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‘Come back to bed.’
He grinned. ‘Yes, ma’am. Whatever you say.’
As soon as he had her back in his bedroom he stripped her naked, his own clothes slung on top of hers on the armchair in the corner of the room. The bed was still warm, and Jess curled up beside him.
‘Mmm. That’s better.’
‘Much.’ his hand wandered across her ribcage. ‘Jess, what are you doing for Christmas?’
She smiled into his shoulder. Christmas with Greg would be wonderful. ‘I’m staying in London. There’s a lot to do at the hospital.’
‘Won’t that all be organised by then? You deserve some time off.’
‘I’ll have time off. But I can’t ask people to give up their time over Christmas without being there myself.’ That didn’t seem to be what Greg wanted to hear. ‘Why?’
‘Nothing. I just wondered.’ He rolled her over onto her back, kissing her, lingering over her lips until he’d taken his fill. ‘Maybe I can persuade you differently.’
‘Not like that, you can’t.’
‘Oh, really? Is that a challenge?’
‘No. Would you want to be able to change my mind when you know I’m doing something worthwhile?’
He didn’t answer. The Greg she knew wouldn’t have had to. As she gave herself up to his caress, the final, fleeting thought in Jess’s head was that she hoped this was the Greg that she was sleeping with.
It was barely light when she opened her eyes. She was warm, almost blissfully relaxed, and alone again.
Where was Greg now? She clambered out of bed and opened the door, craning her head around it, half expecting to see the door at the end of the hallway open.
Greg’s voice sounded, quiet and muffled from downstairs. a pause, and then he spoke again. He was talking to someone.
She felt like a spy. As if she was snooping around his house, trying to catch him doing something He clearly didn’t want her to know about. But he’d deflected the conversation too many times, left too much unanswered. He was hiding something. Jess moved noiselessly along the hallway, pausing at the top of the great stairway and leaning over the stone balustrade.
‘The new controls do involve extra work, though, Ed. Everyone deserves to be paid for the hours they put in.’
Another pause.
‘Ed, that’s the end of it. I’ve reviewed all the options, and that’s the fairest for everyone… No, that’s final.’ Greg’s voice was firm, decisive. No surprise there. But the note of irritable bad temper didn’t sound like him. Jess tried to turn away but she couldn’t and instead she sank to the floor, as if the rough, stone buttresses could shield her from what she was hearing.
‘No, I realise that, Ed. I’ll prepare something for the board, so that they all know exactly where this directive is coming from. When’s the meeting? Ten on Tuesday. That’s nine o’ clock Monday night our time, isn’t it? Right. I’ll get back to you before then.’
Eleven hours’ time difference. That was the other side of the world. America was eight hours at most, wasn’t it? And yet this sounded like business talk, certainly nothing to do with the hospital. Jess heard a clatter as a telephone handset was put back into its cradle and she sprang to her feet, racing up the hallway towards the guest room where her overnight bag still sat on the undisturbed bed. In less than a minute she was in the shower, the door firmly locked behind her.
So what on earth was he supposed to do? Greg took his feelings out on the loaf of bread that he was cutting for toast, and had to throw the resulting slice into the bin. He had a chance to make a difference here. The hours weren’t exactly regular, but neither were they at the hospital. He had hoped that Jess might understand.
He’d been aware that she was there, even before he’d put the phone down, and had heard her blundering along the hallway. Greg couldn’t deny that his exaggerated sense of his own innocence had something to do with the fact that he also felt guilty as hell.
There was only so long that he could resent Jess, though. And with the scent of her still on his
skin, the feel of her echoing through his memory, only so long wasn’t very long at all. She walked into the kitchen, showered and dressed, and Greg was lost again.
‘Hey, there. You’re up early.’ He bent to kiss her but the immediate fit that had moulded them together last night was lost now, and his lips brushed her cheek instead of her mouth.
‘So are you. I woke up and you weren’t there.’
‘I had something to do.’
Her look, half hurt and half suspicious, made his mind up for him. He could break his rule, just once. He’d let her ask him about the business and then she wouldn’t need to wonder again.
