and it took all her effort to keep her expression calm. ‘Don’t bother,’ she refused politely, to which his smile broadened.
‘Oh, it’s no bother. It will be a pleasure.’
The only sign of her annoyance was a brief flaring of her nostrils. She knew she could not make any further protest, but would make sure to avoid him wherever possible. Meanwhile, she caught sight of the amusement in his eyes and felt compelled to respond.
‘What line of work are you in, Jonas?’ she enquired, finding it curiously hard to make his name emerge naturally. ‘Or have you made so much money you don’t need to work?’ she added, referring to what Nick had said when introducing them earlier.
He seemed to find that amusing. ‘I buy up ailing companies and try to improve their health,’ he answered simply, and she frowned at the caveat.
‘What if you can’t?’
Jonas smiled and, because it was totally natural and free of mockery, it lit up his face, causing Aimi to catch her breath yet again at the twinkle in his eye. ‘Then I break them up into saleable parts.’
‘Making a tidy profit on the way,’ Nick added. ‘Remember me telling you he was disgustingly rich?’
It sounded good, but Aimi could see a flaw. ‘Making money is one thing, but what about the people? The workers? What happens to them if your cure fails?’
Jonas didn’t appear in the least annoyed by being asked to justify his actions. ‘They stay with the company wherever possible. This is about turning a company around, changing bad management into good. If everything goes well, everyone wins. When I have to break one up, we do our best to find alternative employment within our group. Does that meet with your approval, Aimi?’ he queried sardonically, and Aimi nodded, smiling wryly.
‘Of course. If I sounded disapproving, it’s because not everyone in your line of work has a conscience,’ she returned calmly. ‘I apologise if I was rude.’
His lips twitched and now the gleam was well and truly back in his eyes. ‘There’s no need. You were only saying what many others think. However, it’s good to know there’s something about me you find attractive.’
Now that had her eyes flying to his, her lips parting on a tiny gasp of surprise. The bold challenge, right in front of his family, knocked her off balance, as did the sardonic amusement glittering in those blue orbs that dared her to respond. However, Aimi was not given to running away. Taking a breath, she moistened her lips, and her senses rocked when she saw his eyes follow the movement. Then his gaze lifted, and for a vital second the irony was gone and she could see heat there. Scorching. Elemental. Of course, as soon as he saw she had seen, his lips twitched, and she knew she had been played by a master. Which gave her all the more reason to reply.
‘Are you fishing for compliments, Jonas?’ she taunted with gentle mockery, and laughter erupted around her.
‘Sounds like it to me,’ James Carmichael interjected. ‘That has to be a first!’
Everyone started teasing him, which he took with remarkable fortitude, an attitude which she did find attractive—amongst other things. She had always liked a man with a sense of humour and the ability to laugh at himself. Yet that changed nothing. She was not interested in whatever games he had in mind. Sitting back in her seat, she withdrew from the fray and concentrated on drinking her coffee.
The gentle ribbing continued for some time, until Jonas changed the subject. ‘How many are coming to the barbecue this time?’ she heard him ask his mother, but the answer was lost, as she took the opportunity to regroup her thoughts.
Aimi recognised that she was dangerously close to getting caught up in the miasma of the senses that was sexual desire, and she found that unsettling. From the moment she had vowed to change her life, no man had registered on her radar. In the beginning she had been too haunted by what had happened to feel anything but, as the healing process had gone on, she had turned the radar off deliberately. She hadn’t wanted to be attracted to anyone, to find happiness in a loving relationship, for it deepened her sense of guilt to feel so alive. So well had she done the job that she had thought her defences were impermeable, but a few moments in Jonas’s presence had destroyed that belief. Even now it went on. Unseen, Jonas called to her and the whole of her being responded. It was so strong, even the hairs on her skin stood to attention. The sheer intensity of it was staggering.
She didn’t want to feel it, didn’t want to be so aware of him, but her body wasn’t obeying the rules. All she could do was try to block it out as best she could. Once the weekend was over, that would be the end of it.
She tuned back in to the conversation in time to hear Paula announce that she and her husband were going for a walk around the lake if anyone was interested in joining them.
‘I could do with a walk,’ she said, jumping at the chance, and looked at Nick. ‘Will you join us?’
‘Paula will only nag me if I don’t,’ he pretended to grumble as he stood up, and his sister poked her tongue out at him.
Aimi braced herself to hear Jonas declare his intention to join the group, but it didn’t happen and she let out a tiny breath of relief. Though she forced herself not to look round, she could feel one pair of eyes on her back as they walked away.
It was marginally cooler down by the water and she and Nick strolled along, side by side, enjoying each other’s company, following the other couple. Eventually Paula and her husband disappeared around a bend, leaving her and Nick alone momentarily.
‘It’s much better here,’ Aimi declared, thankful for some respite from the heat—the tangible one and that given out by a pair of fathomless blue eyes.
‘Jonas and I used to play on the lake when we were kids. We built a raft and would pretend we were shipwrecked sailors. Of course, we weren’t allowed to do it until we could swim. Jonas had different interests then,’ he added somewhat pointedly, making her look at him.
‘What do you mean?’ she couldn’t help but ask, and Nick rolled his eyes.
‘That was before he discovered girls. Tall ones, short ones. Blondes and brunettes. All of them beautiful, and all of them madly infatuated with the handsome devil. He’s never had to fight for a woman in his life. They take one look at him and, wham, they topple into his arms like ninepins! It’s all too easy. He’ll never settle down. Why would he, when he can have any woman he wants?’
Aimi had known the moment she had seen Jonas that he would be a hit with the ladies. She shivered inwardly as she thought again about the instant reaction she had experienced. ‘No wonder you call him a Lothario!’
Nick laughed. ‘He doesn’t treat women badly. On the contrary, he’s generous to a fault. He just never gives anything of himself. It’s all purely physical. He’s my brother, and I wouldn’t wish him harm, but he could do with falling hard for someone, just to learn a lesson.’
‘Not everyone wants to settle down,’ she ventured, knowing that such a situation was not on the cards for her. Once she had envisioned herself with a husband and children, but that dream had vanished a long time ago.
Nick came to a halt and, when he turned to her, she could see the frustration he was experiencing. ‘Of course not. It isn’t that. Jonas has lived a charmed life. Everything has come easy to him. He needs a reality check. Basically, he needs to know he’s human like the
