Читать книгу Greek Mavericks: His Christmas Conquest - Люси Монро, Люси Монро, Cathy Williams - Страница 12

SOPHIE thought that it was a sad reminder of her man-less existence that the memory of that fleeting kiss haunted her over the next three days. She couldn’t understand how it had happened. She barely knew the man and disliked a fair bit of what she did know, and yet she couldn’t remember ever being more turned on by a kiss. Just thinking about it afterwards made her feel giddy.

Of course it wouldn’t take long for that ridiculous sensation to fade away and she had planned on keeping out of his way as much as she could to ensure that the fading process took as little time as possible. Besides, seeing him again would be embarrassing for both of them. She might have been shocked at what had happened but his reaction had been a lot more extreme. He had looked angry and disgusted with himself and had hustled her out of the cottage with such speed that she was surprised she had made it out of the door in one piece. She didn’t know what that had been about but she was sharp enough to realise that he would probably be even happier than her not to be reminded of the brief physical encounter.

Which was why she found herself staring at the note on her desk with such dismay.

‘They can’t do this!’ she protested to Robert, who was tackling a stack of papers with the aid of a chocolate bar. Moira and Claire had both left for the evening, Christmas shopping before the crowds descended, and, Sophie suspected, the temptation to do something a little less relentless and a little more rewarding than plough through innumerable files. She couldn’t blame them. There was nothing more conducive to killing the Christmas spirit than the contemplation of yet more paperwork that had to be matched up and puzzled over. Only Robert remained loyal to the cause. His pace of work was slow, but he was thorough and uncomplaining. Sophie had realised some time back that she could ask for little more.

‘They can and they will,’ he now said, linking his fingers on his stomach and looking at her. ‘It may have escaped you but this part of the world doesn’t rank right up there with London, Tokyo and New York…’

‘Which isn’t to say that the electricity board can plunge us all into darkness virtually in the middle of winter!’ Sophie protested.

‘For a few hours, Soph! I think we can all manage to do without electricity between eight and one tomorrow! Course, we won’t be able to work here,’ he pointed out, casting a jaundiced eye around him. ‘This place is like a dungeon without the lights on.’

Sophie’s mind was already racing ahead. Would they have notified Theo of the power cut? Probably not. She had had her mail redirected to her office address as soon as the cottage had been let. It would be her responsibility to let her tenant know the situation.

Which meant facing the man.

‘Why don’t you and I bunk off tomorrow? Go do a little Christmas shopping…You could do with a break. I’ll treat you to lunch…’

Sophie, staring off into the distance, wondered how she could avoid the uncomfortable task of calling in on Theo. She shuddered to think what his reaction would be on seeing her on his doorstep. Or, rather, on her doorstep.

‘Hello? Is anybody there?’

Sophie registered that Robert had been saying something to her but, for the life of her, she didn’t know what precisely, and her expression must have given her away for the smile dropped and he reddened.

‘I’m sorry, Robert. What were you saying?’

‘I was saying that you need to take a break from all this, Sophie.’ He made a sweeping gesture towards the paper overload swamping the surfaces of the desks and quite a bit of the ground as well. ‘This stuff isn’t important, not really, and you’re getting consumed…’

‘The quicker I go through it, the faster it’ll be finished and I can get back to finishing my teacher training.’

‘And leave here? The cottage? Everything…?’

‘Just for a while…’

‘What if you literally can’t afford to leave?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘I mean, if there’s no money in the till, you might have to abandon your course or sell the cottage. Now, I know you don’t want to…’

‘To be having this conversation…’ She stood up and slung on her jumper, then her coat. Her life was in turmoil now, but she pinned her hopes on the future sorting it out, smoothing over the problems. She didn’t want to confront the grim possibility that nothing might be sorted out and she might, just might, be left picking up pieces for longer than she anticipated. ‘I can’t afford to have this conversation,’ she continued, grabbing her bag and stuffing the power cut note inside it. ‘I can’t afford to think that everything is going to start falling apart around me…’

‘Which it needn’t…’ Robert had leapt to his feet and was rallying around her like a diligent sheepdog rounding up a wayward stray sheep. Sophie glanced up from where she was now trying to locate the office keys in her capacious bag.

‘Oh, Robert, not this again. I know you feel sorry for me…’

‘Is that what you think?’

‘Well…yes…’ She laughed nervously because he was standing quite close to her and there was a shy nervousness about him that was making her feel a little confused. ‘I do, as a matter of fact. I mean, we’ve known each other off and on over the years and I don’t suppose you ever expected this situation to happen. I mean, that’s why you’ve been so kind to me, isn’t it…’ Keys located, she closed her fist around them and shoved her hands into her deep coat pockets.

‘Why do you imagine that I worked with your father for such a long time…? Off and on…?’ He reached out and stroked her hair. Sophie’s eyes widened. If she could have commanded the ground to open up and swallow her whole, she would have. This was certainly a week for shocks. First Theo and now this—pleasant, background Robert declaring…what? She resisted the urge to laugh. Somehow she didn’t imagine that he would appreciate the gesture. He was, as Theo had hinted, vulnerable and probably insecure around women.

‘Because you liked him?’ Sophie offered hopefully, and Robert shook his head.

‘Sure I liked him…’ There was genuine wistfulness in his voice. ‘And I enjoyed his company, his enthusiasm, but I also enjoyed hanging around here so that I could see you…’

‘Me?’ she squeaked.

‘Which is why I want to help bail you out of this mess if you need to be bailed out…I don’t want to sound pessimistic, but…’ He allowed a few seconds of silence to elapse, during which Sophie had ample opportunity to dwell on the most pessimistic scenario he could come up with. ‘What if, at the end of this exercise, the only thing you discover is a mountain of debt? You can sell the cottage, but there’s still a mortgage on it.’

‘How do you know that?’

‘How does anyone around here know anything?’ Robert answered with a wry grimace. ‘The birds on the trees…But what I’m saying,’ he carried on, considering his words carefully, ‘is that I’ve saved enough for you to carry on with your course, to do what you want to do…’

‘And you would lend me the money?’ Sophie asked dubiously, ‘even though I wouldn’t be able to pay you back for a while…?’

‘I wouldn’t have to lend you the money,’ he said patiently and he shook his head when she continued to stare at him in baffled silence. ‘What I’m saying is…Would you consider marrying me?’ He laughed nervously and grabbed her hand, tugging it away from the warm protection of her coat pocket.

‘Marry you?’

‘I know we haven’t got a conventional relationship…’

‘Robert, we haven’t got a relationship!’

‘Which is something I want to remedy…I would really like to settle down now, start a family.’

‘But we’ve only ever been just good friends, Robert…’

‘It doesn’t have to stay that way. I’m attracted to you, Soph…’

‘No, you’re not!’

‘I am! What can I say to convince you?’

For the second time in about as many days, Sophie was caught utterly off guard. One minute he was standing there, looking at her earnestly. The next minute he had managed to close the gap between them without her noticing and his lips were on hers, exploring her open-mouthed surprise.

Like a badly dubbed movie, there was a couple of seconds of delay between Sophie being aware of what was going on and reacting to it, but when she did react it was with some vigour.

She pulled back, trembling, and stared at him crossly.

‘Okay!’ He held up his hands and smiled crookedly at her. ‘But think about it, Sophie. Promise me you’ll think about it…’ At the door, he paused and turned to look at her. ‘I just think we’re both ready for a committed relationship. I know I am and, in a way, your financial situation just seems like fate putting us together. I could help you out and we could have a great life together.’

‘Robert…’

He placed one finger over his mouth, willing her to be silent. ‘I’m going to be away for the next couple of weeks, anyway. Dad’s not very well, so I’m going to go up to give Mum a hand. I was going to leave it till the beginning of next week, but I’ll go tomorrow, give you time on your own to think about what I’ve asked…You know, Mum would love you…She’s desperate for some grandchildren. But, anyway, when I get back, maybe we could go out? Discuss things…?’

He didn’t really give her time to answer that, which was just as well since Sophie, stunned into silence, couldn’t think of anything to say.

She wondered how she could have missed all those signs that Theo seemed to have picked up after a couple of minutes. Robert’s mum wasn’t desperate—he was!

She would have spent the rest of the evening worrying about that. Instead, paying a visit to Theo seemed less of a nightmare and more of a distraction from having to think about what Robert had said. She found herself heading directly to the cottage shortly after Robert had gone and she had locked up for the night.

It was only when she glimpsed the glow of the lights that had been switched on that she faltered. Well, of course he was going to be in! Where else would he be likely to be? Now that she was here, the sickening thought, which she had conveniently sidelined, rose to the surface with monstrous ease—how was he going to react when he saw her? She hoped that he would follow her lead and pretend that nothing had happened, but what if he slammed the door in her face?

Sophie knew with unerring instinct that she was not physically Theo’s type. She didn’t know why he had kissed her; maybe isolation had generated an irresistible urge and she had just happened to be around at the time. He had known that she would respond because what woman wouldn’t? The man was gorgeous. But he had realised his mistake almost as soon as he had committed it. Because she was no sex siren. She was just average Sophie Scott. Should she be grateful for Robert’s proposal? It had taken her unawares, but should she at least consider going out with him on a date? A real date? With possible commitment at the end of the road? Robert might not set her ablaze but at least he wouldn’t reject her with obvious insulting distaste after one kiss.

From the small study, where Theo had been staring at his computer screen, willing it to work its usual magic and suck him in, he glanced up at the sound of the doorbell.

The study was in an advantageous position. Since the house was very old, it was highly doubtful whether it had been specifically designed for the purpose, but the study permitted an unobscured angled view of the front door. From where Theo was sitting, and with the porch light shining directly down on to her, he could easily make out Sophie’s thoughtful expression.

Instead of getting to his feet, Theo pushed himself back from the desk and continued to look at her, fingers steepled under his chin.

He had known that she would come back. Sooner or later. If she hadn’t, then he would have sought her out under some pretext or other, but he was pleased that the necessity to do that hadn’t arisen. Active pursuit would not have sat quite right with him.

But now…

He wondered what she would think if she knew what was going through his head right now. After his performance a couple of days ago, chances were high that she would belt him. He had, he admitted, not behaved in a very gentlemanly manner. In fact, he had committed the ultimate sin as far as a woman was concerned—he had succumbed to a physical situation only to reel away in disgust, and Sophie would not have known that his disgust had been aimed at himself. She would have felt insulted and mortified. Especially as she had responded so eagerly to him.

The doorbell rang again and he saw her stare upwards impatiently, one foot tapping, hands thrust into her coat pockets.

With a little sigh, Theo stood up and headed out towards the front door.

He took his time, giving himself an opportunity to talk himself out of his decision. The past three days had not been good for Theo. In fact, dealing with the long months of grieving had almost been easier. At least grief was a known quantity, an emotion he could understand and deal with accordingly. He could lose himself in reckless abandonment on the ski slopes and twice against the unforgiving face of a perpendicular cliff face. He could take financial risks and savour the illusion it gave him of being alive. Of course, in the end, he had always returned to his silent mourning but even that, he now acknowledged, had a quality of predictability about it.

But succumbing to ten seconds of physical connection with another human being had catapulted Theo into a state of unacceptable confusion.

For three days he hadn’t been able to concentrate. The dull background noise of his computer, once such a comforting sound, had thrown him into a mindless reverie in which he’d dwelled on the way her lips had felt as they had touched his, the feel of her soft skin crushed against his hard body, the sensation of his own body flaring out of control.

It wasn’t going to do. Nor did he intend to dwell on it as a problem which had landed on his doorstep and lacked a solution. Every problem had a solution and every situation could be dealt with.

He had dealt with Elena’s death and he could certainly deal with the sudden war raging now between his body and his brain.

Theo had looked at the situation with the cold detachment of someone intent on analysing and staring down a dilemma.

He had responded to the woman and he wasn’t a fool. He knew why. Removed from his normal environment, indeed from the routine of his life, he had behaved in a manner that was extraordinary given the iron control he had maintained over himself over the past year and a half. Without the eyes of the world upon him, he had broken away from his normal pattern of behaviour. This was excusable.

But facing the reality of his motivation had done very little to staunch the surge of inappropriate lust he had felt every time he thought about her.

That was something he was less certain about. Why her? There had been many a more enticing woman beckoning before and he had managed to ignore them all. Indeed, they had irritated the hell out of him. So why finally crack with someone like his landlady? A woman who was annoying, abrasive and not particularly headturning at that?

Again he arrived at the conclusion that it was all to do with the circumstance in which he now found himself, far removed from the reality of London and his working life and with no links to anyone he personally knew. Freedom to behave how he wanted with the comforting blanket of anonymity around his shoulders.

He was feeling for the first time in well over a year and Theo, recognising that with dispassionate honesty, treated the unforeseen situation in much the same way as he had dealt with the horror of Elena’s unpredictable death. He was a man of action and he would take action. If his body was telling him that it was finally stirring into life, then he would obey the demands of his body. The fact that the unlikely recipient of his awakening was a woman he would never have looked at twice before was in itself a good thing. There was no risk of entanglement. They were physically attracted to one another but beyond that there was nothing. She might even dislike him, strange though the concept was.

The thought of her actively disliking him was peculiarly jarring. He relegated it to the back of his mind and focused on the immediate prospect of seduction, free from questions about a future and unconcerned with questions about the past. A moment in time and a step forward for him.

Concerns about Sophie’s compliance in this general scheme of things barely crossed Theo’s mind. He knew, with the instincts of a deeply sexual man, that she was attracted to him, had enjoyed him touching her, had wanted more. For him, that was enough. He had no problem being a moment in time for her. Indeed, he would have had it no other way.

He pulled open the door and Sophie was greeted with a crooked smile that made her heart do a little somersault inside her. She had half expected him not to let her in but he stood aside and, after a moment’s hesitation, Sophie brushed past him before turning to face him in the flagstoned hall.

‘An unexpected surprise,’ Theo drawled. He gently shut the door, noticing that she wasn’t removing her coat. ‘Would you care for something to drink?’

‘No, thank you. I’ve just come to tell you that there is going to be a power cut tomorrow. Only for a few hours, but I’m afraid you won’t be able to use your computer. Or anything else, for that matter. Well, anything that relies on current, which is pretty much everything.’ Sophie smiled nervously while he continued to watch her through narrowed eyes. She wanted to edge towards the door but he had stayed put right in front of it. She knew that he wasn’t trying to hem her in. In fact, he seemed perfectly relaxed, almost friendly in a frankly too good-looking kind of way, if that was possible. He had obviously forgotten about the little incident, as she preferred to think of it, and she was immensely relieved about that.

‘You should back your book up,’ she advised.

‘Good idea. Thank you.’ In a minute she would make a bolt for it and Theo wasn’t having that. Now that he had made his mind up, a calm sense of purpose had settled over him. He took a couple of steps towards her and noticed how she flinched, as nervous as a kitten. What did she imagine he was going to do? The answer was as swift in coming as it was obvious. She was wary of him touching her. He wondered what scared her more—the thought of his touch or the prospect of her response.

Without guilt yapping at his heels, Theo felt a spurt of pure adrenaline rush through him as he contemplated the sweet scent of seduction.

If someone had told him a fortnight ago that he would have been looking at another woman like this, enjoying the anticipation of bedding her, he would have floored them for daring to insult the memory of the woman he had so nearly married.

Now his eyes drifted lazily over her face, appreciating the rise of delicate colour to her cheeks.

‘Am I making you nervous?’ he asked.

‘No! Why should you?’

‘Because the last time I saw you the situation between us got a little out of hand…’ He strolled towards her, hands in his pockets. ‘Neither of us meant it to.’ While he spoke, Theo maintained direct eye contact with her. She might be feisty, but she was also as gullible as hell and the combination was intriguing.

‘I’d…really rather not talk about it…’ Sophie stammered. She drew in a sharp breath and tilted her chin up.

‘Well, I’d quite like to…’ Theo said mildly. Now he was standing inches away from her. Yes, the door was clear but could she make a dash for it? No. Circumnavigating him would have been as straightforward as circumnavigating a mountain blindfolded and also, deliberately or not, he had thrown down a gauntlet. Discuss this, he seemed to be saying, or else risk being seen as running away.

‘Why?’ Sophie gulped. Her throat felt dry and she had to look away. His eyes were throwing her into a tizzy.

‘Look, why don’t we have some coffee? You have my word that I won’t lay a finger on you…Unless, of course, you ask…’

Sophie gasped at the softly spoken, intensely sexy offer and then realised that he must be joking. Probably just to gauge her reaction. She already knew that he thought her gauche and inexperienced and mouthy with it, and he would find it funny to wind her up. Come to think of it, there was something of the predator to him and didn’t predators enjoy playing with their victims before they moved in for the kill?

Sophie laughed shakily to herself at the fanciful train of thought.

But, when she met his eyes, she felt her skin begin to prickle in dreadful awareness. ‘Very funny,’ she managed to say in a strangled voice.

‘Come on. Your nervousness is making me nervous.’ His smile was reassuring. ‘Take the coat off. Now that the heating’s working it’s warm enough in here to walk around in shorts and a T-shirt. I didn’t think that old places could store heat that effectively.’ Suddenly it was vitally important that he didn’t frighten her away. This might just be his temporary salvation, just a sliver of normality unexpectedly offered to him, but he wanted it so badly it hurt.

That said, he would seduce but never force. That wasn’t his style and never could be. If she was truly wary enough to keep her distance, then he would accept it.

He contemplated returning to London, the same faces at the same society dos. He wondered whether this strange release he had found here would continue to work once he returned to normal life or whether he would be plunged back into the limbo he had left behind. Here, he thought of Elena but she didn’t haunt him.

He started walking away, not to the kitchen but towards the cosy sitting room, hoping she would follow. She didn’t. When he looked around, she was rooted to the same spot.

‘You’re not coming…’ Theo said with a touch of incredulity and Sophie maintained an admirably stony expression.

‘Very observant.’

‘Why not? I told you,’ he continued, trying to fight down the edginess creeping into his voice, ‘I won’t bite.’

‘And I told you that I don’t want to discuss the inappropriate situation that took place. If you can disrespect what I say, then I’m free to ignore what you say.’

Theo stared at her and wondered how the hell he could ever have thought her gullible. Her face was red with embarrassment but, hell, that hadn’t stopped her from speaking her mind.

‘We have to discuss it,’ he grated. She didn’t budge and, red-faced or not, she looked him squarely in the face and refused to back down. Theo was beginning to feel impotent in the face of such outright female lack of co-operation.

‘Why?’ Sophie asked.

‘Because…’he delivered his sentence with heavy-handed, thinly veiled patience ‘…you are my landlady. We’re going to need to meet occasionally and we need to get this out in the open, talk about it so that it doesn’t hang between us the way it’s doing now.’

‘It’s only hanging between us because you brought it up,’ Sophie pointed out. Going through her head was the thought that she had never been so achingly aware of a man in her life before. He oozed sex appeal and it didn’t seem fair. It was bad enough having a routine conversation with him, far less a conversation to do with sex. Just bracketing those two harmless words, Theo and sex, in the same sentence was enough to make her mind do all manner of wild leap-frogging.

‘It’s hanging between us because it happened!’

‘Yes, and I’m prepared to pretend it never did.’

Theo greeted this remark with stunned silence. In his world, at least the world he had once inhabited for years, in his carefree pre-Elena days, he had been able to play women with the finesse of a musician playing his instrument. It had always been a mutually enjoyable experience. The lazy talk of sex, dropped negligently into a conversation while his eyes expanded on the subject and promised pleasures that could only be guessed at.

‘I mean,’ Sophie took up the thread of her conversation, ‘discussing it and having a post mortem isn’t going to change anything. What we have to agree on is that nothing like that will take place again and I would appreciate it if you don’t…don’t…drop any innuendoes into the conversation. You might find it funny, but I don’t.’

Sophie weathered the silence which stretched between them with the tautness of tightly pulled elastic. She was beginning to think that she had misheard his earlier remark and misread the situation. And why, she thought with sudden agonising clarity, had she warned him not to touch her again? As if he couldn’t resist her womanly charms? No wonder he was standing there, lost for words and staring at her as though she had taken leave of her senses! Lord knew, he had probably wanted to give her a little speech about keeping her hands to herself!

She gathered herself together and pursed her lips. ‘Right. So I only came here to tell you about the electricity going. There’s a proper fireplace in the sitting room and also in the bedrooms, so if it gets very cold you are welcome to light them. I haven’t ordered in a huge amount of logs as yet but there are enough stacked by the fire downstairs to tide you over until the current comes back and the heating can go on again.’

‘I’m not likely to be using the bedroom in the morning, am I? So there should be no need for me to light a fire in it, and I think I’ll be able to manage for a few hours without falling into a state of hypothermia.’

Theo, piqued that his attempt at seduction had fallen crushingly flat, was at pains to sound as normal as possible but he was still bemused at the unsavoury and novel sensation of being blown out of the water.

And, now that she had said what she had to say, he could tell that she was itching to be off. And he should be more than happy to see the back of her, he decided. Fate might have ironically chosen to remind him at this point in time that he was still alive and still a healthy red-blooded male, but the woman was not worth pursuit. Least of all to a man who had never had the need to pursue any woman in his life before. Not, he mused, even Elena. She may have captured his heart with her delicate China doll prettiness and her sweetly subservient nature, but their attraction had been immediate and mutual. He frowned at the bristling little figure standing in front of him.

‘And how do you intend to while away the morning, considering all useful activity will grind to a halt while the power is off?’

‘Useful activity doesn’t necessarily mean work,’ Sophie pointed out.

‘You mean you won’t be cooped up in your office sifting through paperwork?’

‘Someone’s got to do it! You make it sound as though I actually enjoy sitting there, staring at piles of paper and wondering which bundle to go through first!’

‘Well, what would you rather do?’

‘Anything! Go for a walk on the beach! Get to see a movie for the first time in six months! Eat out at a fancy restaurant, which is something I haven’t done since forever! Sorry.’ She shrugged lightly, inviting him to laugh at her overblown response, but he didn’t. His eyes narrowed and he stared at her in silence.

‘Why are you sorry?’ he asked eventually. It seemed strange to be having a conversation with the width of the hallway separating them.

Sophie, wondering how it was that she was managing to have a conversation with the man when she had been literally on the way out, took a few steps towards the door. ‘Because I really should leave you to get on with your work,’ she said, constrained to be polite after her outburst earlier on. ‘I guess you might have to resort to longhand if you work tomorrow! Isn’t that always such a shock to the system when we’ve all become so accustomed to computers?’

She could feel the energy pulsing out of him as she neared him and finally arrived at the safe haven of the door handle. Sophie grasped it and turned round to glance at Theo over her shoulder.

‘They’re usually pretty reliable at predicting the hours of the power cuts, but let me know…’

‘…if I want anything. Yes, I think I’ve got that message by now…’

The problem was, he thought, as she vanished into the darkness, leaving him acutely aware of his very palpable frustration, the one thing he did want, she did not seem obliged to give him.