His Irresistible Darling - Sarah Randall

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to New York last year. And I did try to tell you it was fancy dress but you hung up on me cursing, so—”

      Their heads turned in unison towards the shrieks of delight coming from the dance floor as someone appeared to be trying their hand at breakdancing. Jumal had never understood the appeal of spinning on one’s head but then again, as Miss Darling had so eloquently put it, he was an old fart…and right now, yeah, he felt like one.

      Jumal glimpsed occasional flashes of orange on the dance floor but despite being a couple of inches over six foot he couldn’t quite see over all the bobbing heads and writhing and gyrating bodies. Where the hell has she gone? he thought, as he was forced to stand on tiptoe—a fact that grated on him no end.

      “Who the hell is that guy?” he growled at Malik, having finally spotted her.

      “Which guy?” Malik asked, trying to see through the human medley.

      “Which guy?” Jumal repeated incredulously. “That one,” he shouted, pointing, “with his hands all over Pippa.”

      “Ah right, that guy. Yeah well he’s the reason I called. Well one of the reasons, the other being I know you promised her brother when she came out here that you’d look after her and I have a feeling the night is going to get riotous quickly.” Jumal scowled as Malik took another swig on his bottle as if needing it for confidence. “Well anyway, she came with him.”

      “She came with him,” Jumal repeated in disbelief. “What do you mean?” he asked, unable to stop his voice from rising. Oh this just got better. Not. He raked his hand through his hair. The bloody girl was going to make him go bald if he kept having this reaction to her youthful escapades.

      “Just that, well actually she came with two men; one is a tall handsome blond bastard who seemed far too comfortable with his arm around Melina. I can’t see them anywhere.”

      Jumal would have analysed his friend’s comments in more detail if he wasn’t completely focused on getting his head around the fact that Pippa had come with a man, correction: two men.

      “I think this one’s her date, but I could be wrong,” Malik told him, nodding towards the dance floor. “In fact the rumour mill at the office is that she’s already stayed the night with him.”

      Jumal choked on his beer. “Jesus who told you that?” he probed, trying to maintain some dignity as he cleared his throat and continued to cough up his lungs.

      “Well, Reeta on reception told Conrad in accounts who told my secretary that he came into the office to bring her lunch box, which she’d apparently left at his place that morning.”

      Jumal watched Malik wiggle his eyebrows and smile knowingly but quickly stop and clear his throat as he no doubt took in Jumal’s stony gaze.

      Jumal took another swift drink and turned his attention back to the dance floor and away from Malik, but the view of Pippa gyrating her hips with another man was not appealing.

      “It’s probably just gossip, Jumal,” Malik suggested, shrugging his shoulders. “You know what the office is like.”

      Office gossip or not, Jumal was confused by his reaction to the news about Pippa. He didn’t like it—being confused, the gossip or his reaction. Ah great, more of those alien feelings she brought forth in buckets.

      “Well, she looks pretty damn comfortable in his arms and he looks far too smug. He looks about eighteen for God’s sake. What is she dancing with him for anyway?”

      “Presumably, because he asked her and he looks about her age, mate.” Jumal was tempted to throttle his friend. “But that’s just my guess,” Malik continued, shrugging his shoulders.

      Jumal crossed his arms in front of him to avoid the temptation. “Well, whatever—” he said, shaking his head, knowing he now sounded like a sixteen-year-old, but he was worked up like a coiled spring. Again, only Pippa could shake his apparent legendary control.

      “So did the IT team come back to you and confirm that they’d changed all the security access codes and shored up the firewall?” he asked, his eyes never leaving the bouncing orange bikini and the man who was dangerously close to losing his hands if he didn’t remove them from around Pippa’s waist.

      “Yep, all done and they’ll continue to monitor over the next few weeks just to make sure there’s no attempt to hack our system.”

      “Good.”

      “So, erm, are you sure you shouldn’t call in the police?”

      “No. We don’t need the negative publicity it would attract—not when we’re so close to signing the deal. I’ve appointed alternative counsel who is tying it all up and I’m going to go out there next week to put it all to bed and get it signed.”

      “Okay, still, seems she got off lightly, Jumal.”

      “She’ll never work in law again,” he said, his face deadpan and breaking his gaze from Pippa temporarily. “Plus she knows that I won’t hesitate to have a little chat with her parents about what she’s been up to with her friends in Dubai, and that would cause too much family embarrassment for her. She’ll just crawl back under a rock somewhere.”

      “And are you okay?” Malik nudged his elbow with his bottle of beer, eyebrow raised.

      “Yes. Why wouldn’t I be?” he replied dismissively, shrugging his shoulders.

      He saw Malik purse his lips and nod.

      Inwardly, Jumal was still struggling to maintain his composure and keep a lid on his rage following Faridah’s betrayal. After he challenged her, she’d eventually confessed the details of her betrayal to him and broken down in tears. Crocodile tears, he was sure. She’d begged him not to tell her parents of her indiscretion and he’d agreed on the basis that she’d write out a cheque there and then to his charity for the money she’d received from his Dubai competitor to include a default term in the contract which, if not spotted, could have cost his company millions. The naïve idiots had paid her for her treachery in advance. Arrogant fools.

      What surprised him most was the fact that the anger he felt towards her was entirely focused on the impact she could have had on his business and employees if she’d managed to pull off the deception—not the loss of his witch of a fiancée. He hadn’t even gotten around to telling his parents yet…

      He continued to track Pippa like she was his prey as she and the teenybopper kid she was with headed for the bar area and appeared to be making a start on shots. The intruder hadn’t taken his eyes off Pippa for the last ten minutes. Neither have you, he mocked inwardly.

      He stalked towards her across the club until he took up position directly behind her and leaned forward, whispering in her ear to make sure she heard him. “Pippa, I really think it’s time I took you home,” he tried again.

      She twirled around to face him, the agitation on her face clear for all to see. “Aghh, are you still here?” She rolled her eyes. “Just go home and put your slippers on and settle down with whatever warm milky drink floats your boat. Me and Jake here—” she cocked her thumb back over her shoulder by way of introduction and Jumal ignored his outstretched hand until the kid got the idea and dropped it “—are enjoying ourselves and I’m off the clock. You are NOT my employer tonight and I am having fun! Do you even know what that is, huh?” He scowled as she brought her index finger up to his right pec. “F” poke “U” poke “N” poke. “Now run off home—” she flung her arm out to point towards the door “—and call my brother and tell him you’ve done as he no doubt asked and checked up on me and I’m fine.”

      The girl had no idea she was pulling a tiger’s tail and the tiger was about to bite back.

      “Fun? You want fun? How about I throw you over my shoulder and spank your bottom? Would that

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