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‘What realm?’ he said easily.
‘The kissing realm,’ she said tightly. What else?
‘Rosie, forgive me, but I haven’t the faintest idea what you’re talking about.’
‘You don’t remember?’ Was that a good sign or a bad sign?
He frowned, his voice holding a thread of impatience. ‘We could go on all night like this, so why don’t you say what’s on your mind and be done with it?’
‘You and the canary.’ Damn, she hadn’t meant that to slip out. Blushing furiously, she qualified, ‘You and Alex’s sister.’
‘Alex’s…?’ His brow cleared. ‘You mean Trixie was in the shot? Is that what you’re getting at?’
Trixie? Oh, her name wasn’t really Trixie, was it? Her grandmother had had an incontinent poodle called Trixie. ‘Not just in the shot,’ she said evenly. ‘You were kissing.’
He stared at her, his eyes narrowing, and she stared back, not at all sure how he was going to react. She tried to read his expression but she couldn’t. She didn’t know what he was thinking or feeling. So much for being able to read his face when she challenged him about it, she thought miserably.
‘Where does the canary come in?’ he asked after a long moment or two, when the only sound was the violent swishing of water from the windscreen wipers and the drumming of rain on the taxi’s roof.
Rosalie shifted uncomfortably, and then became aware that the movement emphasised the taut peaks of her nipples through her damp clothes. Kingsley was aware of it too if the look on his face was anything to go by.
He eventually managed to tear his eyes away, saying again, ‘The canary? I’m sorry but I don’t follow. Why a canary?’
‘I… You…weren’t supposed to hear that. It slipped out.’ Her face felt as though it were going to catch fire.
Dark eyebrows rose. He was demanding an answer.
‘I saw her on the pictures of Alex’s wedding, when you were the best man and she was the chief bridesmaid. She…she was dressed in yellow.’
He continued to study her hot face for a second more and then he began to shake with laughter, much to Rosalie’s chagrin.
‘And she was draped all over you then,’ she continued, and sharply now. ‘And you looked as though you were enjoying it.’
‘Now hold on a minute.’ Still grinning, he shook his head. ‘Trixie is the baby sister I never had. I indulge her, spoil her, tease her, but the thought of anything along the lines you’re suggesting is ridiculous. Damn it, she’s a baby.’
‘A baby?’ Rosalie had promised herself she wouldn’t get mad but he was the limit. ‘A baby with a thirty-eight, twenty-four, thirty-six shape is no baby, Kingsley, and you might not have noticed but the “baby” has got the hots for you,’ she finished somewhat crudely.
‘Rosie, she’s twenty years old.’
‘So? How many men do you know that have girlfriends who are ten, twenty, thirty years younger than them? It isn’t exactly unheard of,’ she said scathingly.
‘You’re jealous.’ He was clearly delighted and she could have killed him. Is this what she’d suffered the torments of the damned for? She took back all the nice thoughts she’d had.
‘Not at all.’ She drew herself up and away from him, as regally as the transparent dress would allow. ‘I just think it’s pretty disgusting to carry on the way she does in public, that’s all.’
‘You are, aren’t you?’ It was faintly wondering and actually doused her anger more effectively than anything else could have done. ‘You’re jealous of a silly little girl who hasn’t a grain of sense in her head and is a damn sight more irritating than anything else. The child’s a pest, Rosie. She always has been. She drives me mad half the time, if you want to know, but, like I said, she’s the kid sister and so I don’t mind.’
She stared at him, barely hearing him past the ‘silly little girl’ bit. He meant it, she thought in amazement. He actually thought that gorgeous young thing was a pest. She still said, ‘You were kissing,’ in a faintly stubborn voice, unable to give in completely. ‘And she definitely doesn’t want you for a brother.’
‘She kissed me, if I remember, and, as she’d come with the news that the doctors were more hopeful about Alex for the first time since he was injured, I might have held her for a moment. And she’s at an age where she’s finding her wings—she flirts with any and every man. It doesn’t mean a thing.’
She stared at him, all eyes, and his voice changed, becoming softer as he murmured, ‘Come here, my love.’
Once she was nestled in his arms he said, ‘I can see it’s going to take me some time to convince you just how much I love you, but it’ll be fun for both of us, I promise. I think I can do it more effectively when I have more time, so how about a long, long honeymoon? I want to learn what you’re like in all your moods—sleepy, grumbly, playful, wicked…especially wicked.’
‘Kingsley—’
‘Say yes, Kingsley.’
