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‘I’m really looking forward to starting work today,’ she enthused, gracefully dropping down into the oak chair opposite.
‘Are you?’ Sarcasm scarcely cloaked the frustration in Blaise’s tone ‘Well, if you’re feeling so full of get up and go perhaps you’d care to write the play for me?’
‘Is something wrong?’
A fleeting shadow of hurt passed across the vividly crystal irises and Blaise silently cursed himself. ‘I had a rough night, that’s all. And before you say it…I’m begging you…please don’t ask if there’s anything you can do to help!’
CHAPTER SIX
HIS gaze was hot, focused, and definitely aroused. Suddenly Maya knew very well why he had warned her not to offer to help. He had worn that same drowsy lustful ‘I could eat you up’ glance when he’d looked at her last night at dinner…just before he had declared that alcohol wasn’t the answer to whatever was bothering him.
But last night she had somehow fooled herself about what should have been as plain as the nose on her face. Before Blaise had offered her this job he had made it more than clear that he wanted to see her again, that he was attracted to her. Now Maya could no longer hide from the fact that he wanted her. The idea caused a lava flow of heat to erupt inside, making her squeeze her thighs together and squirm in her seat. Her body definitely responded to the libidinous signals Blaise was giving her, and indeed echoed them—yet because of her devastating past acting on her feelings was a frightening leap she just wasn’t ready to contemplate. Especially when she already knew that it had no future in it.
‘Is this going to get in the way of us working together?’ she asked quietly, staring down at the table. She continued, ‘Because I really want the chance to show you…to prove that I’m a fast learner where learning new skills is concerned and that I can be a genuine asset to you.’
‘Nothing gets in the way of my writing…Just because I’m attracted to you it doesn’t mean I’m going to throw the baby out with the bathwater! I still have a play to write.’ The broad shoulders lifted in a tense little shrug that couldn’t help but reveal his frustration. ‘And I still need someone to do my research. As far as I’m concerned, you’ve got every chance of proving you can do a good job, Maya.’
‘Good.’ She relaxed.
‘But sex can be recreational too, you know.’
His words swept through her like a violent tornado.
‘For you maybe…but not for me’
‘Is that because you got hurt by someone, or just because you’re holding out for something more serious?’
‘Won’t you talk to me about the play?’ Taking a swift sip of her rapidly cooling coffee, Maya prayed her question was diverting enough to steer Blaise away from the far more dangerous ground he was currently intent on travelling…
Drumming his fingers on the table, he let a knowing little smile touch his lips ‘Because it’s safer?’
‘Probably…But I do really want to know what you’re writing about and hear your suggestions on what I need to research first.’
Sheba chose that very moment to pad into the kitchen and glance hopefully at them both. Studying the Wolfhound with far less wariness than she had yesterday, Maya smiled.
‘It must be just like having a small horse in the house, having Sheba about the place!’
‘Something like that,’ Blaise agreed, beckoning the animal to him and ruffling her fondly behind the ears. The dog sat, happily allowing him to make the fuss she’d obviously been seeking and clearly adoring him.
‘I suppose we ought to take her for a walk before starting work.’ He glanced across at Maya, his gaze friendly and with no hint of tension in those superlative blue eyes at all.
‘You want me to come too?’
‘Good opportunity to show you some of the countryside and talk about the play at the same time,’ he answered, rising to his feet with Sheba swiftly following suit…
Hadrian’s Wall was between seventy-six and eighty miles long, she’d learned. For the past two hours Maya and Blaise had negotiated merely four miles of it, with Sheba bounding along in front of them. Built on high ground, it had been a fairly steep climb. But Maya loved walking over the uneven crags alongside the wall, seeing the lichen scattered between the rocks, and clumps of gorse and purple-flowered comfrey wherever they glanced, climbing uphill one minute and then downhill the next, with the wind in her hair and the heady fragrance of genuinely unpolluted, clean fresh air in her lungs.
Blaise threw her an enquiring look as they moved steadily uphill again, clearly noticing that her breath came a little quicker at the exertion. Below them was a glorious panorama of the most wonderful countryside Maya had ever seen, consisting of clumps of ancient trees, verdant fields and tarns, sparkling rivers glinting in the midday sunlight, and every so often she simply had to stop and take stock of what she was seeing. To drink it in and count her blessings that she was privileged enough to be there, enjoying it.
