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'Yes Of course Come in Mind your—Oh, Xavier, Have you hurt your head?'
'No,' he murmured, rubbing it with a grimace and wondering if England had once been populated by a race of pygmies
Laura smoothed her hands down over her hair, which was hanging loose to her waist, and wished that someone could wave a magic wand and transform her.She wore a pair of old jeans, a T-shirt she'd had since college which said Lawyers Does in Briefs', and not a scrap of make-up on her face.
'Why didn't you tell me you were coming'?' she demanded 'At least I could have dressed up '
'I didn't want you to dress up. I like the way you look,' he said slowly, as his eyes drank her in 'You look different'
He looked different, too—Laura realised. In black jeans which emphasised the long, muscular thrust of his thighs and a dark leather jacket. And he was taking the jacket off without being asked, she thought, as a wave of dizziness washed over her. Did that mean he was staying'? Well, he hadn't come all the way from Kharastan—or even Paris—just to turn around and go back again. But staying for how long? And did she have the guts to ask him what he was here for?
'Would you like coffee?' she babbled frantically. It's not real coffee, because I only buy that when I'm having a dinner party'
'Not real coffee?' he asked, genuinely perplexed for a moment 'You mean it's pretend?'
It's instant' Now he would see for himself how the real Laura Cottmgham was—nothing but an unsophisticated s
mall-town lawyer, who wore unsophisticated small-town clothes and drank instant coffee from a jar most of the time.
Xavier shook his head slightly This wasn't going as he had planned, and for the first time in his life he felt the shimmer of doubt.
The air was very still for a moment as he looked at her 'You didn't take the job?'
She shrugged. Had she really entertained the notion for more than a nano-second that she would track down Xavier's half-brother?
'No, I decided it wasn't really such a good idea '
In that they were in perfect accord. Xavier expelled a long breath of relief, but he was still no closer to obtaining his heart's desire.
'Would you like to come to Paris instead?'
Laura's heart missed another beat 'Paris?' she repeated cautiously 'What for?'
Their eyes met.
'What do you think?'
'I don't know,' she whispered. She asked him 'Why are you here, Xavier?'
'Because something has happened to me—something that you have done to me,' he said
'Something I cannot reverse, although in truth I have tried. I thought the confusion in my head was because I'd discovered my father—but soon I saw that this was not so '
'You're not making any sense '
'You think I don't know this?' He shook his head as if he were clearing his thoughts—or marvelling that he should have them in the first place.
'I realised that the things you said to me were true—that I cared more for things than I did about people. And I don't want to live that way any more. You made me look at things differently, Laura,' he continued, when still she said nothing 'You made me want more of what I had with you—something I'd spent my whole life running away from '
'And what was that?'
There was a pause 'Emotion,' he said eventually 'Out 'And, seeing her look of amazement, he shrugged and gave her a look which was the closest Xavier de Maistre had ever come to being helpless.
'I kept remembering your face,' he said, in a voice which was almost dreamy. 'When something happened which amused or angered me I found myself wanting to tell you. I would lie in bed at night, reliving the moments I had with you—both erotic and tender moments, and not nearly enough of them '
His eyes were intensely black as he stared at her, the blackest she had ever seen them 'It's driving me crazy You're driving me crazy' He swallowed I've missed you, Laura '
Her heart lurched with excitement, hope, fear 'Missed'? Past tense?'
