Living the Charade. Michelle Conder

way of sound judgement.

      Okay, maybe not blind ambition. Possibly she was a little peeved that she’d felt so professionally hamstrung in telling TJ Lyons what she thought of his lack of business ethics.

      ‘Maybe we just shouldn’t talk,’ she muttered, half to herself. ‘I know enough.’ And she was afraid if he said any more she’d ask him to pull over so she could get out and run away as fast as she could.

      ‘I don’t.’

      She looked at him warily. ‘Everything you need to know is in my dossier. Presuming you read it?’

      ‘Oh, it was riveting. You enjoy running, Mexican cuisine, strawberry ice cream, and cross-stitching. Tell me, is that anything like cross-dressing?’

      Miller willed herself not to blow up at him. ‘No.’

      ‘That’s a relief. You also like reading and visiting art galleries. No mention of what type of underwear you prefer, though.’

      Miller channelled the monks of wherever. ‘Because it’s irrelevant.’

      ‘You know mine.’

      ‘Not by choice.’ And she was trying very hard not to think about those sexy boxers under his snug-fitting jeans.

      ‘So what do you prefer?’

      ‘Sorry?’

      ‘Are you a plain cotton or more of a lace girl?’

      Miller stifled a cough. ‘That’s none of your business.’

      ‘Believe me, it is. I’m not getting caught up in a conversation with your client not knowing my G-strings from my boy-legs.’

      ‘Potential client. And I thought all men talked about was sport?’

      ‘We’ve been known to deviate on occasion.’ He threw her a mischievous grin. ‘Since you won’t tell me, I’ll have to use my imagination.’

      ‘Imagine away,’ she said blithely, and then wished she hadn’t when his eyes settled on her breasts.

      ‘Now, there’s an invitation a man doesn’t get every day.’

      Miller shot him a fulminating glare, alarmed to feel her nipples tightening inside her lace bra.

      Striving to steady her nerves, she made the mistake of reading out the next item he’d added to the questionnaire. ‘“Favourite sexual position.’”

      ‘I haven’t finished imagining your lingerie,’ he complained. ‘Though I’m heading towards sheer little lacy numbers over cotton. Am I right?’

      Miller faked a yawn, wondering how on earth he had guessed her little secret and determined that he wouldn’t know that he was getting to her. ‘You’ve written down “all”.’

      He threw her a wolfish grin. ‘I might have exaggerated slightly. It was getting late when I wrote that. Probably if I had to name one…Nope. I pretty much like them all equally.’

      ‘I wasn’t asking.’

      ‘Although on top is always fun,’ he continued as if she hadn’t spoken. ‘And there’s something wicked about taking a woman from behind.’

      His voice had dropped and the throaty purr slid over Miller’s skin like a silken caress.

      ‘Don’t you think?’

      Miller released a pent-up breath. She’d had one sexual partner so far and it hadn’t been nearly exciting enough for them to try variations on the missionary theme. She hated that now all she could visualise was her on top of the sublime male next to her and how it would feel to have him behind her. Inside her.

      Her heart thudded heavily in her chest and she suddenly found her attention riveted by the way his long fingers flexed around the steering wheel. Imagining them on her body.

      ‘What I think is that you should concentrate on driving this beast of a car so we don’t run into one of those semis you’re so determined to fly past.’

      ‘Nervous, Miller?’

      He said her name as if he was tasting it and Miller’s stomach clenched. Oh, this man was a master at sexual repartee, and she’d do well to remember that.

      Miller shook her head. ‘Are you ever serious about anything?’

      He threw her a bemused look. ‘Plenty. Are you ever not serious about anything?’

      ‘Plenty.’ Which was so blatantly untrue she half expected her nose to start growing.

      He passed another car and Miller absently noted that after her earlier panicked response he was driving marginally less like a racing car driver. That thought triggered something in her mind and her brow furrowed.

      Determined to ignore him for the rest of the trip, she pulled her laptop out of her computer bag.

      ‘What happened to the getting-to-know-you part of our trip?’

      He threw her a sexy smile that shot the hazy memory she’d been trying to grab on to out of her head and replaced it with an image of the way he had insolently leant against the bar last night.

      ‘I know you run, swim, work out, and that you take your coffee black. Your favourite colour is blue and you have four siblings—’

      ‘I also don’t mind a cuddle after sex.’

      ‘And you don’t have a serious bone in your body. I, on the other hand, take my life very seriously and I am not interested in whether you like sex straight up or hanging from a chandelier. It’s not relevant. What I’m looking for this weekend is someone to melt into the background and say very little. Starting right now.’

      Tino smiled as he revved the engine and manoeuvred the Aston Martin around a tourist bus. He hadn’t enjoyed himself this much in…he couldn’t remember.

      He was in a hot car, driving down a wide country highway on a warm spring afternoon, completely free from having to answer questions about his recent spate of accidents, his car or the coming race. The experience was almost blissful.

      With any luck his anonymity would hold and he’d forget the pressure of being the world’s number one racing driver on an unlucky streak. Because, as he’d told Sam, it was all media hoopla and coincidence anyway, and he’d prove it Sunday week.

      He glanced at the stiff woman beside him and involuntarily adjusted his jeans. He hadn’t expected her to give him a hard-on but she had. Which was surprising, given that her black linen trousers and matching shirt were about as provocative as a nun’s habit.

      His eyes drifted over the blade-straight hair that curtained her delicate profile from his view down over her elegant neck to the gentle swell of her breasts. Was she wearing lace underneath? By the blush that had crept into her face before he’d guess yes. The thought made him smile, and his gaze lingered on her hands as they poised over her computer keys.

      She had an effortless sensuality that drew him, and whenever she glared at him hot sparks of sexual arousal threatened to burn him up.

      They’d be good together. He knew it. It was just a pity he had no intention of using the weekend to test his theory.

      He wasn’t looking for a relationship right now, sexual or otherwise, and he had very strict guidelines about how women fitted into his life. The last thing he wanted was a woman getting into his headspace and worrying about whether or not he was going to buy it on the track every time he raced. He’d seen it too many times before, and no way would anyone land him with that kind of guilty pressure.

      He still remembered the day he had watched his father clip the rear wheel of another car, flip over and slam into a concrete barrier. It had been one of those races that had reinvigorated race safety procedures and it had changed Tino’s life for ever. He’d still known that he would follow in his father’s footsteps, but after