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‘Girl?’ he replied absently. ‘Oh, the girl. She wondered if we’d like to join them, that’s all.’
‘And you said no.’
‘Of course.’ His brows drew together. ‘Why? You don’t want to party with that lot, do you?’
About as much as swimming with sharks. ‘Not particularly, no,’ she answered carefully.
‘Good.’ The slight frown cleared. ‘The landlady’s just told me she’s put a couple of hot-water bottles in our bed to warm it through, although she’s quite sure it’s aired.’
The words, ‘our bed’ were all that registered.
‘Nice of her, wasn’t it?’ Zac murmured, leaning back in his chair and stretching his long legs out in front of him.
Allowing her hair to fall about her cheeks to hide the colour she knew was staining her face, Rachel twisted sideways and held out her hands to the glowing fire. ‘Very nice,’ she agreed expressionlessly. ‘She’s done her best to make us welcome.’
‘She asked if we wanted a cooked breakfast and I said yes. It’s served between eight and ten apparently but if we’re a bit late she said not to worry, they’re pretty flexible.’
Our bed. Hot-water bottles. Breakfast. The words ricocheted about her head. Altogether too cosy, too seductive. She forced herself to take a sip of the brandy and turn back to face him after the hot colour that flooded her cheeks subsided. He was lying back in his chair, eyes closed, one hand holding his glass and the other hanging loosely. The epitome of casual comfortableness. A man at ease with his surroundings and himself.
It was the first time she had been able to study him without the tawny eyes watching her. His dark hair gleamed blue-black in the subdued lighting, and his lashes were thick and long where they rested on the high chiselled cheekbones. Wasted on a man, she thought irrelevantly. The glow from the fire had picked out a tiny scar on his chin. It was paler than the rest of his tanned skin and Rachel wondered why she hadn’t noticed it before and how he’d got it. Playing some kind of sport probably, she decided. He was clearly a man who liked to keep fit. Did he work out? She let her eyes run over the broad muscled shoulders and down to the flat waistband of his trousers. Oh, yes. Not an ounce of fat on this body. He definitely was familiar with a gym.
When the tawny eyes opened to stare straight into hers, she blinked, but this time refused to blush. With what she considered admirable coolness in the circumstances, she said lightly, ‘It isn’t very polite to fall asleep on your dinner companion.’
He shifted in the chair, sitting straighter, and every nerve in her body responded. ‘I wasn’t asleep,’ he protested lazily. ‘Merely shutting my eyes for a moment.’
‘That’s what old men say when they take a snooze.’
‘I’m not an old man, Rachel.’ His voice was smoky, husky. ‘I’ll prove it if you like. Upstairs.’
She’d asked for that. From some unexpected but welcome reserve of strength she managed a tinkle of a laugh. ‘And if I don’t like? What then?’
‘Then I won’t,’ he said, perfectly seriously.
The faint, sexy Canadian burr that laced the deep voice caused a funny little shiver deep inside. She had to clear her throat before she came back with, ‘Regretfully, I’ll have to pass on your kind offer,’ but even to her own ears she didn’t quite carry off the light tone.
‘Believe me, the regret’s all mine.’
No, it wasn’t. She finished her brandy, needing the warmth it provided. It so wasn’t.
CHAPTER SEVEN
‘SO, HOW do we do this?’
‘What?’ They’d just come back to the room and Rachel knew nothing in her life thus far had prepared her for being in a bedroom with Zac Lawson on a dark winter’s night. A cat on a hot tin roof was nothing compared to how jumpy she felt.
‘The mechanics of getting ready for bed,’ Zac said patiently. ‘I don’t know about you but I’d like a shower so that’s a trip to the bathroom on the floor below. Do you want to go first?’
She didn’t know what she wanted. Well, she did, but it wasn’t helpful. Forcing her skittish mind into action, she thought swiftly. If she went first she could wash and brush her teeth, and then change into her pyjamas when Zac was having his shower. ‘Yes, please.’ She grabbed her toiletry bag and one of the towels the landlady had placed at the foot of the bed. ‘I’ll be as quick as I can.’
‘Take as long as you like. There’s no hurry.’
Zac had thrown himself on the bed and was lying with his hands beneath his head, surveying her with amused eyes. For once she was too flustered to be annoyed.
The bathroom turned out to be a huge, old-fashioned affair but charming in its own way. The cast-iron bath was an enormous thing on quaint little legs and Rachel gazed at it longingly. A long hot soak was just what she needed right now to relax tense, taut muscles. However, with Zac waiting for his turn, she contented
herself with a quick shower and was in and out within two minutes. After brushing her teeth and taking off her make-up, she surveyed her naked face in the mirror.
She looked clean and slightly pink. Wholesome. And she didn’t want to look wholesome. She wanted to exude sexiness like Jennie or possess the delicate, ethereal beauty of Susan. She shut her eyes tightly for a moment. But she didn’t. And growing up with two blonde bombshells of sisters, you’d have thought she’d be done crying for the moon. She was what she was and normally she was content with that. Her eyes opened. Tonight was different. She longed to be someone else tonight.
