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'I have a mobile phone,' she said tightly, 'and I talk to my sister all the time. And friends,' she added quickly so that he wouldn't think she was the ultimate sad case. Although it appeared he was thinking that already. All the time she'd had the idea he fancied her, he'd obviously been feeling sorry for her. She wanted to fall on the floor and have a full scale paddy.
'Of course you do,' he said soothingly, so soothingly she wanted to sock him on the jaw. 'But that's not like seeing someone in the flesh, is it?'
She couldn't help the shiver that trickled down her spine, even though she told herself Travis would feel even more sorry for her if he knew she was inventing double meanings for his innocent remarks. Her cheeks burning, she tried to pull herself together. 'I'm quite capable of looking after myself, so don't worry about me,' she said grimly. How dared he pity her? She didn't need anything from Travis Black.
'Nevertheless, I'd like to feel I could call by or you could call for me if the need arose. You understand? I think what I'm trying to say is that it would be good if we could be friends, Beth. OK?' He raised black eyebrows enquiringly.
She had never felt so insulted in her life. The thought was there even though she told herself she was being utterly unrea¬sonable, not to mention contradictory. She hadn't wanted him to be interested in her, had she? Of course she hadn't. She'd been telling herself that since she had arrived in Shropshire. And he was offering platonic, no strings attached friendship. She ought to feel relieved. But she didn' t feel relieved, she felt... Ooh, she didn't know how she felt, which was even more maddening.
Becoming aware he was waiting for an answer, she stitched a grimace on her face that just about passed for a smile, saying, 'Yes, of course, I understand. That's fine, just fine.'
'Good.' He had the audacity to smile a kind of 'there there, you'll be all right one day' smile. Or at least that was how she interpreted it and it made her blood boil. 'I'm glad we had the chance to clear the air. I'm going back tonight but how about a meal or something next time I'm around?'
In view of everything that had gone on she could hardly refuse. Gritting her teeth, she said brightly, 'Yes, OK.'
'Great.' He made a movement as though to open the car door but then seemed to change his mind. As he walked back to her Beth felt her stomach do a bungee jump that would have rivalled anything she'd seen on TV. 'See you soon then,' he said briskly, bending and doing the thing where he skimmed her lips again. A polite farewell. Sexless. Chummy.
At least it was clearly a social kiss of the lightest kind to him, Beth thought, trembling as she watched him return to the car and slide in it this time. A moment later it drove off, Sandra waving from the passenger window. Unfor¬tunately it was not that simple where she was concerned. But then, she reminded herself bitterly, Travis didn't fancy her apparently. She did nothing for him at all. Whereas she...
She fancied the pants off him.
Purely a physical thing, she assured herself hastily in the next moment, and as such easily controlled. No emotions involved after all, just raging hormones. Which was perhaps understandable in a way. She'd had an active sex life with Keith and then it had suddenly stopped dead. It was only natural that now she was beginning to feel better again her body would remind her that she was a flesh and blood woman. While she had been working all hours and coping with the loss of her parents and the agony of Keith's betrayal such things had been smothered. Now, rested and in lovely tranquil sur¬roundings with no mad whirl to exhaust her and make her mentally and physically drained, things were different. The old libido was up and running once more.
She turned from the gate, walking to the front door where Harvey was lying waiting for her. The big dog stood up at her approach, tongue lolling and tail wagging as he anticipated his evening meal. Beth smiled at him, bending and patting the coarse fur as she thought, this isn't really to do with Travis Black—it could be any man. He just happens to be the one around at the moment, the one that's awoken that side of life once more.
She told herself the same thing several times throughout the evening before she went to bed. She was still telling
herself it as she drifted off to sleep. And not once did she allow herself to question why it was so important that Travis was relegated to the rank of ordinary males.
CHAPTER FIVE
The next week crawled by with surprising slowness, probably, Beth admitted, because she just couldn't stop thinking about Travis. Where he was, what he was doing and with whom. It aggravated her to distraction but although she tried the therapy of endless walks with Harvey, cleaning the cottage from top to bottom—some¬thing which hadn't happened for some time, she discovered, when she tackled the backs of the kitchen cupboards—and writing copious letters to all and sundry telling them how much better she was feeling, nothing took her mind off him for long.
