All Work And No Play.... Julie Cohen

hand in hers, she flew over the kerbs, ducked between pedestrians, rounded corners like a Formula One racer and heard her breath coming out in sure, rapid pants of laughter.

      They were at the door of the hotel almost before she was ready and they spilled through it laughing and gasping for breath. It was a boutique hotel, newly renovated, modern and airy. Jay brought her straight to the lift.

      ‘I assume you want to go to my room,’ he said, stroking her hair back from her flushed face and combing through its tangled waves with his fingers.

      She stood on her toes and whispered into his ear. ‘I can think of some things we can get up to in the lift.’

      He raised his eyebrows at her and seemed to be opening his mouth to say something when they were joined by a man in tweed. The door dinged and the man came into the lift with them.

      Jane held Jay’s hand and nestled close into his side. Curses, she mouthed at him while the other passenger was pressing his floor button, and she was rewarded with Jay’s sexy smile.

      First floor. Second floor. Jane watched the numbers on top of the lift door, felt Jay’s thumb circling the inside of her wrist, and tried not to go insane with anticipation. At the third floor the doors slid open and Jay led her out into the hallway.

      ‘Not far, I hope,’ she said.

      ‘Just here.’ He removed a card key from the inside pocket of his suit jacket and opened the door. Without a single iota of hesitation Jane walked into this near-stranger’s hotel room and felt as free and young as she had ten minutes before when she’d been sprinting full-tilt with him down the King’s Road.

      The room was high-ceilinged and painted in light colours, furnished in sleek modern pieces. She spotted a pair of jeans over a chair, a laptop on the desk, and a big, smooth bed.

      Jay closed the door behind her and she faced him.

      Aside from his breathing, the rustle of his suit, and her heartbeat in her ears, the room was absolutely silent. Jane realised, with a twist of her heart, that for the first time she and this man were alone together. Actually acting out the intimacy they’d adopted from the start.

      Jay reached out with a hand and pushed a lock of her hair back with his finger. Then, slowly, he dropped his arm to his own side.

      ‘So, Jane,’ he said quietly, ‘what do you want to do?’

      CHAPTER FOUR

      THIS was it. Jane’s chance to say no, to go back to her normal life, back to thinking about nothing but work, back to playing it safe.

      She didn’t hesitate. ‘I want you,’ she said and stepped back into Jay’s arms.

      Their kiss was, if anything, more passionate, although Jane wouldn’t have believed that was possible. But this time they were alone and there was an inevitability about what was going to happen that fuelled her desire. They kissed in hungry bites. Jane’s hands clutched Jay’s clothing, pulling his lithe, muscular body as tight as she could. He held her with one broad hand spread across the small of her back, and his erection pressed into her, even more insistent than before.

      She had to break her mouth from his for a moment to catch her breath. When she did he stepped back, just a little bit, his hands still on her, and looked her up and down. His dark blue gaze felt like hands on her body.

      ‘Jane, you are beautiful,’ he said.

      Silly as it was, honesty compelled her to shake her head. ‘You’re the beautiful one.’

      He had a face that looked both sensual and intelligent, and a body made to wear clothes, tall and lean and hard. Although she was sure he would look even better out of his clothes. She licked her lips in anticipation and tasted him on them.