Avril froze, eyes widening as she realised what she was doing. Her left hand pressed the damp handkerchief to Isam’s chest. His hard, hair-roughened, golden-toned chest.

She gulped. The fingers of her right hand were curled, immobile, around a shirt button halfway to his belt.

Only now did she register the rise and fall of his chest with each breath and the friction of chest hair against her knuckles. A tickle of excitement lifted the hair at her nape and pulled her scalp tight.

‘I can take it from here.’

There must be something wrong with her hearing. Isam’s voice sounded strained, gravelly rather than smooth. The blood pounding in her ears must be to blame.

Her flesh tingled all over and her nipples pushed hard against her bra, making her shiver.

‘Of course.’

Her gaze was glued to her hands against his chest but her synapses weren’t firing properly. She should be lifting her hands off him yet they didn’t move. Her brain was too scrambled. Or her body refused to heed its orders.

She’d dreamt of touching him, of seeing the powerful body beneath the custom-made clothes. The reality was shockingly arousing. Isam in the flesh short-circuited her ability to move.

Two large hands covered hers. But instead of dragging them off him, those long fingers wrapped around hers. Avril’s breath disappeared in a gasp.

Sensations shot through her. His scent, citrus and warm male flesh. The gentle strength of his touch. A sudden twitching movement of his pectorals. The quick thud of his heart against her knuckles. As quick as her own, surely.

‘Avril. Look at me.’

Reluctant, because she knew this had to end and the fallout would be embarrassing, she arched her neck, her gaze snagging on the bronzed column of his throat, strong and fascinating. Up to that determined chin, dark with an evening’s beard growth. She swallowed hard, taking in the sculpted perfection of his mouth, the long, aristocratic nose, stopping when she reached heavy-lidded eyes.

She jumped and would have tugged her hands away except he held them against his chest.

Because what she saw was unprecedented. Isam’s expression was aware. Aroused. Sensual.

All the things she’d believed impossible.

Of its own volition, her body swayed closer, her breasts pressing against his hard torso, stealing her breath from her lungs as his heat engulfed her. Sparks ignited across her skin and her blood shimmered as if effervescent.

Someone’s breath hitched. It must be hers, but then she felt the rise of his torso as if he held back the air in his lungs.

Avril couldn’t find anything coherent to say. No man had ever looked at her the way Isam did now. As if he wanted to eat her all up. As if he craved her the way she longed for him.

It made her feel different. Powerful.

She swallowed, the movement jerky as though her muscles forgot how to work. Dry mouthed, she swiped her tongue over her bottom lip.

Heat blazed in Isam’s eyes, his nostrils flared, and suddenly he didn’t look like the civilised man she knew but some marauder. The glint in his eyes was surely avaricious, and his hands tightened possessively. Avril thrilled at the change in him.

‘Isam.’

She had no trouble now, saying his name. It emerged as a whisper, husky with longing. She rose on tiptoe, needing to bridge the gap between them.

Except with shocking finality, he shattered the precious moment. Still gripping her hands, as if knowing her legs were wobbly, Isam stepped back. The room was comfortably airconditioned, yet it felt like an arctic blast swept between them. Avril shivered.

His voice was deeper than she’d ever heard it, with an accent edging his previously perfect English. ‘This can’t happen.’

Yet it was happening. Didn’t he feel it?

‘I employ you. You depend on me for your salary.’ He shook his head, his mouth crimping down at the corners. ‘It would be wrong.’

Avril understood. There was a power imbalance between them. He didn’t want to take advantage of her and she admired him for that.

Yet this need wasn’t wrong. It wasn’t tainted. It was mutual and ferociously real.

More real than the grey half-life she’d been living lately. She craved this like a diver, too long below the surface, craved air.

Even now, watching him distance himself, the hammer beat of her heart and the jittery restlessness low in her body were all about her needs, not something imposed by him.

‘Couldn’t we pretend that you’re not my boss? That I’m not your PA? Just for this evening?’

At any other time she might have winced at the stark need her words revealed. But this between them was so consuming, it superseded the normal rules. In twenty-six years she’d never experienced anything so visceral.

He scowled and even then she hungrily devoured the sight of him — no longer urbane and in control, but prey to strong emotions, like her. ‘No. Absolutely not!’

Suddenly, it was easier than she thought to step away. She wrapped stiff arms around her abruptly chilled body.

What had she been thinking? She’d seen the photos of Isam with a series of stunning women. All glamorous, all beautiful and no doubt at home in his rarefied social milieu. The sort who held down highflying careers yet found time to look a million dollars at royal events.

‘I understand.’ Avril struggled not to feel hurt. If she’d thought rationally she’d have known the idea was ludicrous. She didn’t fit his world or his expectations. Her stockinged toes curled into the thick, handwoven carpet. ‘I’m not sophisticated and sexy and you’re—’

‘Avril, you’ve got it wrong.’

She shook her head, pursing her mouth before she blurted out any more foolishness. It was time to leave.

‘This isn’t about you.’

He was trying to soothe her ego but his words had the opposite effect. Her turbulent feelings coalesced into anger, pumping through her bloodstream. She welcomed it because it obliterated, at least for now, embarrassment and disappointment.

‘Of course it is. I’m no fool. I know the huge gulf between us. I’m ordinary and you’re…you. It was laughable to think—’

‘Stop that!’ Isam folded his arms, muscles bulging and eyes glinting like molten mercury. He was the image of furious, frustrated masculinity and still he made her knees go weak. But she stood tall and returned his heated stare. ‘Do you see me laughing, Avril? I spent today, all the days we’ve worked together, locking my feelings away. Trying to ignore my attraction to you. Pretending to be unaffected and uninterested, when all the time…’

Stunned, she watched a muscle spasm in his cheek as his jaw clenched. The tendons in his throat were taut and she felt tension radiating from him.

He was so angry he glowered through slitted eyes.

But instead of dismaying her, his fury had the opposite effect. It told her he felt something for her.

She took a half step towards him. Instantly he pulled back, chin lifting arrogantly. ‘That wasn’t meant as encouragement, Avril.’

But his hauteur didn’t deter her. ‘You want me?’