Taken by the Boss. Кэрол Мортимер
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isn’t,’ Marcus assured her. ‘At least, I hope he isn’t!’ he added frowningly. ‘You don’t think I’m like Mike Reynolds, do you?’
This conversation had taken an extremely strange turn as far as Kit was concerned—one she would rather not pursue!
‘I’ve never thought about it,’ she responded airily.
‘I bet you haven’t,’ he returned, obviously not at all happy with the conversation himself now.
Kit closed her eyes, a little smile playing about her lips, as her last vision of Marcus was a most disgruntled expression as he struggled with the concept of there being any sort of comparison between himself and a man he obviously despised.
Not that there was, of course. But it wouldn’t hurt to leave Marcus with that thought, anyway. It was certainly better than discussing her personal life!
As it was she had told him a lot more about herself, and her parents, than she had really intended doing. But, with any luck, that was the end of the subject…
‘Sure I can’t persuade you into letting me drive you to Cornwall?’ Marcus pressed once he had parked his car outside her apartment building.
‘Positive.’ She pushed open the car door and got out. ‘If I get a move on I’ll be able to make the afternoon train,’ she told him as he got out of the car too in order to take her bag out of the boot.
‘This is goodbye, then.’ Marcus stood beside her on the pavement.
Kit gave an incredulous laugh. ‘Hardly, when I’ll be seeing you in the office on Tuesday morning!’
‘Not the same,’ he said. ‘I very much doubt you’ll be strolling around the office in a bikini!’
‘Very funny!’ she replied, not at all happy with the way her cheeks flushed fiery red at his teasing.
‘I wasn’t trying to be funny, Kit,’ he said quietly, dark blue gaze staring intently into hers.
‘Well, you succeeded, anyway,’ she told him, wishing she could break the intensity of that gaze, but knowing she couldn’t, that it was simply beyond her at this moment.
How she loved this man! How she would love to accept his invitation to dinner, to drive her to Cornwall; anything to spend more time with him.
But ultimately she would only end up hurting herself more than she already had; despite the attraction that had flared up between them briefly this weekend, she knew she simply wasn’t Marcus’s type, and never would be.
‘Kit, you have the most amazingly beautiful eyes I have ever seen,’ he murmured gruffly, his gaze even more intense. ‘Dark and soft, like grey velvet.’
Kit moistened her lips nervously, wishing—
‘Don’t do that!’ he ground out suddenly, his gaze focused on her mouth now. ‘Do you have any idea how provocative that is?’ he groaned before his head bent and his mouth took fierce possession of hers.
She hadn’t, no. But she did now!
Once again she melted as soon as Marcus’s lips touched hers, both his hands cradling the sides of her face as he kissed her with searching passion, sipping and tasting, plundering, possessing.
Kit was aware only of Marcus as she clung to him, of the thrust of desire coursing through them both as her fingers tightly gripped the warm strength of his shoulders, of—
‘Wow!’ came an amused voice. ‘Is that really you, Kit?’
Kit pulled sharply away from Marcus as she easily recognized that voice, turning to look at Penny as her flatmate came down the steps of their apartment building, dressed for her usual Saturday afternoon game of tennis with her fiancé, Roger.
‘Penny!’ Kit greeted lightly, almost afraid to look at Marcus after the desire that had blazed between them so suddenly.
And completely. How was she going to be able to work with Marcus day after day after this, when all she really wanted was to lose herself in his arms, to forget everything else but the fierce attraction they seemed to share?
‘Penny…?’ Marcus looked at Kit enquiringly.
‘My flatmate,’ Kit revealed with a certain amount of reluctance, knowing by the slight smile of satisfaction that suddenly curved his lips that Marcus really had nurtured the idea that her flatmate might be male! ‘Penny Lyon. Marcus Maitland,’ she introduced stiffly, knowing that Penny needed no explanation as to who and what Marcus was.
Although her friend could just be wondering what Kit was doing kissing her boss out in the middle of the street! Could just be wondering? Penny would no doubt demand the full story as soon as she had Kit on her own again!
The problem with that was that Kit had no idea what the full story was where she and Marcus were concerned. Marcus seemed to be acquiring the habit of just taking her in his arms and kissing her whenever he felt like it. And it would be useless to deny that she responded to those kisses. But was there any more to it than that? As far as Kit was concerned, there was, but she had no idea what Marcus’s motivation was.
Except that he seemed to like kissing her…
‘I had a feeling that’s who you were,’ Penny told Marcus as the two of them shook hands. ‘You’re back early.’ She looked enquiringly at Kit. ‘I was expecting you to be away the whole weekend…?’
‘Change of plan, I’m afraid,’ Marcus was the one to answer Penny smoothly. ‘We aren’t delaying you from an appointment, are we?’ he prompted with a pointed look at the tee shirt and the long display of bare leg beneath the shorts Penny was wearing in preparation for her game of tennis.
‘Not in the least—but I can take a hint!’ Penny replied laughingly.
‘My dear, Miss Lyon—Penny?—I can assure you that if I wanted to be alone with Kit then I would just say so,’ Marcus said.
‘I had a feeling you might,’ Penny acknowledged wryly. ‘I’ll see you later, Kit?’
She gave a thankful shake of her head; she needed to get her own thoughts about this weekend into some sort of order before subjecting herself to Penny’s obvious interest in finding her kissing Marcus! ‘I’m going to see my parents this afternoon,’ she explained economically. ‘I’ll be back late tomorrow.’
‘I’ll look forward to it,’ Penny assured her. ‘Nice to meet you, Mr Maitland,’ she added warmly.
‘Marcus,’ he insisted. ‘Nice to meet you too, Penny.’
A smile remained on his lips only long enough for Penny to get into her car and drive away with a friendly wave of her hand.
At which time he looked down at Kit with accusing eyes. ‘Yesterday you deliberately let me think your flatmate was a man.’
‘I did not,’ Kit defended. ‘I simply didn’t say one way or the other.’
‘Exactly,’ he sighed impatiently. ‘But you knew I had assumed it was a man.’
‘I knew no such thing!’ she denied calmly. ‘If you chose to think that, then—’
‘Kit, why are we arguing again?’ He winced. ‘The last thing I want to do at this moment is argue with you!’
One look at his face, at the glitter of intent in his blue gaze as it fixed on the pouting softness of her mouth, was enough to tell her what he did want to do with her!
But they simply couldn’t continue to behave in this way, not if they were to continue working together. A break away from each other, to get things back into perspective, was exactly what they needed.
‘I really do have to go, Marcus,’ she told him after a glance at her wrist-watch. ‘My train leaves in just under an hour,’ she added pointedly.
He drew in a sharply