Page 21 of Prognosis Irreconcilable Differences

Shouldn’t she be the nervous one?

If he went in there looking like this he would be the one to blow their cover, not her.

Nathan looked at her for confirmation, his gaze falling straight down into the deep V of her cleavage and the unfettered splendour beneath. Oh, God, how was he supposed to concentrate on pulling this off when she was braless?

‘Jesus, Jacqui. Couldn’t you have at least worn a bra?’

Jacqueline arched a brow, unsure who this uptight man before her was. What the hell was the matter with him? She had to do something. Fast. Smiling, she casually pushed the doorbell, turning to him.

‘That’s nothing.’ She took a step closer, so their bodies were touching, and raised herself slightly on her toes, pressing her mouth against his ear. ‘I’m not wearing any underwear at all.’

Nathan felt the breath stutter to a halt in his lungs as a surge of pure, high-octane lust zinged at warp speed through his system. He pulled away slightly. ‘Jacqui...’

His husky warning curved her lips further. She pulled his head down and slammed a kiss against his lips that she hoped would live with him way after the ink was dry on their divorce papers. His greedy response, the plunder of his tongue and the harsh sucking of his breath, told her it just might.

Jacqueline pulled away, satisfied with the result even if naked need roared in her head, urging her to continue. Now he looked like a man who’d been in bed for a week with his lover. She turned in time for the door opening and slipped into her role.

A maid ushered them in and Jacqui smiled to herself, dragging an unmoving Nathan in with her by the arm. Nice to know she could still bring him to his knees.

And then it was action stations.

There were introductions, and Jacqueline finally came face to face with Abigail Slater. The woman who wanted her husband. Abigail shook her hand politely and gave Nathan a kiss on the cheek. As her lips lingered Jacqui was hit by the sudden overwhelming urge to scratch the younger woman’s eyes out.

The impulse to snap, back off, rose on a tidal wave of white-hot jealousy, and she clamped her mouth shut lest it spew out unchecked. What the—? She’d seen a hundred pictures of beautiful women gracing Nathan’s arm — neatly clipped out by good old Mum — and none of them had roused such instant bile.

Sure, she’d drawn moustaches on all of them, and then used them to line the bottoms of the cages in her surgery, but she hadn’t wished any of them obliterated from the earth.

‘Well, now,’ Vince said. ‘I can see why Nathan’s been keeping you a secret. No wonder he looks so smitten.’

Jacqueline laughed. She could see Abigail’s pout in her peripheral vision, and her smile widened further. ‘I’m afraid the feeling’s entirely mutual,’ she admitted, and blasted Nathan with her best hot-for-you look as she ran her palm up over his abs to the flat of his pectoral muscle.

Nathan blinked, his brain still stuck in the no-underwear rut. His hand slid down her back and ran across her rump, searching for a tell-tale line.

Nope. Nothing.

He had a picture in his mind of her sans dress, wearing nothing but the damn belt that jingled with every movement.

Christ!

‘Isn’t that right, Nate?’

A slight edge in her voice brought his wandering mind back. She was staring at him with parted lips, and with a large dash of snap-the-hell-out-of-it swirling in her toffee gaze.

Right. They had a show to put on.

He smiled down at her and bent his head to place a loving kiss on her mouth. ‘Absolutely.’

‘It just seemed so sudden — didn’t it, Vince? We were only just saying that last night.’

Jacqueline watched as Vince nodded adoringly at his wife. Abigail — pretty in a plastic gym-bunny kind of way — gave her a hard look that demanded an explanation. Luckily they’d spent some time in the chopper yesterday getting their story straight.

Jacqui shrugged. ‘We didn’t want to put any pressure on ourselves by going public too soon. We’ve been working on this for a couple of months.’

‘But we didn’t want to keep it secret any longer,’ Nathan added. ‘It’s time to shout it to the world.’

Vince laughed a great booming laugh and clapped Nathan on the back. ‘Well, then,’ he said. ‘This definitely calls for a celebration. A toast.’

‘Yes,’ Abigail murmured. ‘I’ll go fix us some drinks.’

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