In the Market for Love (6 page)

“So what’s your home number?” she asked.

“No, it’s impossi
ble to catch me at home so use the mobile number,” he explained. “We’re always out and about, Connor and I.”

She frowned.
“So who looks after Connor after school?”

“Kate,
the nanny, mostly.”

It was true there was a nanny but often Bianca looked after Connor after school.

He had to tell Rachel now.

Jake opened his mouth to speak. He had to choose his
words carefully but he was well aware that with the slightest slip Rachel would jump to the wrong conclusion. If he phrased it badly she’d stop listening and walk out on him. He had no doubt about that.

“Jake, my man, long time no see,” boomed a gruff voice from behind him.

He turned to see the red face of a middle-aged man in a business suit, and quickly took to his feet. It was one of Marcus’ clients and he couldn’t possibly let him sit down with them. He’d have to steer him away or they’d never get rid of him.

Client or not, the man’s timing could not have been worse. If it had been a long time since they’d seen each other, there was probably a very good reason.
What’s more, the guy was clearly drunk.

“How’s Marcus doing?”
He slurred his words. “You know, we should get together for lunch some day, the three of us.”

Jake
stepped forward. “You look like you’ve had a big one, mate.”

“How did you guess? We’ve been pa
rtying since lunch time.”

“Might be time to get going, don’t you think?”

“But you haven’t even introduced me to your friend. The little lady over there’s your friend, isn’t she?”

The drunk man leaned across, lost his balance and nearly landed on Rachel except Jake grabbed his arm and swung him back. Beer spilled from the man’s glass onto her.

He reached across to wipe it off her leg. “S-sorry, miss.”

“Don’t worry about it.
” Rachel pushed the man’s hand off her damp pants. “It’s only beer.”

A look of gratitude washed over her face as Jake pulled
him away from her.

“I think you’v
e had enough, mate,’ Jake said

“Geez, I
dunno. I didn’t think I’d had that much…”

*          *          *

Rachel couldn’t make out Jake’s words but she heard the suede of his voice turn to gravel as laid his hand on the man’s shoulder and walked him back to the bar. The drunk guy appeared to be explaining or apologising, gesticulating with his hands and nodding.

She
took a sip of wine then put her glass down as she didn’t want to drink any more. Suddenly everything changed. In truth, the man hadn’t spilt much of his drink on her but he’d made her realise she didn’t want to be surrounded by drunks and she didn’t know what she was doing at a bar.

Jake was taking her out of her comfort zone
. It wasn’t the boozy old fellow. He was just a drunk. But he made her see she should stop fooling herself. A man like Jake was more than she could handle. He was too clever and would devour her.

And she’
d be hurt, abandoned, devastated. She couldn’t let it happen again.

She stood and wa
ited until Jake came back to their seats.

“Rachel, you’re not going are you?”
He leaned closer and placed one hand on her forearm, letting it slip down to her fingers in a gentle caress. “Don’t worry about that guy. He won’t be back.”

Though outw
ardly calm, on the inside she was collapsing, all because he’d touched her. There was a sudden wave inside her, a tidal wave, and she felt herself being swept away with it. If this was the effect of him holding her hand, what would happen if things went further? She’d be completely swept away by the undertow. This had to stop now.

“It’s not that,” she said.
“I have to go now.”

She
had one chance to escape or she’d lose herself completely. She grabbed her fine linen jacket, crushing it recklessly, and bounded out of the room.

Jake followed, calling her name.

She made it down a narrow laneway to the car park and as she fumbled with her keys, she dropped her jacket onto the pavement.

Turning, she looked down at the spot where her jacket had
been but Jake had scooped it up. He reached across at the same time as she leant forward and their faces nearly collided.

In a k
iss that was barely there, his lips brushed against hers in the most wonderful accident in the world. Perhaps not even a kiss.

Their mouths had swept across each other but there may have been neither intent nor desire behind it. It was a moment of whimsy that lay somewhere between action and nothingness.

For a moment they stood still and the world stood still with them. There was no movement, not a single motion as they stood in the cool evening air.

Rachel’s mouth fell open
, her lower lip trembling. Jake, meanwhile, was a as inscrutable and unreadable as ever. His face betrayed no hint of emotion or desire. His eyes lingered on her face but any longing in them was hidden by their dark depths.

She felt a satiny swell
rising up inside and savoured this rivulet of yearning. She didn’t know what had happened, whether there was purpose in his movement or whether it was an accident caused by the sudden turning of their heads.

She didn’t know if it had been a kiss but she knew it was tantalising and promising and she savoured the
delicious thrill of the moment.

It had been a long time since any man had had that effect on her and as much as it was intoxicating, it was also frightening.
He tilted his head towards hers. She flinched and lifted her hands between them.

Jake’s shoulders dropped
and his lips curled into the seductive smile of a man so powerful he could capture his prey or release it.

He could consume her if he wished or he could let her down with ease.

“Your jacket,” he said.

Rachel
lowered her gaze. “Thank you.”

The words seemed so trite, so ordinary. They didn’t do justice to the charge
she felt between them. Maybe she was the only one who felt it.

She took her jacket
and stepped to one side to unlock her car.

The moment was gone.

She had put a barrier between them and rejected him even before she was sure he’d made an advance. With a single movement, she ensured it was over before they’d had a chance to begin. The gesture, so defensive and premature, had clearly put Jake off.

Yet, however she tried to convince herself otherwise, a single thought cut through her with crystal clear clarity.

A man like Jake Austin. Handsome. Powerful. Successful. If he’d wanted to kiss her, sweep her into his arms or take her completely, he would not have let anything stand in his way.

If he’d wanted her.

Jake fixed his dark eyes on Rachel. “This is the right time to change things if you’re not happy with them. Although I think the work Marcus has done so far is excellent.”

The sound of his voice made her jump
. There were many things she’d like to change and none of them were relevant to the campaign. She shifted in her chair and pushed her hair behind her ears, biding a few more moments. They were at a meeting. She had to concentrate.

“The roughs look promising but I’d like to take
them away so we can think about it a bit longer,” she said.

“Certainly,” he said.
“But your gut reaction is more important. With a campaign like this one, it’s better to follow your instincts and not over analyse things too much.”

“Hmmm.” Rachel nodded but her voice came out as a throaty croak. He was talking about the campaign
, wasn’t he?

“I’ll get you some water.”

He poured a tall glass of cold water and stood to pass it to her across the boardroom table. Their fingers overlapped as he did so, the sudden touch sending a nervous charge through her.

He’d taken off
his jacket and wore a pale blue patterned shirt, the top button undone exposing the small V of tanned skin at the top of his chest. The sleeves were rolled up, the burnished gold of his watch striking against the bronzed skin of his arms.

All she
had to do was keep her mind on the job. And away from his physical attributes. It sounded so simple.

With Jake Austin sitting across from her at the boardroom table, she didn’t even notice the sweeping harbour views or the contemporary elegance of the room. She was having trouble concentrating on the concept roughs for the campaign.

Her mind was on only one thing. Jake.

Clearly, his mind
wasn’t a molten mass of conflicting, surging thought and emotion as hers was. He was focussed, business-like and professional.

“Is everything okay?” he
asked.

“Absolutely.” Rachel nodded keenly, gesticulating
rather too enthusiastically.

Hi
s face was like a sculpture. With a strong bone structure and high cheek bones, he was extremely handsome and there was also something that made him look a little dangerous. It was his dark eyes, deep set with thick eyebrows. They gave away no inkling of emotion, no hint of what might be going on beneath them.

His mouth was s
o different from the hard, well-defined features of the rest of his face. His mouth was soft and lush. That’s how it had felt when his lips brushed against hers the other night. Barely there, she wasn’t sure it was even a kiss, just an accident.

This uncertainty had been an infliction on Rachel for two days, one she thought would be solved by seeing Jake. She would look at him and know. Yet seeing him had only raised more questions.

Running out on him after one drink was such a childish thing to do. Of course he had to chase after her to make sure she was alright after his associate had spilt his drink on her. And handing back her jacket was the polite thing to do. He could hardly do that at their next meeting, letting their colleagues know they’d been out together.

Clearly
, sustaining the interest of someone like herself was not the kind of challenge Jake Austin was after. If there was any chance he might have been interested in her, she had put him off.

“T
he final concepts will look much more professional than these roughs,” he said. “Take them away and think about them. We can discuss it at the next meeting.”

“I think Marcus h
as done a great job,” Samantha said, a glimmer in her eyes.

Samantha went to pour herself a glass of water from the refreshments tray in the centre of the table but as she lifted the
jug, it was empty.

“I’ll get you
a glass of water,” Marcus said. “We might even have some mineral water out in the kitchen.”

He held
Samantha’s gaze as he motioned towards the boardroom door. “I’m not sure exactly what we’ve got. Why don’t you come with me and take a look.”

“Stretching my le
gs for a bit would do me good,” she said.

“Okay,
we’ll wind up the meeting after you get back,” Jake said.

Marcus smiled, a
puppy dog expression washing across his face, as he rose to pull back Samantha’s chair and usher her to the door.

The
boardroom door closed behind them. Rachel’s eyes remained fixed on the papers spilling out of her folder. One simple movement could betray her. Then Jake would see through her polite exterior to the surging torrent of desire he had created in her.

She was alone with him
.

*          *          *

Marcus opened the bar fridge in the agency’s kitchenette. “If you’re after a cold drink, we’ve got Coke, cold water and Perrier.”

“A Perrier would be
lovely thanks,” Samantha said.

“Help yourself.
” Marcus pointed inside the fridge. “It’s at the back.”

Just as he’
d thought, Samantha Webb’s backside looked beautifully inviting as she reached into the fridge. The rest of her looked pretty good too. Her top had ridden up exposing the bare skin of her hips above the waistband of her pants. He knew he shouldn’t be so blatant but he simply couldn’t help himself.

Closing the fridge door, she turned to face him. She looked good from all angles.

She pressed her pale hair behind those pretty little ears. “May I have a glass please.”

Marcus
opened a couple of cupboards before reaching across for a tea towel to dry a glass from the dish drainer.

“How very domesticated,
” she said.

“No, not at all. I’ve got a cleaning lady
at home. But I can stretch to doing the dishes occasionally.”