He reached into the back and snagged her large purse. With ease, he rifled through the bag. He found her mobile and hurried to check incoming and outgoing calls. He was surprised to see there weren’t many at all.
Satisfied there was nothing in her purse that could aid them, Banan replaced everything and set her purse exactly as it had been. Fifteen minutes later, Jane returned. Alone.
She got into the back of the car and closed the door, a worried expression pulling at her features. “I don’t understand.”
“What is it?”
“The client isn’t here. His flight doesn’t come in until tomorrow. Did I get the day wrong? God, that would be just like me.” She put her head in her hand and let out a long, exasperated sigh.
Banan started the car and pulled away from the airport. “Are you sure the client didna arrive?”
“Yes. I have a friend who works for Virgin Atlantic. I had her check if he was on today’s flight. He wasn’t. I just don’t understand.”
“Everyone makes mistakes. Doona worry about it.”
She looked out the window. “Yeah. You’re right.”
But he had the feeling she didn’t believe him. The way she held herself and the worry lines bracketing her lips told a different story than her words.
“How about I drop you off at your flat instead of the office?” he offered. This way he wouldn’t have to tail her later.
Their gazes met in the rearview mirror and she smiled slowly, true happiness in her eyes. “That would be great. Thank you.”
He followed her quietly spoken directions. There was obviously something bothering her. She was so distracted. He began to wonder if the snafu that night was an accident, or something done to Jane deliberately.
Whatever the cause, Banan intended to discover what it was. Jane seemed like the innocent sort, but sometimes those could be the ones at the heart of all the trouble.
He stopped the car in front of her flat. While he waited for another car to pass so he could get out, Jane had already opened her door.
Banan came around the back of the car and stopped cold at the sight of her long leg poking outside the car as she gathered her purse. Her skirt had slipped up, giving him an ample view of her thigh all the way down to the high-heeled shoes she wore.
He swallowed. It was a shapely leg, but just a leg. Yet there was no denying the need, the hunger surging through him.
Somehow he shook himself and held the door as she looked through her purse. Banan bit his lip to keep from smiling as he watched her.
“They’re in this damn purse somewhere,” she mumbled.
“Are you sure that’s a purse?” he asked as he nodded at its large size.
She stopped and looked at him, then at her purse. And to his amazement, busted out laughing. Then she went back to digging. “It is rather huge. And the bigger the purse, the more crap I put in it. I know I need a smaller one, but I love this purse. Ah-ha!” she cried a moment later, and pulled out her keys.
He helped her out of the car, covertly watching the way she slung the purse over her shoulder and adjusted her skirt before she turned to him.
“Thank you for waiting on me this evening. I apologize for running behind.”
“There’s no need to fash yourself over it. The client wasna at the airport.”
“Fash?” she repeated and frowned. “You’re Scottish, right?”
“I am.” He was more than that, but it was easier just to agree.
She glanced down the street and fiddled with her key ring. “I traveled there last fall.”
“For a holiday?”
“In a manner,” she answered evasively. “It’s beautiful.”
He found himself more intrigued by her with every passing moment. “Where did you go?”
“I spent some time in Oban and Loch Ness.”
“Did you go looking for Nessie?”
She smiled and ducked her head. “I did take a boat ride on Loch Ness, but I’m sorry to say, I didn’t look for Nessie.”
Silence stretched between them as Banan found he simply enjoyed looking at her. She kept glancing away from him, and he knew his staring made her nervous.
She acted almost as if she didn’t know what to do with a man’s attention. Which was surely wrong. All a man had to do was look at her to see her appeal.
“Um…thank you,” she said, and took a step back.
Banan saw the heel of her stiletto fall into the crack in the concrete an instant before she shifted her weight onto it. He took the two steps separating them, catching her just as her ankle gave way.
“Oh!” she gasped as he pulled her against him.
He stared down into the large pools of her coffee brown eyes. Her hands gripped his shoulders tightly. He’d brought her against him to help balance their weight so they both wouldn’t topple over, but with the feel of her breasts and amazing curves against him, he knew it hadn’t been a wise decision.
The lust he’d keep abated raged like an inferno, demanding he close the distance and sample her lips with his own. Slowly, leisurely he’d kiss her until she clung to him with longing.
Despite knowing he needed to separate from her, he couldn’t. His blood burned from the desire that licked at his body. He liked the feel of her in his arms, loved the way her lips parted as if she waited for his mouth on hers.
The urge, the pure, primal need to take her was unwavering. Overwhelming. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt such…yearning for a woman.
“Are you all right?”
“Y-yes,” she murmured softly.
Her lips were so close to his. They were tempting, enticing.
Inviting.
He wanted to cover her mouth with his, to kiss her deeply and intensely. The impulse was so great, he barely stopped himself in time.
And then wished he hadn’t.
Banan stared into her eyes and saw lighter flecks in her irises. “Gold,” he said.
“What?”
Slowly, he stood them upright and reluctantly released her. “Your eyes. They have flecks of gold in them.”
“You must be mistaken. My eyes are just plain brown.”
“I’m no’ mistaken.”