All he wanted was a brief, uncomplicated relationship.

‘Because that’s the way it is.’ He saw the hurt in her eyes and cursed himself. Why the hell had he ever let it get this far?

Hating himself for what he had to do, he ran a hand over his face and looked at her.

‘I don’t sleep with women like you.’

‘Because I’m not blonde?’

Her feeble attempt at a joke did nothing to relieve his tension. However had he got himself in this position? ‘Because you don’t do just sex, do you, Jenny? And that’s all I’m offering.’

His blunt words made her flinch and she looked at him like a kitten that knew it was being sent away from its mother. ‘I’m not a threat to you, Alex,’ she said softly, and he gave a wry smile.

With her gentle warmth and her calm nature she was the biggest threat that he’d ever encountered.

And tomorrow he was putting serious pressure on his lawyer to find an answer to Daisy’s paternity.

He wanted the issue settled so that he could get Jenny out of his life.

Before he did something that was going to hurt both of them.

Ending the conversation abruptly, he strode into the bathroom and locked the door, turned the shower full on and switched the setting to cold.

* * *

Jenny stared at the locked bathroom door, feeling totally numb.

He’d rejected her.

But that wasn’t surprising, was it? How could she possibly compete with the women he usually mixed with?

And she’d totally blown it by reacting like a gauche schoolgirl. But his touch had been so overwhelmingly intimate and she’d been terrified by the power of her own response.

She slid off his bed, filled with embarrassment, wondering how on earth she was going to face the man in the morning.

It was all her fault. What on earth had possessed her to give him a massage? The minute he’d removed his shirt and exposed his smooth, well-muscled chest she’d realised the depth of her mistake but it had been too late to correct it without drawing attention to the sudden awareness that had engulfed her.

And to be fair to the man, he’d given her every opportunity to pull away.

But she hadn’t been able to do so.

She’d been trapped by the chemistry that had pulsed between them, in the thrall of something far stronger than common sense.

All the warnings in the world wouldn’t have stopped her from experiencing Alex’s kiss.

Groaning at the memory, she slid back into her room and closed her eyes briefly.

What had she been thinking of?

Guilt stabbed her. This was the man that Chloe had loved. They’d made a child together.

How could she have forgotten that this was the man that broke Chloe’s heart?

Because he wasn’t the man she’d thought he was.

If he hadn’t detected her lack of experience, where would they be now?

Making love…

Only it wasn’t love, she reminded herself. It was sex and, as Alex had said, she didn’t do sex.