In the Market for Love - By Nina Blake Page 0,15
smile of a man so powerful he could capture his prey or release it.
He could consume her if he wished or he could let her down with ease.
“Your jacket,” he said.
Rachel lowered her gaze. “Thank you.”
The words seemed so trite, so ordinary. They didn’t do justice to the charge she felt between them. Maybe she was the only one who felt it.
She took her jacket and stepped to one side to unlock her car.
The moment was gone.
She had put a barrier between them and rejected him even before she was sure he’d made an advance. With a single movement, she ensured it was over before they’d had a chance to begin. The gesture, so defensive and premature, had clearly put Jake off.
Yet, however she tried to convince herself otherwise, a single thought cut through her with crystal clear clarity.
A man like Jake Austin. Handsome. Powerful. Successful. If he’d wanted to kiss her, sweep her into his arms or take her completely, he would not have let anything stand in his way.
If he’d wanted her.
Chapter five
Jake fixed his dark eyes on Rachel. “This is the right time to change things if you’re not happy with them. Although I think the work Marcus has done so far is excellent.”
The sound of his voice made her jump. There were many things she’d like to change and none of them were relevant to the campaign. She shifted in her chair and pushed her hair behind her ears, biding a few more moments. They were at a meeting. She had to concentrate.
“The roughs look promising but I’d like to take them away so we can think about it a bit longer,” she said.
“Certainly,” he said. “But your gut reaction is more important. With a campaign like this one, it’s better to follow your instincts and not over analyse things too much.”
“Hmmm.” Rachel nodded but her voice came out as a throaty croak. He was talking about the campaign, wasn’t he?
“I’ll get you some water.”
He poured a tall glass of cold water and stood to pass it to her across the boardroom table. Their fingers overlapped as he did so, the sudden touch sending a nervous charge through her.
He’d taken off his jacket and wore a pale blue patterned shirt, the top button undone exposing the small V of tanned skin at the top of his chest. The sleeves were rolled up, the burnished gold of his watch striking against the bronzed skin of his arms.
All she had to do was keep her mind on the job. And away from his physical attributes. It sounded so simple.
With Jake Austin sitting across from her at the boardroom table, she didn’t even notice the sweeping harbour views or the contemporary elegance of the room. She was having trouble concentrating on the concept roughs for the campaign.
Her mind was on only one thing. Jake.
Clearly, his mind wasn’t a molten mass of conflicting, surging thought and emotion as hers was. He was focussed, business-like and professional.
“Is everything okay?” he asked.
“Absolutely.” Rachel nodded keenly, gesticulating rather too enthusiastically.
His face was like a sculpture. With a strong bone structure and high cheek bones, he was extremely handsome and there was also something that made him look a little dangerous. It was his dark eyes, deep set with thick eyebrows. They gave away no inkling of emotion, no hint of what might be going on beneath them.
His mouth was so different from the hard, well-defined features of the rest of his face. His mouth was soft and lush. That’s how it had felt when his lips brushed against hers the other night. Barely there, she wasn’t sure it was even a kiss, just an accident.
This uncertainty had been an infliction on Rachel for two days, one she thought would be solved by seeing Jake. She would look at him and know. Yet seeing him had only raised more questions.
Running out on him after one drink was such a childish thing to do. Of course he had to chase after her to make sure she was alright after his associate had spilt his drink on her. And handing back her jacket was the polite thing to do. He could hardly do that at their next meeting, letting their colleagues know they’d been out together.
Clearly, sustaining the interest of someone like herself was not the kind of challenge Jake Austin was after. If there was any chance he might have been interested in her, she had put him off.
“The final concepts will look much more