Say It With Diamonds by Lucy King Read Free Book Online Page B

eased off a moment agorevealing shapely ankles and slim calves. She’d wiggled her toes and sighed in the kind of satisfied way that had Will instantly imagining a dozen other scenarios in which she might be sighing in a satisfied way.
    Now she was unknotting the belt of her coat and undoing the buttons and he had to curl his hands into fists to stop himself reaching out and helping her. Every movement she made sent a waft of her scent up his nostrils and frazzled his brain. She ran her fingers through her hair and shook her head back a little and it made him think of hot steamy showers and slick wet skin.
    As she twisted her hair into a thick dark rope her elbow briefly brushed against his shoulder and for one sizzling moment he thought he’d been electrocuted. His entire body burned as if it had gone up in flames and his heart practically stopped.
    Will stifled a groan and with mammoth effort switched his gaze to the shops sliding by. He might have decided he wasn’t going to pursue Bella but his body, stiffening and tightening and aching all over, clearly hadn’t got the message.
    Gritting his teeth as he forced down the desire he really ought not to be feeling, he dragged his mind back to his original intentions and cleared his throat. ‘I am sorry for leaving you alone like that,’ he said, forcing himself to glance over at her. ‘It was unforgivable. I don’t know what came over me.’
    Bella arched an eyebrow and flashed him a look that suggested she could think of a few things. ‘Did you solve the mystery of who’s been messing around with the jewellery?’
    ‘I did.’
    ‘And?’
    ‘Turns out my aunt has a few … issues … but it’s a long and not particularly exciting story,’ he said, deliberately vaguely because, while he might be prepared to apologise for his failings,he hadn’t lost his mind to the extent that he’d go into Caroline’s.
    Bella went still and stared at him, her eyes widening. In the dim light inside the car he could make out the raindrops that still clung to her eyelashes and the flush on her cheeks from the stinging wind and it made his pulse hammer, despite his efforts to stop it. ‘Caroline is your aunt?’
    Will nodded. ‘My father’s younger sister. Older than she looks. Why? Who did you think she was?’
    ‘I had no idea,’ said Bella frostily. ‘You didn’t introduce her.’
    ‘No. I’m sorry about that too.’
    She shot him a look that he felt right in the pit of his stomach, and then nodded briefly. ‘Apologies accepted.’
    And didn’t that make him feel absurdly relieved?
    ‘How long did you wait?’ he muttered, wondering what it was about her in particular that got to him and why he was finding it so difficult to think straight.
    ‘Longer than I should have,’ she said, glaring at him for a second then folding her arms over her chest, crossing her legs and sitting back.
    Will rubbed a hand along his jaw, rapidly coming to the conclusion that, contrary to his earlier self-assurances, at some point over the last ten minutes he had actually lost his mind. Up until now he’d never considered himself to be much of a masochist but now he thought he might have to reassess his opinion. Because Bella, with her flashing eyes and pouty mouth and general air of stroppiness, was seriously turning him on.
    He glanced over at her and his blood heated. If it hadn’t been such a cliché and if he hadn’t thought she’d slap him, he’d have told her she looked beautiful when she was angry. And sexy.
    And as for her mouth, he thought, his gaze dipping to it,well, that was something else. His body tightened and his pulse hammered as the overwhelming need to know what it felt like, what it tasted like, spun through him.
    ‘Where would you like me to drop you?’ he said, his voice sounding strangely hoarse as he battled to bring his body under some sort of control.
    ‘My shop would be fine,’ she said coolly. ‘I live above it.’
    ‘How convenient.’
    ‘It