeling in her stomach. David would be pacing the floor by now. He was probably already losing patience, thinking she’d stood him up. She had only a few minutes left before he gave up and walked out. For good.