‘Hey.’ Soft, low, almost a whisper.

She slowly smiled. ‘Hey back.’

‘Enjoying yourself?’

She wanted to get up and hug him she felt so good. ‘Yeah,’ she said instead. ‘I’m checking this moment off my bucket list.’

‘Maybe I can give you some more moments later,’ he drawled.

Conscious of the deliberate mood shift, she flirted back. ‘Maybe I’ll let you.’

‘Let me?’ An infinitesimal edge had entered his voice.

‘Do you have a problem with that?’

His gaze was suddenly cool. ‘You’ll know if I do.’

Kate dragged in a shaky breath, her carnal nerves twitching big time like they’d been jolted by a power surge. ‘Don’t,’ she whispered.

‘It’s really complicated, isn’t it?’ he softly said.

‘Seriously fucked up,’ she said as softly, wondering what was wrong with her that she responded to his authority with such instant lust.

His brows settled into a slight frown. ‘I haven’t done this virginal dance before, if it matters.’

‘And I’ve never been turned on just looking at someone,’ she said in the same grudging tone.

He suddenly laughed. ‘We’re going to have to lighten things up.’

‘Easy for you to say when you can turn off your sex drive like a spigot. I can’t do that.’ She shifted slightly in her chair as the heated pleasure waves rippling inside her punched it up a notch as though to emphasize her point.

Dominic noticed, covertly glanced at his watch. Christ, it was only eight forty-five. And selfishly, he was damned hungry. ‘Lesson number one, Miss Hart. Think of something else. Or let me help you. We don’t have to discuss this now if you’d rather not but it just occurred to me that I haven’t heard from Roscoe whether we had the twenty million wired to our account. Care to lay odds on whether we won that little game or not? I’ll give you two to one the transfer’s been made.’

‘I’d be stupid to take that bet after seeing what you did to those guys.’

‘How about odds on who drinks more tonight?’

‘Again, not a reasonable bet. We could guess each other’s favourite ice cream.’

He grinned. ‘Seriously, ice cream? That’s gotta be a woman’s question. It’s always chocolate, isn’t it? Don’t look at me like that, the only woman I know who eats ice cream is my sister. OK?’

‘OK. Then who’s ahead on points in the NBA?’

‘Now I’m impressed. The Heat.’

‘Only by six points.’

‘Now I’m really impressed.’

‘Thanks,’ she said. ‘You did good.’

‘See how easy it is.’ He grinned. ‘Watch and learn, babe.’

But he liked that she was so adaptable. Swift to arouse, she could be pacified just as quickly, her mind and body extremely sensitive to stimuli.

How gratifying.

He was deeply obliged to Max for having found Miss Hart. Quite separate from her whizz-kid capabilities in forensic accounting, her company made the world less grey.

Champagne seemed appropriate to the occasion.

After their drinks, they cabbed to the recently designated ‘best restaurant in Hong Kong’. Cépage was the Hong Kong affiliate of the highly rated Les Amis restaurant in Singapore. The decor was sleek and modern, from the panelled red-wine cellar to the teak dining room with burgundy velvet armchairs to the rooftop gardens where cigar smokers could retire after dinner. The menu was cosmopolitan, all the best cuisine of Asia and Europe drafted into seasonal roles. The wine list included the pricey ’96 Krug Clos.

They started with a carpaccio of Hokkaido scallop, citrus fruit and lemon balm, topped with a little sea salt, moved on to the Tayouran egg confit, with truffled oxtail gelée, Iberico ham, and croutons. Then to a Chin Chow classic, spectacularly moist goose meat – an extra serving for Dominic – with a soy sauce fuelled by ginger and anise. Along with a simple steak frite on the side for Dominic while Kate finished her goose.

Not that she picked at her food, Dominic noted. She ate everything with relish. He liked a woman with an appetite.

Dominic Knight ate enough for three men, Kate thought. How did he stay so buff? Sex probably, damn him; as if she had the right to be pissed.

Two bottles of champagne later – the majority downed by Dominic – they finished their meal with a sour kumquat ice cream on a nutty cookie base and, leaning back in his chair, Dominic motioned for the cheque. ‘Unless you’d like coffee.’

‘God no, and lose this nice buzz?’

He grinned. ‘You’re always frank, Miss Hart.’

‘In contrast to everyone else you meet?’

‘Yes.’ He peeled off several large bills from the folded money in his pocket, dropped them on the table and looked up at Kate with a smile. ‘Thank you for your company, Miss Hart. I enjoyed myself.’

‘Thank you. The food was delicious.’ The company was more delicious, but she wasn’t quite drunk enough to say so.

Minutes later, they were standing on the sidewalk outside the restaurant, the electric excitement of the city swirling around them, the pavement a crush of people.

‘Would you like to go dancing?’ Dominic offered.

‘I’m not sure I can move after all that food.’ Kate looked up at him. ‘You’d have to carry me around the dance floor.’