Australia: In Bed with the Boss: The Marriage Decider / Their Wedding Day / His Boardroom Mistress

It was like a knife twisting in a fresh wound. Amy could see Steve’s blonde getting her claws into him, never mind that he belonged to another woman. A marauding blonde, uncaring of anything but her own desires. This one was insinuating herself between Amy and Jake, splitting up their private celebration party, stealing the lovely comfortable mood, demanding to be the focus of attention.

“What a surprise, seeing you here today!” she cooed to Jake, not asking any pardon for intruding.

Amy hated her. She wanted to tear that hand off Jake’s sleeve and shove it into the woman’s mouth, shutting off the slavering drool of words.

“An unexpected pleasure, Isabella,” Jake returned smoothly, starting to rise from his chair, dislodging her hand.

Isabella! Of course, she’d have a name like that, Amy seethed. Something sexy and exotic.

“No, please stay seated.” It was another excuse to touch him, to curl her talons around his shoulder. The blonde bared perfect teeth at Amy. Piranha teeth. “I don’t think I’ve met your companion.”

“Amy Taylor…Isabella Maddison,” Jake obliged.

“Hi!” the blonde said, the briefest possible acknowledgement.

Amy met her feline green eyes with a chilly blue blast and nodded her acknowledgement, not prepared to play the all jolly friends game. She didn’t want to know Isabella Maddison, didn’t care to greet an uninvited intruder, and would not pretend to welcome a predatory blonde into her company.

Her and her “Jake, darling!” How rude could you get? It was perfectly obvious the blonde was putting in her claim in front of a possible rival and didn’t care what it took to win. Never mind dimming Amy’s pleasure, taking the shine off the day, pushing herself forward to block Amy out.

“Great party on Saturday night, Jake,” Isabella enthused, giving it a sexy innuendo.

“Yes. A lot of fun,” he replied.

Fun! The urge to have a bit of fun herself blew through Amy’s mind. “What a pity I couldn’t be there!” she said ruefully. “Jake and I have the best fun together, don’t we, darling?”

His head jerked to her, eyes startled. He recovered fast, his mouth curving into his whimsical smile. “Ain’t that the truth?” he drawled.

‘Jake always says we complement each other perfectly,” Amy crowed, buoyed so much by his support, she batted her eyelashes at the blonde bombshell.

“Then you should have been there, shouldn’t you?” came the snaky return comment, accompanied by a suggestively raised eyebrow.

“Oh, I don’t know.” Amy shrugged and swirled the champagne around in her glass as she gave Jake a smouldering look. “Some men like a bit of rope. I don’t mind as long as I can reel him in whenever I want to.”

“Amy is very understanding,” Jake said, nodding his appreciation.

“Well, perhaps another time, Jake,” Isabella purred, undeterred from a future romp.

“Oh, I doubt it.” Amy poured syrup into her voice. “He rarely dips into the same well twice.” She bared her teeth. “Take a friendly word of advice. Best to move on to greener pastures. He is sort of stuck with me for the long haul.”

Isabella started to retreat. “If you’ll excuse me…”

“With pleasure,” Amy said to speed her on her way, then downed half the champagne to celebrate her going.

Jake’s eyes were dancing with unholy amusement. “My wildest fantasy come true…you fighting another woman for me.”

“Huh!” Amy scoffed. “That’ll be the day.”

“Am I not to believe my ears?”

“She had the wrong coloured hair.”

“Ah!” His wicked delight took on a wry twist. “The other woman.”

“Sorry if I’ve queered your pitch with her.” She wasn’t sorry at all, but it seemed an appropriate thing to say. After all, when all was said and done, he was still her boss. Though he could have stopped her roll if anything important was at stake. She would have taken her cue from him.

“No problem,” he said carelessly.

“No, I don’t suppose it is.” Cynicism streaked through her. “If you snapped your fingers she’d come again.”

“Isabella has no claim on me.” It was a surprisingly serious statement, and his eyes held hers intently, as though he was assuring her he spoke the truth.

It was meaningless to Amy. No woman ever seemed to have a claim on him. “Is she your latest interest?” For some reason, she really wanted to know.

“No,” he answered without hesitation.

“Just one of the hopeful crowd that trails after you,” Amy said dryly.

He shrugged. “It hardly matters if I’m not interested, does it? To be blunt, Isabella doesn’t appeal to me. She never will appeal to me. Any hope she might be nursing is therefore futile.”

Goodbye, Isabella.

Amy was pleased that Jake had more taste than Steve. For both the men in her life to fall into the clutches of predatory blondes would have been altogether too wretched to bear. Not that Jake was an intimate part of her life, but he was a big chunk and she wanted to respect his judgement of character.

His quirky little smile came back. “You are quite a formidable fighter, Amy.”

She shrugged. “You did encourage me, taking my side. If you’d clamped down on me…”

“And miss that performance?” His eyes sparkled admiration.

“The fact remains…” It felt really good that he’d supported her. “…You let me win, Jake.”

He lifted his glass of champagne in another toast. “We’re a team, Amy. A great team.”

“A team,” she echoed happily, and drank to the splendid sense of well-being flowing from being a solid team with Jake.

Their first course arrived.

Amy ate with gusto. Not only was the food fantastic, her tastebuds were fully revived from the weekend when everything she’d tried to eat seemed to have the texture of cardboard, indigestible. Maybe having a healthy appetite was a side effect from feeling victorious. Defeat was certainly the pits.

“More champagne?” Jake asked, seeing her down the last drops in her glass.

“No, thanks. I’d better move on to iced water. I think I’ve been hot-headed enough today.”

He grinned. “Some things need letting out of your system. Especially the deep down and poisonous stuff.”

“Well, I’m almost squeaky clean again.”

“What a shame! So much volatile passion flying around. It’s been quite an exciting experience watching it in action. Intriguing, too. Shows me a side of you you’ve kept under wraps. Not that I didn’t suspect it was there.”