ten minutes past one. Not that he had been deliberately late; his twelve-thirty appointment had just run over time.
Everything had seemed to go wrong after she had left his office this morning. His nine-thirty appointment hadn’t arrived until almost ten o’clock—which was probably as well when Jonas had spent most of the intervening time trying to dampen down his obvious arousal for Mac McGuire!
He had also found himself closely studying Yvonne throughout the morning as he searched for any signs of that ‘crush’ Mac had mentioned. Rightly or wrongly, Jonas didn’t approve of personal relationships within the workplace—and that included unrequited ones. Which meant, if Mac was right, he would have to start looking for another PA. But if anything Yvonne’s demeanour had been slightly frostier than usual, with nothing to suggest she had anything other than a working relationship with him.
Resulting in Jonas feeling annoyed with himself for doubting his own judgement, and even more irritated with Mac for mischievously giving him those doubts in the first place!
Consequently, he was feeling irritable and bad-tempered by the time he sat down at the lunch table opposite his perkily cheerful nemesis. ‘Let’s just order, shall we?’ he grated as he picked up the menu and held it up in front of him as an indication he was not in the mood for conversation.
Mac didn’t bother to look at her own menu, already knowing exactly what she was going to order: garlic prawns followed by lasagne. As far as she was concerned, Luciano made the best lasagne in London.
Instead she looked across at Jonas as he gave every indication of concentrating on choosing what he was going to have for lunch.
Every female head in the Italian bistro had turned to look at him when he’d entered a few minutes ago and taken off his long woollen coat to hang it up just inside the door. They had continued to watch him as he made his way over to the window table, several women giving Mac envious glances when he’d pulled out the chair opposite her own and sat down.
Mac had found herself watching him too; Jonas simply was the sort of man that women of all ages took a second, and probably a third, look at. He was so tall for one thing, and the leashed and elegant power of his lean and muscled body in that perfectly tailored charcoal-coloured suit was undeniable.
His irritation told her that he was also not in a good mood. ‘We don’t have to eat lunch together if you would rather not?’ Mac prompted ruefully.
He lowered his menu enough to look across at her with icy blue eyes. ‘You would rather I moved to another table? That’s going to make conversation very difficult, wouldn’t you say?’ he taunted.
Mac felt the warmth in her cheeks at his obvious mockery. ‘Very funny!’
Jonas placed his closed menu down on the table. ‘I want to know more about the break-in to your studio on Saturday night. Such as how whoever it was got inside in the first place?’ he asked grimly.
Mac shrugged. ‘They broke a small window next to the door and reached inside to open it.’
Jonas noticed that some of the animation had left those smoky-grey eyes, presumably at his reminder of the break-in. ‘You don’t have an alarm system installed?’
She grimaced. ‘I’ve never thought I needed one.’
‘Obviously you were wrong,’ Jonas said reprovingly.
‘Obviously.’ Anger sparkled in those grey eyes now. ‘I have to say that I’ve always found people’s smugness after the event to be intensely irritating!’ She was still wearing the black fitted sweater and faded denims of earlier, the silky curtain of her hair framing the delicate beauty of her face to fall in an ebony shimmer over her shoulders and down her back.
Jonas relaxed back in his chair to look across at her speculatively. ‘Then hopefully I’ve succeeded in irritating you enough to have a security system installed. Or perhaps I should just arrange to have it done for you?’ he mused out loud, knowing it would immediately goad her to respond with the information that he wanted.
‘That won’t be necessary, thank you; I have a company coming out to install one first thing tomorrow morning,’ she came back sharply. ‘Along with a glazier to replace the window that was broken.’
His eyes narrowed. ‘You haven’t had the glass replaced yet?’
‘I just said I hadn’t,’ Mac bit back.
Jonas gave a disgusted sigh. ‘You should have got someone out on Sunday to fix it.’
Mac’s eyes flashed darkly. ‘Don’t presume to tell me what I should or shouldn’t do!’
‘It’s a security breach—’
‘Oh, give it a rest, Jonas,’ she muttered wearily. ‘I’m quite capable of organising my own life, thank you.’
‘I’m seriously starting to doubt that.’
‘Strangely, your opinion is of little relevance to me!’ Mac snapped. ‘When I suggested we have lunch to talk about this situation I wasn’t actually referring to the break-in.’
Jonas managed to dampen down his impatience as he smiled up at Luciano as he appeared beside their table to personally take their order.
‘I take it you don’t have a date this evening?’ He mockingly changed the subject once the restaurateur had taken note of their order and returned to his beloved kitchen a few minutes later.
Mac knew he had to be referring to the fact that there was garlic in both of the foods she had ordered. ‘I take it that you do?’ she retorted, the Marie Rose prawns and Dover sole he had ordered not having any garlic in at all.
‘As it happens, no.’ That blue gaze met hers tauntingly. ‘Are you offering to rectify that omission?’
Mac frowned. ‘You can’t be serious?’
Was he? Having spent part of the morning in uncomfortable arousal because of this woman, Jonas had once again decided that, the less he had to do with Mac the better it would be for both him and his aching erection! A decision his last remark made a complete nonsense of.
‘Obviously not,’ he muttered.
Mac looked across at him shrewdly. ‘It sounded like you were asking me out on a date.’
Jonas shrugged. ‘You’re entitled to your opinion, I suppose.’
‘You “suppose”?’ she taunted.
He scowled darkly. ‘Mac, are you deliberately trying to initiate an argument with me?’
‘Maybe.’
Jonas narrowed his gaze. ‘Why?’
‘Why not?’ Mac smiled. ‘It’s certainly livened up the conversation!’
Jonas knew it had done a lot more than that. He was far too physically aware of this woman already; he didn’t need to feel any more so. In fact, he was somewhat relieved when the waiter chose that moment to deliver their first course to them.
What the hell had he been doing, all but suggesting that
