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She gasped.
‘No personal feelings, huh?’ He lifted his head, looked at her with a gaze so cool it was like having a bucket of ice water tipped on her.
She jerked her head back, breathing hard as she realised he’d been toying with her. Again.
Anger made her blood run even hotter. Because, damn it, she wasn’t the only one who’d been getting excited just then.
‘Clearly you have them too.’ She thrust her hips against his, crudely referring to his hard, thick erection pressing up against her lower belly.
He dropped his hands from her and stepped back so quickly she almost stumbled. ‘What red-blooded man wouldn’t react when a woman with a body as curvy as yours writhes against him like that?’
Writhes?
Oh, she had, she had. She had an unbearable ache and she’d been moving against him any which way to ease it. Pressing her pelvis against his, riding his thigh over and over and he’d felt so good and she’d felt so hungry…
She put a hand on the back of a chair for support. ‘You should be working with Bronwyn on the campaign.’
Storm clouds chased away the last of the glitter in his eyes. ‘No, Amanda.’
‘But, Jared—’
‘This is the thing, the contract is tied to you. Without you I pull the plug and more than likely the agency will go under.’
‘What?’ Stunned, she couldn’t believe her ears.
‘It was your idea, wasn’t it? The pitch?’
She nodded.
‘Then it’s your creative talent I want.’
She shook her head—she could work on the ads here at the agency; she didn’t need to deal with Jared directly…
‘Can you really do it, Amanda?’ He spoke harshly. ‘Can you put other people first? Or is it still only about what you want?’
She opened her mouth but he overrode her.
‘Synergy needs this contract to survive, doesn’t it? Well, they don’t get this contract without you.’ His black brows drew together. ‘Have you ever really worked hard, Amanda? Because you’re about to be worked really, really hard.’
‘You think I’ve never worked hard?’ What the hell did he know of her?
‘I don’t think you’ve ever had to. I think you use whatever means you have to hand to avoid it.’
‘Wow.’ Her eyes opened wide. ‘What an opinion you have of me.’
‘It’s not your fault. You were spoilt. You had a grandfather who indulged your every whim. You’ve never learnt the meaning of the word no.’
‘Is that what you think?’ My God, he had no idea—hadn’t he been the one to teach her? And as a result—being sent away to that awful school…She’d changed—no longer was she the little madam who’d deliberately left her boots caked in mud for him to clean like some servant boy.
‘That’s what I know,’ Jared said flatly. ‘He’d do anything for you, Amanda.’
At that comment she turned away. It was a timely reminder. Grandfather had and would always do whatever he could for her—even if it hadn’t necessarily been the best thing, he had meant well. He had loved her. And now she had to pay him back. It was her turn. But she defended the way things had been.
‘There’s nothing wrong with doing things for those you love. For wanting to make their path smoother than the one you had.’ Grandfather had only wanted to protect her. In his own way he had been making up for the loss of her parents. The loss she’d been too young to really feel—not overtly anyway. And he didn’t want her to have to work as hard as he had. Old-fashioned enough to want her to live ‘like a lady’—and have all the suitable accomplishments of a lady. To draw, to dance, to play piano, to speak French—to just about be rendered useless.
‘You can’t be protected or cosseted for ever. Even real princesses have to work hard at what they do.’
Inside she burned at the injustice. But she refused to rise to his bait. Not again. She shut the lid on the seething emotions inside. Offered the one truth she could manage. ‘You have no idea how hard I can work, Jared.’
‘No? I guess you can prove it to me.’ He smiled—that wolf smile. ‘I wonder if you’ll do it as well as you proved you had no personal feelings for me.’
She trembled—trapped by circumstance into behaving but unable to stop one last bite. ‘You know what, Jared? I admit it. I do have personal feelings for you. I hate you.’
For more reasons than he’d ever know.
His smile broadened. ‘I know. It’s going to be fun, isn’t it?’
That wasn’t quite the word she had in mind.
