‘Oh, you mean the auction!’

Georgia couldn’t decide which feeling was uppermost in her mind, the rush of relief at realising just what Lucas meant, or the shockingly sensual reaction that had run along her nerves like an electric current, tightening her scalp and making all the tiny hairs at the nape of her neck lift in instinctive response.

‘I mean that I am yours, body and soul, completely in your power.’

‘Will you please stop this?’

Georgia prayed that she didn’t sound quite as desperate as she felt. This was like some sort of obscene phone call, except that the sensations his words aroused in her were definitely not the fear and disgust she would have felt if that were the case.

‘You were the one who asked me to ring you if I wanted to talk business.’

‘Oh, business—’

It was as if she had flung a bucket of icy water in his face, driving all trace of warmth from his voice and leaving it cold and hard.

‘Of course, I was forgetting you want to keep things on a strictly formal footing. In that case, just what can I do to help you, Ms Harding?’

Once again Georgia was a prey to conflicting feelings. She was stunned to find herself mourning the loss of the warmly sensual tone, while knowing all the time that it had been just a carefully assumed pretence, with no foundation in fact.

But what really worried her was the fact that the way he spoke should affect her in any way at all. After all, they were complete strangers, destined only to connect with each other very briefly before moving on again on separate paths, like two ships that pass in the night.

Or at least that was how she hoped their relationship would be. Certainly, it was how she would make sure it would be if she had her way!

‘I’d like to discuss our—our—’

Furious with her hesitation, she hunted frantically for the right word.

‘Date?’ Lucas supplied, with what she felt was an unnecessarily exaggerated helpfulness. ‘Assignation?’

‘Our arrangement’ Georgia managed at last.

‘Oh, yes, you said you’d let me know precisely what sort of services you require.’

‘I hardly think “services” is quite the right term!’

‘You mean you want to define my duties,’ Lucas amended, with a smooth courteousness that had her gritting her teeth against a furious retort.

‘Duties’ wasn’t much better, but she decided to let it pass this time.

‘You said something about a party, I believe. Was that the truth?’

‘Of course it was the truth! What the hell else could it be?’

‘I’ve heard better stories.’

‘You’ve heard.!’

The arrogance of the man! Georgia could only be grateful for the fact that he was on the other end of the telephone wires and so couldn’t see the way her mouth had actually fallen open on a gasp of sheer disbelief.

‘Mr Mallory, are you implying that I was simply making up the story of needing an escort to a party in order to—to—enjoy the pleasure of your company for twenty-four hours?’

She injected every degree of coldness she could muster into her words in order to make her feelings clear, and was almost surprised not to see ice crystals actually form on the receiver as she spoke.

‘You’d be surprised what infantile excuses some women come up with,’ he returned blithely, apparently totally unfazed by her attempt to freeze him out.

Kelly had been right! Georgia thought furiously. The man flirted with anything in a skirt! He believed every woman to be fair game, needing only a little encouragement in order to fall flat at his feet, even if she was doing her damnedest to make it clear that she wasn’t in the least bit interested!

‘But someone who looks like you doesn’t need to invent any such story. You only had to ask. In fact, you didn’t even need to say anything. If you’d just waited a little while, I—’

‘Mr Mallory!’

Georgia closed her eyes tight, as if by doing so she could block out the unnerving spell that that soft, enticing voice seemed to be weaving around her senses.

‘Lucas,’ he corrected irrepressibly, but she ignored him and plunged on, drawing on all her self-control to keep her voice steady.

‘I have tried to be polite about this, but you appear incapable of taking in what I’m saying. It seems that I have no option but to spell it out in words of one syllable! I do not—repeat, not—want to spend any time with you. And no matter how hard you may find it to believe that any woman could resist your much-vaunted attractions, let me assure you that here is one woman at least who is totally immune—impervious—to your so-called charms! If the nuclear bomb had dropped and you and I were the only people left alive on this earth I would still not want to spend any more than a minute in your company unless I had to. I am not that desperate!’

‘Aren’t you?’

‘I…’

She had opened her mouth to deny the suggestion furiously, to tell him in no uncertain terms just what she thought of him, when realisation had her stopping dead. It seemed that his impertinent question had been repeated inside her own thoughts, echoing it perfectly, right down to the infuriatingly mocking intonation.

‘So tell me,’ Lucas persisted. ‘If you’re not that desperate, then why did you attend the auction at all? Why not just ask some friend to act as your escort? Why did you have to pay for someone and not just anyone, but one particular man—me?’

‘I don’t have any friends—male friends, I mean. At least, not the sort of friends I could ask to help me out in this.’

‘No one who’ll simply be your escort?’ Lucas’s tone was frankly sceptical. ‘Come off it, Georgia! Any fool—’

‘Any fool won’t do!’

Her outburst fell into a silence that sent a frisson of apprehension shivering down her spine, a silence that grew longer and longer as Lucas stubbornly refused to say a word, obviously waiting for her to speak first. It didn’t take too long for his deliberate obstinacy to stretch her nerves almost to breaking point.

‘Oh, all right! I don’t just want an escort.’

Feeling that she had been backed into a corner, mentally at least, Georgia knew that her grip on her selfcontrol had loosened dangerously.

‘I want someone whose reputation precedes him as yours inevitably does. Someone who has the sort of immediate impact you have simply by walking into a room.’

‘Well, thanks for the compliment. I didn’t know you cared,’ was the sardonic retort. ‘But I still don’t see—’

‘And I want someone who’ll travel with me to Yorkshire to meet my family, but someone who’s not involved in any way. Someone who’ll do just as I say and no more. I need someone—a man—who’ll act his heart out so that he makes it look as if I’m the centre of his universe, the sun in his sky. Someone who can convince everyone at the party that he is hopelessly, head over heels in love with me, just for one day, and then go, walk out of my life without a word, and never come back.’

She paused, expecting some comment, but none came and she had to go on in order to fill the uncomfortable silence.

‘I want a total commitment for that twenty-four hours I’ve paid for, and then nothing—no arguments, no emotional entanglements, just a clean, sharp break. As I said, strictly business. And because it is a business deal I expected to have to pay very well for such a performance.’

This time the silence that fell when she finally finished speaking had a slightly stunned quality about it, one that had her thinking back over precisely what she had just said. She couldn’t stop herself from wincing when she became painfully aware of just how much she had let drop.

What had come over her? she asked herself shakenly, thankful that the fiery colour that flooded her face couldn’t be seen by the man at the other end of the telephone wires. Or perhaps that was why it had happened. Perhaps it was simply because she couldn’t see him, was unable to judge his reaction from his face, that the restraints that normally controlled her tongue had been loosened, resulting in the uninhibited outburst.