allowed to deviate from the course he determined. No one was ever allowed to overstep the boundaries he had laid down. And he never allowed himself to flounder... Ever...
Steer a clear route, make sure you didn’t stray from it, and nothing could take you by surprise because surprises were seldom good.
Except, right now, the clear route wasn’t as clear as it usually was, when it came to women.
For starters, he had chased her. Not overtly, but did that make a difference? He had noted her Keep Off signs and, instead of shrugging and walking away because the world was full of pretty faces and willing women, he had let himself be hooked in.
He had changed his routine because of her. Having hired her to work nights so that he could focus on several high-powered deals that required long hours, he had caught himself thinking about her, wanting to see her for longer than just in passing...
And when he had shown up unexpectedly and found her in the swimming pool...
That modest black bikini, which was much more her thing than the outfit she had borrowed from her friend, had turned him on more than if she had been wearing nothing but a thong...
Which just went to show the power of the imagination once it broke its leash and decided to fly. He’d been determined not to go near her, to remember that she was connected with his daughter, to not under any circumstances mix business with pleasure, so to speak, and yet here he was... Hell, he’d resolved not to venture near her in case it jeopardised his fragile truce with Flora...!
Not even her cautionary tale about her background had put him off.
It should have.
He had married a gold-digger and paid the price. Now he had no problem dating beauties who enjoyed the things he could give them, but he was always in control of a relationship, always dictated its course, always dispatched them when they were beginning to outstay their welcome.
Sunny had no money and her background beggared belief. She kept her distance and had made it clear that, given the choice, she would not have chosen to be in his company if she could help it. And yet...he had still chased her.
Which said worrying things about his valued self-control...but he was incapable of backing off. He didn’t get it. He didn’t begin to get it.
Something about the way she was put together... It wasn’t just her stupendous and unusual good looks, but the way she tried to conceal them. It wasn’t just her sharp intellect, but the soft vulnerability he could see lurking just beneath it. She had somehow gained access to Flora, a feat none of his previous nannies had come close to accomplishing, and she had done so without trying, having made it very clear that she was only in it for the money, which she needed.
On paper, it made no sense for him to be sitting here, waiting for her to come on board with the little journey he was interested in taking with her...
But hell...since when was it written in cement that he had to follow the rules that made sense? Since when was a little deviation something to be banned? And he wouldn’t be jeopardising anything. He knew what could be lost and so would also know how to avoid that happening. He’d admitted his own weakness and stepped back to see the situation from all angles.
When it came to the crunch, he would always be in control because that was just the man he was. His concerns, whilst valid, were misplaced. To know what you were dealing with was to be in charge of the situation. He knew what he was dealing with. An itch that begged to be scratched and, once scratched, would disappear. It was a relief to get that straight in his head.
‘I fancy you,’ he admitted with a slow smile that sent her senses spinning. It was liberating not to be fighting the unequal fight any longer. ‘Don’t ask me why but I do...’
Sunny felt as though she were being stroked even though he hadn’t laid a finger on her. Her tummy flipped over and for a second every principle she had held dear to her heart disappeared like water down a plughole.
She shook away the mesmeric effect his words were having on her to establish some sanity.
He fancied her!
She’d been fancied before, she scoffed. True, Stefano Gunn was a few notches higher than most but still...
Agitated, she clasped her hands together and looked away. All of that would have been easy to deal with if she didn’t, likewise, fancy the man!
‘Could the outfit have anything to do with your sudden attack of lust?’ She was proud of the casual, dismissive tone of her voice, which didn’t seem to have the slightest effect on him.
‘Not at all,’ Stefano said musingly, as though he’d considered her question and given it a lot of thought. ‘Although, in fairness, it did concentrate matters when I realised that I didn’t want other men seeing you wearing next to nothing.’
‘Well, I... This isn’t at all appropriate...’ She wanted to stand up but he was sitting so close to her that she would have had to push him back and then clamber over him.
She shrank back as far as she could go into her chair and noted the mild amusement in his eyes when he looked at her.
Why did she have to fancy him? Of all people? Why did those physical responses, which she had assumed she lacked, have to jump out and target a man like Stefano Gunn?
Why couldn’t they have targeted someone nice and kind and ordinary?
Her skin tingled and prickled with awareness. Now that she knew how he felt, it was as if a Pandora’s box had been opened. The silent, shameful charge, which she had thought had just been about her, was out in the open and it was clamouring to be dealt with.
‘Tell me why,’ Stefano murmured, his antennae picking up her nerves and processing it. She wasn’t saying anything he didn’t privately think himself but such caution didn’t stand a chance next to the demands of his wayward libido.
‘Because...I happen to be working for you!’
‘In a very temporary capacity,’ Stefano dismissed drily. ‘I’m not your boss and you’re not my employee and there are no office politics to be dealt with.’
‘Of course there would be office politics to be dealt with! Not that I intend to...to...to do anything.’
‘What office politics?’
‘This is crazy.’ She stood up, nimbly avoiding crashing into him by a whisker and then there was an awkward few seconds while she hovered, waiting for him to shift away from her and wondering whether he intended to at all, before he moved and she slipped past to pace the kitchen floor.
She should go. Of course she should! But something was holding her back, weakening what her head was telling her to do. Temptation. This was what it felt like. She had never experienced it in her life before and after John, who had been just the sort of guy she should have felt tempted by, she had resigned herself to her future being about her career. She felt uncomfortable in her own skin, confused by having her neatly ordered life turned upside down.
‘What office politics?’
She paused to stand in front of him, arms folded, mouth pursed. ‘You know what I’m talking about!’
‘I have no idea and I’m not a mind-reader. If there’s some revelation I’ve been missing, then enlighten me...’
‘Katherine,’ she muttered, hating herself for what now sounded like office gossip. She couldn’t even remember where this particular piece of office gossip had originated.
‘Katherine?’ His brows knitted into a perplexed frown.
‘Nothing. Forget it. It’s nothing.’
‘You shouldn’t start conversations you don’t have the courage to finish.’ He’d never had to work so hard for a woman. It was as though she had glanced over her shoulder, thrown him a half smile and then proceeded to lay down a bed of nails and burning embers over which he had to walk if he was to follow