He gave her an impatient look. ‘Are you even going to argue about getting into the car?’ he sighed.
‘No, of course not!’ She wrenched open the door and scrambled inside, at once sinking into the luxury—and intimacy—of the interior. Alexander Blair was much too close in the confines of such a car, making her aware of the tangy aftershave he wore and the much more basic male smell of him. ‘I was looking for the Rolls,’ she added stubbornly.
The car moved off smoothly under his expert handling, entering the flow of traffic leaving town. ‘The Rolls is badly dented, as you know.’
‘Yes,’ the word came out as a hiss. ‘But I wasn’t to know you wouldn’t still be driving it.’
‘It’s in the garage being straightened out.’
He hadn’t even looked at her since she had got in the car and she found herself glaring at him resentfully. ‘Rather quick, isn’t it?’ she snapped.
His mouth twisted tauntingly. ‘Some things can be arranged that way.’
‘If you have the money!’
His dark eyebrows rose. ‘Yes. I wouldn’t have thought you the sort of girl to show prejudice because I happen to be rich.’
Lauri blushed at his rebuke, wondering just what sort of girl he had thought her to be, although she doubted he had actually given the matter a moments thought. ‘I’m not,’ she agreed quietly. She grinned suddenly, her eyes sparkling mischievously. ‘Do I seem as if I’ve shown you any preferential treatment?’
A smile touched his mouth, a firm controlled mouth that didn’t look as if it did much smiling. ‘None at all,’ he acknowledged.
‘This is a lovely car, isn’t it?’ She forgot her hostility in that brief moment of shared humour. ‘Did the garage lend it to you while yours is being mended?’ She remembered the old grey wreck Steve’s garage had lent him when Gertie had gone in for servicing last week. Gertie might be old, but even she was more reliable than that had been.
‘Dare I admit that I own this car too?’ Alexander Blair mused, giving her a fleeting glance before turning his attention back to the road.
Her eyes widened. ‘You do? Oh, I much prefer this to a Rolls-Royce. A Rolls is so—so—’
‘Respectable,’ he supplied mockingly. ‘It’s meant to be. This car is for my own pleasure, it certainly wouldn’t impress people with my reliability and good sense.’
‘Maybe not,’ Lauri agreed. ‘But it’s much nicer.’ And made him appear more human!
He bowed mockingly. ‘I’m glad you approve,’ he drawled.
The car seemed to be eating up the miles and already they were well out of London. ‘Where are we going?’ she asked curiously.
His mouth turned back. ‘Somewhere where my business suit and your denims won’t look too out of place.’
Lauri flushed, her good humour forgotten. ‘How was I to know I would be lunching with the exalted Alexander Blair?’ she snapped. ‘If I’d known I would have—’
‘Dressed exactly the same,’ he interrupted smoothly. ‘At my request.’
Her eyes widened. ‘You—your request?’
‘Mm. You look lovely in denims, Lauren, much better than any other female I know.’
‘Oh.’ She blushed profusely.
He gave a sudden burst of laughter. ‘Don’t tell me I’ve actually rendered you speechless. I don’t believe it!’
But he had. His sudden compliment had come as a complete surprise to her. There was no doubt that it had been a compliment, the warmth in those startling blue eyes as he looked at her made it impossible for it to be anything else. Alexander Blair had paid her a compliment!
‘I can see I have,’ he mused. ‘Amazing! I can see I’ll have to take advantage of this temporary loss of voice on your part—and I feel sure it can only be temporary—by telling you that it was my suit I felt would be out of place. A necessary evil during business hours, I’m afraid.’
But it was such a nice suit, its fit and cut superb, the cream colour emphasising the dark tan he had acquired on his recent trip to America. Lauri found herself staring at him, unashamedly admiring his good looks. It seemed she saw him for the first time, always too angry before to realise just how devastatingly attractive his features were, or to realise how potent was the sexual aura he seemed to emit from every pore of his body. But now she was aware of it, too much so in fact. She looked away, confused by her own sudden weakness towards a man she had thought she disliked.
‘Lauren?’ his husky query made her tremble with her new awareness of him. ‘Lauren?’ he prompted again at her continued silence.
She frowned. ‘Why do you call me that? I told you that everyone calls me Lauri.’