Jinx shot him a resentful glare. ‘Nothing that concerns you, I can assure you, Mr Prince.’
James Stephens once again took her hand in his. ‘In the meantime, please feel free to drop in again any time,’ he encouraged warmly. ‘Let me take you out to lunch next time. Jane, too, of course.’
‘Lovely,’ Jinx answered noncommittally. ‘It was nice to meet you, Miss Morrow,’ she added in parting to the other woman, deliberately not so much as glancing in Nik’s direction as she hurried out of the office.
As if the hounds of hell were at her heels!
And she didn’t relax again until she was seated in the back of yet another taxi taking her home, resting her head back against the seat, her eyes closed, almost able to hear the rapid pounding of her heart.
Never again!
Never again would she allow her emotions to rule her head in that way. She knew what she had to do, knew the dangers attached to revealing the identity of J. I. Watson. And today she had almost blown that.
Because of Nik Prince.
Because he had made her angry.
Because, against all the odds, she knew she was falling in love with him…!
‘Well, well, well,’ Jane Morrow drawled as she and Nik left James Stephens’s office together. ‘Who would have thought that J. I. Watson would turn out to be a woman?’
‘Yes,’ he returned neutrally, anxious to be gone. If he hurried he might still be able to catch up with Jinx before she left. He knew without a doubt that it would be his only chance of finding her again! Whatever had driven her to come here at all—and he had a distinct feeling it was anger towards him!—he knew, even if James Stephens didn’t, that she would never come here again.
Jane quirked teasing brows at him. ‘Makes your life a lot easier, though, doesn’t it?’
‘Sorry?’ Nik deliberately kept his expression bland, having no idea yet where this conversation was going. Having little interest, either, if he was honest.
‘Oh, come on, Nik.’ Jane laughed huskily as she touched him lightly on the chest. ‘You know how good you are at charming women.’
His mouth tightened, even while he inwardly acknowledged that he probably deserved that remark from this woman. He had set out to charm her, although, to be fair, Jane had given every indication that she wanted to be charmed!
‘Possibly. If you’ll excuse me, Jane? I’m afraid I have to meet someone.’ He knew he probably sounded rude, but he was very conscious of the precious seconds ticking away on the clock.
‘Of course.’ She slowly removed her hand from his chest, blue eyes hard now. ‘You know where I am if you feel like company.’
She knew where he was too, but the likelihood of either of them actually contacting the other was extremely remote.
Although that wasn’t to say Nik wasn’t completely conscious of her glacial gaze on him all the time he walked down the carpeted corridor to the lift, that feeling confirmed as he turned once inside the lift and saw her still standing exactly where he had left her. She raised a mocking hand in parting, and Nik was relieved when the lift doors closed and shut out her image. After the way they had parted last time, he had been a little surprised by her initial friendliness, although it hadn’t taken too long for her to revert back to derisive anger at his obvious lack of interest.
Not very gallant of him, he accepted, but, for some reason he couldn’t completely explain, Jane Morrow’s hand on his chest just now had given him a distinct feeling of distaste.
It couldn’t be because he was falling for Jinx, could it? a little voice mocked inside his head. A little voice that sounded decidedly like Zak’s voice teasing him!
And the answer was…no, he wasn’t falling for Jinx. She seemed extremely vulnerable to him, very much alone, which probably brought out the same protective instinct in him that he felt towards his sister Stazy, but he certainly wasn’t falling for her.
Protesting too much, BB?
Zak’s voice again, damn it. And he had told both Zak and Rik repeatedly not to call him Big Brother.
But then, if he wasn’t falling for Jinx, exactly what was he doing chasing all over London after her in cabs?
Securing the movie rights to a book, that was what!
Lame, Nik, extremely lame. He might as well admit it, to himself if to no one else: the movie had become secondary in his pursuit of Jinx. She was what he wanted right now, every satiny inch of her naked beneath him, her legs wrapped about his hips as they took each other to the heights and back.
He was so lost in thoughts of that image as he came out of the building onto the pavement that he almost missed Jinx’s cab pulling away from the kerb. Mentally cursing himself for his daydreaming, he rushed forward to hail another cab, climbing inside to tell the driver to follow the cab ahead.
The sideways glance he received from the cabbie in the overhead driving mirror, even as he turned the vehicle out into the flow of traffic, was enough to make Nik feel like a character in a second-rate movie. And he had never made a second-rate movie in his life, let alone starred in one.
‘The lady left her purse behind,’ he leant forward to mutter.
He received another sideways glance for his trouble. ‘Course she did, mate!’ the cabbie said skeptically.
Nik decided to ignore the driver and instead concentrate on the cab ahead. He could just see Jinx’s head above the back seat, that fiery red hair unmistakable. She wasn’t going to like the fact that he was following her, so he would have to make sure—
‘I ’ate to say this, guv’ner,’ the cabbie cut in on his thoughts a few minutes later, ‘but I ’ave a feeling that someone’s following you too. The taxi be’ind is sticking pretty close, if ya know what I mean?’
Nik did know what he meant, having glanced back to see another black cab almost driving on the bumper of this one, two passengers visible in the back of the vehicle, even if their features were indistinguishable. But every turn that this cab took as it followed behind Jinx, the one behind followed.
Reporters again? Nik couldn’t think of anyone else it could be. And if it was the same two from earlier this morning, they were obviously ticked off with him enough to be dogged in their pursuit.
‘Can you lose them?’ he asked his driver.
‘I can try,’ the man came back with a cheeky grin, obviously relishing the thought. ‘But I might lose sight of the cab in front if I do that.’
Continue to follow Jinx? Or lose the cab behind?
After this morning’s fiasco, Jinx certainly wasn’t going to thank him if he should lead a reporter directly to her door. But if he had the driver divert from following her, in an effort to divert the cab following his, Nik had a feeling he might never find Jinx again.
Something that didn’t please him at all.
Neither choice was a good one as far as he was concerned.
‘Okay,’ he sighed heavily. ‘Turn off at the end of the next block and let’s lose these guys.’ And he would lose Jinx…
He gazed regretfully after her cab as his driver took the next left turn, her own cab continuing straight on.
‘Uh oh,’ his driver murmured a few seconds later.
‘What is it?’ Nik demanded sharply.
The man shrugged. ‘Guess they weren’t following you, after all.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Take a look.’ The man grimaced.
Nik