Flirting with the Forbidden

Single! Yay! Her girl-parts did a stupid happy dance and she mentally slapped them into submission because he hadn’t really answered the question.

‘And you?’

Morgan lifted her perfectly arched dark brown eyebrows at him. She knew that they were the perfect contrast to her blonde hair. And they made her eyes look greener than they actually were. ‘That has nothing to do with you.’

Noah grinned and disturbed the million bats squatting in her stomach.

‘You are such a duchess.’

Morgan bared her teeth at him. ‘And don’t you forget it. And, just to make it clear, I do not—ever!—want to discuss Cape Town.’

‘It’s a nice city.’

Morgan growled. ‘What we did in Cape Town.’ She pushed out the clarification between clenched teeth.

‘We did? All I did was kiss you—you were the one who was naked and hoping to get lucky.’

She was going to kill him...slowly, with much pleasure.

Morgan ground her teeth together. How was this not discussing the issue? Did he not understand the concept of letting sleeping dogs lie? Obviously not.

Noah pushed his hair away from his face and rubbed his hand across his jaw. ‘As much fun as it is, exchanging barbs with you, I do need to say something about Cape Town.’

Please don’t. I’ve been humiliated enough.

Noah looked at her with serious eyes. ‘I should’ve handled it—you—the situation—better, Morgan.’ He held up a hand as her mouth opened and she abruptly shut it again. ‘It took guts to do what you did and I was cruel. I’m sorry.’

Morgan realised that she was wearing her fish-face and snapped her teeth together. He was apologising? Seriously?

‘So, that’s all I have to say.’

Ah... It was more than enough and, quite frankly, she’d still prefer to pretend it had never happened. But she had to respect him for apologising, although she had played her own part in the train wreck that had been that night.

She rubbed her suddenly sweaty palms against her thighs. ‘Okay, then. Wow. Um...thanks. I suppose I should apologise for hitting on you naked. I was rather...in your face.’

‘A woman who looks like you should never apologise for being naked,’ Noah said, humour sparking in his eyes.

It made her want to smile at him and she wasn’t quite ready to do that. Nearly, but not quite yet.

‘Can we...ahem...put it to bed?’ he asked.

Morgan rolled her eyes at the very unsubtle pun.

Way past time to change the subject, Morgan thought. ‘Mum said something about you being on your own? That you’re not with CFT any more?’

Noah nodded. ‘I have my own company doing pretty much the same thing CFT are doing. Except that we’re branching out into security analysis; this is our first job for MI. I’m here to make recommendations about what systems should be put in place to secure the collection. That’s the first step. Hopefully it’ll lead to us installing those systems.’

‘Are you good at it?’

‘Very.’

‘Okay, then.’ Morgan twisted her ring around her finger and half shrugged. ‘Today aside, I don’t have much to do with the ball, but I would hate to see anything happen to the collection. It’s fabulous; the gems are magnificent and the craftsmanship is superb.’

‘Nothing to do with the ball? I think your mum has other ideas.’ Noah finished his bottle of water, carefully replaced the cap and placed it on the table. ‘If we get the job to install the systems then I will make damn sure that nothing happens to the collection. My business would be ruined if a diamond chip went missing, and that’s not a risk I’m prepared to take.’

Morgan went cold at the thought of losing the collection. The value of the pieces meant nothing to her, but the fact that her family was the custodian of Elizabeth of Russia’s diamond ring, a pearl won by an eighteenth-century Maharani wife, and the first diamond to come out of the first Moreau mine, meant a great deal. They were valuable, sure, but they were also historically important.

But if Noah was in charge of securing them then she knew that they would be fine. He exuded an air of capability and competence and, like all those years ago, when she’d felt secure enough to hand herself over to him, she felt confident about the collection’s safety.

Noah was reliable and proficient.

Everything she wasn’t—outside of her design studio. He was a living, breathing reminder of why she could never organise the ball. She would be stepping so far out of her comfort zone... A million things could go wrong and probably would and she’d be left holding the can. Nope, this was her mum’s baby and would remain so.

Besides, she so didn’t need the stress, the responsibility or the hassle of dealing with the sexy and not-so-silent-any-more Noah Fraser, with his sexy Scottish burr and sarcastic smile.

‘Come on—time to go,’ Noah said, standing up.

He watched as she uncrossed her legs and stood up. He looked her up and down and his eyes crinkled in amusement.

‘Looking good, Duchess. Of course not as good as you looked back then—’

‘I was nineteen,’ Morgan protested, conscious that she’d picked up more than a pound since she’d been a perfect size four. ‘Anyway, I’m that not much bigger.’

‘You’re not big at all, Duchess; you know you look great. My point was back then you were naked.’ Noah placed a hand on her back and pushed her towards the door. ‘Naked is always hard to beat.’

* * *

‘Taxi, Miss Moreau?’

Morgan sent Noah a look in response to the doorman’s question.

He shook his head slightly and jammed his hands in the pockets of his pants. ‘No, thank you. It’s a beautiful afternoon; we’ll walk.’

‘Enjoy the rest of your day, Miss Moreau. Sir...’

Noah fell into step with Morgan as she turned right and headed to the traffic lights to cross Park Avenue. It was moments like this when he was reminded just how famous the people he protected actually were. When the doormen and staff of one of the most famous hotels in the world recognised you and greeted you by name, as numerous people had Morgan inside the hotel, you had pull, clout—a presence.

Morgan, surprisingly, took it all in her stride. She’d greeted some of the staff by name, introduced herself to others. She didn’t act like the snob he’d expected her to be.

‘Amazing hotel. I’ve never been inside before,’ he commented as they waited for the light to change so that they could cross the road.

A taxi driver directly in front of them leaned out of his window and gestured to the driver of a limousine to move and a transit van dodged in front of another cab, which resulted in a flurry of horns and shouted insults out of open windows.

New York traffic...crazy. And they drove on the wrong side of the road.

Morgan, adjusted the shoulder strap of her leather bag, looked back at the imposing entrance to the hotel and smiled. ‘Isn’t it amazing? I love it.’

‘A couple of the staff nearly fell over to greet you. Must be crazy, being so well known.’