Prince's Passion

‘You’ve been counting?’ she interrupted incredulously, angry colour heightening in her cheeks.

‘Don’t worry about it.’ He shrugged. ‘I have that sort of mind. For instance, the man standing beside the fireplace has so far drunk a whole bottle of champagne to himself and is now about to start on another. The brunette at his side is obviously the driver for the evening, has only had three glasses of orange juice, and is obviously very pi—annoyed about it,’ he corrected wryly. ‘The man near the window—’

‘Okay, I get the picture,’ Jinx snapped. ‘But even so…’

‘Even so…?’ Nik prompted softly.

She looked resentful. ‘I’m not sure I like the idea of having someone watching me that closely.’

‘The only way you can stop that is to not be quite so watchable—which, with your face and body, just isn’t going to happen,’ Nik teased her.

She gave him a perplexed frown, obviously not quite sure how to take that last remark, whether to be flattered or insulted by it. In the end, it seemed, she decided to ignore it. ‘Nevertheless, I won’t be requiring your offer of a lift home,’ she dismissed with obvious relief.

Not very flattering to his ego, Nik acknowledged. In fact, Jinx Nixon’s attitude towards him hadn’t exactly been warm all evening. His only consolation was that she hadn’t been warm towards any other man, either!

Apart from perhaps Leo Fellows, their host, Nik corrected himself with an inward frown. The two of them had seemed to be enjoying a flirtatious conversation half an hour or so ago. Could it possibly be that the reason Jinx had arrived here alone this evening was because she was involved in an affair with her best friend’s husband? It wouldn’t be the first time—in fact it was all too common.

Nik found the thought more than slightly unpleasant when made in connection with the beautiful Jinx Nixon—and no matter what she might have told him her name was, he knew that her closest friends called her Jinx.

And that was his plan, wasn’t it? To get close to Jinx, wheedle an introduction to her father, and present him with the contract for movie rights to No Ordinary Boy.

What could be simpler?

Well, Jinx Nixon being a little less beautiful and a whole lot less sexy would have been a help!

He had expected to engage in a little light seduction—it was a dirty job, but someone had to do it!—but finding Jinx Nixon so attractive, his senses roused just inhaling her perfume, and other parts of him roused every time he so much as looked at her, had definitely not been part of that plan…

CHAPTER TWO

‘WHY not?’

Jinx smiled confidently in the face of Nik Prince’s obvious displeasure at having her turn down his offer of a lift home. ‘Susan’s parents live only half a mile away from me and have already offered to drive me home later.’ Although, she had to admit, she had been on the point of forgoing that offer and simply leaving!

She found this man altogether too disturbing, which was why she hadn’t looked his way at all since they’d parted earlier, even though she had been conscious of his every move.

In fact, she had never been this aware of a man in her life before. Of course that awareness was on more than one level. On the surface she was aware of the letters received from Stephens Publishing, on this man’s behalf, requesting a meeting with the author of No Ordinary Boy, in order to discuss acquiring the film rights. But underneath all that she was aware of a physical attraction to Nik Prince that she was trying desperately to ignore.

Obviously, his height and sheer size would dominate any company he was in. The forcefulness of his personality likewise. But it wasn’t either of those things that made her skin tingle and heightened her senses just being in the same room with him. No, the attraction she felt towards this man was something she simply couldn’t explain, something she had never experienced before.

Or ever wanted to experience again!

‘And when you aren’t teaching at Cambridge University, home is where?’

Jinx’s gaze was guarded as she looked up at Nik. ‘London.’

He sighed. ‘Which part of London?’

‘South west,’ she offered unhelpfully, glancing away from the shrewdness in those silver-grey eyes.

As far as she was concerned it was too coincidental, after those letters sent from James Stephens on his behalf, that Nik Prince was here at this party at all. Neither Susan nor Leo had met him before this evening, and he certainly didn’t look the type to need his sister to elicit a late invitation, as this one appeared to be, to fill his evening.

No, Jinx had stopped believing in coincidences a long time ago. And Nik Prince being here this evening certainly wasn’t one, either. She just wasn’t sure how much he knew. But he obviously knew enough—from where, or whom, she wasn’t sure—to have arranged to meet her in this roundabout fashion.

But had he been any more prepared than her for the physical awareness that practically sizzled between them?

Somehow she doubted it!

He gave a rueful smile now. ‘In other words, you have no intention of telling me where you live?’

‘None at all,’ she confirmed lightly. That was the very last thing she intended doing!

‘Then I had better make the most of my time with you this evening, hadn’t I,’ he accepted dryly.

Jinx eyed him warily. ‘Meaning?’

He gave a shrug of those powerfully broad shoulders. ‘There’s music in the other room. How about you dance with me as a start?’

A start to what? And did she really want to be that close to him, to feel the heat of his body only inches away from her own, to have him touching her, his hands touching hers, the warmth of his breath against her temple…?

‘Scared?’ he murmured knowingly.

Jinx straightened immediately, knowing he was goading her in order to achieve his goal, but at the same time unwilling to back down from a man so obviously used to having his own way. ‘Not in the least, Mr Prince,’ she assured him. ‘The truth of the matter is, I can’t remember when I last danced; I may have forgotten how.’

‘Dancing is like lovemaking,’ he told her huskily. ‘Once you’ve tried it, you never forget how!’

So, in spite of her efforts, he was obviously determined to keep this conversation on an intimate level. ‘Then I shouldn’t have any trouble, should I?’ she retorted, turning in the direction of the dining-room where a quartet was softly playing music for the guests to dance to, leaving him to come to his own conclusions concerning her last remark.

She had been right to be apprehensive about allowing this man too close, she acknowledged several minutes later. Nik Prince had ignored all the rules of social etiquette when dancing with a relative stranger, instead pulling her right against him, his arms about her waist, hands linked at the base of her spine, their bodies touching from chest to thigh as they moved slowly to the music.

As far as Jinx was concerned, they might have been the only two people dancing. She was totally aware of Nik as her hands rested on his shoulders, her efforts to maintain a distance between them completely thwarted when Nik reached up and gently laid her head against his shoulder before resting his own head against the silky softness of her hair.

‘You smell like flowers,’ he murmured close to her ear, his breath as warm as she had known it would be.

‘Lily of the Valley soap,’ she dismissed pragmatically.

He chuckled softly. ‘Are you always this romantic?’

‘Are you?’ she came back.

‘I don’t believe it’s been one of my character traits to date, no,’ he allowed ruefully. ‘But that could change,’ he added throatily.

This really hadn’t been a good idea, Jinx acknowledged with an inward groan. Nik’s legs felt hard against her softer ones, the stirring of his thighs unmistakable in such close proximity, the uneven rise and fall of his chest against hers more evidence of his increasing arousal, an arousal that caused a pounding in her own chest and a warmth between her thighs.

‘I want you,’ Nik groaned, his words accompanied by a gentle nibble against her ear lobe.

Jinx quivered with pleasure, shivers of hot and cold tumbling down her spine. But at the same time she wondered how she could put a stop to this. Because she had to stop it. Now. Before it spiralled out of control.

‘There’s a woman standing across the room who keeps staring at us,’ she told him, hoping to distract him. ‘Friend of yours?’