Boardroom To Bedroom: His Darling Valentine / The Boss's Marriage Arrangement. PENNY JORDAN
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women he normally took out to dinner. Her dress was four years old, a simple basic black crêpe number which up until now she had always felt she looked quite good in. With it she was wearing her one pair of expensive shoes, high-heeled and, if she was honest, just a little bit uncomfortable.
‘Do you live here alone?’ Matt demanded, frowning as he looked up and down the narrow dark lane.
‘Yes, I do,’ Harriet confirmed. ‘I shared with Ben at university, but—’
‘Now he wants his own space?’ Matt broke in, without allowing her to finish.
Angrily Harriet tilted her chin and told him firmly, ‘Actually, I am the one who wanted my own space. And my own washing machine and my own bed!’ she added pithily, remembering how much it had infuriated her to return from a visit somewhere, pre-Cindi, to find that one of Ben’s mates had ‘borrowed’ her bed in her absence.
Matt’s mouth compressed. When was she going to see sense and accept that Ben did not want her?
‘If you’re trying to convince me that you shared Ben’s bed you’re wasting your time,’ he told her angrily.
Immediately Harriet stepped back into the house, but as she reached for the door to turn and slam it Matt guessed what she was about to do and grabbed hold of her wrist.
‘Look, why won’t you face up to the truth? What is it about you that makes it so hard for you to accept that Ben doesn’t want you?’ he demanded brutally.
If she really had loved Ben the way Matt seemed to think she did his words would have been unbelievably hurtful and cruel, Harriet decided. ‘What is it about you that makes you think you’ve got the right to tell me what to do?’ she countered, trying to get her wrist back.
‘I’ve told you what my motivation is,’ Matt answered, refusing to release her.
‘And I’m telling you that you are barking up the wrong tree. I do not love Ben other than as a friend!’
‘How can you say that when—’
‘When what?’ Harriet challenged when Matt suddenly stopped speaking.
‘When you can’t string a sentence together without including his name in it,’ Matt said evasively.
What the hell was happening to him? He had almost blurted out what Ben had told him.
‘We’d better make tracks, otherwise we’ll be late,’ he added curtly.
Harriet glared at him. ‘If you think I’m going to have dinner with you now—’
She gasped as Matt tugged on her wrist and closed the space between them.
‘If you think that you aren’t…’ he retorted softly.
It must be the fact that she was not wearing a coat, coupled with the evening air, that was making her tremble so much, Harriet decided dizzily. But the truth was that it was the musky male scent of Matt’s skin playing havoc with her senses, making her want to bury her face against him and breathe it and him into her. She wanted to burrow against his warmth, she wanted…
A shudder ripped through her, causing Matt to curse under his breath and drag her into his arms, holding her hard against his body as he lifted his hand to cup her face and take possession of her mouth.
Right now, more than anything else, he wanted to take her back into the house, carry her upstairs and remove every piece of clothing from her body so that he could show her just what a fool she was for wasting her time wanting Ben when she could have him. That scent she was wearing was driving him crazy, making him feel so damned horny…
Harriet moaned excitedly beneath the hot, thrilling thrust of his tongue. Her fingers dug into the hardness of his shoulders as pleasure exploded inside her like a firework, showering her with golden starbusts of erotic sensation. She could feel his hand in the thick softness of her hair, his thumb massaging the delicate over-sensitive spot just behind her ear and sending a hot zigzag of female arousal jolting right through her.
Just his touch was enough to activate the kind of ache inside her that she already knew would lead to a sleepless, wanting night.
She might, thanks to Ben’s determined and sometimes unwanted protection, be the oldest virgin in the whole city, but that did not mean that her body didn’t already know how to respond to the sweet hotness of the pleasure that could possess and convulse it.
These last months working for Matt had shown her how easy it was for just the thought of him to activate that pleasure, and right now her over-stimulated senses were clamouring hungrily for the real thing.
‘Why don’t we forget dinner?’
Harriet blinked. How had that happened? How had she said the very words she had just been thinking but in Matt’s voice?
Matt groaned inwardly as he realised how out of control he was getting. ‘Forget I said that!’ he told her tersely.
Forget he had said it?
‘I suppose you thought I was someone else?’ Harriet challenged him angrily.
‘Just as you wish that I was someone else?’ Matt demanded.
Whilst Harriet struggled to regain her composure Matt hurried them both out of her front door and locked it, handing her the keys before he guided her to his parked car.
Harriet was too engrossed in her own thoughts to object to his cavalier control of the situation, along with her door keys. She had wanted Matt to take her to bed! No, Harriet corrected herself. She had wanted to drag Matt upstairs and take him to bed, and she had nearly told him so!
‘Look, there’s no point in you giving me the silent disapproving treatment because I’m not Ben. Try facing up to reality!’
Harriet didn’t trust herself to reply. She just shook her head in silent frustration.
‘Good evening, sir, madam. Would you care for a drink in the bar first? Or would you prefer to go straight to your table?’
Matt looked questioningly at Harriet.
‘Straight to the table, please,’ she answered, ruefully aware that despite everything she was extremely hungry. And she was also extremely aware of the fact that they were being shown to what had to be one of the restaurant’s very best tables, with a little almost private area all to itself. They could see out through the windows over the river and also around the restaurant, if they wished, and yet at the same time retain their own privacy.
Grimly she wondered how many other women Matt had brought here. An awful lot if the way the head waiter had recognised him was anything to go by, surely?
She had barely completed her chain of thought when Matt suddenly announced, ‘I’m surprised that Henri remembered me—it’s ages since I last ate here.’
Harriet almost choked on the delicious walnut roll she was eating.
‘There wasn’t really any need for you to do this, you know,’ she said later, when they had given their order and been served with their food. ‘After all, Ben isn’t going to see us here!’
‘Do you wish he could? Do you think it would make him jealous?’
Harriet exhaled fiercely down her nose and put down the glass of wine she had just picked up.
‘For the last time, I am not in love with Ben. And having him around when I am out on a date is normally the last thing I would want.’ When Matt frowned she told him fiercely, ‘This may come as a shock to you, but the only way I love Ben is as a brother, and it’s as a brother that he behaves when I date anyone—a very over-protective brother at times, and that isn’t always what I want!’ she added darkly.
She stopped as she realised how much the wine had loosened her tongue and just what she was in danger of saying and to whom!
‘In answer to your question, I brought you here to save