Tiger Man

He was watching her with a thoughtful narrowed gaze that made her heart thump uncomfortably and warned her that she had gone too far, then his expression lightened, amusement glinting in his eyes.

‘I’m perfectly capable of doing both,’ he assured her smoothly, an inflection in the words that sent a frisson of awareness shivering over her skin.

The others laughed again, but in Storm’s mind there was no doubt that the gage had been most definitely thrown down. But did she dare to pick it up? Some instinct more deep-rooted than any ordinary emotion warned her that to do so would be dangerous. And yet what had she to lose? Her job and her pride were surely more important to her than that.

‘In fact,’ Jago mused, his eyes on her slender curves, ‘I’m not sure if I won’t anyway. Taming shrews can sometimes have the most unexpected fringe benefits.’

This time there was no laughter. She caught David’s eye in a mute plea for help, willing him to tell Jago Marsh that if there was any taming to be done he was the one who would be doing it. But of course David would do no such thing, she acknowledged, and wasn’t it precisely because he would not that she loved him?

‘Perhaps if you could tear yourself away from your daydream, Storm?’

Engrossed in her thoughts, she had missed part of the conversation. The others were all looking expectantly at her, and she ran her tongue nervously round her dry lips.

‘Well?’ Jago prompted softly. ‘We’re all waiting. Perhaps you could enlighten us as to exactly why Radio Wyechester is such a resounding failure?’

How could David endure to stand there and listen to him? Storm wondered resentfully.

‘I agree that we have a long way to go,’ she began, intending to mention the decrepit state of some of their equipment, but Jago stopped her, saying dryly.

‘I’m glad we agree on something, but you certainly believe in the understatement, don’t you? For “a long way”, I would substitute “all the way”. You haven’t even taken the first step in the right direction.’

‘But no doubt we will, under your capable tutelage!’ Storm shot back resentfully.

Jago inclined his head briefly as though in assent. His eyes bored into her.

‘It’s to be hoped so,’ he agreed. ‘Now, if I can have your attention for a moment, all of you. The first thing we need to know before you can become a success is why you’re at present a failure.’ He looked round the room, ignoring Storm’s rebellious disdain.

He certainly had a way of delivering a snub that was all his own, she had to acknowledge seconds later when his eyes returned to her flushed face, and lingered, looking straight through her, while the others shuffled uncomfortably and looked at one another for support. Why didn’t David say something? Storm wondered helplessly. Surely he had formulated some defence for the attack which he must have known would be coming? Surely he wasn’t going to let Jago Marsh sweep in here and simply take over? But it certainly looked that way.

‘I’m going to take five days to look round and see what’s to be done and then I shall hold a round-the-table meeting to get your views,’ Jago told them crisply when no one spoke.

‘Five days—is that all?’ Storm muttered under her breath, willing David to defend their venture and himself. ‘Even God took six!’

‘You can go now,’ Jago told them coolly, gathering up his papers. ‘All except you, Storm. I have something to say to you—in private,’ he added, as David showed signs of lingering.

Storm held her breath waiting for David to tell Jago that anything he had to say to her in private could be said to him, but to her dismay he merely gave her a sympathetic smile before following the others out of the office.

‘Well now,’ said Jago when they were alone, ‘that’s quite an act you’ve got together there. Want to tell me why?’

‘What did you expect?’ Storm asked dangerously. ‘I know your views on women in the media, and I hate the way you’re pushing David about. Well, as far as I’m concerned, he’s still Controller here and I take my orders from him.’

‘I’ll bet,’ Jago drawled cynically. ‘The day David Winters can bring himself to give an order—that I’ve got to see!’

‘Don’t you criticise David! He’s worth ten of you.’

‘Not so far as the I.B.A. are concerned.’

Impossible to deny the truth of that statement, much as she would have wanted to. Angry tears weren’t far away, and Storm blinked them back.

‘All this concern, and for old David! I’m impressed.’ The derogatory tones could not be ignored, and drawing herself up to her full height, Storm choked back:

‘Why shouldn’t I be concerned for him? I happen to be in love with him!’

She must surely have imagined the incredulity in those narrowed grey eyes, she told herself seconds later, when it had been banished to be replaced with a satirical smile. ‘Are you indeed? You do surprise me.’

His tone caught her off guard, making her say defensively, ‘You find it hard to believe that David could love me?’

‘Not particularly that he could,’ came the ambiguous response, ‘but that he has. He certainly hasn’t taught you to purr instead of scratch,’ he added contemplatively, his eyes assessing her stiffening body.

‘So you’re in love with David. Do you sleep together?’

The question threw her, making her colour vividly. ‘What does it matter if we do?’ she asked breathlessly. ‘Our relationship doesn’t affect our work, if that’s what you’re implying.’

‘I can see that. He’d have let me tear you to pieces back there, wouldn’t he? He’s not the man for you, Storm,’ Jago said softly. ‘He’ll never tame you…’

’I don’t want to be tamed!’ Storm told him defiantly, her eyes widening as she realised what she had betrayed.

Jago watched her. ‘So that’s it. You don’t love David,’ he told her positively, ‘you’re using him as a means of keeping your feelings in cold storage. Well, you can’t do that for ever.’

‘Who’s going to stop me?’ Storm responded angrily, wondering how she had allowed herself to be manoeuvred on to this dangerous subject. ‘You?’

There was a tiny pause when she wished as she had never wished for anything in her life before that she had not added that foolish, challenging word, and then, observing the satisfaction gleaming in the grey eyes watching her, knew that she had been deliberately goaded into it.

‘Why not?’ Jago drawled smoothly, his fingers reaching out to brush the curls back from her cheek. Even that light touch was enough to make Storm back nervously away from him, her defences alerted to the danger he represented.

‘Don’t touch me!’ she choked fiercely, but he merely laughed, and moved towards her, his eyes lingering on the rapid rise and fall of her breasts beneath their thin covering of silk.

‘If you really are in love with David, my touch won’t have any power to affect you, will it?’ he murmured logically, his eyes almost mesmerising her. ‘But you don’t love him, do you, Storm?’

‘Of course I do!’ she protested. ‘Why are you doing this to me? Why can’t you leave me alone?’

‘Why? Because you’re an extremely desirable young woman, with a body that excites me. I want you, Storm,’ he told her suddenly, shocking her with the baldness of his statement. ‘And what I want, I get.’

‘Well, I don’t want you!’ Storm protested vehemently, emotion darkening her eyes to the colour of pansies. ‘I love David.’

Jago looked at her for a moment and in his eyes she saw the determination of a man used to getting his own way. It took all the self control she had at her command to hold that gaze.

‘You’re a liar,’ he told her, ‘on both counts, and before too long I’ll prove it to you.’

‘I’m going straight to David to tell him what you’ve just said!’ Storm told him furiously, but the steely grip of his fingers on her arms sliced off her protests, his eyes dark as they bored into hers.

‘You do just that,’ he told her softly, ‘and you’ll find out exactly how little your precious David cares about you. Once he knows I want you he’ll drop you like a hot potato. All David Winters wants from life is peace and quiet, and if he thinks letting me have you will get it for him, he will wrap you up himself in pretty paper and hand you over tied up in pink ribbons.’

‘I hate you!’ Storm breathed, trembling with indignation. ‘David would never…’

Her protest was silenced as hard male lips claimed her mouth her body drawn against masculine contours and she was forced to endure an intimacy of touch she had always previously avoided. She stiffened within the embrace, her mouth closing stubbornly as she refused to respond.

Jago laughed softly.