Page 13

Will's eyes narrowed as they zoomed in on the man she was with.

Something inside him snapped and before he could stop it a shaft of white-hot jealousy scythed through him.

And then a sudden burst of anger swept through him, hot on the heels of the jealousy, and both began to churn around inside him in one seething explosive tangle.

Because hadn't she said she wasn't involved with anyone else? Hadn't she sounded outraged when he'd made the suggestion in the first place?

Well, she and whoever he was looked pretty close. Pretty damn involved.

So had she lied?

Dimly aware that he shouldn't care less if she had, Will felt his blood begin to boil. After all the lies and deceit he'd grown up surrounded with he simply couldn't help it.

'Will, is something the matter?'

Rosie's voice cut through his volatile thoughts and brought him careering back to his surroundings. 'No,' he growled, and gave her a quick smile to mitigate the tone of his voice.

She peered up at him. 'You've gone rather pale.'

'Just seen someone I wasn't expecting to,' he said tightly, forcing himself to calm down because it was fine. He was fine. And Bella, happily chatting and smiling away at her date, was certainly fine.

'Do you want to go over and say hello?'

Will frowned as his pulse picked up.

Did he?

Why not? He had no intention of leaving, and he could hardly spend the entire evening avoiding Bella and her date when they were sitting a couple of feet away.

Going over and saying hello would be the mature and sensible thing to do.

Plus he'd get to see how she reacted and that would be… interesting. 'Why not?' he said coolly.

And because, despite trying to convince himself it was simply the sting of rejection, he had been disappointed when Bella had turned him down, and because right now he felt anything but mature and sensible, maybe not just hello.

'So how do you know Phoebe?'

Bella glanced up from the menu, rather grateful for the break.

She'd spent the last few minutes trying to decide what to have and had so far narrowed it down to a choice of three.

Every dish sounded too delicious for words and while Sam might have told her to order anything she liked, she doubted he'd meant everything she liked.

'I met her at a party about a year ago and we became friends,' she said.

'Then I started providing the gems for one of her clients who designs handbags, and now she does my PR.

' Bella tapped the menu against her chin and thought that Phoebe did a lot more than just her PR.

'Actually she's more like a good friend than a colleague.

' She gave him a quick smile. 'How do you know Alex? '

'We're looking at doing a joint venture together,' he said. 'Backing a start-up. Exciting if you're into that sort of thing.'

Bella grinned. 'I'll take your word for it.'

And then Sam's gaze slid over her shoulder and his eyebrows lifted and to her complete consternation the back of her neck began to prickle.

Every one of her nerve endings tingled and her stomach fluttered.

The sounds of the restaurant, the clinking of cutlery and the quiet hum of chatter faded.

She felt a dart of alarm, a twinge of panic and then as her body began to heat the smile slipped from her face and her whole body tensed as trepidation began to wind through her.

Oh, God. Oh, no. Surely not. Not when she'd managed to convince herself that she was moving on. That really wouldn't be fair.

But then when was life fair? she thought, her stomach plummeting to the floor. The back of her neck had only ever prickled once before and that had been when she'd been in the vault at the bank pretending to be completely absorbed in setting herself up and she'd sensed she wasn't alone.

As her heart began to thunder she realised that there was no use pretending she didn't know exactly who it was that Sam was staring at, who it was who was standing behind her. And it was equally no use pretending that he wasn't there.

Surreptitiously taking a deep breath and praying she'd be able to play it cool, Bella plastered a bright smile to her face and swivelled round.

To find herself staring straight at a crotch, far closer than she could have possibly imagined.

And not just any old crotch, she thought, her head swimming and her heart lurching.

No. This one she'd had the pleasure of before.

She knew exactly what lay behind the buttons of those jeans and exactly how good it had felt inside her.

As the desire that had been annoyingly elusive all evening began to pour through her she had to grip the table to stop herself slithering to the floor.

'Hello, Bella.'

Will's voice, lazy and deep, came from somewhere high above and Bella, battling back a fiery blush and ordering her heart to steady, made herself calmly lift her head.

As her eyes roamed up over the striped shirt stretched over his chest and the chocolate brown jacket, all train of thought vanished. She couldn't even remember what was on the menu, let alone what she'd toyed with the idea of ordering. And as for playing it cool, well, that was a joke.

There was a tightness gripping his body and a hardness to the set of his mouth and her heart banged against her ribs.

He looked dark and brooding, like a man on the edge.

On the edge of what, she had no idea, but he was definitely teetering on the brink of something and it made her pulse thump even harder.

Without warning, he bent down, brushed his lips against her cheek and Bella nearly passed out. His scent, his heat, the proximity of him stole the air from her lungs. Lust shot round her and she clamped her mouth shut to stop the whimper that was racing up her throat from escaping.

God, if she'd needed any convincing about the appeal of sexual chemistry she had it.

An odd sort of buzz was spreading through her body and her blood was heating and all she knew was Will was being all grim and dark and overwhelming and she was falling under his spell all over again.

Quite happily, she thought, going dizzy at the realisation.

Or rather, quite happily until she clocked the presence of the gorgeous leggy redhead draping herself over his arm.

With gritted determination Bella fought back a scowl and kept the smile in place as she ran her gaze over the woman Will was with.

So much for the fleeting idea that he'd sounded annoyed when she'd cancelled their date.

Unlike her, it clearly hadn't caused him any sleepless nights.

He'd probably put her straight out of his mind and been on the phone to the redhead within seconds.

Huh.

She watched the redhead lean a little further into him and shoot him a smouldering smile, and she wondered whether they'd come by car and whether Will had instructed Bob to take the circuitous route. Whether he made a habit of telling Bob to take the circuitous route.

Jealousy flooded through her and Bella had to stifle a gasp at the pain that speared her. Jealousy? What on earth was that all about? She had no reason to feel jealous. She was the one who'd cancelled their date, so Will could take the circuitous route with whoever he liked.

Just because she didn't want him didn't mean that no one else would. Apart from the tiny issue with commitment he had, he was the most eligible bachelor in the country.

And besides, she'd moved on, hadn't she?

'Will,' she said, swinging her gaze back towards him and determinedly deepening her smile. 'What a surprise.'

'Isn't it?'

And then her eyes met his for the first time and she immediately wished she could dive beneath the table and stay there all night. Because his eyes were ice cold, as hard and flinty as lapis lazuli, and cut right through her, making her shiver and putting a chill back in her blood.

He was fuming, she realised, completely poleaxed.

But fuming about what? Surely he couldn't be angry with her , could he?

All she'd done was cancel a date. Hardly the crime of the century.

Yet here he was, bristling down at her, the hostility rolling off him in waves and practically drowning her. It was baffling.

'A pleasant one though,' she said, burying the lie in politeness and thinking that actually 'pleasant' was way too bland a word to associate with Will. In any context.

'Then why don't we join you?' he said with a smile so cool it was sub-zero.

What? Bella's eyebrows shot up and her stomach jumped. Oh, no. No no no no no . Grabbing back some sort of control, she flashed both Will and his date an overly bright smile. 'Oh. Well, that would be delightful, of course, but I'm sure—' She glanced at the redhead.

'Rosie,' she supplied huskily.

'Rosie would rather you had your own table,' she said.

'Rosie doesn't mind,' said Will abruptly.

Rosie looked as if she minded quite a bit, but she got over it remarkably quickly and smiled graciously. 'That sounds lovely,' she said, presumably so confident that she'd have Will all to herself later that she could afford to be generous, Bella thought tartly.

'Fine by me,' said Sam, getting to his feet and summoning a waiter before Bella could shoot him a pleading look.

And then introductions were being made and a couple of waiters were hurrying over to whip off tablecloths and rearrange cutlery and crockery, and Bella felt any kind of control she might have had over events slip through her fingers like sand through an hourglass.

How was she going to get through this evening now? Enjoy supper, Sam had said. Ha. There was absolutely no chance of that. With Will in this weirdly prickly mood, and Bella feeling more than a little on edge herself, it was going to be agony.

But what could she do, apart from drum up some of that coolness and aloofness she'd hauled into action the first time she'd met Will, and count the minutes until the bill arrived?