Say It With Diamonds (6 page)

‘It’s pouring.’

‘I had noticed,’ she said, aiming for withering but finding withering annoyingly hard to do when her hair was plastered to her face, her arms ached from trying to protect her head
with her weighty equipment case and her feet squelched in her boots.

‘So get in the car and I’ll take you home.’

‘I’m happy to take the Tube.’ Bella sniffed and planted her feet a little deeper into the moral high ground. ‘Besides I wouldn’t want to put you to any more trouble.’

Good. That was better. This time she
had
managed to inject a trace of sarcasm into her voice, she thought with a surge of satisfaction. Not that it appeared to be having any effect on him whatsoever, judging by the blinding smile he flashed at her.

‘You wouldn’t be putting me to any trouble. In fact you’d be doing me a favour.’

Another one? ‘How?’ she said archly, even more irritated by the way her stomach flipped like a pancake at his smile.

‘You’d be saving me a phone call.’

So now he was stingy as well as rude? Just as well she didn’t want to have anything to do with him. ‘Fabulous.’

The smile turned into a broad grin, as if he was perfectly aware of her mood and completely unfazed by it, and Bella scowled.

‘I’d like to apologise for abandoning you at the bank like that,’ he said smoothly. ‘Preferably in the privacy of the car, although I’m perfectly happy to do it on the pavement if you really have something against accepting a lift.’

Oh. Bella blinked and stared at him, feeling herself begin to waver as her indignation receded a little both at the smile and the look of sincerity on his face.

Hmm. Right. Well. If he wanted to apologise, who was she to argue? It was the least she deserved. But as for making him do it on the pavement, well, while part of her quite wanted him to get the drenching she had, another part of her pointed out that if she kept on refusing to get into his car she’d
sound like an idiot and Will would be perfectly justified in wondering if she wasn’t protesting just a bit too much.

Besides she was soaking and shivering and the moral high ground was getting soggier by the second. The Tube would be steamy and crowded and horrible, and here she was being presented with a lovely warm, dry alternative.

There wasn’t really any contest, she thought, lowering her case and dashing towards Will’s car. She might have lost most of her mind this afternoon, but it hadn’t yet gone completely.

‘I’ll ruin your upholstery,’ she muttered as he opened the door, unashamedly wishing she were a whole lot wetter so she could really do some damage.

He ran his gaze over her and, dammit, if her body didn’t burn at his slow leisurely perusal. ‘Not a problem in the slightest,’ he said with another of those devastatingly sexy grins. ‘Fair’s fair, after all.’

Five minutes later Will was beginning to wish that he’d never spotted Bella on the pavement. His intentions might have started out all chivalrous and noble, but they were rapidly galloping in entirely the opposite direction.

The surge of triumphant satisfaction that had shot through him when she’d finally given in and slid into the car had long since vanished beneath a heat and a need that he’d thought he’d eradicated.

Eradicated? Yeah, right. How he could have been so foolishly naïve to have thought
that
he had no idea. The minute she’d slammed the door and started peeling off her clothes every inch of him had leapt to attention, pulsating with an awareness that he couldn’t ignore, however much he’d like to.

Bella’s case sat on the floor of the car that up until now he’d always considered to be quite spacious. Next to it lay her boots, which she’d unzipped and eased off a moment ago
revealing shapely ankles and slim calves. She’d wiggled her toes and sighed in the kind of satisfied way that had Will instantly imagining a dozen other scenarios in which she might be sighing in a satisfied way.

Now she was unknotting the belt of her coat and undoing the buttons and he had to curl his hands into fists to stop himself reaching out and helping her. Every movement she made sent a waft of her scent up his nostrils and frazzled his brain. She ran her fingers through her hair and shook her head back a little and it made him think of hot steamy showers and slick wet skin.

As she twisted her hair into a thick dark rope her elbow briefly brushed against his shoulder and for one sizzling moment he thought he’d been electrocuted. His entire body burned as if it had gone up in flames and his heart practically stopped.

Will stifled a groan and with mammoth effort switched his gaze to the shops sliding by. He might have decided he wasn’t going to pursue Bella but his body, stiffening and tightening and aching all over, clearly hadn’t got the message.

Gritting his teeth as he forced down the desire he really ought not to be feeling, he dragged his mind back to his original intentions and cleared his throat. ‘I am sorry for leaving you alone like that,’ he said, forcing himself to glance over at her. ‘It was unforgivable. I don’t know what came over me.’

Bella arched an eyebrow and flashed him a look that suggested she could think of a few things. ‘Did you solve the mystery of who’s been messing around with the jewellery?’

‘I did.’

‘And?’

‘Turns out my aunt has a few … issues … but it’s a long and not particularly exciting story,’ he said, deliberately vaguely because, while he might be prepared to apologise for
his
failings,
he hadn’t lost his mind to the extent that he’d go into Caroline’s.

Bella went still and stared at him, her eyes widening. In the dim light inside the car he could make out the raindrops that still clung to her eyelashes and the flush on her cheeks from the stinging wind and it made his pulse hammer, despite his efforts to stop it. ‘Caroline is your aunt?’

Will nodded. ‘My father’s younger sister. Older than she looks. Why? Who did you think she was?’

‘I had no idea,’ said Bella frostily. ‘You didn’t introduce her.’

‘No. I’m sorry about that too.’

She shot him a look that he felt right in the pit of his stomach, and then nodded briefly. ‘Apologies accepted.’

And didn’t that make him feel absurdly relieved?

‘How long did you wait?’ he muttered, wondering what it was about her in particular that got to him and why he was finding it so difficult to think straight.

‘Longer than I should have,’ she said, glaring at him for a second then folding her arms over her chest, crossing her legs and sitting back.

Will rubbed a hand along his jaw, rapidly coming to the conclusion that, contrary to his earlier self-assurances, at some point over the last ten minutes he
had
actually lost his mind. Up until now he’d never considered himself to be much of a masochist but now he thought he might have to reassess his opinion. Because Bella, with her flashing eyes and pouty mouth and general air of stroppiness, was seriously turning him on.

He glanced over at her and his blood heated. If it hadn’t been such a cliché and if he hadn’t thought she’d slap him, he’d have told her she looked beautiful when she was angry. And sexy.

And as for her mouth, he thought, his gaze dipping to it,
well, that was something else. His body tightened and his pulse hammered as the overwhelming need to know what it felt like, what it tasted like, spun through him.

‘Where would you like me to drop you?’ he said, his voice sounding strangely hoarse as he battled to bring his body under some sort of control.

‘My shop would be fine,’ she said coolly. ‘I live above it.’

‘How convenient.’

‘It is.’

‘How long have you had it?’

‘Seven years.’

During which she’d made quite a name for herself, according to Alex who’d heard it from Phoebe. ‘Bella Scott’ was apparently
the
place to go if you wanted a unique and unusual piece of jewellery designed.

‘What’s Bella short for?’ he asked in the vague hope that inane small talk might detract him from thinking about how unique and unusual she was and how much he’d like to haul her into his arms and kiss the life out of her.

‘What?’ She blinked and stared at him.

‘Your name. What’s it short for?’

She bristled. ‘What does that have to do with anything?’

‘I’m interested.’

She hmmed. Then lifted her chin and sniffed. ‘Belladonna, if you must know.’

Will felt his eyebrows shoot up as a smile curved his mouth. ‘Unusual.’

‘Yes, well, unfortunately my mother has a long-standing obsession with homoeopathy.’

She didn’t sound as if she thought much of that particular occupation and he fought back a grin. ‘And actually remarkably apt.’

Bella frowned and glared at him. ‘You think I’m deadly?’
she said, the tone of her voice leaving him in no doubt about what she thought of
that
.

‘I think you’re beautiful,’ he said, wondering what on earth he was doing but finding it hard to care given the way his resolve was disintegrating beneath the overwhelming pressure of wanting her.

Her reaction to his words was unexpectedly dramatic, the change in her palpable. For a moment there was utter silence. Then she let out a shuddery little sigh, her whole body softening and Will felt the slow beat of desire start up inside him as he realised with relief that she wasn’t going to slap him.

In fact he got the heady feeling that she was going to do the opposite. He watched her swallow hard, her eyes beginning to sparkle and gleam in the inky darkness of the car. He could feel the heat radiating off her body, caught the flicker of interest leaping in the depths of her eyes and heard the almost imperceptible quickening of her breathing. Her tongue darted out to wet her lips and his gaze lingered on her mouth, lust whipping along his veins and tiny fires igniting in the pit of his stomach.

The atmosphere in the back of the car instantly thickened and vibrated and Will couldn’t resist any longer. ‘Although you’re pretty deadly too,’ he added softly. ‘You’re certainly killing me.’

‘Am I?’

‘You know you are.’

‘Sorry.’

‘Really?’

‘No.’ A slow seductive smile spread across her face and Will’s pulse raced at the hot knowing look that appeared in her eye.

So Bella wasn’t fling material. So he shouldn’t go there. But what was one kiss? One simple harmless little kiss. It wasn’t as if he’d let things get out of control or anything. And
he was willing to bet everything he had that she longed to know what it would feel like as much as he did.

With his head spinning and his heart pounding Will leaned forward and pressed the button that connected the back of the car to the front. ‘Bob?’

‘Yes, sir?’ came the tinny voice.

‘Back to where we came from, please. And take a circuitous route.’

As the partition separating them from Bob swished up Will turned to her, every inch of his body straining with desire.

‘I’m flattered you enjoy my company so much,’ Bella said, her voice sounding all husky and breathy as she stared at him.

Will reached out to take a lock of her hair and wound it around his fingers. His knuckles brushed against her cheek and he felt her shudder. ‘Not just your company,’ he murmured, tugging her slowly, irrevocably towards him.

CHAPTER FIVE

B
ELLA
’
S
last coherent thought as Will’s arm came round her and his head descended was that she was so out of her depth she might as well be sinking to the bottom of the Atlantic with lead weights attached to her ankles.

The minute she’d got into his dry warm car, his eyes had been on her every movement and any control she’d felt, any spurious inch of moral high ground she might have occupied, had vanished.

How she’d managed to peel off her sopping clothes with such shaking hands and trembling fingers she had no idea. When her elbow had accidentally brushed his shoulder she’d nearly leapt off the seat, so strong had been the electric charge that coursed through her body. The heat and attraction and need that had then gripped her had been so overwhelming, so alarming that she’d felt she had to cling onto her indignation as some kind of defence against him.

Ha. Defence? It was becoming pretty clear that she had absolutely no defence against Will. He’d told her he thought she was beautiful and that had been that. The last smidgeon of resentment still bouncing around inside her had evaporated and she’d crumbled.

Somewhere in the hazy fog of desire that had replaced her brain she was dimly aware that she was once more being skilfully manoeuvred. Not that her melting, quivering body
seemed to care. No. One touch, and her fickle body decided that the more skilfully Will wanted to manoeuvre her, the better.

Bella stared at him, her mouth going dry and her heart beginning to gallop. Her breathing shallowed as if he’d stolen her oxygen and at his heat, his scent, his proximity and the intensity of the look in his eyes, her insides liquefied.

She held her breath as his head moved lower, closer. His scent engulfed her and she went dizzy. Her mouth actually watered. The slow steady beat of desire began to drum through her and something inside her melted.

She’d spent every second since she’d met him desperate to find out what he tasted like, and it had been driving her nuts. Frankly, she was through with guessing. And through with waiting.

It was only a kiss, after all, and how could one little kiss hurt? She’d had countless kisses and none of them had ever hurt. Why should this one be any different?

Bella parted her lips, felt their breaths mingle for a second and then she moved forwards and settled her mouth on his.

She felt him jolt. Tense a little, and she wondered if he’d jerk back. But he didn’t, so she closed her eyes, ran her tongue along his lower lip, revelling in its firmness and heat, then slid inside.

And immediately lost all sense of reality.

Sensations cascaded through her as she gave up to the deliciousness of his mouth. Liquid fire replaced the blood in her veins. Pounding desire filled every cell of her body and her insides began to quiver.