Boardroom To Bedroom: His Darling Valentine / The Boss's Marriage Arrangement. PENNY JORDAN
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words didn’t just sting Matt’s pride raw, they blew a large hole in his good intentions as well as shattering them into nothing. A ruthless determination swept over him, swamping everything else.
‘You’ve just said that you aren’t in love with Ben—I’m giving you an opportunity to prove it.’
There was a small suspenseful pause.
‘If you don’t take it then I’ll know that you are lying,’ Matt finished coldly.
Harriet looked at him, wondering how on earth she had ever got into such a mess.
‘No one will ever believe that you and I are dating.’
‘Then it will be up to us to convince them, won’t it?’ Matt said smoothly. ‘The choice is yours!’
‘Some choice,’ Harriet muttered, adding fiercely, ‘Why are you doing this?’
Her throat felt raw, the backs of her eyes stung, and her chest hurt, as though she were about to come down with a heavy cold. Her physical reactions weren’t caused by a physical virus, though, but an emotional one.
‘I’m doing it to stop you causing disruption and discord in my business. Besides, I should have thought that if you genuinely don’t love Ben, as you claim, then you’d jump at the chance to prove it— and to give Ben and Cindi a chance to find happiness together,’ Matt reiterated curtly.
No way could he tell her that he was doing it purely and simply because he wanted any excuse to be with her…
‘What was all that about?’
Harriet gave a nervous look over her shoulder as Ben came up to her at the water cooler.
‘What…what do you mean?’ she hedged.
‘What did Matt want? You were in there for ages, and when you came out you looked…’
For a moment she was tempted to tell him, but before she could say anything she heard Matt saying smoothly behind her, ‘Have you told Ben about us yet, darling?’
Harriet almost dropped the cup of water she was holding, but she suspected that the shock on her face was nothing to the stupefaction on Ben’s as Matt came between them.
‘Harry?’ Ben questioned incredulously.
‘You’re trembling. I hope that’s because of me,’ Matt was murmuring against her ear as he relieved her of the paper cup she had all but crushed by sliding one hand around her waist to turn her towards him and removing the cup with the other.
Ben was positively goggling at them, his mouth half open and a look of total shock on his face.
‘You mean, you two are…?’ He shook his head.
‘We certainly are,’ Matt assured him calmly. ‘In fact we very much are—aren’t we, Harriet?’
The look he was giving her was practically a physical caress in itself, Harriet recognised weakly, and her wretched body was certainly responding to it as though it were.
Ben obviously hadn’t missed the high octane sensuality of the smoky look Matt was giving her, because suddenly he started to frown—an expression that Harriet recognised all too well.
Ben was her friend, but he was also male, and as such he had always taken a very brotherly and protective attitude towards Harriet where other men were concerned. And right now he was looking at Matt as though he was a suspicious father about to demand to know Matt’s intentions!
‘You never said anything to me!’ he accused Harriet sternly.
‘I asked her not to,’ Matt answered promptly for her.
Somehow the hand which had relieved her of the paper cup was now holding her own, his fingers sliding between hers in a manner so intimate that Harriet was having trouble breathing properly. Her skin tingled, and liquid pleasure shot up her arm like an injection of some kind of sensual drug that locked into her heart.
She had the strongest need not just to move closer to Matt’s body, but also to press herself against him with wanton abandonment.
Wicked images of the two of them alone together somewhere very private filled her head in a dangerously explicit slide show. Matt perching on the edge of a desk, his legs open as he drew her to him to kiss her passionately, whilst her fingers explored the hard muscles of his thigh, her touch making him growl in protest and take her hand and place it on the swollen bulge of his erection. Whilst he was kissing her he would slowly unfasten her top and remove it. His hands would cup her breasts and savour their shape and feel as her tight, erect nipples flaunted their eager hunger for his touch… Abruptly Harriet called her thoughts to order as she heard, ‘But now that things are serious between us it’s different. I don’t care who knows how I feel about Harriet!’
‘Things are serious between you?’ Ben’s frown cleared, leaving him looking both relieved and happy.
CHAPTER TWO
‘HARRIET, I don’t understand you! There’s Matt telling me that things are serious between the two of you and you haven’t said a word! Why not?’
‘Er…well, until he called me into his office I didn’t know that things were serious,’ Harriet explained, mentally justifying her statement by reminding herself that it was the truth after all—if not in the way that Ben would interpret it.
‘Well, once Cindi knows this she’s going to—’
‘Be very relieved,’ Harriet finished firmly for him, adding, ‘If you love her as much as I think you do, Ben, you won’t make an issue of this silly mistake about me. After all, if she didn’t love you she wouldn’t care about my relationship with you, would she?’
‘No… But…’ He gave a small sigh. ‘She had a few days’ holiday to use and she’s gone to see her parents—cooling off time, she called it.’
‘Well, if I were you I’d be waiting for her when she comes back with something very romantic planned.’
‘Yes. I’ll do that.’ He paused, and then said worriedly, ‘Harry, this thing between you and Matt… Don’t rush into…anything, will you? I mean, you haven’t… He hasn’t… And Matt is…’
Oh, yes! Matt most certainly was, Harriet agreed mentally as she told Ben lightly, ‘You worry about your own love life, Ben, and leave me to worry about mine.’
Smiling at him, she leaned forward and kissed his cheek.
Within seconds the phone on her desk rang, and when Harriet picked up the receiver she heard Matt saying coldly, ‘I’ve booked a table for us at the Riverside for nine p.m. I’ll pick you up. And by the way, I thought I’d made it clear there’s only one man you kiss from now on and it isn’t Ben!’
Harriet wanted to tell him that there was no way she intended to have dinner with him, but he had already ended the call. Silently she replaced the receiver. Her head was whirling and her heart was pounding at the thought of what had happened.
Matt had asked her if she wanted people to believe that she was secretly in love with Ben, and of course she didn’t. But the cure he was offering her was far, far more dangerous than the supposed disease!
And how ridiculous it was for him to go to the lengths of taking her out to dinner just to stop her seeing Ben, as she had planned. Her heart gave a funny little jerk as it threw itself against her ribcage. She acknowledged that there was a certain dangerous pleasure in the thought of Matt having the kind of feelings about her that would cause him to feel jealous of her being with another man. Not that he was ever likely to!
The Riverside was the area’s most exclusive hotel, and was run by an ex-TV chef and his model wife. What on earth was she going to wear? And what on earth was she doing worrying about what she was going to wear when she had so much that was far more important to worry about?
Displacement