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‘Verity…just a moment, please…
Verity’s body tensed in shock as she heard Silas calling out curtly from behind her. She had already unlocked the car for Honor to get inside it and now, as she too saw her father, Honor opened the door.
Silas shook his head and told her crisply, ‘You stay where you are, please, Honor. I want to have a few words with Verity…in private!’
Verity wasn’t sure which of them looked the more wary—herself or Honor. What she was sure of, though, was that she could feel her skin turning a very definite shade of mollified pink as Honor, after one look at her father’s stern ‘I mean business’ expression, quietly closed the passenger door of Verity’s car.
Equally reprehensibly feebly, Verity discovered that she herself was moving several yards away from her car, mirroring the way that Silas was moving out of Honor’s potential earshot. Just to make sure that Silas knew and understood that, unlike his daughter, she was not someone he could talk down to or tell what to do, before he could tell her whatever it was that had brought him hotfoot out of the restaurant and away from Myra’s side, Verity demanded coldly, ‘Please be quick, Silas, I still haven’t eaten my pudding.’
‘Ice cream?’ His mouth took on a mocking twist. ‘As I remember it you were always more of a cheese and biscuits woman and—’
Immediately Verity’s eyes flashed. How dared he remind her of the intimacy they had once shared; of everything they had once been to one another, now when he…?
‘Is that why you came running after us—to remind me because I opted for ice cream over cheese and biscuits? My tastes have changed, Silas…just like yours…’
But sharp though her words were, for some unaccountable reason, as she said them, Verity discovered that she was looking at his mouth and remembering…
A shudder of self-contempt shook her as she acknowledged just what she was remembering, her eyes darkening as she did so.
Did Silas remember that ice cream they had shared so long ago, and, if he did, did he remember too the way he had teased her by offering her the last mouthful of it and then, when she had taken it, kissing her through the icy-cold taste, his lips, his mouth, his tongue, so velvet-hot and sensuous against her lips, and then when the ice cream had melted his kiss becoming so passionate that it had practically melted her?
Her face on fire, Verity made to take a step back from him, but to her consternation Silas immediately reached out to stop her, his hand grasping her upper arm in a grip she knew it would be impossible for her to break.
‘Verity,’ he began, his voice unexpectedly thick and husky as though…
Quickly Verity cast a lash-veiled look at him. Surely his own colour was slightly higher than it should have been?
Because he was angry? It certainly couldn’t be because he was aroused, could it?
Unexpectedly he gave his head a small shake, as though trying to dispel some unwanted thought, and when he spoke again his voice was much crisper.
‘Honor is ten years old…a child…I don’t want her getting hurt…’ he began warningly.
Immediately Verity took umbrage. How dared he suggest that she might hurt Honor?
‘If you’re implying that I might hurt her,’ she told him furiously, ‘then you’re wrong. In fact, if you believe that Honor is being hurt I should look far closer to home for the source if I were you.’
There was a moment’s shocked pause before he demanded in disbelief, ‘Are you trying to say that I might hurt her…?’
Taking advantage of his momentary lapse in concentration, Verity pulled herself free of his grip and started to turn towards the car.
‘Verity, I haven’t finished—’ she heard him saying furiously to her, but Verity had had enough—more than enough if the way her body, her senses, were still responding to the memory of that shared ice cream so long ago was anything to go by.
‘Oh, but I think you have,’ she corrected him through gritted teeth and then stopped abruptly, shocked to discover that for some reason all his attention seemed to be focused on her mouth. Instinctively she raised protective fingers to her lips, her whole body starting to tremble.
‘Verity…’ she heard him saying roughly, but she shook her head, unable to listen to whatever it was he wanted to say, whatever further contemptuous criticism he wanted to hurl at her unprotected heart.
‘Go away, Silas,’ she demanded shakily. ‘Go back to Myra…’
And without waiting to see his reaction she hurried quickly towards her car and opened the door.
‘What did Dad want?’ Honor asked uncertainly several minutes later, once Verity had negotiated their way out of the car park.
‘Er…he wanted to tell me that you weren’t to have too much ice cream,’ Verity fibbed, making up the first excuse she could think of.
‘Not much chance of that. By the time we get back it will all be melted…gone…’ Honor told her in disgust.
Gone…like their love…Verity bit down hard on her bottom lip. Ice cream and Silas’ kisses. Funny how sharply painful the sweetest things could sometimes become!
