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‘I’m here.’ Mark strolled over, looking supremely fit, a sports bag slung casually over his shoulder. ‘You’re looking at an exhausted man. Never let me mock an exercise class again.’
‘Yeah.’ Greg gave a brief smile, but his eyes were worried and Holly touched his arm gently.
‘Something’s wrong. You mentioned a crisis.’
‘Crisis?’ Mark’s eyes narrowed and his handsome face was suddenly serious as he dropped the sports bag on the floor. ‘What crisis? What’s happened?’
Greg hesitated and then took a deep breath. ‘There’s been a fire at my house.’
Holly gasped. ‘A fire? Oh, no!’
‘Anyone hurt?’ Mark’s sharp question was straight to the point and Greg shook his head.
‘No. The builders had left for the day.’ He glanced at Holly and gave a slight shrug as he explained. ‘I’ve bought an old cottage that I’m renovating. I do some of it myself and use builders for some of it.’
Holly nodded. ‘So you’re not living there?’
‘Well, I was.’ Greg gave a rueful smile. ‘I was sort of camping out in one of the bedrooms, but the smoke damage is too bad for me to stay and I was wondering...’
‘Come to us,’ Mark said immediately, his voice quiet and firm. ‘We’ve got a spare room which you can have for as long as you like.’
Greg glanced from one to the other. ‘I don’t know. I don’t want to impose but I have to admit I was hoping you’d offer. I did think of asking Caroline, but I don’t think our relationship has quite reached that stage yet.’ He managed a sheepish grin. ‘I’d probably get my face slapped.’
‘It’s no imposition. We’ve got a spare room that’s empty. We insist,’ Mark said, turning to Holly, his dark brows raised in question. ‘Don’t we, sweetheart?’
‘Of course.’ Holly licked dry lips and tried not to think about the implications. The spare room wasn’t empty. She was in it. And if Mark was giving it to Greg, that would mean...
‘Well, that’s settled, then.’ Mark wiped his forehead with the corner of a towel which was draped over his broad shoulders. ‘Do you need a hand to bring some stuff over to our place?’
‘Our place.’ He said it so naturally. As if they really did live there as a couple.
‘That would be great if you can spare the time,’ Greg admitted. ‘One journey should do it if there’s two of us. I promise not to stay for more than a few days. I just need somewhere to use as a base while they assess the damage and I work out what to do.’
‘No problem. You’re welcome for as long as you need to stay.’ Mark turned to Holly and took her face in his hands, giving her a smile that was for her alone and dropping a gentle kiss on her lips. ‘Can you check that the spare room is ready for guests, sweetheart? We’ll see you in a bit.’
Which, roughly translated, meant that she was meant to go home and remove all traces of herself from the spare bedroom. From tonight onwards she was going to be sleeping in the same room as Mark.
CHAPTER SEVEN
HOLLY stared at her reflection in the bathroom mirror and took a deep breath. She couldn’t do it. She couldn’t walk into that bedroom and behave as if nothing was wrong, as if she were immune to Mark. Keeping up an act when he was fully clothed and going about his daily activities was one thing—but naked and in his bed was quite another.
She closed her eyes and shook her head. How had she ever got herself into this awful situation? She was totally out of her depth. Unless she was very, very careful he was going to guess how she felt and that would be disastrous. If Mark had the slightest suspicion that her feelings towards him had changed, their friendship would be over. She knew Mark well enough to know how wary he was of women who found him attractive. And who could blame him? He’d been pestered by members of her sex for most of his life. One of the reasons that their friendship had lasted so long was because she hadn’t ever found him attractive. Until now.
Somehow she had to find the strength to go into that bedroom and pretend to be indifferent. She owed him that much.
Holly stared into the mirror again and tugged at her skimpy nightie, trying to make it longer. What had possessed her to buy such sexy nightwear? She sighed and fingered the cream silk fabric. She loved feminine nightwear but it was a ridiculous indulgence really. After all, who was she dressing for? Certainly not a man. She’d never felt comfortable enough with a man to let him see her in her nightwear!
Not that Mark was likely to notice what she was wearing. To him she was just the girl he’d known for most of his life. And, anyway, he was in love with someone else.
Forcing herself to accept that he’d never see her as anything other than his oldest friend, she ran shaking fingers through her blonde hair and practised a smile in the mirror. It wasn’t very impressive so she tried again.
Finally she took a deep breath and opened the door, keeping the smile pinned to her face as she saw Mark lounging, handsome and relaxed, on top of the bed. At least he was still fully clothed.
‘Well, Logan, you’d better not snore,’ she said lightly, walking briskly across the bedroom and sitting on the bed. ‘If you keep me awake, I’ll thump you.’
He lifted a dark eyebrow and put down the medical journal he’d been reading. There was a long silence while his eyes travelled slowly over her, scanning every inch of her body.
‘You expect me to be able to sleep? With you dressed in that?’ His voice was filled with gentle laughter. ‘That is not the sort of nightwear I imagined a virgin would wear.’
