Passionate Playboys: The Demetrios Bridal Bargain / The Magnate's Indecent Proposal / Hot Nights with a Playboy

Rose turned her head in time to see two men walk around the side of the house. One was tall, sandy-haired and, she assumed, the laird; the other was her employer. She began to struggle with the door handle. Now she knew why the car they had pulled up beside looked familiar.

Mathieu leaned across and caught her arm. ‘What are you doing?’

‘That’s Mr Smith,’ she said, drawing back into her seat as far as she could. ‘I’m cataloguing his books.’ Do not hyperventilate, Rose.

Mathieu turned his head. His mental image of Rose’s employer had made him a good twenty years older than the one talking to Jamie.

‘You live in?’

Rose nodded, puzzled by the odd inflection in his voice, but relieved she was no longer pressed into her seat by his arm. It didn’t even cross her mind that Mathieu might be wondering about the sleeping arrangements and if she had guessed she would have laughed. Robert Smith, despite the fact he was youngish and quite good-looking, was peculiarly sexless and a humourless cold fish to boot.

‘You stay there. I’ll explain what’s happened.’

Jamie greeted him with his usual hearty good humour. Though his expression sobered when Mathieu explained what had happened.

‘Lucky you were around, old mate.’

‘Yes, most fortunate,’ Robert Smith agreed. ‘But you say that Miss Hall is not hurt—the doctor gave her a clean bill of health?’

‘She’s shaken, obviously.’

‘I’m sure once she’s working she’ll forget all about it.’

‘Working?’

The other man flushed under the sardonic stare. ‘Well, I thought … I have a schedule and—’

‘She needs to rest.’

Robert Smith visibly recoiled from the blaze of fury in the other man’s eyes. ‘Oh, well, if that’s what the doctor recommends, of course I’ll make sure she—’

‘Robert,’ Jamie drawled, clapping the man on the back. ‘Why don’t you just toddle along in and look at those books? I left them on the hall table.’

The other man accepted the invitation with alacrity.

‘I’ll just go and speak to Miss Hall first.’

‘I think you scared him,’ Jamie said in an amused undertone as the other man began to walk towards the Land Rover.

‘I think the man,’ Mathieu said scornfully, ‘is an idiot.’

‘Yes, that came across,’ Jamie said drily. ‘Rich, though— made a bomb in the City and retired young. I thought I might sell off a few old books, seems he’s mad about them. So the girl … do I get an introduction?’ He glanced curiously towards the Land Rover. ‘Why don’t I ever get the opportunity to play the white knight to damsels in distress?’ he complained.

Mathieu’s glance followed the direction of Jamie’s stare. Rose, presumably at the suggestion of Smith, was getting out of the Land Rover. His brow furrowed as she nodded at the other man and began to walk towards them. ‘She’s changed a lot … since Monaco.’

Mathieu wasn’t even aware he had verbalised his thoughts until Jamie spoke.

‘You know her! My God, what are the odds on that?’ Jamie, his eyes widening in appreciation, gave a low whistle under his breath as Rose got closer. ‘Any chance of an intro, Matt?’

Mathieu flashed Jamie an irritated look. ‘I hardly know her.we met—’ he began, then stopped as Rose came within hearing distance. She stood there looking, despite her outlandish outfit and gloriously tousled hair, dignified and beautiful enough to offer some excuse for Jamie’s childish outburst.

‘Hello.’ Rose nodded towards Jamie, her smile dimming perceptively as her eyes reached Mathieu. ‘Mr Smith is giving me a lift back. I just wanted to thank you … again … for, well, saving my life,’ she said awkwardly. ‘And I’m sorry for putting you to so much trouble.’

‘Saving your life?’ Jamie interrupted, stepping forward, hand outstretched, to introduce himself. ‘Played that part down, Matt.’ He flashed his friend an amused sideways glance. ‘But then that’s our Matt all over, the modest hero.’

The modest hero in question looked uncomfortable and irritated and his grin broadened. ‘We’ve not met, though in a place this size it was only a matter of time. I’m Jamie.’

‘I know—the laird.’

‘For the present, but I’m hoping Matt here will do something brilliant and keep the bailiffs from the door.’

Rose found it hard to tell from his tone if he was joking or not, but what did come across was his confidence in Mathieu’s ability to pull off the odd miracle in his spare time. She found herself hoping that on this occasion Mathieu did so because it was hard not to warm to the young laird.

‘I’m Rose. If you’ll excuse me—’ she glanced expressively down at her clothes before extricating her hand and wrapping her arms around herself ‘—I’ll just go wait in the car. It’s warmer.’ Rose smiled once more before turning away.

‘I think she likes me,’ Jamie said under his breath as she walked back to the parked vehicle. ‘No so sure about you, though.’

‘So what books are you selling?’

It seemed for a moment that his change of subject might work, but, mid-description of a book, Jamie stopped and angled a sharp look at his friend. ‘Monaco …’

Mathieu shrugged and pretended ignorance.

‘You said you knew her in Monaco.’

‘It might have been.’

‘My God, it’s her, isn’t it? The blonde that got into your room the night of the embassy party.’

Mathieu, his expression schooled to neutrality, held his tongue, though he suspected rather too late in the day.

‘I take it that silence means yes.’ Jamie let out a long silent whistle followed by a cackle of laughter. ‘Someone who works for Smith doesn’t seem the type … she didn’t seem the type. Though, to be honest,’ he admitted rather regretfully, ‘I’ve not had a whole lot of experience of the sort of women who try and seduce men they’ve never met. Was she totally naked?’

Mathieu flashed him a flat look.

Jamie held up a pacifying hand. ‘All right, no need to implode.

You sure nothing happened? I mean, was there a frisson out there on the ice?’ Grinning, he raised a speculative brow.

Mathieu did not smile back. ‘You have an overactive imagination, Jamie,’ he said coolly.

This time Jamie did read the warning in the other man’s manner. ‘If you say so …’ he said in his easygoing way. ‘But I suppose you do know, Mathieu, that you’re one of the few men in the universe who would get mad about finding a naked beautiful blonde in his bed.’

‘I don’t like surprises, I suppose.’ His dark brows drew into a straight line above his hawkish nose. ‘I don’t know why I ever told you about it,’ he added, the exasperation in his voice aimed mostly at himself.

‘You didn’t have much choice after I heard you lambasting the hotel staff on their security,’ Jamie reminded him. ‘Weren’t you even slightly tempted to take what was on offer? I mean, the delicious Rose is pretty hot …’ His wistful sigh was accompanied by a lecherous grin.

It was a grin that Mathieu had a problem with.