Au contraire, she discovered once she joined the gathering downstairs.

As she was greeted by a round of applause, handed a glass of champagne and congratulated by each of the staff in turn, she couldn’t help but notice the degree of deference Dominic Knight commanded. The Sun King had nothing on Knight Enterprises’ CEO when it came to basking in the adulatory glow of his subjects.

Not that he couldn’t be charming. Dominic Knight could have bottled his charm and sold it for millions. As she chatted with everyone, she covertly watched him work the room; a smile here, a handclasp there, a compliment that elicited a pleased reaction, a brief conversation before he politely moved on. The man was smooth.

She waited for him to reach her. While not terribly experienced, she wasn’t a naive virgin; she recognized his leisurely, indirect advance. As Knight Enterprises’ CEO approached, the colleague to whom she was speaking melted away, like some courtier making way for the king.

‘The dress suits you,’ he said as he stopped before her. ‘Thank you for wearing it.’ His cool gaze slowly surveyed her from head to foot, then travelled back again to her smile. ‘I like those shoes too.’

‘They do make a statement.’

‘Indeed.’

How does he do it? A single coolly uttered word like that and she felt like throwing herself at him and promising him anything. Luckily she was sober. ‘I tried to resist the clothes, but as you see.’ She gave a little flick of her wrist up her body.

‘I’m glad you didn’t. I thought you’d do Greta’s designs justice.’ He smiled. ‘You certainly do. I’m sure she’s pleased.’

That cool voice again, different now – distant. He was impossible to read. Bemused at times, amused other times, and now this sudden remoteness. ‘You must give her a lot of business.’

A puzzled look. ‘Why would I?’

‘So you don’t usually—’

‘I see where you’re going. No, I don’t.’ He started to say something, changed his mind, smiled instead. ‘At the risk of pissing you off, I just thought you’d look better in that than your army drab slacks.’

Embarrassment flushed her cheeks. ‘So I’m a special welfare case.’

‘Let’s just say you’re special all around.’

With that, a different kind of heat flooded her senses. She looked up what seemed a great distance, even in her heels, and met what was definitely not a family values smile. ‘Are you hitting on me?’

‘I’m giving you a compliment.’

But his voice was soft, his gaze on the wicked side of sexy and she felt a sudden quiver where she was most susceptible after months of no sex.

A carillon sound of church bells suddenly flowed through the room. Dominic’s jaw clenched, a rare flash-back gripped his senses. He and Julia had gone to services at the church around the corner from time to time, especially in the evening like this. She had had an intrinsic spirituality that he lacked – along with any number of other good qualities that had eluded him.

Kate saw the muscles flicker across his jaw, watched him visibly gather himself, hoped it wasn’t something she’d said or done. She didn’t know where to look, what to say, a dozen inane comments raced through her mind – all unusable unless she wanted to sound like some ditsy airhead. She was busy checking out the fake diamonds on the toes of her shoes when he took her hand.

‘Come on.’ He was scowling faintly. ‘I’ll have dinner served.’

She should have said something tactful and gracious, or smiled the right way to erase his scowl. Instead, she botched everything by turning too fast and stumbling on her high spiky heels.

She muffled a squeal and for a fraction of a second worried about where to grab Dominic Knight, CEO, to keep from falling. Then her boobs hit the unyielding wall of muscled chest, she clumsily snatched two handfuls of jacket, while he smoothly caught her upper arms and steadied her against the long, hard length of his body. A POW!!! word balloon exploded in Kate’s head on impact, every sexually specific nerve from head to toe ramped up for business and she inadvertently moaned.

He inhaled sharply, his libido responding to the provocative sound, to the full-body press, to her nipples stiffening against his chest, her thigh jammed against his dick, the scent of her punching his pheromones. For a brief moment he seriously thought about dragging her upstairs and banging her until neither one of them could move. The moment quickly passed. He rarely acted on impulse.

Carefully easing her away from his body, he smiled faintly as a collective exhalation wafted round the room and the rapt moment of breathless expectation gave way to the hum of conversation. His voice was mild when he spoke, his smile touched with levity. ‘I hope we didn’t bruise anything.’

‘Yours or mine,’ she almost said, the imprint of his sizeable dick stamped on her thigh. But she could do casual as well as he with everyone still watching them in veiled glances. ‘No, not at all. My apologies. Stiletto heels aren’t my usual footwear.’

He glanced down, then up, his smile more personal this time. ‘They look good on you. But you’d better hold on to my arm, Miss Hart. It’s a long way to the dining room. We wouldn’t want you to fall.’

Actually, it was way too long for her skittish senses because his lean hip brushed against her body with each step, his large hand covering hers as she clung to his arm – ‘Just to be safe,’ he’d said – was sending tingles to places she’d rather not receive them, considering the company and venue. And his dark, magnetic beauty this close was doing disastrous things to her breathing. You absolutely will not pant, dammit. Do not fall to pieces under the eyes of twenty Knight Enterprises employees.