In Hot Pursuit by Joanne Rock

woman’s fingers off his jacket. “I’m afraid I can’t return the favor.”
    The snappy click of high heels across the marble corridor floor alerted him to a new arrival. A feminine new arrival.
    He’d scarcely had time to turn around before Lexi’s voice echoed through the large room.
    â€œJosh?”
    The look of betrayal on Lexi’s face couldn’t have been any more apparent. A beleaguered butler stood at her side as she stopped short in the entryway.
    â€œMs. Alexandra Mansfield is here, Ms. Bertrand,” the butler announced with a mixture of stiff formality and impatience.
    â€œIt’s Lexi,” she snapped, obviously recovering from her moment of undisguised emotion.
    Had Josh really seen a flash of jealousy, or was it wishful thinking on his part?
    â€œNot according to your mother, miss,” the butler returned, bowing in deferential response to Lexi’s mild snarl.
    â€œHonestly, your staff is as ill-mannered as you, Simone. Jeeves should have told me you were busy.” Lexi adjusted the shoulder strap of her purse and tossed her long, dark hair over her shoulder.
    She looked phenomenal. Her dress clung to her curves without cinching them, the fabric molding around her body like a lover’s hand.
    â€œIt’s James, Ms. Mansfield,” the butler called from some distance down the hallway.
    Josh hid a laugh, and thought he noticed a smile playing about Lexi’s lips, too.
    â€œYes, I am very busy,” Simone responded to Lexi’s earlier comment. “You’ll have to come back later.”
    All traces of Lexi’s smile disappeared. “You can count on it, Simone. I’ll keep Jeeves entertained untilyou’re finished with your—” Lexi’s eyes skated over Josh “—business.”
    Josh became acutely aware that Simone still seemed attached to his arm despite his earlier efforts to free himself. Lexi sure as hell hadn’t missed his incriminating position.
    Still, she pivoted on her skyscraper heels with the precision of a drill sergeant. Josh couldn’t take his eyes off her, as a loose-limbed walk carried her and all that in-your-face attitude out of view.
    He gladly would have chased after her if he didn’t have to interrogate the vine clinging to his arm.
    But at least he could cross one task off his list today. He’d checked on Lexi, as Duke had requested.
    And from what he could see, she was fantastic.
    Any way he looked at it, Lexi Mansfield was one hell of a woman.
    Â 
    J OSH W INGER was a first-class bastard.
    Lexi repeated the sentiment in every language she knew. Thanks to Lexi’s frequent trips around the world for her magazine, the exercise took her all the way from Simone’s hideous pink parlor to her free-form swimming pool and fussy gardens in the backyard.
    Unfortunately, it didn’t ease the sting of seeing the man she was struggling to forget, in the clutches of her socially mortal enemy. How did Josh know Simone?
    Worse yet, why was Lexi sticking around to find out?
    Even as she asked herself the question, Lexi knewthe answer. She liked Josh. And in spite of her best efforts not to complicate her life with relationships that could only hurt her, Lexi found herself wanting to do just that.
    She took a seat in a cast-iron garden chair next to a small table, determined to talk to Simone sometime today. She just hoped it wasn’t tomorrow morning before the woman finished her business.
    The thought make Lexi’s stomach churn.
    But maybe it was just as well she’d discovered Josh had other women in his life. Maybe this would be the immunization shot she needed to resist him.
    She released a long-suffering sigh, not realizing she wasn’t alone until she heard the slam of a silver tray on the table beside her.
    â€œRough day, miss?” James Preston, the Bertrand’s longtime butler, asked politely.
    Lexi glared at him for good measure, but