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The three of them turned to see two small figures in teddy-bear pyjamas sitting halfway down the stairs, both sucking their thumbs and both with a rag doll tucked under one arm.
‘Hey…’ Kay’s voice softened by several hundred degrees. ‘What are you two doing up? You should have been asleep half an hour ago.’
‘I’ll see to the girls, you go.’ It was clear Leonora was worried the best laid plans of mice and men were going askew.
However it was Mitchell who walked over to the foot of the stairs, smiling broadly at the two little girls as he said, ‘I’m taking your mummy out for something to eat. Is that all right with you?’
They looked at each other and then turned back to him, nodding. ‘We knew you were coming,’ Georgia volunteered. ‘We heard Mummy and Grandma talking about you.’
‘Well, now you’ve said hallo I want you straight back into bed,’ Leonora cut in hastily, moving past Mitchell as she added, ‘Go on, right now, and I’ll come and tuck you in.’
Kay glanced at Mitchell and saw his lips were twitching. He had obviously guessed whatever had been said wasn’t particularly complimentary, but how could she have known the girls were listening? They had ears on them like donkeys, those two.
‘Night night, darlings.’ She called her goodbye as Mitchell turned and opened the door, but her mother was so intent on whisking the girls away before they said any more that she doubted they heard her.
‘Was it that bad?’ His deep, smoky voice didn’t try to hide his amusement as they walked down the path.
‘I’m sorry?’ Kay prevaricated warily, although she knew exactly what he was asking. ‘Was what bad?’
He glanced at her as he opened the garden gate and stood aside for her to precede him. ‘I’m sure your mother is a wonderful woman,’ he drawled lazily, ‘but I doubt if tact is one of her strong points. Those poor kids’ feet didn’t touch the ground, she moved them so fast.’
‘I’m sure I don’t know what you mean,’ she said primly, her voice a little weak as she stared at the magnificent sports car parked in front of the house. She didn’t ask him if it was his car because it couldn’t be anyone else’s, but she was mentally blessing the fact she had decided to wear jeans and not a skirt as she looked at the low-slung monster.
He opened the passenger door and Kay slid into the leather-clad interior fairly gracefully, although she felt as though she were sitting on the floor, but when Mitchell joined her a moment later she felt every nerve in her body twang and vibrate.
‘Put your seat belt on.’
‘What?’ She glanced at him and then wished she hadn’t because he was close, very close, and she was all of a dither as it was.
‘Your seat belt?’ He reached across her, the seductive and delicious smell of him adding to the sensations spiralling inside her and causing her heart to gallop. ‘There.’ Once she was strapped in he fixed his own seat belt before starting the engine, which purred into obedient life.
‘Nice car.’ She felt she had to say something to diffuse the electric atmosphere.
‘Thank you.’
As the car leapt off with a low growl Kay just managed to stifle the squeak of fright, taking a deep breath before she said, ‘What…what sort is it?’
‘It’s an Aston Martin sort,’ he said softly.
‘Oh.’ She clearly should have known. ‘I don’t know much about cars.’
‘There’s no reason why you should.’
She did know that a car like this was a sex machine on wheels though, Kay thought desperately, and definitely a seduction tool in the hands of someone like Mitchell. She also knew from the one brief glance he was so close she only had to turn her head and move a little to caress that hard, square jaw with her lips… ‘It…it must be quite expensive,’ she managed weakly.
‘Quite.’ He spared her one piercing moment before his eyes returned to the windscreen. ‘Boys’ toys, is that what you’re thinking?’ he asked drily.
Boys’ toys? There was nothing, absolutely and utterly nothing of the boy about Mitchell Grey. Kay tried to ignore the muscled legs and thighs clothed in black denim at the side of her. ‘Not at all,’ she said truthfully. ‘Why? Is that how you view this?’
He smiled. ‘Very cleverly sidestepped, Mrs Sherwood.’
Kay blinked. Had she been clever? She hadn’t known she was being.
‘Actually you might be right at that,’ he continued quietly. ‘I like fast cars with all the refinements, the thrill of speed and so on. I race at a private circuit now and then; you must come and watch some time.’
She couldn’t think of anything she’d like less. ‘Dicing with death?’ she said coolly. ‘I don’t think I’d care to watch that. I think the gift of life is too valuable to be gambled on the turn of a card played by fickle fate.’
‘Skill does play a small part in the proceedings.’ It was very dry.
