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‘Good morning.’ Blade turned from his task of preparing fresh vegetables at the kitchen sink, his eyes narrowing at her scanty attire, and raised one large hand in mocking salute. ‘And mine has improved considerably in the last ten seconds.’
‘I thought you were Mrs Cox.’ The heat that began in her face rapidly covered her whole body as she stood transfixed in the doorway. What did she look like? Whatever it was, Blade obviously approved if the wicked light in his eyes was anything to go by. ‘And you shouldn’t be here.’
‘Says who?’ He leant back against the sink, letting his eyes run over her from head to toe with slow thoroughness before turning back to his self-imposed task with a lazy shrug of his big shoulders. ‘There’s a bottle of wine in the fridge if you want to open it.’
‘Me?’ Her voice was an outraged squeak of protest. ‘Like this?’
‘I’m not complaining.’ There was a throb in the deep voice that told her he was finding this present situation highly amusing. ‘But I can wait a few minutes if you want to change into something—less comfortable? But, please.’ He turned again and this time the look in his eyes made her whole body tingle with sensual awareness. ‘Not on my account.’
‘But you shouldn’t even be here. What if Mrs Cox—’
‘Amy.’ Her name was a cool rebuke. ‘Go and get changed, sweetheart, before my more basic instincts take over. It’s been three months, and the sight of you like that is more than I can take right now.’
‘And three weeks and two days.’ She didn’t know why she said it, but he became very still as she spoke. ‘I do know, Blade.’
‘Sure you do.’ He moved across to her, looking down into her face for a long moment before turning her gently round and pushing her towards the steep narrow stairs. ‘And for the record Mrs Cox knows I’m here. I’ve phoned her a couple of times to see how her sister was and so on.’
‘Have you?’ She turned at the top of the stairs, unaware that the shaft of sunlight streaming in through the high narrow window made the silk transparent. ‘And how is she?’
‘As comfortable as can be expected in the circumstances,’ he said drily, ‘which is more than can be said for me, incidentally. For crying out loud go and get something on that beautiful body before I come up there with you.’
‘I’m going.’ She sped into the bedroom with her heart thudding and her knees weak. Why had he come? Why had he come? She had been doing so well. Admittedly she couldn’t eat or sleep but that would get better in time. And the tears were always a blink away, but that was only to be expected. All things considered she had been doing well, she had.
She dressed carefully for optimum neutrality in a big baggy T-shirt that came to just above her knees and cotton leggings in jade-green, brushing her hair vigorously before tying it into a high ponytail on the top of her head. Make-up? No. She shook her head at herself in the mirror. No make-up. No come-on. Definitely no come-on. It appeared he was cooking lunch. Fine. She would eat it politely, make some small talk and then indicate it was time for him to leave. No problem.
Her thoughts mocked her as she entered the kitchen again to find the back door open on to the garden, the scent of dog roses and wall-flowers competing with roast beef. ‘I’m out here.’ Blade’s voice called to her lazily. ‘Come and see the transformation and offer suitable homage.’
It was true. The back garden had been transformed in just over a week from an overgrown, if colourful, jungle into a delightful cottage garden in which mature cherry, apple and plum trees competed with flowering bushes and neat flowerbeds hosting a mass of perfumed blooms round a central lawn that was neatly mown. ‘The lawn’s still a bit patchy, but the grass seed will see to that in time,’ Blade said laconically as she didn’t speak. The sight of him stretched out on a long low sunbed almost naked had temporarily robbed her of coherent thought. ‘Come and have a glass of wine, it’s all ready. The sunbeds are a little gift to Mrs Cox, by the way.’ He eyed her lazily. ‘I thought we might as well use them today with the weather so hot.’
‘Fine.’ She perched on the edge of hers as though she were afraid it was going to bite her, accepting the glass of wine Blade offered with a stiff little nod of thanks. He was clad only in brief bathing trunks, his muscular tanned body stretched out to the golden rays of the sun with supreme disregard for her blood pressure.
‘Look’s like we’re gonna have a blazing June,’ Blade drawled slowly after a few tense moments had crept by in absolute silence. ‘Wouldn’t you be more comfortable in a bikini or something? It must be seventy-five degrees out here.’
