one-hundred-and-eighty-pound frame over the parapet of a bridge were ludicrous to say the least. Which wasn’t to say she wouldn’t give it a damn good try!
She gave an uninterested shrug. ‘When I went to school the other children quickly latched onto the fact that my initial was J. followed by Nixon, and when you say the two of them together…’ She trailed off pointedly, giving him a sideways glance. ‘You aren’t coming home with me, you know.’
Of course he knew. After the last two months of sending letters to her father, just in the hopes of being able to meet him and discuss the movie rights to his book, of the use of a PO box for that correspondence, of the author never agreeing to so much as meeting with his own publisher, it would be expecting too much now for his daughter to just take Nik home with her and introduce the two men.
‘You mentioned earlier that your father isn’t well…?’ he said instead.
She stiffened, all expression suddenly erased from her face. ‘I mentioned it, yes,’ she acknowledged guardedly.
‘Nothing life-threatening, I hope?’ Nik persisted.
‘It depends on what you call life-threatening,’ she returned evasively, a frown now marring her creamy brow.
He shrugged, having an idea that in the case of Jackson I. Nixon the writing and subsequent success of No Ordinary Boy didn’t fit in too well with his other literary achievements. Nik didn’t happen to agree with him, and neither did the millions of other people who had bought and enjoyed the book, but that was just his opinion…
His mouth twisted wryly. ‘It usually means resulting in premature death.’
‘Mr Prince—okay, Nik,’ Jinx conceded impatiently as he scowled his displeasure at the formality. ‘Just stay away from my father, okay?’ Her expression was fierce with emotion now.
‘But I only want—’
‘I know what you want, Nik!’ Her eyes flashed deeply purple in the illumination of the street lamp, her tiny hands clenched into fists at her sides. ‘You want to make a film of No Ordinary Boy. In the hopes, no doubt, of adding yet another Oscar to the five you already have in your trophy cabinet!’
God, this woman was beautiful when roused, whether to anger or passion. And at this moment Nik knew exactly which one he wanted it to be!
‘Perhaps I should feel flattered that you know I have five Oscars—’
‘And perhaps you shouldn’t!’
‘Another Oscar would be nice,’ he conceded huskily. ‘But at this moment I’m damned if I wouldn’t settle for a night in bed with you!’
Colour flared suddenly in the paleness of her cheeks, her lips full and inviting, her breasts moving with the same rapidity of her breathing.
‘I wasn’t aware that was an option,’ she retorted, the nerve pulsing in her raised jaw giving lie to that challenge.
Because Nik was experienced enough to know that, no matter how she might try to deny it—and she was denying it!—Jinx was as physically aware of him as he was of her.
‘Not as an instead of, no,’ he admitted gruffly, moving closer to her, not quite touching, but nevertheless feeling the heat given off from her body. He reached up to touch the pouting softness of her mouth, feeling the quiver his caress invoked. ‘You want me too, Jinx,’ he said with certainty.
Her eyes were so dark now they appeared black, her mouth trembling moistly, a becoming flush to her cheeks, the hardened nubs at the tips of the gentle sweep of her breasts visible beneath the thin material of her dress. And Nik was sure, if he could have touched the very centre of her desire, that she would be moist there too, as ready for him as he was for her.
And they hadn’t so much as kissed each other yet!
But that was easily rectified, Nik decided, no longer able to resist the urge to take her into his arms, to mould her body fiercely against his, to let her feel the surge of his desire against her warm thighs, before he bent his head and his mouth took hers—and his previously well-constructed world fell apart!
Drowning.
It was like drowning.
Every other woman he had ever known was instantly consigned to a black void and could never be recalled. Only Jinx existed, only the touch, the warmth, the smell, the taste of her.
This woman, this tiny, stubborn, five-foot delicacy of a woman, was taking possession of him, body and soul…!
CHAPTER THREE
WHAT was she doing?
Whatever it was, Jinx knew she couldn’t stop it. Not yet. Oh, please, not yet!
Nik was kissing her as if he wanted to make her a part of him, to devour her, to take her completely inside him. Or for him to be completely inside her. His thighs were moving restlessly against hers, rubbing, tormenting, frustrating, until Jinx wanted nothing more than to throw off all their clothes and be taken by him right now, the two of them lost in the heat of the sexual arousal that drew them nearer and nearer to a climax that was completely beyond their control.
‘Let’s go to a hotel!’ Nik managed to take his lips from hers long enough to groan achingly, long hands framing her face as he looked down at her with glittering silver eyes. ‘I don’t know what you’re doing to me, Jinx Nixon, but if I don’t make love to you soon then I’m going to self-combust!’
She knew it, could feel the force of his need. A need she easily matched.
‘Feel it, Jinx.’ Nik’s thighs moved erotically against her, hard, pulsing with desire.
A desire that made her own thighs moist, burning, aching, throbbing with a need that she knew would explode if Nik’s flesh should so much as touch hers.
But she couldn’t just book into a hotel with a man—especially not this man! And while her body might think that it recognized and knew his, she knew she had every reason to distrust him. More reasons than he realized.
‘No!’ Nik protested as he seemed to feel her moving emotionally away from him, his arms tightening about her as he tried to hold onto the moment. ‘Jinx, I know you want me too!’ he groaned.
Oh, yes, she wanted him. But she would never give in to that want—she had too much to lose if she ever did.
She straightened determinedly away from him. ‘And do you always get what you want, Nik?’ She sighed.
‘Almost always,’ he confirmed, his arms falling back to his sides.
‘Then a little self-denial could be good for you.’
‘It isn’t self-denial, it’s Jinx-denial,’ he corrected huskily. ‘And men have been known to go insane trying to draw back from the brink you just took me to!’ His eyes glittered with the intensity of his feelings.
‘Women too, or so I’m told,’ she came back dryly, some of her own normal reserve returning now that she was no longer held in his arms. Although the desire he had aroused hadn’t abated in the slightest…
‘Then why—’
‘Because it would be a mistake!’ she cried frustratedly. ‘Can’t you understand?’ she continued as he looked at her blankly. ‘You are positively the last man on earth I ever want to become involved with!’
He became very still, his expression guarded now, a shutter coming down over grey eyes, his mouth a grim line. ‘Because I want to make a movie of No Ordinary Boy?’
‘Because you want to film No Ordinary Boy,’ she agreed flatly.
‘Damn it, woman—’
‘Nik, swearing at me isn’t going to help this situation one little bit—’
‘Maybe