Taken by the Boss: His Very Personal Assistant / In the Banker's Bed / The Takeover Bid

‘Isn’t it a little late for you to be thinking of my delicate sensibilities?’ she suggested, her vision having finally adjusted to the dim moonlight. She was able to see Mike’s face now, if not his actual features. ‘You have to leave, Mike,’ she told him.

‘And if I don’t choose to?’

‘Then I’ll scream,’ she informed him determinedly. ‘Marcus is in the bedroom next door,’ she added as a deterrent, knowing that Mike was a coward at heart.

He gave a humourless laugh. ‘Poor little Kit,’ he taunted. ‘So naïve. So trusting. Your boyfriend is no longer in his room next door!’ he informed her with hard satisfaction. ‘Maitland only stayed a couple of minutes before leaving again. And he hasn’t come back. Now, I don’t know about you, but considering how thick he and Andrea Revel have been the last few months, I would say it’s pretty easy to guess exactly whose bed he’s in right now! Wouldn’t you?’

Yes, she would, Kit accepted heavily, angry with Marcus for putting her in such an embarrassing position, but even more upset that he had left her an easy target for Mike Reynolds!

‘Will you just leave?’ she said stiffly. ‘Before you do something we’re both going to regret,’ she added warningly.

‘Oh, come on, Kit,’ Mike cajoled. ‘For goodness’ sake, lighten up, will you? After all, we’re old friends.’ His tone was persuasive as his hand moved caressingly up her arm.

‘Are you totally thick, or just plain stupid?’ she challenged, annoyance easily overcoming her fear. ‘I do not find you attractive. I have no intention of becoming involved with you. In fact, I’m sure I’ve made it perfectly plain that I don’t even like you!’ she finished frustratedly.

‘Do you realise your boyfriend has persuaded Desmond to throw me out of here first thing in the morning?’ The cajoling tone had turned to fury, and his hand tightened about her arm.

‘Not soon enough, as far as I’m concerned!’ Kit came back heatedly.

‘Now just—’

‘Or me!’ rasped an authoritative voice that Kit easily knew belonged to Marcus. At the same time she felt Mike’s hand release her arm as Marcus landed a punch on his jaw, which threw him off the bed.

‘Get your things together now, Reynolds, and just leave!’ Marcus was standing gloweringly over Mike as Kit at last managed to reach the switch for the bedside light. ‘And I would advise you not to show your face anywhere near me in the next decade!’

Mike got slowly to his feet, the slight discolouration on his jaw already visible. And, despite her earlier protests about physical violence, Kit knew that she felt no regret at Marcus’s action. In fact, she felt like hitting Mike herself!

‘Playing musical beds, Maitland?’ Mike sneered. ‘One woman won’t play, so you’ve come back to try the one in reserve?’

Marcus’s eyes narrowed dangerously. ‘I have no idea what you’re talking about, Reynolds,’ he rasped. ‘Neither do I have any wish to know. Just go!’

‘What do you think, Kit?’ Mike turned to her tauntingly. ‘Second-best about your limit, is it?’ He gave a derisive smile as she wasn’t quick enough to hide the flinch his hurtful words inflicted.

She knew he was being deliberately nasty, knew he was enjoying her discomfort, but there was so much truth behind his words that for the moment she couldn’t think of anything to say.

‘Go,’ Marcus repeated in carefully controlled tones.

Mike went, slowly, nonchalantly, as cockily sure of himself as ever.

Kit’s shoulders slumped once he had left the room, reaction starting to set in as she began to shake. Amazingly, she had no doubts in her mind that if Marcus hadn’t come in when he had Mike really would have tried to force himself on her.

What made someone behave in that way? She had made it more than obvious that she disliked him, that she didn’t find him attractive, that she certainly didn’t want any sort of relationship with him, and yet he had still persisted. Maybe she had led a sheltered life, but she didn’t understand that sort of behaviour…

‘What on earth possessed you to let that man into your bedroom—?’

‘I beg your pardon?’ Kit rounded on Marcus disbelievingly, her eyes widely accusing as incredulity took over from the near-collapse she had felt coming on.

His mouth was a grimly set line. He was dressed only in the white silk shirt and trousers to his black dinner suit, having discarded the jacket. ‘You knew what sort of man he was, so what on earth—?’

‘Possessed me to invite him into my bedroom?’ Kit finished through gritted teeth, getting out of bed, perfectly respectable in her coffee-coloured satin pyjamas, but reaching out to pull on the matching robe anyway. She hadn’t thought that she would have her bedroom invaded in this way, not by one man, but two!

‘Exactly,’ Marcus agreed.

Kit gave an indignant sigh, at the same time tying the belt to her robe securely about the slenderness of her waist. ‘It’s all your fault,’ she began.

‘My fault?’ he echoed as his head rose incredulously. ‘And just how do you account for that, when I did everything in my power earlier this evening—apart from actually hitting the man!—to dissuade him from coming anywhere near you again?’ His mouth twisted scathingly.

‘He said you threatened him,’ Kit accused.

‘Obviously not strongly enough,’ Marcus responded. ‘I’m just surprised at you for inviting him into your room after that.’

‘You just don’t get it, do you?’ she rejoined impatiently. ‘I didn’t invite Mike in here; he broke in while I was asleep. After first ascertaining that you had crept off to Andrea’s bedroom, of course.’

‘That I had—! What do you mean, he broke in?’ Marcus seemed to think this part of her conversation was much more important than answering her other accusation.

Kit didn’t agree with him, knew that if Marcus hadn’t gone off to Andrea’s bedroom Mike would never have dared to enter her bedroom in the way that he had.

She was also aware that this might be misdirected anger—but she had to blame someone, didn’t she?

‘Exactly what I said.’ She moved away impatiently. ‘The man needs locking up!’

Marcus remained silent for several nerve-racking moments and then he slowly nodded. ‘We can do that,’ he murmured harshly. ‘If what you say is true—’

‘Of course what I say is true!’ Kit turned on him indignantly. ‘I don’t tell lies.’

‘Look, Kit,’ Marcus’s expression softened slightly as he seemed to take in her agitated, wide-eyed appearance, ‘I don’t think losing your temper with me is going to solve anything—’

‘Why isn’t it?’ she exclaimed. ‘If it wasn’t for you I wouldn’t even be here. And if it wasn’t for that, I wouldn’t have been subjected to Mike Reynolds’s unwanted advances! Neither would I have had to meet—’ She broke off then, realising—almost too late!—exactly what she had been about to say.

The last thing she wanted to do was introduce the subject of Catherine Grainger to this already explosive situation!

‘Yes?’ Marcus prompted, dark brows raised enquiringly.

‘Desmond Hayes,’ she substituted defensively, only too aware of the seriousness of the slip she had almost made. ‘Although, of the three of you, I think I prefer his company!’

Marcus’s brows rose even higher. ‘I noticed that the two of you seemed to be getting on well together, but—’ He gave an incredulous shake of his head. ‘Kit, you’ll only end up getting hurt if you fall for Desmond,’ he warned darkly.

‘Oh, for goodness’ sake!’ She glared at him, two bright spots of angry colour in her cheeks. ‘I said that, so far this weekend, his is the company I prefer, not that I’m attracted to him! Does everything have to come down to this male female attraction thing?’

His mouth twisted wryly. ‘No, of course not. Although, it’s usually a relevant factor.’

‘Not to me,’ she sighed. ‘For your information, the only thing I’ve been able to learn this weekend by observing and listening, as you put it, is that Desmond is still very much in love with his wife!’ She was breathing hard in her indignation, her chin raised challengingly, nipples roused beneath her robe.

A fact Marcus seemed very aware of as his gaze moved slowly over her.

Making Kit aware at the same time, the flush in her cheeks caused by something else entirely now, a wild fluttering in her chest, her breath seeming constricted in her throat, every inch of her tingling skin seeming as aware of Marcus as he was of her.

Not the most ideal situation to find oneself in at almost three o’clock in the morning when alone with a man you already knew yourself to be half in love with!