AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘You think she might have been lying?’
‘Not lying, no. But she’s manoeuvred it in some way. I don’t know how yet, but when I find out she’s going to be in trouble. Either way, at the moment, it looks as though you’re going to have to stay with me. Aggh!’ She tilted her head backwards and made a frustrated sound. ‘And I’ll never hear the last of it! Every morning they’re going to be looking at me, working out whether I’ve fallen in love with you yet. Nudging. Making comments. I’ll kill them.’
He couldn’t keep the laughter out of his voice. ‘Is that what you’re afraid of? Do you think you’re going to fall in love with me, Dr Anderson?’
She looked at him and the air snapped tight with tension. ‘Don’t be ridiculous!’ Her voice was slightly husky. ‘I don’t believe in love.’
Could she feel it? Gio wondered. Could she feel what he was feeling?
‘Then where is the problem?’ He spread lean, bronzed hands and flashed her a smile. ‘There is no risk of you falling in love with me. That makes me no more than a lodger.’
But a lodger with a definite interest.
‘You don’t know what they’re like. Every moment of the day there will be little comments. Little asides. They’ll drive us mad.’
‘Or we could drive them mad. With a little thought and application, this could work in your favour.’
Her glance was suspicious. ‘How?’
‘Mary and Rita are determined to set you up, no?’
‘Yes, but—’
‘Clearly they believe that if they put a man under your nose, you will fall in love with him. So—I move in with you and when they see that you have no trouble at all resisting me, they will give up.’
She stared at him thoughtfully. ‘You think that will work?”
‘Why wouldn’t it?’
‘You don’t know them. They don’t give up easily.’ The tension had passed and she was suddenly crisp and businesslike. ‘And, to be honest, I don’t know if I can share a house with someone. I’ve lived alone since I was eighteen.’
It sounded lonely to him. ‘I can assure you that I’m house trained. I’m very clean and I pick up after myself.’
This time there was no answering smile. ‘I’m used to having my own space.’
‘Me, too,’ Gio said smoothly. Was that what the problem was? She liked her independence? ‘But Mary said that your house is large…’
‘Yes.’
‘Then we need hardly see each other.’ In truth he’d made up his mind that he’d be seeing plenty of her but decided that the way to achieve that was a step at a time. He was fascinated by Alice Anderson. She was complex. Interesting. Unpredictable. And he knew instinctively that any show of interest on his part would be met with suspicion and rejection. If he looked relaxed and unconcerned about the whole situation, maybe she would, too. ‘And think of it this way—’ he was suddenly struck by inspiration ‘—it will give you a chance to brief me fully on the practice, the patients, everything I need to know.’
She looked suddenly thoughtful and he could see her mentally sifting through what he’d just said. ‘Yes.’ She gave a sharp nod. ‘You’re right that it will give us plenty of opportunity to talk about work. All right.’ She took a deep breath, as if bracing herself. ‘Let’s lock up here and make a move. Where did you park?’
‘At the top of the hill, in the public car park.’
‘There are three spaces outside the surgery. You can use one of those from now on.’ She delved into her bag and removed a set of keys. ‘I’ll give you a lift to your car. Let’s go.’
CHAPTER FOUR
STILL fuming about Mary and Rita, Alice jabbed the key into the ignition and gripped the steering-wheel.
She’d been thoroughly outmanoeuvred.
Why had she been foolish enough to let them arrange accommodation? Why hadn’t she anticipated that they’d be up to their usual tricks? Because her mind didn’t work like theirs, she thought savagely, that was why.
Vowing to tackle the two of them as soon as Gio wasn’t around, Alice drove away from the car park, aware that his low black sports car was following close behind her.
Her mind on Mary and Rita, she changed gear with more anger than care and then winced at the hideous crunch. Reminding herself that her car wasn’t up to a large degree of abuse, she forced herself to take a calming breath.
