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‘Okay.’ He wasn’t sure whether it was a relief that she’d turned him down, or a disappointment. ‘Don’t suppose you’re any good with a bow tie, are you?’
‘Why? Surely you’ve got the hang of that by now.’
‘It’s my policy never to tie my own bow tie when there’s a lady present.’
She rolled her eyes. ‘Sounds a bit risky to me. What happens if they want to strangle you with it?’
Leo hadn’t really expected Alex to fall for that one either, but it was becoming increasingly compelling to watch her not falling for his charm. He walked back into the bedroom, smiling.
* * *
Ever resourceful, Leo seemed to have solved the problem of whether or not he was going to watch her up the drive outside her block of flats. Instead of stopping on the road, he turned in and brought the car to a halt a dozen feet from the main door.
‘I’ll see you tomorrow afternoon, then?’
‘You’re coming?’ She’d given Leo a copy of her calendar for the next month, but Alex hadn’t thought he’d bother with an after-school session.
‘If you don’t mind. I’d like to see some of the training that goes into the event days.’
‘You’ll be very welcome. But I have to warn you that it’s unlikely we’ll get much of an audience. That kind of thing has very low ratings...’
He narrowed his eyes momentarily, then brushed the dig off. ‘I’ll survive. I might be a little bit late, depending on whether my surgery runs to time or not.’
‘Right then. See you tomorrow. At whatever time you get there.’
She got out of the car and Leo turned in the driver’s seat. He looked stunningly dapper in his dark suit and bow tie and now that Alex knew exactly what lay beneath his white dress shirt, there was an edge of hard craving to go with it. She almost wished that she could have said yes to tonight.
There was a small problem, though. Leo seemed to assume that she could just pop home and shimmy into a little black dress, but she didn’t have anything that even approached that in her wardrobe. And, more to the point, she hadn’t quite found that place where she could turn up at a social event on Leo’s arm without feeling that made them more than friends. The interesting people would have to wait until she was more sure of herself.
The thought made her close the car door behind her with rather more vigour than she’d intended. Alex bent down, pulling her face into a foolish grin, and gave him a little shrug, as if she hadn’t banked on her own strength. He waved her away from the car and when she stepped back it slid away.
* * *
‘So. What’s he like, then?’ Rhona was busy taking off layers of clothing, to reveal a bright, ebulliently patterned dress. The heating engineers had been in first thing this morning and the radiators were pumping out heat, to the point that the windows had started to steam up.
‘He’s...complicated.’
If Alex had thought about her answer for more than five seconds, she would have known it would be like a red rag to a bull. Rhona pounced on the word.
‘Good-looking and complicated. Sounds like the answer to a maiden’s prayer.’
‘Says the woman who’s engaged to the most uncomplicated guy I’ve ever met.’ Tom was solid, dependable and clearly just as head over heels in love as Rhona was.
‘I didn’t say that complicated made him a keeper. Where’s my mug?’
‘Here...’ Alex reached into her drawer and held it out. ‘Sorry. I tidied up a bit.’
‘I thought the place looked a bit stark.’ Rhona’s idea of tidy was being able to see over the top of the piles of files, magazines and paperwork on her desk. But it was organised chaos and she could pull exactly the right thing from the pile at exactly the right time.
‘You should see his flat. The only thing out of place in it was me.’
‘You went to his flat?’ Rhona grabbed her mug and sat down at her desk, clutching it. ‘Do tell. Is he really a blond?’
‘Of course he is. He was blond when I met him the first time.’
‘So you got close enough to look at his roots, then?’ Rhona grinned.
‘I don’t need to look at his roots; I know a natural blond when I see one. Just take my word for it.’
