Emma Darcy: The Marriage Risk

Buffy’s blankness forced James to speak again. ‘Never mind,’ he said bruskly. ‘What do you think of the band?’ He gestured to the musicians on stage to redirect her attention.

‘Oh!’ She obediently looked and listened. ‘They’ve got a good beat. Is this the band you think may do as well as Silverchair?’

James pursued the conversation with Buffy, much to Lucy’s relief. She needed some breathing space to assess what had happened, to get her thoughts into some kind of order for handling the rest of the night which now stretched ahead, loaded with perilous double meanings to everything!

‘He’s hooked,’ Josh whispered triumphantly.

She looked askance at him. ‘He’s taken the bait but he doesn’t like it.’

‘And doesn’t that say something? No indifference there, Lucy love. The man is wriggling beautifully.’

‘But I don’t want him to think I’m a dominatrix.’ She was horrified by the image. Even more so, because she had actually fantasised him being handcuffed to her bed! But that was only a mad dream borne out of frustration, she assured herself. She’d never really do it. What she dearly, truly wanted was utterly breath-taking mutual desire.

‘Challenges his manhood,’ Josh murmured knowingly. ‘He’ll be thinking about how much he’d like to dominate you.’

She frowned at him. ‘Do you realise you’ve made yourself out to be my toy-boy?’

He grinned. ‘So what? You think Buffy is anything more than a toy-girl to him? What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. Makes you more of a match for him.’

She shook her head. ‘I doubt he’ll think that.’

‘Give him time. He might not realise it yet but that guy is possessive of you, Lucy, and right now he’s as jealous as hell of me. Why do you think he seated you next to him? To compete for your attention, that’s why.’

Could it be so? Lucy found it difficult to believe, yet Josh was no fool in his perceptions of people. And the miserable truth was, James had never sought her company on a personal basis before. Outside of work, he’d been perfectly content with the Buffys of this world.

Until now.

All the same, company in public and company in private were still two different things. Josh could very well be right in that he’d hit some competitive nerve in James. However, that didn’t mean she was actually desirable to him, not in the sense she craved. This was probably dog in the manger stuff. He didn’t want her himself but he didn’t like the idea of someone else having her.

Besides, what was the point in planting false images of her in his mind? What would it win her in the end? She wanted to be wanted for herself, not fancied as some kind of sexual contestant.

‘I’m me and I’m not going to pretend to be anything else,’ she stated emphatically.

‘Neither you should,’ Josh agreed. ‘Being you is perfect.’

‘Perfect for what?’ she demanded suspiciously.

‘Titillating him to death.’ He gave her a smugly satisfied look. ‘You did want him to burn, Lucy love. If nothing else, we have achieved that objective.’

True, she told herself.

Let him burn.

He’d made her burn all day.

Vengeance was sweet.

She could hand in her notice with the sense she’d had the last word with James Hancock. He’d be left thinking he’d missed out on something. And he had. She was worth more than the label of secretary.

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