and then, after taking a deep breath, went in.
And there he was.
Alone, thank goodness. But lying flat out on his back, sprawled diagonally across the bed, naked apart from a perilously small section of white bunched-up sheet that loosely covered him from waist to mid-thigh, and illuminated by a pool of soft light cast by the bedside lamp.
For one frozen heart-stopping moment Abby couldn’t work out what to do next. Which was odd because she always had a plan. Always. More than one, in fact; when it came to the events she organised she had plans to cover every imaginable eventuality. Her job, her success, depended on it, and so she never didn’t know what to do.
But now, as she looked at him, strangely unable to drag her gaze away, her mouth going dry and her heart thumping unnaturally fast, she couldn’t even think, let alone act because for some unfathomable reason her brain appeared to be having a bit of a wiring problem. Alarmingly, rational thought was heading for the hills. Her common sense was evaporating. And her unfailing capability to do her job was, well, for the first time in years, apparently failing.
The fast-disappearing professional side of her was dimly aware she should go and shake him awake and point out that he was late for his own party. But the sometime insomniac in her wanted to leave him to sleep, and the woman in her—who hadn’t been up close and personal to a man in six months and was now very much making herself known—was quite happy to just stand there and ogle for as long as it took him to wake up. Because with the broad muscled shoulders, the tanned hair-sprinkled chest and the long powerful legs that suggested the gym wasn’t just for show, Leo Cartwright was quite a sight.
Yet as she looked and dithered, the part of her that devoured TV hospital dramas began to wonder at the utter stillness of him, at the strong smell of stale alcohol that was wafting towards her and the absence of any rise and fall to his chest.
And it was this that made her brain finally engage, because, oh heavens, what if, by some horrible twist of fate, he weren’t simply asleep?
Propelled by a sudden surge of alarm and now no longer ogling, Abby sprang into action. Not bothering to weave her way through the clothes that were lying scattered all over the floor but instead ploughing straight through them and hardly even noticing, she reached the bed, dropped to her knees and leaned in close.
With the focus that had had her business making a profit in its first six months of operation she blanked out the horrible smell, the spark of sexual attraction and the nauseating panic. Everything, in fact, but the need to find out if he was OK.
As her pulse galloped she fixed her gaze on his mouth. Strained her ears. Waited. Listened …
And, after a couple of long heart-thumping seconds, was able to make out the very faint hiss of breath. Then, as she looked down, the beat of the pulse at the base of his neck, barely perceptible, but there.
Oh, thank goodness for that, she thought, sitting back on her heels and letting out a long slow breath of her own as the panic subsided and her heart rate returned to normal.
He wasn’t dead. Of course he wasn’t. He’d merely passed out, that was all. Which was such a relief, not least because while she might be a fan of TV hospital dramas she didn’t have the first clue about resuscitation apart from the fact that mouth-to-mouth was no longer thought to be necessary.
And wasn’t that a shame, because now she wasn’t watching it for signs of life she could see he had a great mouth. Well defined. Sexy.
Much like the rest of his face, she thought, her gaze drifting over his features. His nose was straight and his jaw firm. His cheekbones were sharp and his brows were as thick and dark as the tousled hair on his head. She could only guess at the colour of his eyes but his eyelashes were the kind that a woman who was sometimes strawberry blonde, sometimes ginger, and so had virtually invisible eyelashes, could only dream about.
It was a strong face. Gorgeous. And in sleep there didn’t seem anything cold, forbidding or ruthless about him at all. There certainly didn’t seem anything cold about his mouth. It looked warm. Soft. Lovely. Tempting. Very, very kissable, and there for the taking.
And whether it was because she’d just had the fright of her life and all kinds of emotions were rushing through her or whether it was because it had been so long since she’d been this close to a man she didn’t know, but for one crazy moment she wanted to lean forwards and take. Desperately.
At the thought of it, the intoxicating possibility of it, her head swam and her heart pounded and she very nearly did exactly that. Would have done had not the reason and common sense that had been eluding her slammed back into her head, making her freeze and jerk back as if suddenly jabbed with a red-hot poker because, oh, goodness, she’d actually started moving.
What the hell was she doing? she wondered, horror at her lack of control shooting through her. What was she thinking? Was she completely insane?
This wasn’t some kind of gender-reversed Sleeping flipping Beauty. Leo Cartwright wasn’t a prince. He was a client. One of her biggest to date, in fact. What if he’d woken up and found her leaning in for a kiss? He’d have been horrified. Appalled. Rightly so. He’d probably have fired her. Her reputation would have been in tatters, her career over, and the blood, sweat, tears and money she’d poured into the business would have been for nothing.
Abby shuddered as an icy sweat broke out all over her skin. God, it didn’t bear thinking about. Everything she’d worked for. Possibly gone. In a nanosecond of utter lunacy.
But it was fine, she assured herself, taking a deep calming breath and feeling the nausea churning around in her stomach subside. It had been a close call but she’d pulled herself back from the brink of madness and he hadn’t woken up. She’d got away with it. He’d never know what she’d so very nearly done. No one would. It was fine.
And so was she. She had to be. Because she was at work, for heaven’s sake. Work. So now wasn’t the time for panic, desire and random acts of insanity. In fact, now wasn’t the time to be anything other than Abby Summers, event planner extraordinaire. Professional, in control, and completely on top of him—things. God. On top of things.
Swallowing hard and ruthlessly ignoring the bolt of heat that rocketed through her at the thought of that, Abby gave herself a mental slap and pulled herself together because, really, this had to stop. It was ridiculous. She was ridiculous. And, quite frankly, she’d had enough.
So she yanked her shoulders back, set her jaw, scanned his upper body for a suitable target and absolutely did not think about how it might feel to run her fingers over his chest, his abdomen, maybe following the trail of her hands with her mouth, down, towards the sheet and then lower …
She blinked and snapped her gaze up. His arm would do. Right. She flexed her hands, leaned forwards and gave his biceps a quick prod.
‘Mr Cartwright,’ she murmured, her voice sounding unusually husky and weirdly seductive. ‘Leo.’
He grunted and shifted but he didn’t wake, and, remembering the bottle in the study, Abby wondered how much he’d had to drink. Then she cleared her throat, put her hand flat on his shoulder and, ignoring the heat of his skin and the hardness of his muscle beneath her palm, said his name again. But this time it was loudly and not in the least bit seductively, and the shake she gave him could have roused an elephant.
Which seemed to do the trick because with a bellow that made her nearly topple
