Lynsey Stevens - A Physical Affair

‘No, thanks, Daniel.’ Keira stood up. She hadn’t been on a horse since she was a child and didn’t fancy putting her rusty skills to the test today. She could just see herself falling off. With her luck it would probably be at Eden Cassidy’s feet. ‘I’d prefer a walk.’

‘Fine. Let’s go, then.’ Daniel took her arm and headed her down the steps past the glistening turquoise water of the swimming-pool.

And until they disappeared from sight she felt the piercing burn of Eden Cassidy’s blue eyes running shivers down her spine.

Glancing ruefully at the deep marble spa bath and the vials of bath salts, Keira slipped out of her robe and under the shower. What she wouldn’t give for a leisurely soak in the tub, but she knew she wouldn’t have time for that luxury.

Letting the water play over her body, she wished this evening well and truly over. If she could only snap her fingers and find herself safely in her office immersed in her work on mid-Monday morning, with this deplorable situation behind her.

To think that Daniel’s uncle could even imagine she could be involved with his nephew. It was ludicrous. But, she had to acknowledge, had she been the male and Daniel a young niece then the worst would have been conceded.

Sugar mummy? Keira bit off a giggle and then quickly sobered. The circumstances weren’t funny at all. Now there was the party to get through, in the presence of the arrogant and insufferable Eden Cassidy.

During their long walk this afternoon Daniel had admitted his grandfather’s party was going to be a rather large but very exclusive affair. Some four hundred guests were expected.

Keira stepped from the shower and wrapped the soft, warm bath-sheet around her. Well, in such a crowd, surely she could make herself invisible to Eden Cassidy. He’d be far too involved in circulating between his and Sir Samuel’s family and friends to have time to seek her out to accuse her of further misdemeanours.

With some satisfaction she recalled the expression on his face when she’d informed him she was a widow. For one fleeting second she could have sworn he had been genuinely disconcerted. She arched her eyebrows at the mirror. Even if her statement had been only technically true.

She was a widow. But Dennis had been killed in a road accident just a week before their divorce became final.

Keira sighed and hung the bath-sheet on the heated gold towel rail. While she had the chance she should be enjoying such opulence where even the bath-towels made you feel pampered.

The carpet was soft beneath her feet as she walked through to the bedroom and slipped into her underwear. She glanced at the dress she’d chosen and grimaced slightly. Her one extravagance and it had stood her in good stead on the few occasions she’d had the opportunity to wear it.

The soft silky material slid over her shoulders and settled like a second skin. Keira nervously adjusted the bodice, checking the neckline. It was by no means plunging but it was lower than she usually wore, just hinting at the swell of firm, full breasts beneath.

She turned slightly to check the back of the dress that displayed even more smooth skin. There was no doubt that it suited her, she acknowledged. The steely grey colour lent her skin a creamy glow, accentuated the smoky grey of her eyes.

As usual she used little make-up, a touch of blue-grey eye-shadow, mascara on her lashes, lip gloss on her mouth. A fine gold locket which had belonged to her aunt clipped around her neck and nestled just above the beginning of the valley between her breasts. Then she brushed out her hair, tonight letting it fall to her shoulders in its natural waves instead of confining it in its usual chignon.

Slipping on her high-heeled shoes, she gave herself one final appraising look in the full-length mirror before telling herself she was as ready as she would ever be. And pray that she could elude the accusing and suspicious Eden Cassidy.

The ballroom of the palatial Cassidy mansion easily accommodated the four hundred guests Daniel had told Keira would be here to celebrate Sir Samuel Ford’s eightieth birthday.

The old man himself was holding court at the other end of the room when Keira entered the wide doorway on Daniel’s arm. Interested eyes turned as they paused on the top of the short flight of stairs leading down into the magnificent ballroom.

And Keira could imagine just what they might be thinking. That she was romantically involved with Sir Samuel’s grandson and heir. His uncle wouldn’t be the only one harbouring misconceptions. Her face flushed and she lowered her eyes nervously. Damn Daniel for talking her into this.

When she looked up her eyes went of their own accord to meet the cold gaze of Daniel’s uncle. And the rest of the gathered guests simply faded into the shadowy background. Something fluttered into life in the pit of her stomach and her knees went decidedly weak. She was suddenly hot, and when Daniel spoke beside her she found her spinning mind couldn’t compute his words.

The message that came through loudly and clearly was all purely physical. And it involved only Eden Cassidy.

Oh, no! Keira bit back a moan. This was absurd. She couldn’t be attracted to such a man.

‘Keira!’ Daniel squeezed her arm and she broke the hold those implacable eyes had on her and turned her unfocused gaze on the younger man. ‘Keira?’ Daniel frowned slightly, leaning closer to her, seemingly oblivious of the speculative glances cast their way. ‘Are you all right?’

‘I’m fine,’ Keira hastened to assure him as she put more space between them.

He gave her one questioning glance before repeating his words. ‘Come and I’ll introduce you to Sam.’

Meeting Daniel’s grandfather would be bad enough, but out of the corner of her eye she saw that Eden Cassidy had moved to join Sir Samuel Ford. If she went with Daniel now there’d be no escaping him.

Why had she…? She straightened her backbone. She only had herself to blame for getting herself into this situation so she might as well make the most of it. And that included Eden Cassidy. Her nerve-endings began to beat a wild tattoo and with no little effort she pulled herself together.

‘Ready?’ Daniel queried.

‘Why not?’ she said softly, and something in her tone brought a smile to Daniel’s face.

Then he was moving them purposefully through the crowd towards the guest of honour.

‘You know, just at this moment I could almost wish I were ten years older,’ Daniel said out of the corner of his mouth as he noticed a contemporary of his grandfather’s running his eyes over Keira as they passed.

‘Cool it, Daniel. Otherwise I doubt you’ll see twenty, much less twenty-nine,’ Keira retaliated with barely a movement of her lips, and Daniel’s grin broadened.

‘I kid you not, Keira. You’re the only woman I’ve met who really is as fantastic as she looks.’

‘High praise, Mrs Strong?’ A cool voice stopped Daniel and Keira in their tracks.

‘I WAS just going to introduce Keira to Sam,’ Daniel said defensively, and his uncle motioned that they accompany him towards the co-founder of Cassidy-Ford.

‘Daniel!’ Sam Ford wrapped his arms around his grandson and clapped him on the back.

‘Happy birthday, Sam,’ Daniel said sincerely. ‘This do is a little ostentatious, isn’t it?’

‘Not a bit of it. Quite fitting for someone who’s eighty years young.’ His grandfather laughed, his shrewd eyes taking in Keira as she stood tensely beside Eden Cassidy.

Daniel turned, but before he could make the introductions his uncle spoke.

‘Sam, meet Keira Strong, Daniel’s boss at Chloe magazine.’

Daniel’s jaw tightened as his gaze warred with Eden’s.

‘Pleased to meet you, Miss Strong.’ Sam took Keira’s hand. ‘You know my daughter launched that magazine just before Daniel was born? It was her brainchild, as a matter of fact. She put it on the publishing map so I suppose it’s only fitting that Daniel learns his ABC down there. I hear Chloe’s still ahead of its competitors.’

‘Yes. We seem to be keeping our hold on the top rung.’ Keira’s tongue felt thick in her mouth, every nerve-ending so very aware of Eden Cassidy’s hard body so close beside her.

‘And I know that takes plain old hard work,’ Sam continued, his eyes going perceptively from Eden to his grandson and then back to Keira. ‘How long have you been part of Chloe’s team?’

‘About five years.’

Eden Cassidy moved slightly and the material of his suit jacket brushed against Keira’s bare skin, making the hair on her arms stand on end. A shiver scurried from that transitory point of contact to blossom in the pit of her stomach and she shifted to disguise her reflex movement.

‘She’s a genius.’ Daniel’s enthusiastic voice brought her attention slowly back from its erotic spree. ‘Works like a slave and expects us general dogsbodies to do the same. I daren’t look as if I’m not busy or she finds me half a dozen things to be done. Honest, Sam.’

‘Your worst enemy is over-acting, Daniel,’ Eden said drily, and Sam chuckled.

‘Your uncle and I told you it wouldn’t be a bed of roses out there in the real world, Daniel.’

‘Ah, but I’m getting to smell the flowers, Sam,’ Daniel said with a smile, and his grandfather roared with laughter.

‘And I’m dead green with envy. Especially since I never had a boss with legs like that.’

Keira felt three pairs of masculine eyes rove over her and she raised her chin truculently.

Daniel met her stormy gaze and grinned sheepishly. ‘Another sexist comment like that, Sam, and I won’t have a boss either. I’ll be out on my proverbial ear.’

‘I don’t do the hiring and firing, Daniel,’ Keira heard herself say pompously, and cringed at her superciliousness. Where had her sense of humour gone?

‘Isn’t that Bob and Jean just arriving?’ Eden put in easily. “They’re your godparents and you haven’t seen them in ages, Daniel, so why don’t you go with Sam to welcome them while Mrs Strong and I test out the band.’ He turned to Keira and held out his hand. ‘May I have the pleasure of this dance, Mrs Strong?’

Before Keira could decline his invitation she was in his arms and he was guiding her expertly through the throng of dancers.

‘Is it too late to refuse?’ she asked him caustically, and his mouth twitched in a fleeting smile.

‘Would you have?’ His blue eyes gazed down at her and Keira almost missed her step. Eden Cassidy, of course, took her falter in his stride.

‘For the record, yes. I would.’

‘Then it’s fortunate I didn’t wait for your crushing rejection.’

His arm around her waist moved her imperceptibly closer to him and his hand was now resting on her bare back, fingertips nestling in the indentation of her spine. Keira’s senses focused on his touch, felt the warmth that flared into full-blown fire. Her whole body grew hot and she knew high colour flooded her face.

The band chose that moment to change tempo and lapsed into a bracket of popular romantic ballads. As the mellow notes flowed about them Keira’s perfidious soul seemed to be as one with his, and suddenly the intimacy of it made her knees want to fold beneath her.

Her breasts tingled where they brushed rhythmically against his hard chest, her nipples straining against the thin material of her bodice, her stomach muscles contracting as his thighs touched hers.

Eden Cassidy was an expert dancer and Keira’s feet followed his lead as though they had been dancing together for years. In a previous life perhaps they had, as some believed.

Her eyes settled on her hand resting on his broad suit-clad shoulder, her skin pale against the dark material, and she realised that should she move that hand mere millimetres she would feel the taut muscles in his neck, that she would be free to caress the strands of dark hair resting on his nape.

She tore her gaze away, concentrating feverishly on the innocuous knot of his tie. But then her mind’s eye conjured up the movement of his strong hands adroitly folding that so very masculine accessory and her breathing became even more ragged. And her recalcitrant senses careered way out of control.

Of their own volition her grey eyes rose to the jut of his firm chin, to settle on his mouth. His lips were thin, the controlled line suggesting he rarely laughed, and the faint shadowy hollows beneath his high cheekbones made Keira wonder if he might sometimes neglect his health in pursuit of his business commitments.

At that moment he sidestepped her to avoid another couple, the instinctive movement drawing her impossibly closer to him, and her blood seemed to bolt through her veins with runaway recklessness. Her complete nervous system went on imperilled alert. Keira knew she couldn’t have been more aware of him had they been naked, and she went cold and then hot again within the space of a split-second.