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The minute she said the words she wished she hadn’t. Was he sensitive about it? Perhaps she wasn’t supposed to mention it. If he was the type of guy that spent all day staring in the mirror, then perhaps it bothered him.
‘Not as painful as it used to. Buongiorno.’ He flashed her a smile and handed her a cup, totally at ease in her kitchen. ‘I wasn’t expecting you up this early. I have to have coffee before I can face the shower.’
‘I know the feeling.’ Wondering how he got the scar, she took the cup with a nod of thanks and wandered over to the table, trying not to look in his direction.
She might not believe in love but she could see when a man was attractive and Gio Moretti was certainly attractive. When she’d said he could have her spare room, she hadn’t imagined he’d be walking around her house half-naked. It was unsettling and more than a little distracting.
She sat down. Her body suddenly felt hot and uncomfortable and she slid a finger around the neck of her shirt and glanced at the sun outside. ‘It’s going to be another scorcher today.’ Even though she made a point of not looking in his direction, she sensed his gaze on her.
‘You’re feeling hot, Alice?’
Something in his voice made her turn her head. Her eyes met hers and an unexpected jolt shook her body. ‘It’s warm in here, yes.’ She caught her breath, broke the eye contact and picked up her coffee, but not before her brain had retained a clear image of a bronzed, muscular chest covered in curling dark hairs. He was all muscle and masculinity and her throat felt suddenly dry. She took a sip of coffee. ‘This is delicious. Thank you.’
Still holding her cup, she stared out of the window and tried to erase the memory of his half-naked body. She wasn’t used to having a man in her kitchen. It was all too informal. Too intimate.
Everything she avoided.
To take her mind off the problem she did what she always did. She thought about work.
‘Rita has a baby clinic this afternoon,’ she said brightly, watching as a heron rose from the smooth calm of the estuary that led to sea and flew off with a graceful sweep of its wings. ‘Invariably she manages it by herself but sometimes she needs one of us to—’
‘Alice, cara.’ His voice came from behind her, deep and heavily accented. ‘I need at least two cups of coffee before I can even think about work, let alone talk about it.’ His hands came up and touched her shoulders and she stiffened. She wasn’t used to being touched. No one touched her.
‘I just thought you should know that—’
‘This kitchen has the most beautiful view.’ He kept his hands on her shoulders, his touch light and relaxed. ‘Enjoy it. It’s still early. Leave thoughts of work until later. Look at the mist. Enjoy the silence. It’s perfect.’
She sat still, heart pounding, thoroughly unsettled. Usually her kitchen soothed her. Calmed her. But today she could feel the little spurts of tension darting through her shoulders.
It was just having someone else in the house, she told herself. Inevitably it altered her routine.
Abandoning her plan to read some journals while drinking her coffee as she usually did, she stood up and firmly extricated herself from his hold.
‘I need to get going.’ Annoyed with herself and even more annoyed with him, she walked across the room, taking her cup with her. ‘I’ll meet you at the surgery later.’
His eyes flickered to the clock on the wall. ‘Alice, it’s only 6.30.’ His voice was a soft, accented drawl. ‘And you haven’t finished your coffee.’
‘There’s masses of paperwork to plough through.’ She drank the coffee quickly and put the cup on the nearest worktop. ‘Thank you. A great improvement on instant.’
His eyes were locked on her face. ‘You haven’t had breakfast.’
‘I don’t need breakfast.’ What she needed most of all was space. Air to breathe. The safety of her usual routine. She backed out of the door, needing to escape. ‘I’ll see you later.’
Grabbing her bag and her jacket, she strode out of the house, fumbling for her keys as she let the door swing shut behind her.
Oh, bother and blast.
Instead of starting her day in a calm, organised frame of mind, as she usually did, she felt unsettled and on edge and the reason why was perfectly obvious.
She didn’t need a lodger and she certainly didn’t need a lodger that she noticed, she thought to herself as she slid into the sanctuary of her car.
And she was definitely going to kill Mary when she saw her.
He made her nervous.
She claimed not to believe in love and yet there was chemistry between them. An elemental attraction that he’d felt from the first moment. And it was growing stronger by the minute.
Gio made himself a second cup of coffee and drank it seated at the little table overlooking the garden and the sea.
