Lucy King – The Party Starts at Midnight (страница 8)

Which was particularly pleasing because this was the first event she’d organised for the Cartwright brothers and she was hoping it wouldn’t be the last. Clients like these—who were big, influential, and willing to give her the perfect combination of a generous budget, few requirements and total control—weren’t all that common and she wouldn’t mind hanging onto them.

She certainly hadn’t minded hanging onto Jake when she’d locked gazes with Leo back there on the dance floor and her knees had practically given way, she thought as the giant glitter ball moved a fraction, caught the light and took her back to the moment in question.

It hadn’t been so much the look on his face that had rocked her, because that had been as neutral as ever, but it was the sensation that he’d been watching her. Intently. And for a while. That had made her feel all weirdly flustered inside and if Jake hadn’t been there to catch her when she stumbled she’d have ignominiously hit the deck.

Leo had disappeared by the time they’d come off the dance floor, thank goodness. So had the brunette, although she didn’t want to think about that particular coincidence. Switching into work mode a lot later than she should have done, Abby had legged it to the kitchens and from then on had focused on what she was there to do.

She hadn’t seen Leo again, and it occurred to her now that the prospect of doing so in the future was highly unlikely. The night was over and even if she did get more work here she’d likely liaise with the relevant department. The only reason she’d had direct contact with Jake about this evening was because he held the admirable and rare view that if he handled things—even if it simply meant hiring her—then it was a party for everyone, not everyone bar the person who had to organise it.

And it was totally fine. Better that way, actually, because Leo Cartwright, whether in her league or out of it, had made her feel all kinds of things she’d really rather not, none of them remotely professional. Plus, he made her think with her body instead of her head, and that was unusual enough to be deeply unsettling, so all in all if she never saw him again, it would be for the best. In fact—

‘Here you are.’

At the sound of the deep voice behind her Abby gasped and jumped, and swivelled round to find the man himself standing in the doorway, leaning one shoulder against the frame, his hands in his pockets, his eyes dark and his expression inscrutable as he looked down at her.

She blinked, just in case tiredness had caught up with her and she’d started hallucinating, but no. He was still there. Looking tired and dishevelled with his bow tie hanging untied around his neck and the top couple of buttons of his shirt undone, but nevertheless so devastatingly handsome that she went all hot and tingly while her stomach did a weird kind of swoop.

‘Goodness, you gave me a fright,’ she said, clapping a hand to her chest as if that might sort out her suddenly erratic breathing.

‘Sorry,’ he said with the hint of a smile that sent her stomach into free fall all over again, her head into a spin and made her wonder dizzily what it was about him in particular that had her responding so viscerally. ‘Although fair’s fair, don’t you think?’

‘Is it?’ she said, for a moment not having a clue what he was referring to because all she could think of was how there wasn’t anything fair about him at all. Everything was dark. Smoulderingly, broodingly and sizzlingly attractively dark.

‘I think so.’ A pause. ‘Although, strictly speaking, you’d have to be the one who was naked.’

Abby snapped her gaze back to his, to find him watching her with a look of cool amusement on his face. Naked? What on earth was he talking about? Did he want her naked? For a moment yet more heat rushed through her and her heart galloped and she seriously considered leaping off the chair and throwing herself at him.

But then—thank heavens—sanity struck and it suddenly hit her. The penthouse. His state of undress. The misunderstanding. The half an hour she’d been so badly trying to forget.

Really not wanting to go there, Abby hmmed while her heart rate slowed and her body temperature cooled, and decided it might be safer for her poor overworked organs if she changed the subject.

‘So what can I do for you?’ she asked, trying not to worry because the party had ended an hour ago and why he’d be roaming the ground floor of the hotel at nearly one in the morning she couldn’t imagine. ‘Is there a problem?’

He shook his head. ‘No problem.’

‘Then what is it?’

‘I wanted to thank you for everything you did this evening.’

A warm glow of professional satisfaction spread through her, momentarily dampening the desire. ‘You’re welcome.’

‘It was a great party.’

‘It had good hosts.’ She shot him a quick smile. ‘Not to mention an excellent planner.’

‘The latter is certainly true.’

‘Thank you.’

And then that seemed to be that for conversation because Leo didn’t say anything else, just carried on looking at her, and quite suddenly Abby found that she couldn’t have said anything even if she’d wanted to because their gazes had locked and all she could concentrate on were his eyes. His mesmerising, thought-destroying, soul-shattering eyes …

Dark and bottomless, they were the kind of eyes a girl could lose herself in, she thought dizzily. Totally lose herself in, forgetting everything while clinging to those shoulders and wrapping her legs around his waist and crying out as he smoothly slid inside her, moving slowly at first, then faster and harder, until there were no words, no thoughts, nothing but spiralling tension and breathy moans and then lovely, lovely release.

‘Thanking you wasn’t the only reason I came to find you,’ he said, his words—oddly loud and hoarse in the heavy, thick silence—cutting through her thoughts and making her land back on Earth with a bump.

‘Oh?’ she said, her voice a lot breathier and her heart beating a lot faster than was appropriate for a woman who never lost herself or clung, and who’d sworn never again to think about what she’d seen when that bed sheet had slipped.

‘I’d like to apologise for what happened earlier.’

‘You already did,’ she said with an overly bright smile, as if beaming like a maniac might somehow detract from the giveaway blush she could feel burning her cheeks and the breathlessness.

‘Not enough. Not nearly enough. I was totally out of order.’

‘Perhaps.’

‘It was a misunderstanding.’

Taking a couple of deep steadying breaths and pulling herself together because she had absolutely no business fantasising about him, Abby twisted round and slipped her feet back into the vices that were her shoes. ‘I’ll say.’

‘But not one I’d ever make under normal circumstances.’

‘No, well, I guess the circumstances weren’t all that normal,’ she said, trying not to wince as leather heel met sore blister.

‘They weren’t. I’ve spent the last month scoping out development possibilities across a dozen countries on three continents. I barely know what time zone I’m in.’

‘As you said, I must have given you quite a shock.’

He nodded. ‘You did.’

‘You were probably a bit disorientated. Confused, even.’

‘I was. And I’m sorry.’

‘It’s fine,’ she said with a wave of her hand and a reassuring smile as she straightened and turned back to him. ‘Really. It’s not an issue.’

‘Are you sure?’

She nodded, crossed her legs to ease at least one of her poor lacerated heels and linked her hands around her knee. ‘Absolutely. I’m not going to go round telling everyone you accused me of being a prostitute, if that’s what you’re worried about.’

He arched an eyebrow. ‘No?’

‘Of course not. In my business discretion is a given. Whatever the occasion and whatever the circumstances. So your secret is perfectly safe with me.’

His expression didn’t flicker for a second, but Abby thought she detected a slight ease in the tension gripping his shoulders and there was definitely a faint smile playing at his mouth. ‘Thank you.’

‘Anyway, I’m sure there are perfectly valid reasons for thinking that your brother would procure a prostitute for you,’ she said, curiosity getting the better of her because the Cartwright brothers were notoriously private, this one being especially hard to read, and she suddenly wanted to know everything.

‘Possibly.’

‘Care to share them?’

‘Not particularly.’ He rubbed a hand along his jaw and regarded her thoughtfully. ‘You know, I’d actually quite like to forget about the whole thing.’

‘Oh, so would I, so would I,’ she said with a regretful shake of her head as she decided she wasn’t above a little emotional manipulation if it meant finding out what was going on behind that stony façade of his. ‘But you see it’s going to niggle away at me for days.’ She bit her lip and frowned. ‘And now I think about it, maybe I do deserve an explanation.’

Leo arched an eyebrow. ‘In return for your silence?’

She tsked and grinned. ‘You make it sound like blackmail.’

‘Isn’t it?’

‘Not at all. It’s a simple clarification of the facts for the purposes of moving forward.’

He tilted his head, his smile deepening a little. ‘Fair enough. Jet lag doesn’t suit me.’