Lessons in Rule-Breaking by Christy McKellen Page B

Jess stalk out of the dining room in her stockinged feet, her shoes swinging from her fingers at her side.
    A slow burn of shame worked its way through him.
    Perhaps he’d pushed things a little too far with that last comment? Judging by her violent reaction to it, she certainly seemed to think so. He’d found it amusing to play with her when he’d realised she was actually more nervous around him than she’d previously let on, but he really should apologise tomorrow and see if he could get her back on side once she’d calmed down.
    He wouldn’t usually entertain the idea of letting a journalist get anywhere close to him, but he liked Jess. There was something about her that fascinated him, something about her stoic determination not to let him get to her that made him want her more than anyone he’d met in a very long time. The thought of drawing her out of that brittle shell she protected herself with was thrilling. It did something disconcerting to him, causing a twisting heat to take him over and make him reckless—something he’d been determined not to be again until his new exhibition was in the bag, but teasing her had been such a turn-on. He’d love to see how she responded to a serious onslaught of flirting and whether he could change her mind about not wanting to sleep with him. He’d been surprised and not a little rankled when she’d said that earlier, and the narcissist in him wanted to prove her wrong. It had been a long time since a woman had turned him down, which made it a point of pride.
    He knew she felt some sort of attraction to him because of the unconscious way she responded when she was around him. Her pupils flared when she looked his way and her body language became charmingly jerky and more drawn towards him.
    So why was she fighting it so hard?
    He had no idea, but he was going to enjoy finding out.
    * * *
    Jess got back to her hotel room in a state of nervy agitation.
    Her dinner with Xander had shot her adrenaline levels into the red, but now she’d calmed down she felt utterly exhausted by it all.
    Lying in her bed, she allowed her thoughts to skip over what had happened earlier. A small voice in her head started to whisper something about overreacting a bit. Hot embarrassment trickled through her as she thought about how uncomfortable she’d felt around Xander and how that had perhaps made her act a little more edgily than normal. He hadn’t actually said or done anything that bad. He was clearly deliberately trying to wind her up—and she’d let him succeed.
    Rubbing a hand across her scalp, she tried to wake up her sluggish brain. What the heck was she doing? She needed to chill and stop going at Xander like a harpy with a headache if she had any chance of getting him to trust her enough to talk about anything personal.
    She was a smart, educated woman with good conversation skills; she could get what she needed for the article if she just stopped jumping down his throat every time he opened his mouth. No way was she going back to Pamela without something sensational to use in the magazine.
    She was going to have to work harder at it, be tenacious.
    It was totally doable.
    As long as she could keep this crazy compulsion to get up close and personal with him out of her head.
    Another scuttling sound, this time from the corner of the room, made her sit up and flick the bedside light back on. She couldn’t see anything, but somehow that was worse. What if the insects crawled up the sides of the bed and found their way under the covers with her? The thought of it made her heart hammer and her skin crawl with disgust. Wrapping the sheets round her like a cocoon, she tried not to think about it and relax into sleep.
    The scratching noise came again, this time from the other side of the room. Finding her earphones from her handbag, she stuffed them into her ears, connected them to her MP3 player and turned the music right up. Putting the pillow over her head, she hoped, would be