In the Market for Love - By Nina Blake Page 0,10

politely until Jake’s mood and manner improved. She gathered her things and signalled to Samantha that the meeting was closed.

* * *

Jake’s eyes were glued to Rachel as she slid her bag over her shoulder and hastened out of the door. He couldn’t let her leave like this. He had to do something. He rushed to follow her, his head racing.

When Marcus had twirled Rachel around and kissed her hand, Jake had seen a woman at ease with herself and pleased with Marcus’ company. He had cringed on the inside at their apparent familiarity with one another but now thought he’d read too much into it. Marcus’ attention was now very much taken with Samantha, as it had been on many previous occasions, and Rachel didn’t appear to be pursuing him.

This hadn’t gone well. First there was Bianca’s unsettling phone call. He’d walked into their meeting in a tentative mood and then completely overreacted to Marcus’ prank.

“I’ll get the door for you,” Jake said, though it was probably too little, too late. And that was surely what Rachel was thinking too.

She cut across him to reach for the door release and pulled the door open before he could grab it. Clearly she didn’t want his help.

He recalled her girlish beauty after their first meeting when she’d been unable to open the door. She had looked playful, her figure svelte, her face crossed with determination.

And now, slipping through his grasp, she looked more beautiful than ever before.

Had he left it too late?

Chapter four

Jake stood on the other side of the desk from the Omega Pharmaceuticals receptionist.

“There’s a Jake Austin from Agency 66 here to see you,” she said to Rachel over the phone.

The young woman’s eyes skimmed the length of his physique, then grew visibly larger. It didn’t faze him that she should look admiringly at him but he felt a pang of something resembling regret. He wished Rachel shared that same predatory instinct, wished she would look at him that way, consider him more than a business partner.

It was time to change that, time to take her out of the boardroom and into a more intimate setting. It’d be difficult to explain his marital situation to her and the workplace clearly wasn’t the right location for such a private discussion. Tonight he planned to tell her all about his predicament. That was if she agreed to go out with him.

Rachel walked into the room.

“You’ve kept him a secret!” the receptionist said loudly enough for Jake to hear.

Rachel greeted him and steered him away into the meeting room, very plain with ivory walls, camel coloured chairs and pale melamine table. The emphasis was on the functional unlike the agency offices which were designed to impress.

As they stood beside the table, she met his gaze. “I’m surprised to see you here today.”

“I hope it’s a pleasant surprise.”

“You tell me.”

“Aren’t you going to offer me a seat?” he asked.

“You said this wouldn’t take long.”

She wasn’t making this easy for him. He’d come here to apologise for his rude behaviour and make amends but Rachel wasn’t like other women. She wasn’t going to give an inch.

She wore the same stylish pink jacket she’d worn the first time they met, though it had looked more business-like then with that tight little Lois Lane skirt. Today she seemed more feminine, wearing a dress in mottled shades of crimson and grey beneath the jacket. The dress’ scooped neckline betrayed a hint of creamy white cleavage and the skirt floated down across her shapely hips.

He’d come her for a reason. To get Rachel. To have her for himself. And even the dull boardroom setting didn’t diminish his desire.

“You must be very busy,” he said.

“I’m sure you are too,” she replied.

Did she want to get rid of him so quickly? Or was she afraid of something? Afraid of getting hurt? He’d always sensed there was something unusual in Rachel’s history, something hurtful lurking, perhaps a harsh break up, and he had to clear that up.

“Rachel, I didn’t come here to talk about work,” he said. “I wanted to talk about you. You said you weren’t married. You’re single?”

He waited for her answer. Surely she couldn’t have found someone in the last few weeks since they met. Although it would be a miracle if a woman like her were unattached.

Why had he waited so long?

* * *

Single. That word seemed so simple that to Rachel it didn’t even begin to describe her situation or feelings. To be single implied being