The Cinderella Factor by Sophie Weston

Author:Sophie Weston
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2013-08-23T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIX

PATRICK looked at Jo sideways. God, she was pretty. That skin—

Her chestnut hair was riffled gently by the breeze. Suddenly the smooth sophisticated cut was gone and her head was covered with soft feathers like a newly hatched chick. His fingers itched to reach out and tuck a feathery frond behind her ear. She had beautiful ears, too, now he thought about it. He found himself thinking of Botticelli seashells. He wanted to touch the marvel of her ear, the soft vulnerable line of her jaw, the pugnacious chin.

What would she do if he did just that?

Probably drive them straight off the road into a row of vines!

Patrick had to admit it. His famous, irresistible sex appeal was simply not pulling this time. The ladies cloakroom would never believe it.

Good for me, he thought wryly.

But it didn’t feel good for him. It felt—wrong.

Oh, boy, vanity has well and truly taken hold of you, Patrick Burns. You can’t expect to attract every woman in the world, you know.

I don’t want to attract every woman in the world. I just want to touch Jo Almond.

Touch?

Caress. Stroke. Kiss. Surprise. Make laugh.

Make love to.

He drew a sharp breath and shifted in his seat.

Jo took her eyes off the country road for the briefest moment. ‘Going too fast?’

He mocked himself silently. ‘Not at all.’

‘But you winced.’

He crossed one leg hastily over the other. ‘Brief twinge. Nothing serious. You’re very confident in a car, aren’t you?’

‘I told you I could drive anything,’ she said, so proudly that he wanted to stop the car and kiss the life out of her right then.

‘So you did,’ he said on a ghost of a laugh. ‘Where did you learn to drive?’

She smiled at the road ahead. ‘School car park. Three lessons from the car maintenance teacher. Then hot-wiring teachers’ cars on a Wednesday evening.’

He gave a crack of laughter. ‘A tomboy with criminal tendencies?’

Her face shadowed. ‘Suppose so.’

The trees met over the open top of the car. It brought a welcome breath of coolness. But she did not smile again.

He had hurt her feelings, Patrick thought, annoyed. How? Shouldn’t he have said criminal tendencies? But he had already accused her of infiltrating his house to steal the cars, and it hadn’t made her look like that.

Then he thought, I shouldn’t have called her a tomboy! She had been pretending to be a boy for weeks. Maybe she was sensitive about it.

Probing, he said, ‘Did you always love cars?’

Jo folded her lips together. ‘No.’

He dug again. ‘But you do now?’

She shrugged.

‘So where did you learn about them?’

Not taking her eyes off the road, she said, ‘At school. My aunt decided I had better learn a skill. She said I wasn’t pretty enough to be a hairdresser.’

Her voice was very level. But Patrick was a journalist. He was a skilled listener. And when he listened to Jo Almond he engaged brain and gut and heart. He heard the repressed emotion churning as clearly as if there was a kettle drum on the soundtrack.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.