through Security. She invited me in here on her guest pass. She went out on an earlier flight.’
‘Lucky for me—otherwise I might have missed you.’
She made a humph kind of sound at that, which drew a half-smile from him.
‘Contrary to what you might think, I’m very glad to see you,’ he said, in that deep, strong voice she found so very appealing.
‘That’s good to hear,’ she said, somewhat mollified. Of course she was glad to see him too—in spite of her better judgement. How could she deny even to herself that her every sense was zinging with awareness of him? She would have to be very careful not to be taken in by him again.
‘Are you going to Port Douglas on business or pleasure?’
‘Pleasure,’ she said, without thinking. Then regretted her response as a flush reddened on her cheeks.
She had fantasised over pleasure with him. When it came to Jake Marlowe it wasn’t so easy to switch off the attraction that had been ignited at their very first meeting. She would have to fight very hard against it.
It had taken some time to get her life to a steady state after her divorce, and she didn’t want it tipping over again. When she’d seen the media reports of Jake’s divorce, but hadn’t heard from him, she’d been flung back to a kind of angst she didn’t welcome. She cringed when she thought about how often she’d checked her phone for a call that had never come. It wasn’t a situation where she might have called him. And she hated not being in control—of her life, her emotions. Never did she want to give a man that kind of power over her.
‘I mean relaxation,’ she added hastily. ‘Yes, relaxation.’
‘Party Queens keeping you busy?’
‘Party Queens always keeps me busy. Too busy right now. That’s why I’m grabbing the chance for a break. I desperately need some time away from the office.’
‘Have you solved the Gemma problem?’
‘No. I need to give it more thought. Gemma will always be a director of Party Queens, for as long as the company exists. It’s just that—’
‘Can passengers Dunne and Marlowe please make their way to Gate Eleven, where their flight is ready for departure?’
The voice boomed over the intercom.
Eliza sat up abruptly, her newspaper falling in a flurry of pages to the floor. Hissed a swearword under her breath. ‘We’ve got to get going. I don’t want to miss that plane.’
‘How about I meet you at the other end and drive you to Port Douglas?’
Eliza hated being late. For anything. Flustered, she hardly heard him. ‘Uh...okay,’ she said, not fully aware of what she might be letting herself in for. ‘Let’s go!’
She grabbed her wheel-on cabin bag—her only luggage—and half-walked, half-ran towards the exit of the lounge.
Jake quickly caught up and led the way to the gate. Eliza had to make a real effort to keep up with his long stride. They made the flight with only seconds to spare. There was no time to say anything else as she breathlessly boarded the plane through the cattle class entrance while Jake headed to the pointy end up front.
* * *
Jake had a suspicion that Eliza might try to avoid him at Cairns airport. As soon as the flight landed he called through to the garage where he kept his car to have it brought round. Having had the advantage of being the first to disembark, he was there at the gate to head Eliza off.
She soon appeared, head down, intent, so didn’t see him as he waited for her. The last time he’d seen her she’d been resplendent in a ballgown. Now she looked just as good, in cut-off skinny pants that showed off her pert rear end and slim legs, topped with a form-fitting jacket. Deep blue again. She must like that colour. Her dark hair was pulled back in a high ponytail. She might travel Economy but she would look right at home in First Class.
For a moment he regretted the decision he’d made to keep her out of his life. Three months wasted in an Eliza-free zone. But the aftermath of his divorce had made him unfit for female company. Unfit for any company, if truth be told.
He’d been thrown so badly by the first big failure of his life that he’d gone completely out of kilter. Drunk too much. Made bad business decisions that had had serious repercussions to his bottom line. Mistakes he’d had to do everything in his power to fix. He had wealth, but it would never be enough to blot out the poverty of his childhood, to assuage the hunger for more that had got him into such trouble. He had buried himself in his work, determined to reverse the wrong turns he’d made. But he hadn’t been able to forget Eliza.
‘Eliza!’ he called now.
She started, looked up, was unable to mask a quick flash of guilt.
‘Jake. Hi.’
Her voice was higher than usual. Just as sweet, but strained. She was not a good liar. He stored that information up for later, as he did in his assessments of clients. He’d learned young that knowledge of people’s weaknesses was a useful tool. Back then it had been for survival. Now it was to give him a competitive advantage and keep him at the top. He could not let himself slide again.
‘I suspected you might try and avoid me, so I decided to head you off at the pass,’ he said.
Eliza frowned unconvincingly. ‘Why would you do that?’
‘Because you obviously think I’m a jerk for not calling you after the divorce. I’m determined to change your mind.’ He didn’t want to leave things the way they were. Not when thoughts of her had intruded, despite his best efforts to forget her.
‘Oh,’ she said, after a long pause. ‘You could do that over coffee. Not during an hour’s drive to Port Douglas.’
So she’d been mulling over the enforced intimacy of a journey in his car. So had he. But to different effect.
‘How do you know I won’t need an hour with you?’
She shrugged slender shoulders. ‘I guess I don’t. But I’ve booked the shuttle bus. The driver is expecting me.’
‘Call them and cancel.’ He didn’t want to appear too high-handed. But no way was she going to get on that shuttle bus. ‘Come on, Eliza. It will be much more comfortable in my car.’
‘Your rental car?’
‘I have a house in Port Douglas. And a car.’
‘I thought you lived in Brisbane?’
‘I do. The house in Port Douglas is an escape house.’
He took hold of her wheeled bag. ‘Do you need to pick up more luggage?’
She shook her head. ‘This is all I have. A few bikinis and sundresses is all I need for four days.’
Jake forced himself not to think how Eliza would look in a bikini. She was wearing flat shoes and he realised how petite she was. Petite, slim, but with curves in all the
