Perfect Partner

‘Do I get invited in for coffee tonight?’ He turned in his seat after parking the car outside her apartment building.

She thought of her neat little flat, of the incriminating typewritten sheets she had locked away earlier this evening so that he shouldn’t see them and realise she wrote for a living. No, she had left nothing lying about to point to her being Caroline Miles, although it was very late, too late really to ask him inside.

‘You had coffee at the restaurant,’ she pointed out.

‘I happen to like coffee,’ he mocked.

She wasn’t sure inviting him in was a good idea, but it would look childish if she didn’t. She was twenty-four years old, not sixteen, and should be perfectly capable of handling one amorous male. Lord, she was starting to sound like Sophie Mason now, the latest mistress of Mason House—and almost a century separated them!

‘Make yourself comfortable,’ she invited once they were inside her home. ‘I’ll just go and make the coffee.’

Jake eyed her mockingly. ‘You didn’t really think I came up here for coffee?’

Juliet put her jacket away in the hall closet. ‘Whether you did or not, that’s what you’re getting.’ She turned, only to find him suddenly dangerously close. ‘Excuse me—–’ she made to walk past him, her eyes on a level with the cleft in his chin.

His arms came about her. ‘Juliet …!’

She managed to extricate herself from his arms, moving a safe distance away—if there could be such a thing with this virilely attractive man! There was an aura about him, an air of sexual challenge, and it drew her like a magnet. But she had to be sensible. She already had two men in her life, a third would just be an unnecessary complication. Besides, Jake Matthews was the last man she wanted to become involved with.

‘Coffee,’ she insisted firmly.

He grimaced. ‘Do I get to kiss you after that?’

‘Perhaps.’ She went through to the kitchen, conscious of him watching her. He was always watching her! ‘Would you go and wait in the other room?’ she requested irritably.