The Boss's Marriage Arrangement. Penny Jordan

almost dropped the cup of water she was holding, but she suspected that the shock on her face was nothing to the stupefaction on Ben’s as Matt came between them.

      ‘Harry?’ Ben questioned incredulously.

      ‘You’re trembling. I hope that’s because of me,’ Matt was murmuring against her ear as he relieved her of the paper cup she had all but crushed by sliding one hand around her waist to turn her towards him and removing the cup with the other.

      Ben was positively goggling at them, his mouth half open and a look of total shock on his face.

      ‘You mean, you two are…?’ He shook his head.

      ‘We certainly are,’ Matt assured him calmly. ‘In fact we very much are—aren’t we, Harriet?’

      The look he was giving her was practically a physical caress in itself, Harriet recognised weakly, and her wretched body was certainly responding to it as though it were.

      Ben obviously hadn’t missed the high octane sensuality of the smoky look Matt was giving her, because suddenly he started to frown—an expression that Harriet recognised all too well.

      Ben was her friend, but he was also male, and as such he had always taken a very brotherly and protective attitude towards Harriet where other men were concerned. And right now he was looking at Matt as though he was a suspicious father about to demand to know Matt’s intentions!

      ‘You never said anything to me!’ he accused Harriet sternly.

      ‘I asked her not to,’ Matt answered promptly for her.

      Somehow the hand which had relieved her of the paper cup was now holding her own, his fingers sliding between hers in a manner so intimate that Harriet was having trouble breathing properly. Her skin tingled, and liquid pleasure shot up her arm like an injection of some kind of sensual drug that locked into her heart.

      She had the strongest need not just to move closer to Matt’s body, but also to press herself against him with wanton abandonment.

      Wicked images of the two of them alone together somewhere very private filled her head in a dangerously explicit slide show. Matt perching on the edge of a desk, his legs open as he drew her to him to kiss her passionately, whilst her fingers explored the hard muscles of his thigh, her touch making him growl in protest and take her hand and place it on the swollen bulge of his erection. Whilst he was kissing her he would slowly unfasten her top and remove it. His hands would cup her breasts and savour their shape and feel as her tight, erect nipples flaunted their eager hunger for his touch… Abruptly Harriet called her thoughts to order as she heard, ‘But now that things are serious between us it’s different. I don’t care who knows how I feel about Harriet!’

      ‘Things are serious between you?’ Ben’s frown cleared, leaving him looking both relieved and happy.