Lady Love by Diana Palmer

the doorway, hands in his pockets, and stared at Merlyn for so long that she got to her feet in self-defense. Her heart was beating wildly. Her eyes glanced off his as she dropped into a chair near Lila’s desk.
    “No date tonight, Miss Forrest?” he asked with cold sarcasm.
    “No date, Mr. Thorpe,” she replied sweetly. “Some of us work.”
    His dark eyes narrowed. “Would you care to elaborate on that?”
    “We’ve just finished a chapter,” Lila said, pulling out the diskettes before she turned off her computer and printer. She put the diskettes carefully into their jackets and then into their box. “Have to be so careful with these little devils,” she murmured. “But it’s worlds faster than a typewriter. Did the Radners get off all right, dear?”
    “Yes. They sent their regards, Miss Forrest,” he added, perching himself on the corner of the desk. “Since you weren’t available when they left.”
    “How polite,” she said quietly. She glanced at him, her eyes approving his beige slacks and patterned brown shirt. He looked all male in casual clothes, and she remembered suddenly the way his skin felt under his shirt. It was all she could do not to catch her breath at the memory.
    “We’d better go into the dining room for dinner,” Lila said, glancing at her watch. “I’ll just fetch Amanda.”
    Merlyn stood up, but Cameron blocked her path.
    “I wanted to say something to you in private,” he said curtly. “About last night…”
    “Now, don’t you worry,” she said with a honeyed smile. “I understand perfectly that you wouldn’t want me to get my hopes up just because you kissed me. Delle has gobs of money and I’m penniless.”
    His chest rose and fell heavily, quickly. “What I wanted to say,” he continued coldly, “was that Mother mentioned you were wearing a designer dress.”
    “I borrowed it,” she said flatly.
    “And you came back in a Jaguar,” he added. “I’d like to know what’s going on.”
    Her eyebrows arched. “Do you think I might be an eccentric millionairess?” she asked with a grin.
    His dark eyes narrowed. “I’m beginning to wonder quite a lot about you, lady. You’re too damned mysterious to suit me.”
    “Just the right woman for you, in fact, if you’d admit it,” she sighed, batting her eyelashes at him. Bluff, girl, bluff, she told herself. “Well, the truth is, I have tons of money, and I’m in the market for a hunk who’s good in bed and wants to take care of me. Interested?” she flirted.
    His eyes roved slowly down her body and back up again. “I don’t like the effect you have on me,” he said quietly. “I’ve never gotten hot enough to drag a woman into a closet before.”
    Her face felt unusually warm. She dropped her eyes to his vest. “Really? How exciting! See, I’m getting to you, Mr. Rochester.”
    “Yes,” he said, but he wasn’t teasing.
    “No need to worry, though,” she said. “I’ll be gone in a week, and you can get back to normal again.”
    “A week?” He scowled. “I thought you and Mother had barely begun.”
    “I work fast,” she told him. “And shouldn’t we go into the dining room?”
    He reached out and touched her throat. Just that—warm, strong fingers moving gently on her skin. But it was enough to stop her in her tracks.
    “I want you,” he said in an odd tone.
    She felt as if the breath had been knocked out of her. Her eyes stared up helplessly into his.
    “You’re totally unsuitable,” he said. His breath was coming hard now, quick. “Too reckless, too mercurial.”
    “Look here, buster, you’re no bargain either,” she said in a breathless tone. “You staid banker types leave me cold.”
    He shook his head. “I got you hotter than hell,” he said in a gruff whisper. “I’d bet half my stock that you’ve never been that way with another man, either.”
    “I have!” she burst out, but she sounded and looked frantic, threatened.
    “No,” he breathed. “Where did you