Mills & Boon Modern Romance Collection: February 2015. Кэрол Мортимер
listed all the reasons why we no longer need such big IT departments in our offices around the world, most especially in London. A drop-in workforce is, I’m afraid, inevitable. It’s just a question now of deciding who is or who isn’t expendable.’
And they both knew that Colin worked in the IT department of the London offices of Midas Enterprises! ‘That’s despicable.’ Andy was incredulous.
‘I know,’ Darius drawled. ‘And I feel so bad about it,’ he added insincerely.
Andy glared up at him, not sure if she wanted to punch him on his arrogant nose or just slap his face. Either way she knew it would give her only a fleeting sense of satisfaction. Nor was it an action that Darius would leave unpunished—and possibly by deciding that Colin was definitely expendable at Midas Enterprises.
‘Colin is a real person, with financial responsibilities,’ she snapped. ‘He’s not some toy you can play with just to get your own way.’
Darius shrugged. ‘Then stop being difficult.’
She eyed him scathingly. ‘Are you really so desperate to secure a date for Saturday evening that you would resort to blackmail?’
‘I’m not desperate at all.’ His humour had faded as quickly as it appeared, his eyes now hard, his mouth a thin, uncompromising line. ‘And I don’t want a date with just anyone, Miranda. I want a date with you.’
She eyed him impatiently. ‘Is this because I said no to you last week? Because no woman is allowed to say no to the imperious Darius Sterne? Are you so arrogant, so full of your own importance, that—’ Andy’s insulting tirade was brought to an abrupt halt as she felt herself pulled effortlessly into Darius’s arms before his mouth came crashing down to capture hers.
It was by no means a gentle or exploratory kiss; it was more like being swept along on a tidal wave as his mouth devoured hers, his arms about her waist moulding her softness against the hardness of his chest and thighs, as his tongue now stroked, caressed, the soft sensitivity of her parted lips, before plunging into the moist heat of her mouth.
Andy was totally overwhelmed by the onslaught of desire that coursed through her as her hands moved up his chest and grasped onto his shoulders, before her fingers became entangled in the silky dark thickness of hair at his nape as she moved up onto her toes to return the heat of that kiss.
She was totally aware of the sensitivity, the arousal of her breasts, as her engorged nipples rubbed against the abrasive material of his coat. Only the thin material of her leotard and Darius’s trousers stood between the hardness of his thighs and the heat that now burned between her own thighs.
Darius was breathing hard when he finally broke the kiss, his eyes the colour of dark amber as he continued to hold her in his arms as he looked down at her. ‘That’s the reason I’m willing to use blackmail in order to get you to agree to go to this dinner with me on Saturday evening.’
Andy felt light-headed as she gazed up at him, and she realised that was because she had forgotten to breathe for the duration of that punishing kiss. A kiss she inwardly acknowledged she hadn’t wanted to end.
What was wrong with her? This man had been nothing but arrogant and pushy since she first met him. To the point that he was now trying to blackmail her into going out with him on Saturday evening, and using Colin’s job as leverage to do so.
Damn it, she wasn’t even sure she liked the man.
Did she have to like him in order to be aroused by him?
Obviously not, if the heat of desire that still consumed her was an indication.
She moistened her slightly bruised lips with the tip of her tongue before answering him, instantly wishing she hadn’t, as she tasted Darius on her lips: a heady mixture of warm honey and desire. She gave a determined shake of her head in an effort to dispel the fog of desire that seemed to have taken over her brain. ‘Will the press be there?’
‘What?’ Darius had absolutely no idea what she was talking about.
If he was honest, at the moment he had no idea what day of the week it was. Kissing Miranda had been so much more than he had been expecting. So much more intense than anything he had ever felt with any other woman.
She frowned. ‘Will any of the press be there on Saturday evening?’
‘Oh.’ He nodded, his brows clearing. ‘Only those officially invited by my mother.’
‘Your mother?’
Darius slowly, reluctantly, released Miranda before stepping back.
Before he did something stupid, like kissing her again; just that once was enough to tell him that the desire he had been feeling for her this past week had been the tip of an iceberg. That he wanted so much more from Miranda than just a kiss. And that now, when she was still so determined to resist him, as well as tired and hot from a long day at work, wasn’t the right time for the long, slow seduction he had in mind.
Running his hand through the tousled thickness of his hair made him instantly recall the way Miranda’s slender fingers had been entangled in it just minutes ago. ‘It’s one of my mother’s pet charities,’ he dismissed huskily. ‘As president of that charity, she’s also the main organiser.’
As far as Andy was concerned, this whole situation had become slightly surreal.
All of it. Darius’s initial and unexpected appearance at her studio. His invitation to the charity dinner. His having resorted to using blackmail in order to force her into accepting that invitation. A charity dinner, Darius had now informed her, that was being organised by his own mother!
‘Isn’t introducing me to your mother a little too cosy and intimate for you?’ Andy taunted to hide how disturbed she was from the kiss they had just shared. Her legs were still feeling slightly shaky, her breasts an aching, unfulfilled throb.
A reaction, an arousal, that warned her against spending any more time in this man’s company than she had to. That warned she certainly shouldn’t agree to accompany him to this charity dinner on Saturday.
Except Andy already knew she was going to say yes.
Because Darius had blackmailed her into accepting?
Or was the real reason because she secretly wanted to go out with him on Saturday evening, and it was just easier and less complicated—and less of a challenge to her inner warnings to do the opposite—to let Darius continue thinking she was only agreeing to go out with him because he had forced her to do so?
Andy had the next forty-eight hours, until she saw Darius again, to decide which of those it was.
Although she had a feeling she already knew the answer to that question.
She had been mesmerised by this man from the moment she first looked at him across the restaurant a week ago, even more so later that evening when he came over and spoke to her in the club, before insisting she danced with him. Since then Andy knew she hadn’t been able to get Darius, and the sexual magnetism he exuded so confidently, out of her mind.
Despite all her efforts to the contrary.
She felt that magnetism all the deeper now that he had kissed her.
Darius now gave a scathing snort. ‘There is nothing in the least cosy or intimate about my mother!’
Andy looked up at him searchingly as she heard the harshness of his tone. A curiosity Darius met with a blank stare, his eyes giving away none of his inner thoughts or emotions, just as the blandness of his expression revealed none of his outer ones, either.
She gave a grimace. ‘You obviously don’t really want to go to the dinner either, so why bother going?’
Darius looked away, only to be bombarded with dozens of reflections of the two of them from the mirrored walls, he standing tall and dark before a much slighter and fairer Miranda.
His