what’s a woman like you doing with a man like Danny Eames?’ He suddenly sounded angry.
Joy gasped at this attack. ‘I—’
“The man is at best an idiot,’ Marcus rasped disparagingly. ‘At worst—’
‘I don’t really think it’s any of your business what I’m doing with Danny,’ Joy cut in, having recovered slightly from the unexpected attack. ‘And what do you mean,’ she added defensively, ‘a woman like me?’
‘You’re everything that Danny isn’t.’ Marcus shook his head. ‘You have style—something he will never have. Why are you wasting your time on a man like him?’
Joy looked up at him angrily. ‘When there’s someone like you around, you mean?’ she scorned.
‘We weren’t talking about me—’
‘Weren’t we?’ she interrupted again.
‘Maybe we were,’ he accepted slowly. ‘Joy, you’re worth a thousand of Danny Eames, don’t you realise that?’ he said almost angrily.
‘You don’t even know me,’ she dismissed with derision.
‘But I would like to,’ he told her huskily. ‘Very much so. You’re beautiful, Joy. So beautiful. You…I’m going to kiss you!’ he warned gruffly, seconds before his head lowered and his lips claimed hers.
Joy’s hands tightened instinctively on his shoulders. The two of them had given up any impression of dancing now, and Joy was aware of nothing but the gentle exploration of Marcus’s mouth against hers.
And the caress of those lips was so very, very gentle, softly exploring, the tip of his tongue lightly probing, his arms tightening about her waist now, the sound of Joy’s heart thundering in her ears.
‘Er—sorry to interrupt you two,’ a tentative voice intruded. ‘But we’re moving on, and wondering if you’re coming with us?’
She turned dazedly to look at Danny as Marcus reluctantly broke their kiss to raise his head and acknowledge the other man’s presence with a glowering glare. What was she doing? Having fun? Enjoying herself? Flirting a little? A little! If Danny hadn’t interrupted them when he had, God knew what would have happened, right here on the dance-floor!
‘No,’ Marcus answered the other man harshly, his arm tight about Joy’s waist as he anchored her to his side. ‘I’m taking Joy home,’ he announced arrogantly.
‘She’s staying at a hotel,’ Danny answered him a little dazedly, looking questioningly at Joy with raised brows.
As well he might. She had started this evening with one man, and was now apparently leaving with another one. Apparently, because she had no intention of letting Marcus take her back to her hotel. There were limits to having fun, enjoying herself, flirting a little, and she knew that she had more than reached them with Marcus. The man was dangerous—to her peace of mind, her sensibilities, to her control over a situation that was fast spiralling out of control. She hadn’t even been aware of where she was a moment ago, had been completely under Marcus’s sensuous spell.
‘Thank you for the offer, Marcus.’ She moved determinedly out of the curve of his restraining arm as she spoke. ‘But Danny will take me back to my hotel.’ She looked challengingly at the younger man, knowing his instinct was to bow to the superior arrogance of Marcus Ballantyne. But the challenge of her gaze obviously conveyed the message it was meant to, and Danny began to shift uncomfortably at the thought of opposing the older man. Danny owed her one, and they both knew it. ‘My mother always told me it’s bad manners to leave at the end of the evening with anyone other than the person you arrived with.’ She had no idea whether or not her mother had ever made such a statement, but it was reasonable that she might have done.
‘We arrived here as a group,’ Marcus drawled mockingly, his lazily relaxed stance belied by the hard glitter in dark blue eyes; he wasn’t happy at the thought of being thwarted in this way.
Well, Joy wasn’t happy either at the thought of his taking her back to her hotel; she seemed to have absolutely no will-power when it came to resisting this man. And a brief fling with an actor, even one as attractive as Marcus Ballantyne, was not on the agenda for this week. And she had a feeling that if he came back to her hotel with her, after the intensity of the kisses they had already shared, taking her to bed was exactly what he would expect.
She could already hear Casey’s incredulity at her not allowing that to happen, Lisa’s disbelief in Joy’s reluctance to become involved, however fleetingly, with a man like Marcus Ballantyne. Well, she wasn’t even going to tell them about it!
‘Danny and I still have a lot of gossip to catch up on.’ Joy put her arm pointedly in the crook of Danny’s. ‘Don’t we, Danny?’ She looked up to give him a glowing smile, a warning light in her eyes as she did so.
‘Oh, we do,’ he readily agreed, nodding his head with enthusiasm, obviously warned. ‘Sorry, Marcus.’ He gave the other man a slightly apprehensive look, obviously fearing retribution. Joy was in no doubt that Marcus could be cutting if he chose to be.
‘I have a feeling Dee won’t be too happy if you disappear with Joy.’ Marcus looked pointedly at the young blonde actress, who was no longer just poutingly upset at the thought of losing the second man of the evening to Joy, but obviously blazingly angry.
If Dee was lucky she would have Marcus back in her company but, whatever happened, Joy was leaving with Danny and not Marcus. ‘It was nice to meet you.’ Joy put her hand out to Marcus in a formal parting. ‘But Danny and I really do have to go now.’
‘Well, if you and Danny have to go now, I suppose you have to go,’ he accepted in a hard voice, totally ignoring her outstretched hand to bend his head and lightly brush his lips against hers. ‘I’ll be in touch,’ he told her, so softly that only Joy could hear him.
As only she had been meant to hear him! What did he mean, he would be in touch? In what way would he be in touch? He couldn’t—
‘Let’s go,’ Danny told her firmly, giving Dee a regretful smile before guiding Joy out of the nightclub.
Joy didn’t even start to breathe again until they were outside, and then she drew in a ragged, muchneeded gasp of air to her starved lungs. God, what a disaster, what an absolute, absolute disaster! She wished she had never come away for this week, wished she had stayed in the safety of her own little world. It was a sure fact that she didn’t belong in this one!
‘You haven’t heard the last of him, you know.’ Danny spoke softly as they travelled by taxi to her hotel.
She hadn’t wanted him to put into words what she thought she already knew. ‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ she snapped defensively, not even attempting to pretend she didn’t know who he was talking about—that would have been absurd.
‘I know him of old, Joy.’ Danny shook his head in the half-light of the taxi. ‘The only reason he wasn’t more insistent just now was so that there wasn’t a scene. But, above everything else, Marcus can be determined when he wants something.’
Had he been determined when he had kissed her in the middle of that crowded nightclub? Joy didn’t know whether it was determination or arrogance, but she did know that Gerald would never have behaved in such an exhibitionist way. Gerald…She hated
