Christmas With The Billionaire (3 page)

No. Jason Kent was ice through and through. No wonder he was so successful. He was analytical and cold, with no redeeming qualities whatsoever, apart from his ridiculous good looks.
 

She closed the door on him with relief—not that he was exactly trying to batter it down. Though he might when she held the party. She was smiling when she flopped down on her sofa. Thinking about Jason Kent in a furious temper was funny and exciting—and arousing too, which was annoying. Was she so shallow that a hot, rich guy could send a flare through her senses and render her ready for every eventuality?
 

Yes. Unfortunately, she was.
 

Alone in the apartment with no one to overhear, she played out the role of Jason Kent’s hired help— but in the bedroom, which required a purring tone quite unlike her usual direct Northern speech. “Kate Black...” Pause for heavy breathing here. “Chambermaid, and trainee hospitality guru, at your service, sir...”
 

It was amazing where her fantasies could take her. But he did need a sound thrashing.

Sadly, the true situation was somewhat different. Kate Black, currently in charge of a very large student loan and a very small yappy dog, should have enough sense to steer clear of a dangerous player like Jason Kent—especially when he could throw her out of the building.
 

She’d take her chances, Kate decided as Yappy started yapping. “Alright. I’ll take you out in a minute.”
 

No wonder Jason Kent was still the world’s most eligible bachelor. Who’d have him? Jason Kent had all the charm of last week’s smoked fish.
 

But he was hot.
 

And deliciously stern.
 

And distinctly un-amused by her manner.
 

Well, she wasn’t going to change herself for him. She could only hope he was going out on Christmas Eve. She didn’t want to have to go around telling her guests to be quiet—if anyone turned up!
 

She had prepared some of the food in advance. You could never have enough…

That could be said for a lot of things, she reflected, remembering Jason Kent was said to be as accomplished in the bedroom as he was in the boardroom.
 

Her sex-starved body immediately performed a happy dance. Not that she’d sleep with him (fat chance), but just being around him was exciting. But what type of man didn’t like a party? Jason Kent was hot. He didn’t look stuffy and standoffish. So why did he behave that way?

Enough of billionaires and their quirks. She had work to do. She was going to make one last trawl of the building to see if she had missed anyone, and to try to persuade those she could speak with to come along to the party.
 

He ate and tasted nothing. The food was excellent. The problem was, he didn’t want to be here. The experience was wasted on him. The sophisticated club with its plush décor of muted jewel-colors and polished wood, together with the unparalleled service and award-winning food, and most especially the looks he was attracting from women he would normally have shown at least a passing interest in, had left him cold tonight. Instead his head was full of a straightforward woman with an engaging smile, a woman who spoke without editing first, and a floor littered with oranges.
 

The instant he stood up to go, he was surrounded by a clutch of waiters led by the maître d’. Was anything wrong? Was he quite sure he didn’t want anything else? Was there anything at all they could do for him?

“Nothing, thank you. The meal was excellent as always.” He tipped the wait staff handsomely and strode out of the upscale restaurant without a backward glance.

He relaxed the moment he walked into his apartment and the one irregularity in his rigorously-ordered life bounded up to him. “Down boy.”
 

He had rescued the great woolly dog, and now Woolly had been transported, as Jason had requested, from his estate in the Highlands of Scotland.
 

He and Woolly loved nothing more than to spend time in each other’s company and would be the perfect chilled-out companions in London over the holidays. The big mutt had wandered into his grand old house in Scotland one day, and had never left. He’d tried to locate Woolly’s owner and had drawn a blank. They’d lived together ever since, each tolerating the other—pretty much. Jason’s extreme sense of order and discipline had been shot to hell by the big dog’s exuberant lack of respect for anything remotely resembling either, but somehow they managed to rub along.
 

“There’s still time for a run,” he commented as the woolly mutt stared up at him mournfully. “You’ve had a long journey, and you’ve waited patiently for me to come home, so I’ll shower and change, and then we’ll go.”
 

The path through the park was well lit at night, and not too icy. Kate was a regular and maintained a good speed as she circled the lake with the yappy dog scuttling along at her side. Yappy loved this last run of the day best of all, and always fell asleep when they got home. And, bonus, he was too tired to yap again until morning.
 

A spear of alarm shot through her as two giant shadows crossed her path. Her heart sped up and she veered away to take another, even more brilliantly lit path.
 

She was never frightened of running in the park at night. Jack had told her it was well policed. She never actively courted danger either, though, and her spine was prickling now. Her concern increased when the runners changed direction. They were closing the distance fast. Stopping dead, she turned around to confront them. She didn’t run scared. She never had. She didn’t run unprepared, either. Her hand closed around the mace spray in her pocket.

“Oh. It’s you!” She couldn’t have been more surprised to see Jason Kent in running gear, looking so hot he stole her breath away. He loomed over her like a primal force, all muscle and shadow, with a big woolly dog. She frowned. “That yours?”
 

“Yes,” he confirmed coolly, looking her up and down in a way that made her wish she was more in tune with Lycra, and less into shapeless, over-washed cotton.
 

Their two dogs showed no such reserve and were already getting friendly.
 

“I think it’s love,” she said this lightly, forgetting for a moment whom she was speaking to. “Little and Large?” she prompted.
 

Jason Kent was not amused.
 

“What are you doing in the park on your own at night?”

“Excuse me?”
 

“You heard me,” he insisted. “Don’t you know how dangerous it is?”

Drawing the mace spray out of her pocket, she brandished it in his face.
 

His eyes narrowed in a way that suggested that if there was anything dangerous in the park tonight, it was him. Her senses jagged as he turned on the charm.
 

“You’re well prepared. I like that.”
 

“Don’t patronize me, Mr. Kent.”
 

“Jason,” he instructed.
 

“Okay. Don’t patronize me, Jason.”
 

He raised a brow and gave her the type of slanting smile she’d read about, dreamed about, and now was standing in front of. Pocketing the mace, she glanced up in time to see Jason Kent staring down with what could only be described as a hunting expression on his face. Her body throbbed a delicious response that she could have well done without—especially as she suspected he knew she was hot for him. She added intuition to Jason Kent’s already formidable list of deadly weapons.
 

“Is that your dog?” he enquired, staring at Yappy, who was doing his utmost to look cute.
 

“No. He belongs to Lady Vallender. I’m dog-sitting too.”
 

“What a cheapskate,” he murmured beneath his breath.

“I beg your pardon?”
 

“Not you,” Kent snapped impatiently. “Vallender. Does the dog even know who his owner is?”

Brownie points for Jason Kent. He cared about dogs, if nothing else.
 

“You should get moving, Ms. Black, or your muscles will seize up.”
 

“Yours too.” She was already doing her stretches.
 

“You’ve got a point.”
 

“Was that a climb down, Mr. Kent?” Hands on knees, she glanced up to see him flexing in a way that should be banned by law, for the sake of every healthy woman’s sanity.
 

Dipping low, so that now they were at eye level, he held her gaze in a way that transmitted an erotic charge to every part of her instantly hungry body. “Merry Christmas, Ms. Black...”

The sight of Jason Kent’s firm, sexy mouth curving in an unexpected smile held her transfixed for a moment, but it didn’t wipe her brain completely clean. “I thought you didn’t ‘do’ Christmas,” she accused, straightening up.
 

“I’m allowed to change my mind occasionally,” he murmured, still staring at her in that disquieting way.
 

“Nice to know I’m responsible for your unique event.”

He laughed deep and low, which should have reassured her, but instead set up a chain reaction that finished somewhere really distracting. She was right about Jason Kent. He was in hunting mode, and one-night stands weren’t her thing.
 

“
Ms.
Black,” he mocked as he turned to go, as if he knew what she was thinking.

Whistling up Yappy, she prepared to run home. Enough of being polite to the resident billionaire. If Jason Kent wanted some Christmas pudding, he would have to look elsewhere.
 

He stood back to watch as
Ms.
Black jogged on her way. She wouldn’t wait for him. She wouldn’t wait for anyone. Ms. Black had her own agenda. He followed at an easy lope, keeping her in sight, telling himself that the only reason he did that was to keep her safe in the park. But the truth was, he liked to watch her move. She was fit, and she was round in all the right places. And she was spiky and amusing too. Straight-talking, she was a refreshing change and a challenge. Which left him with a dilemma. His plan to spend Christmas in splendid isolation had just been knocked into touch by his libido.
 

There was a problem, though. He hadn’t made the best of starts with Ms. Black. The question was, how to recover the situation?
 

He shot a look at Woolly as if the big dog held the answer.
 

Maybe he did, he reflected as he noted Woolly’s soulful gaze was fixed on Ms. Kate Black’s scratty little mutt.
 

Chapter Four

Why did she have to give Jason Kent a tongue-lashing every time she saw him? She couldn’t treat him like her brothers—
 

But why not?
 

Wasn’t Jason Kent as arrogant as her brothers? Didn’t he try to pull the superior male-of-the-species act, exactly as they did?
 

Kate frowned, remembering that where her brothers were concerned, women seemed to love their macho crap. But not this woman. Why should she treat Jason Kent any differently from them? If there was one thing she had vowed not to do in London, it was to lose her upfront country ways. She was a plainspoken woman with forthright manners, and if Jason Kent didn’t like it, he knew what he could do.
 

And fighting with him was fun.
 

She really was a lost cause where Jason Kent was concerned, Kate concluded as she let herself into the apartment with Yappy running on ahead. Forget Jason Kent. She’d probably never see him again after tonight, and she still had a lot to do to get ready for the party. She hadn’t run the most successful stall at the farmers’ market by being a shrinking violet. She had an idea for entertainment for the party, but it would mean making it down to the area of London known as Covent Garden tomorrow to make her pitch to the street entertainers as they were packing up.
 

What would Jason be doing while she was doing that?
 

Who cared?

She cared.
 

Soaping down in the shower the next morning, Kate’s thoughts turned back to Jason Kent, a man stern enough to make her nipples stand to attention just thinking about him.

He’d spend a fortune on meals out, and then wonder why he wasn’t enjoying himself surrounded by strangers in some anonymous hotel. Toweling down, she threw on jeans and sneakers, and immediately missed the dog who should normally be licking around her ankles about now. He was always looking for affection, so where was he?
 

Finding him in the hall, she exclaimed with relief, and then howled with alarm, seeing the damage he’d done to the front door trying to get out.
 

“Why have you done that?” Down on hands and knees, she examined the paintwork where his claws had scored deep grooves in the wood.
 

Undeterred by her eloquent swearing, he now threw himself at the door in an attempt to batter it down. Reeling away and looking slightly stunned, he yowled piteously, but then his ears pricked up, and he started to pant excitedly.