Tall, Dark & Rich: His Christmas Virgin / Married by Christmas / A Yuletide Seduction. Carole Mortimer

able to give his usual concentration to his business meetings.

      What was it about this woman in particular that so disturbed him? Mac was beautiful, yes, but in a wild and Bohemian sort of way that had never appealed to him before. There was absolutely nothing about her that usually attracted him to a woman. She was short and dark-haired, boyishly slender apart from the fullness of her breasts, and not in the least sophisticated; she even rode a motorbike, for heaven’s sake!

      Jonas wasn’t particularly into motorbikes, but even he recognised the machine as being a Harley, the chassis a shiny black, its silver chrome gleaming brightly. For what had to be the dozenth time, Jonas told himself that Mac McGuire was most definitely not his type.

      So why the hell couldn’t he stop thinking about her?

      His eyes narrowed. ‘Don’t you think—whatever your reason for being here—that following me home is taking things to an extreme?’

      Her mouth tightened further at the criticism. ‘Maybe.’

      He raised mocking brows. ‘Only maybe?’

      ‘Yes,’ she admitted grudgingly.

      He eyed her coldly. ‘And so you’re here because…?’

      She glared at him. ‘You sent a glazier to repair my window.’

      ‘Yes.’

      Her eyes widened. ‘You aren’t even going to attempt to deny it?’

      Jonas grimaced. ‘Presumably Bob told you I had sent him?’

      ‘Yes.’

      ‘Then what would be the point of my trying to deny it?’ he reasoned impatiently.

      Mac was feeling a little foolish now that she was actually face to face with Jonas. Anger had been her primary emotion, as she waited the twenty minutes or so it had taken Bob Jenkins to replace the window, before donning her leathers and getting her motorcycle out of the garage and riding it over to Jonas’s office. Just in time to see Jonas driving out of the office underground car park in his dark green sports car.

      Frustrated anger had made her decide to follow him home; having ridden back into the city for the sole purpose of speaking to him, Mac had had no intention of just turning round and going home without doing exactly that.

      At least, she had hoped Jonas was driving home; it would be a little embarrassing for Mac to have followed him to a date with another woman!

      The prestigious apartment building above this underground car park—so unlike her own rambling warehouse-conversion home—definitely looked like the sort of place Jonas would choose to live.

      She stubbornly stood her ground. ‘I told you I had a glazier coming out tomorrow.’

      Jonas nodded tersely. ‘And I seem to recall telling you that wasn’t good enough.’

      Her eyes widened. ‘So you just arranged for one of your own workmen to come over this afternoon instead? Without even giving me the courtesy of telling me about it?’

      Jonas could see that Mac was clearly running out of steam, her accusing tone certainly lacking some of its earlier anger. He regarded her mockingly. ‘So it would seem.’

      ‘I—but—you can’t just take over my life in this way, Jonas!’

      He frowned. ‘You see ensuring your safety as an attempt to take over your life?’

      ‘Yes! Well…not exactly,’ she allowed impatiently. ‘But it was certainly an arrogant thing to do!’

      Yes, she was definitely running out of steam…‘But I am arrogant, Mac.’

      ‘It’s not something you should be in the least proud of!’

      He gave her an unapologetic, smile. ‘Your objection is duly noted.’

      ‘And dismissed!’

      Jonas gave a shrug. ‘I presume Bob has now replaced the broken window?’

      Mac gave a disgusted snort. ‘He wouldn’t dare do anything else when “the boss” told him to do so “toot sweet”.’

      Jonas had to smile at her perfect mimicry of Bob’s broad Cockney accent. ‘Well, unless you want me to break the window again just so that you can have the satisfaction of having your own glazier fix it tomorrow, I don’t really see what you want me to do about it.’

      Those smoky-grey eyes narrowed. ‘You think you’re so clever, don’t you?’

      Jonas straightened. ‘No, Mac, I think what I did was the most sensible course of action in the circumstances,’ he stated calmly. ‘If you disagree with that, then that’s obviously your prerogative.’

      ‘I disagree with the way you went about it, not with the fact that you did it,’ she continued in obvious frustration.

      He gave a cool nod. ‘Again, your objection is duly noted.’

      ‘Right. Okay.’ Mac didn’t quite know what to do or say now that she’d voiced her protest over the replacement of her broken window.

      She should have just telephoned Jonas and told him what she thought of him rather than coming back into town to speak to him personally. She certainly shouldn’t—as he had already pointed out so mockingly—have followed him home!

      The wisest thing to do now would be to get back on her motorbike and drive back home. Unwisely, Mac knew she wasn’t yet ready to do that…

      Just looking at Jonas, his dark hair once again ruffled by the breeze outside, the hard arrogance of his face clearly visible in the brightly lit car park, was enough to make her knees go weak. To remind her of the way he had kissed and touched her earlier today. To make her long for him to kiss and touch her in that way again.

      To make her question whether that wasn’t the very reason she had come here in the first place…

      Jonas had been watching the different emotions flickering across Mac’s expressive face. First the fading of her anger, which was replaced by confusion and uncertainty. And now he could see those emotions replaced by an unmistakable hunger in those smoky-grey eyes as she looked at him so intently…

      A hunger he fully reciprocated. ‘I intend to have several glasses of wine as soon as I get up to my apartment—would you care to join me?’ he offered huskily.

      She visibly swallowed. ‘That’s probably not a good idea.’

      Again, here and now, Jonas was more than willing to go with a bad idea. His body physically ached from the hours he had already spent aroused by this woman today; the thought of an evening and night suffering the same discomfort did not appeal to him in the slightest. Besides, he really did want to see her perfect little bottom in those skin-tight leathers! ‘Half a glass of wine isn’t going to do you any harm, Mac.’

      ‘Isn’t it?’

      Maybe it was, Jonas acknowledged with dark humour. If he had anything to do or say about it. ‘Scared, Mac?’ he taunted.

      Her cheeks became flushed. ‘Now you’re deliberately challenging me into agreeing to go up to your apartment with you!’

      He gave her an amused smile. ‘Is it working?’

      Mac knew that her temptation to go up to Jonas’s apartment with him had very little to do with annoyance. Just talking with him like this made her nerve endings tingle, the low timbre of his voice sending little quivers of awareness up her nape and down the length of her spine, the fine hairs on her arms standing to attention, and her skin feeling as if it were covered in goose-bumps. She also felt uncomfortably hot, a heat she knew had nothing to do with the leathers she was wearing to keep out the early evening chill, and everything to do with being so physically aware of Jonas.

      All of which told Mac she would be a fool to go anywhere she would be completely alone—and vulnerable to her own churning emotions—with Jonas.