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‘What? And have a life of my own?’
She made it sound like a joke, but Alex knew she’d got his point, and that she was thinking about it.
He shrugged. ‘Funnier things have happened.’
‘Yes, they have.’ She gave a little sigh. ‘I couldn’t do what you did, Alex—taking Zack on like that and giving him direction. Thank you.’
A warm feeling spread through Alex’s veins, making his hand shake a little on the wheel. He felt as if he’d been part of something good, and in his experience good things didn’t happen in families.
Suddenly the idea of driving Marie home and leaving her there seemed impossible.
‘It’s Sunday afternoon. Would you like to go for a late lunch somewhere?’
‘Like we used to?’ Marie smiled.
‘Yes.’
Driving out into the country would be good. He’d lost something from those days and he wanted it back.
‘I can’t go anywhere like this.’ She pointed to the grime and blood on her jeans.
‘We could drop in to your place.’ Or, better still, he could avoid Marie’s flat entirely so she didn’t get a chance to change her mind. ‘Or I could lend you a pair...?’
Apparently they called the style ‘boyfriend jeans’—rolled up at the bottom and cinched tight at the waist. But Alex decided that he didn’t need to be her boyfriend to lend Marie a pair of jeans, and that plenty of women wore the manufactured version.
‘You’ve got diamond-encrusted jeans?’
Marie giggled suddenly, and Alex realised she was teasing him. ‘Yeah. It was all the rage in eighteenth-century Belkraine.’
‘This I have to see...’
CHAPTER ELEVEN
THE NEEDLESSNESS OF Charlie’s accident, the repeated wish that he’d applied a bit of common sense, or a least listened to what Jim had told him, was beginning to be set aside now, along with her worry about Zack and her mother. This afternoon there was just Alex—and he was irresistible.
There had been a bit of awkwardness about who should go where to get changed, which Alex had solved by laying out a pair of jeans for her in his bedroom and then going to get changed and take a shower in the bathroom.
She could hear the sound of water running, and tried not to think about the inevitable consequence of that. Alex...soaking wet and naked.
Resisting Alex had always been hard, but she’d grown used to it. Now that she’d felt his touch it was a whole n
ew ball game. And now that some of the responsibility for Zack and her mum had been lifted from her shoulders there might be time to indulge her fantasies.
But it was too risky. They were friends and colleagues and they were both at turning points in their lives. Anything could happen and they would smash all that they’d built together.
She rolled up the legs of the jeans, cinching the waist tight. They didn’t look so bad with her flat canvas shoes, which had thankfully escaped any specks of blood. Her lace-edged sleeveless shirt was fine on its own, and now that the sun had burned away the early-morning cloud she didn’t need the zipped hoodie she’d been wearing.
She walked back into the sitting room. Perhaps Alex had always looked her up and down like that but she’d never noticed, and it made her heart jump. His smile was even better.
‘Diamonds really suit you.’
She laughed, and the joke loosened the tension between them. Alex picked up his car keys, hooking his sunglasses onto the front of his shirt, and Marie put her purse in her pocket. They were ready to go, travelling light the way they’d used to do. Just the open road and what they could carry in their pockets.
He left the clinic’s car to charge in the basement garage under the flats and they took his car. With the top rolled back, raw power purring from the engine and a warm breeze caressing her skin, this felt a lot like sex. Although she reckoned that sex with Alex would be a lot better.
After a drive that was enough to blow the most stubborn of cobwebs away they found a picturesque pub in a picturesque village and ordered lunch to eat in the garden. The artisan burgers weren’t quite as nice as they’d looked on the menu, but it didn’t matter. They were taking the world as it came.
‘Careful...’ said Alex.
