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'I didn't say I was good,' she pointed out.
'You didn't have to. I've seen you working on a problem; I'm sur
e you're a very formidable chess player.'
She curled round on the carpet, sipping her coffee with the fire heating one side of her face. It provided an excuse for the flush she could feel. 'I'd better hear what I'm to say at the board meeting tomorrow,' she reminded him, and he nodded, one hand tapping the folders on the table.
'I've got all the details in here, but I'd better run through it with you.' He began to talk and she listened, drinking her coffee. On the table a small lyre clock chimed musically; Judith looked at it in surprise. Half past ten. She had been here for half an hour; the time had flown. Luke looked at the clock too.
'It's getting late. I think I've given you the gist of my views, anyway. If you run into any real trouble shelve it and I'll talk to them later, but I doubt if there'll be any problems. I'm sure I can trust you to deal with it.'
She tried not to smile; it was stupid to be so delighted by his compliment, but she couldn't help it.
Luke rose, but before she could get up too he was beside her, touching her hair lightly with one hand. She stiffened.
'It's dry now,' he said. 'You looked as if you'd just been pulled out of a river when you arrived.' He was still stroking her hair and she pulled her head back without being too obvious about it, getting up at the same time. She shot him a wary look and found him scaring at her; a strange expression in his grey eyes, she wasn't sure what to call it. Hesitation, uncertainty, surprise…Judith looked away before she could be sure.
'Do you still see Robert Gordon?' Luke asked.
'Yes, frequently, why?' Her mind was still half running on business; she did not expect his reply when it came.
'Are you in love with him?'
'What?' Judith's head lifted and she stared at him, open-mouthed. A slow flush crawled up her face. That's a very personal question; if I was it would be no affair of yours.'
He didn't argue the point. He asked instead in the same thoughtful, considering tone: 'Have you ever been in love?'
Judith fizzed with annoyance. 'The same answer applies—what is this? Why the interest in my private life?'
'Just curious,' he shrugged, looking oddly confused, as though he wasn't sure, himself, why he was quizzing her about her love life. 'You're so calm and self-contained; I just wondered about you. Don't you ever get curious about other people's feelings and thoughts? It's easy when they're open about them; but people like you are like locked safes. I just wondered if there was a combination that would open you up.'
'Do your safe-cracking elsewhere,' said Judith, moving with purpose towards the door.
'Are you going?' he asked, sounding surprised. 'Don't be so touchy. Is Gordon such a sensitive subject? I hope he isn't trying to poach you for his firm.'
'He offered me a job ages ago,' she told him with satisfaction.
He smiled. 'But you refused.'
He was too quick. 'The job's still open if I ever change my mind,' she told him tartly.
He considered her wryly, then bent and picked up the folders they had been discussing. 'Don't forget these— you'll want them.'
She came back and took them from him, but when she had them in her grasp Luke's fingers took hold of her wrists and held her firmly. She looked up, startled. 'I wouldn't want to lose you now; if you ever have any problems in the firm, talk to me, don't even think of going elsewhere.'
She looked up at him, her lips parted, trembling. Luke's fingers tightened, he began to pull her towards him and she felt her throat beating with a heady pulse. Her eyes widened, darkened, focusing on his mouth, following the warm hard curve of it with a sensual awareness which ached inside her.
'Promise to do that?' Luke asked in a low, husky voice.
Judith nodded, knowing that he was looking fixedly at her. The room was suddenly so quiet that she heard every tiny sound in it with a leap of the nerves: the rain beating against the windows, the tick of the clocks, the muted flare of a flame shooting out of the fire. She knew that if she took one small step their mouths would meet; she knew he was looking at her in exactly the same way that she was looking at him, every nerve in her body was conscious of his stare.
'I'd better go,' she muttered, pulling away with an effort of will power. He was dangerous; a hypnotist whose stare could beat down all your efforts to escape. She wanted to feel his mouth on her own with a hunger that hurt, but she reminded herself of Baba, she told herself how despicable it was of her to think like this, how contemptuous she had been when she saw him with Caroline Rendeil. Now here she was, dying to put he own arms round his neck and kiss him on that beautiful warm mouth. She was furious with herself; what did she think she was doing? How many warnings did she need before she saw the folly of allowing herself to feel like that about this man?
He let go of her wrists, she bolted to the door and found her dry shoes in the bathroom, trod into them hurriedly and walked to the front door with Luke in silence. He opened the door and the rain beat down on the white stone steps.
'I'd better make a dash for it,' said Judith with relief, diving out into the night. She ran to her parked car, aware that the front door still stood open; a yellow shaft of light splashed across the wet pavements and Luke was watching her from under the portico. When she drove away, though, he had gone back into the house and shut the door.
It was very hard to get to sleep that evening; Judith kept reliving the moments in the quiet room when she had so nearly let Luke kiss her—or she had so nearly kissed him. She wasn't sure what would have happened. Looking back, she wasn't even sure she hadn't imagined the whole thing, her mind was no longer the cool, careful piece of apparatus on which she had relied during her whole career. It was behaving in an unpredictable and worrying way; if she relaxed and forgot to watch her mind it slipped the leash and came bounding back to her with images of Luke that kept her awake into the small hours.
