welcome tray in his hands. Whatever was on it, it smelled wonderful. She smiled and thanked him as he put it down on a table set a safe distance away from the desk and her work, even though she knew her words wouldn’t make a dent in his grizzled visage.
‘You’re busy today,’ she said. He merely grunted in response, peering at her from under tangled brows that looked like something that had been washed up in a storm. ‘I saw you down at the dock. Who’s the woman? Does she work here?’
He threw her a dark look. ‘The woman is not your concern.’
‘No, of course not. I just thought it might be nice to say hello—’
‘Forget the woman!’ he said, marching back to the door. ‘She is not here for your benefit.’
The door closed behind him with a bang. Okay, maybe his message was none too subtle, but he was right. She should just get on with the job. At least then she could finish up here and leave. God knew, the prospect was tempting.
She was waiting for him. He let himself into the darkened room, the ache in his loins more insistent than ever after a night spent torturing himself thinking about that damned Dr Hunter. He refused to let himself think of her as anything else. He needed to think of her as a cold-blooded scientist and not as a woman.
Which made no sense when all he had wanted last night was have that woman bucking beneath him.
Why was she doing this to him? And how?
He dragged in air. Damn her. He was hard as a rock, his loins aching with need and another woman waiting naked in bed for him. Why was he even thinking about her?
He growled and approached the bed, shucking off his robe and tossing it to the floor, already half dizzy with the heady anticipation of release. His erection rocked free, heavy and hard. He steadied it with one hand to don protection and felt his searing, throbbing heat against his palm. Dio, he needed this.
He pulled back the covers and stared down at her in the dim light. She was smiling knowingly, even though her eyes were dreamily closed, her head tipped back as if she was already in ecstasy, her hands busy at her breasts, tugging at her nipples, making them hard for him. Usually he’d spend some time with those breasts, but today his need was too great.
‘Open your legs,’ he commanded, and if she wondered at his brusque manner she didn’t show it in the way she acquiesced without a murmur. And why shouldn’t she do what he asked she when she was going home with the equivalent of a month’s wages in her pocket? She’d do anything he asked and more.
He gazed down at her, took in the glossy hair splayed over the pillow, her olive skin with its satin-like sheen in the half-light, her breasts plump and peaked. He was rock-hard and wanting and he wondered why the hell he was hesitating and not already inside her.
Until he realised that there was somewhere else he’d rather be.
With a cry of frustration he snapped on the light. ‘Get dressed,’ he ordered. ‘Bruno will take you to the boat.’
‘Did I do something wro—?’
He was reaching for his robe and tugging it on, but not before she’d opened her eyes to plead, no doubt worried she would not be paid. He caught the exact moment of change, when her eyes moved from protest to revulsion, and she pulled the covers back over herself as if to protect herself from his hideousness.
With a roar he ripped the covers straight back off. ‘Just go!’
He could wallow in them if he wanted. He could let those black waves rise up and swallow him whole, sucking him back to that dark time and those dark nights when there was no respite, no relief.
Or he could deal with the problem, get rid of the source of his aggravation, and be able to breathe in his own space again.
He would not be sucked back.
He would deal with the problem.
Because everything had been fine until she had come along. She would just have to leave.
Now.
He headed to her office to tell her exactly that. After all, it wasn’t as if the pages were in terrible condition and too fragile to be shifted. They looked fine as far as he was concerned. And besides, the longer she was here, the more chance someone would talk, someone would stumble