Page 33 of To the Highest Bidder

Karina crossed to Jane and pressed a kiss about an inch wide of her cheek in a gesture of greeting. “I won’t stay long, darlings. I didn’t know you were having a romantic dinner.’

“Oh, it’s not,” Jane assured her. An unwelcome thought occurred to her and she looked past Karina, to Carter. “Do you two need to work? I don’t have to stay.”

A muscle flexed in Carter’s jaw. He moved across the penthouse with a warning expression on his face. “I have been waiting to see you all day. You are going nowhere, Jane.”

Karina bumped out of the way. She had never seen her cousin behave in such a possessive manner. She surreptitiously studied the slight brunette who had accomplished what no one else had. To hold Carter’s attention, this Jane must have something very, very special.

“Good. Because I’m starving.” She walked into the kitchen, and Carter’s eyes stayed glued to her the whole way. Karina smirked. Okay, the physical appeal was pretty obvious. Jane was short, but voluptuous in the way Karina could only dream about. Big breasts, a curved butt, and slim waist. Her skin was smooth and clear all over, and her hair was glossy like polished walnut.

“Okay, I’ll get out of your hair.” She looked at Carter. “This can all wait until tomorrow. It’s not that urgent.”

“No, no,” Jane insisted with a shake of her pretty head. “Don’t be silly. Don’t go, Karina. There’s more than enough food.”

Carter’s look was mutinous, but he quickly transformed it into a smile of agreement. Though he wanted his cousin out of his hair so that he could run his hands over Jane’s body and remove that piece of white fabric.

“Are you sure?” Karina asked, perfectly aware she was needling Carter.

“Positive. It’s still ten minutes off. You guys do your thing. I’ll call you when it’s ready.”

Carter led Karina into his study, and it took him the entire walk to get his hormones under control. When he shut the door behind them, Karina burst out laughing. “Carter Mann-Hughes, you are a gonner.”

He looked at her in confusion. “I beg your pardon?”

“You’re done and dusted. She’s got you. I’ve never seen you like this before. You have gone from someone who treats women with barely concealed contempt to a love-sick puppy in the space of a week.”

He straightened his spine. “Why do you say that?”

“Could you be any more into this girl? You’re all over her like some kind of rash.”

He busied himself pulling the files Karina needed out of his shelves, but his mind was spinning faster than an out of control bull at a gate. Jane was, granted, impossibly sexy, but his infatuation was just that. An infatuation. Was there any chance she thought there was more to them than he could offer?

“It’s just sex, Karina,” he said grimly. Guilt, unmistakable, flooded his system as he said the words aloud.

“Doesn’t seem like it,” Karina responded with a shrug of her slim shoulders.

“Why do you say that?”

“She’s not like your usual bed bunny, that’s all.”

He nodded. “She’s nice. She’s normal.” She wasn’t normal, though, that was the problem. She was entirely unique. She didn’t fit into Box A or Box B. He didn’t know what to do with her. But the way he’d responded the night before, to the sight of her drenched and shaking on his doorstep, had filled him with concern. Why had he been so worried? Why had he acted as though she’d skydived out of a plane without a parachute just because she’d walked a few blocks in wet weather? In short, what the hell was going on with him?

“She likes you, Carter.”

His heart soared. “What do you mean?”

“I mean she really likes you.”

“I heard what you said, I’m asking what makes you think that?”

Karina took the folder from him and opened the documents carefully. “I know women. Men, I couldn’t fathom to save my life, but I do know women. And she’s crushing on you big time.”

He shook his head. “It’s just sex. For both of us.”

“How do you know?”

He took the folder back and flicked forward a few pages. “We’ve discussed it.”

And yet, when they emerged a short while later, Karina shot Carter a clearly disbelieving glance. Jane had set the rarely-used dining table with the results of her labour. A beautifully golden roast chicken sat in the centre, with all the trimmings settled around it.

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