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An hour and a half later Daisy was starting to understand why wealthy people always looked so relaxed. After a salt-and-mint-oil exfoliation and a cleansing herbal bath, she was now enjoying her first ever full-body massage and could feel her stresses dissolving beneath Kate’s expert touch.
Stifling a yawn, Daisy closed her eyes as from somewhere across the room she heard a soft tap at the door. There was a slight shift in the atmosphere, the cool air mixing with the fragranced heat of the room, and then her body tensed.
An electric prickle rippled over her skin as she heard Kate say eagerly, ‘Oh, Mr Fleming. How lovely to see you again.’
Her eyes snapped open, and the next moment her heart lurched sideways as she heard a familiar deep voice say casually, ‘It’s nice to see you too, Kate.’
Pulse hammering against her skin, Daisy held her breath, painfully aware she was naked except for a pair of panties and a towel folded across her bottom and thighs.
Since suspending hostilities with Rollo, over a week ago, she’d actually begun to enjoy herself. In part, it was because she’d stopped feeling that being happy was somehow a betrayal of David. And in part because her new A-list life was quite hard to resist. But the main reason was that, oddly, being with Rollo was by far the easiest relationship she’d ever had.
Not just because he’d kept his word and had stopped picking on her. Or because he was smart, sophisticated and stupidly handsome—although that helped. Truthfully, it was the first time she’d ever really felt free to be herself with a man. With Rollo, she didn’t have to worry about her heart or the future. She could just sit back and enjoy the ride.
Although that theory had seemed a lot more convincing when she wasn’t lying almost naked on a bed in front of him.
Something cool slipped over her neck and down her bare back, and she knew as surely as if she was looking at him that he was watching her. Pushing away an almost overwhelming impulse to yank the towel up over her body and hide from his scrutiny, she said as casually as she could manage, ‘I didn’t know you were going to pop in.’
There. She’d done it. It wasn’t a ticker-tape parade, but they were now officially a couple. It felt strange, but exciting. Of course, Rollo’s personal household staff had seen them together but somehow having Kate there made it feel more real.
‘Oh, you know me, darling. Always acting on impulse. I hope I haven’t disturbed you.’
The teasing note in his voice as much as the unfamiliar term of endearment made her pulse twitch and her heart pound. She lifted her head slowly.
He was standing beside her, his beautiful sculpted face lit up with mockery and amusement, and nervously she wondered why he was there.
Hoping she looked less flustered than she felt, she shook her head and smiled. ‘Not at all.’
‘Excellent—well, you’re in good hands.’
Next to her, Daisy felt rather than saw the young therapist blush. Rollo’s eyes, however, were fixed so intently on hers that for a moment it felt as if they were alone.
With an effort, she dragged her gaze towards Kate and smiled. ‘Very good hands. I feel completely relaxed.’
‘That’s good. I know you’ve been a little stressed lately.’
He should know, she thought with a flash of irritation, since he was the prime cause of the stress. But, gritting her teeth, she said crisply, ‘A little. But there’s been quite a lot going on.’
‘A lot of our clients suffer from stress-related conditions,’ Kate said earnestly. ‘Muscle pain, breathlessness, headaches, insomnia—it can even cause loss of libido.’
‘Is that right?’ Rollo said softly. ‘We can’t have that, can we...darling?’
The heat and the perfumed air were filling his head. But that wasn’t why his brain was working at half speed.
What was he doing here? he wondered dazedly.
But watching Daisy’s pupils widen, the black swallowing the brown, he felt his body throb with desire and knew that the answer to his question was lying in front of him.
He was supposed to be on a conference call. Only on his way back to the office he’d glanced out of the window and noticed a pizza delivery scooter—bright red, with a big cooler box clamped behind the seat. Instantly he’d thought of Daisy, and before he’d known what he was doing he’d told his driver to divert to the spa.
But he’d needed to see her, he reassured himself. To tell her about the party at the gallery and give her time to get used to the idea. After all, tonight would be their first public outing.
Feeling calmer, he smiled lazily down at her. ‘Maybe I need to help you relax more. Perhaps I could learn how to massage.’
Daisy froze. There was something in his voice that made her breath dissolve in her throat.
Summoning up a careless smile, she said quickly, ‘That’s so sweet of you. But you don’t need to do anything, darling. Kate’s taking care of me.’
Rollo stared down at her assessingly. ‘Yes, she is,’ he murmured. ‘But then Kate doesn’t know you like I do. She doesn’t know your weaknesses.’
