That was when Maggie completely lost her temper. One innuendo, one insult too many, she raged inwardly, and looked around for some way to relieve the pressure of it all—she grabbed the door and banged it closed.
‘I hope,’ he said as the echoes of it slammed around the shed, ‘this isn’t what I think it is.’
‘And I hope it demonstrates to you the force of my emotions about the likes of you,’ she returned icily.
He looked around with a gathering frown and mentally castigated himself for playing verbal war games with this girl. ‘Are your emotions savage enough to want to kidnap me?’
‘Savage enough to make me want to scream and shout, throw things and slam things—’ Maggie stopped abruptly. ‘Kidnap you? What on earth are you talking about? The last thing—’
‘One wonders if your antipathy is towards my housing estates or the kind of man you think I am?’ His grey glance brushed over her insolently. ‘So you have a key in your pocket?’
Maggie looked bewildered. ‘What do you mean? A key? No. Why?’
He walked past her to the closed shed door and turned the handle. Nothing happened. ‘This door is now deadlocked. From memory, you had a key in this lock but on the outside, didn’t you?’
‘Yes.’ Maggie stopped and her lips parted as understanding of what she’d done started to seep through. ‘Yes.’ She cleared her throat. ‘But there must be other ways out.’
‘Show me,’ he commanded. ‘As far as I can see the only two windows have burglar bars fitted and both doors are locked now.’
‘Oh, my…’ Maggie breathed. ‘I don’t believe this! What about your keys? You must have had some.’
‘No. I wasn’t really interested in the house or the shed.’
‘Well, well—phones,’ she gabbled, and was hit by the memory of her mobile sitting on the roof of her car. She closed her eyes. ‘Please tell me you’ve got your mobile phone on you?’ she begged.
‘I don’t. I left it on its mounting in my car. This is all very affecting, Ms Trent,’ he said with utter contempt, ‘but whatever you don’t like to call it, and for whatever reason you decided to deprive me of my liberty—’ his gaze was cold enough to slice right through her ‘—you’re going to pay for this.’
‘Hang on, hang on.’ Maggie took some deep breaths. ‘It was an accident. Yes, OK, maybe I got a bit carried away, but I have every right to, on the Smiths’ behalf if nothing else! There is no reason in the world, however,’ she said emphatically, ‘that would make me want to kidnap you!’
‘The ubiquitous Smiths again,’ he murmured, then said trenchantly, ‘Lady, you were bestowing enough attention on me last Sunday to make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.’
Maggie sucked in her cheeks in the effort she made not to blush. ‘That was the power of my disapproval,’ she offered stiffly.
‘Oh, yeah?’ He said it softly, but the two words contained a world of disbelief.
‘Yes!’ she insisted at the same time as a most treacherous little thought slipped into her mind— So why hadn’t she been the same since?
But that spurred her on to say hotly. ‘You can’t have it both ways, Mr McKinnon. Either I’m a man- hater or I’m not!’
He lifted an eyebrow. ‘Perhaps I should qualify that—a hater of wealthy, powerful men completely in love with themselves.’
‘Bingo! Now you’ve got it right.’
‘I wonder,’ he mused. ‘There could be two sides to that coin, but anyway—’ he looked briefly amused ‘—I don’t agree that I’m in love with myself so you mightn’t have to hate me totally, or the opposite,’ he added softly.
Maggie stared at him. ‘I have no idea what you’re talking about!’
He rubbed his chin and narrowed his eyes.
‘Look…’ She hesitated as she tried to gather her thoughts, then she threw up her hands. ‘If I’d lured you here then locked you in, that would be a different matter, but it’s a supreme coincidence the two of us being here today!’