Читать книгу The Best Of The Year - Modern Romance 2016 - Эбби Грин, Кейт Хьюит - Страница 12
ОглавлениеAS PREDICTED, THE next day the centre pages of all the newspapers had been printed with at least half a dozen pictures of the loving couple. Whoever had taken the photos couldn’t have done better when it came to capturing angles that actually seemed to prove the lie that they were in love.
Theo’s arm was always around her. In several pictures Alexa was looking up at him, mouth parted, the very picture of an enraptured girlfriend—as opposed to wearing the teeth-clenched, resentful expression, which was a lot closer to the truth.
Cora Caldini, who was waiting for her when she emerged at a little after eight, had all the papers spread out on the massive dining room table and Alexa stifled a sigh.
‘I know this has all been unexpected for you,’ her mother said gently, ‘but there’s so much to be said for a whirlwind romance—and looking at these pictures...my darling, you sparkle.’
Alexa helped herself to coffee and a croissant from the basket of fresh bread on the sideboard. Sparkle? Did minnows sparkle in the presence of hungry, prowling sharks?
‘He’s certainly a force to contend with,’ Alexa forced herself to say. ‘And you’re right. It wasn’t...er...exactly what I had in mind when I thought about meeting the man of my dreams. In fact I’m a little dazed—because he’s just the sort of guy I never thought I’d...um...fall for. But...well...life is full of surprises, I guess...’
Unable to be more effusive than that, she scanned the photos once more and wondered whether the reporters had bothered with any other guests at all, or whether they had just decided to trail along behind Theo, snapping pictures.
‘Isn’t it...?’ Her mother beamed. ‘And sometimes surprises turn out all the better for being unexpected. It reminds me of when I met your father, as a matter of fact. Of course I’d seen him out and about, but at a distance, and when my parents arranged for us to meet face to face... Well, it really was love at first sight. He was nothing like what I’d expected, and I just fell for that rogue on the spot.’
Always mindful of the consultant’s warning words several months ago, in the wake of her mother’s third stroke, Alexa reluctantly decided to backtrack.
‘Theo’s...er...certainly not what I expected,’ she conceded. ‘I suppose he’s quite intelligent, and he has a certain amount of...er...charisma...’
‘Funny...your father likes him very much.’
Then perhaps he should marry Theo, Alexa thought nastily, surprising herself because she wasn’t an uncharitable person by nature.
‘That’s good.’
‘And I know you, my darling. You’re as headstrong as I was at your age. If you really didn’t like Theo I think we’d all know about it by now! You just don’t want to jinx anything—which is why you’re being reticent—and I completely understand. It took your father and I ages to have you, and I didn’t tell a soul I was pregnant until I couldn’t hide it any longer! So I won’t press you. Now, tell me what your plans are for today.’
Alexa told her mother and could immediately feel her tummy clench at the prospect of a few hours browsing for a ring and then having lunch in a trendy restaurant with him.
The memory of that blistering kiss the night before had preyed on her mind all night, and she had awoken determined to make sure that they kept a cool distance from one another when there was no one around.
Her thoughts drifted while her mother chatted about rings and reflected on how fast she and Carlo had progressed from that first meeting—marrying within three months and never regretting a day of their long and happy marriage.
Naturally Alexa had known that the man was good-looking. But why did he have to be so good-looking? Averagely good-looking would have been all right. She felt that she might have been able to cope with that. But something about Theo De Angelis sparked a reaction in her that burned as fierce as a conflagration.
She didn’t understand it. It didn’t make sense, And it unsettled her. Scared her, even—although what was there to be scared about?
She surfaced to catch the tail-end of her mother informing her that Theo was going to be dashing off to New York—apparently called away on business. Carlo had wanted to show him around the electronics plant later in the week, talk men stuff, but unfortunately it was a visit that would have to wait.
‘He never mentioned that,’ Alexa murmured, brightening. ‘When? Exactly?’
‘Tomorrow, I believe. Your father called him first thing this morning about a visit to the plant and it seems that an emergency blew up overnight. So he wouldn’t have mentioned anything to you when you were out.’
‘I don’t suppose you know how long he’ll be away, do you, Mother?’
‘A week at the very least... I’m sure he’ll be most apologetic when he sees you later and will explain it all himself. If there’s one thing I can say for Stefano’s son it’s that he’s an extremely polite young man...’
Good humour restored on the back of the heartening news that she was going to have a break from Theo, Alexa spent the remainder of the morning looking through her law books, making sure her brain was still ticking over. She dealt with a variety of problems at the shelter on a daily basis, and some of them were practical—questions pertaining to government allowances, retrieving cash from runaway partners, applying for social housing. It paid to keep abreast of the law, and it was no great hardship because she enjoyed it anyway.
At precisely eleven-thirty she got dressed, but she didn’t rush.
This time, her spirits light because with Theo out of the country for maybe as long as a fortnight she would at least have some respite from his dangerously incendiary personality, choosing what to wear was far less of a chore than it had been the evening before.
Jeans, but smart black ones, a cream silk camisole top, because it was beautifully warm outside, and flat black pumps. Everything was brand-new, and she was in a good mood when, at twelve sharp, the doorbell rang and she forestalled her mother to answer it.
This time there was no driver, which was even better—because with Theo driving she would be spared those intense, speculative green eyes on her.
‘You’re in a good mood,’ he said flatly, starting the engine of a Ferrari and easing it out of the courtyard towards the buzzing town centre. ‘Why does that make me instantly suspicious?’
Alexa relaxed against the passenger’s door, her head resting on the window, rolled up thanks to the air-conditioning which kept the temperature wonderfully cool.
She absently noted his strong jawline and the sharp beauty of his lean face, in profile now as he focused on the road. He was wearing black sunglasses and a navy blue polo shirt and cream trousers. He looked impossibly elegant.
She tugged her eyes away from him, simultaneously deciding that this was just the sort of thing that had to stop—this mindless staring at him—and again applauding the fact that he was going to be away for the next few days. Plenty of time during which she could recover her equilibrium.
‘I have no idea,’ Alexa said chirpily. ‘Doesn’t every girl like going out shopping for her engagement ring?’
Theo glanced narrowly at her, then relaxed and smiled. ‘Indeed. That would explain your good mood. You’re right. I have yet to meet a woman whose heart doesn’t beat faster at the prospect of all things bridal...’
Alexa scowled, because her saccharine-sweet sarcastic rejoinder had clearly backfired. ‘I honestly don’t think we should waste much time traipsing through shops in search of a diamond ring,’ she told him loftily.
‘Agreed.’ He put the fast car into cruise mode and relaxed in his seat. ‘There’s no need for us to be seen going from one shop to another in search of the perfect ring. We’ve already got all the press coverage we need. Speculation is rife that marriage is in the air... If we went to the corner shop and bought a plastic washer it would probably be enough.’
Alexa grimaced as she recalled the spread of newspapers her mother had neatly laid out on the table for her perusal. ‘Maybe they’ll leave us alone now?’ She breathed a sigh of relief at the thought.
‘I expect they’ll only leave us alone when there’s a chunky wedding ring on your finger. Before then there are infinite possibilities for our relationship to crash and burn—and disasters always make better headlines.’
‘Why would they assume that it will crash and burn?’ How on earth did real celebrities survive? she wondered. Without going completely mad? ‘And who cares if our relationship crashes and burns anyway? Who’s interested?’
Alexa was genuinely bewildered, because she might come from a wealthy background but—of her choosing—she was as noticeable as wallpaper. Theo might be similarly rich, with the added bonus of his looks, but he wasn’t a star...was he...?
Theo shrugged. ‘Don’t know. Don’t care. I just know how the world of media operates and I deal with it. So if you don’t want some trigger-happy reporter to shoot you leaving the house without your make-up, be warned.’
‘I honestly don’t care.’
Theo found an empty space in a crowded square around which designer shops extended outwards in ripples—layers of them, sandwiched between cafés and restaurants. In the centre of the square a trio of mythological creatures figured in bronze cavorted in the centre of an enormous fountain.
He turned to her and said, with utter seriousness, ‘You don’t, do you?’
‘No. Do you?’
‘I’m a man. I don’t tend to go out wearing make-up. Well, not unless I have to. Sometimes after a long night at work I find a bit of foundation under the eyes...’
Alexa felt her mouth twitch and she grinned shyly and reluctantly at him.
He killed the engine, but she got the impression that there were more questions he wanted to ask her. It felt as if he had been testing her boundary lines...placing one foot over the perimeter of her electric fence, threatening to make inroads. That made her shiver a little.
‘Right,’ he said briskly. ‘Engagement ring.’
In case she started falling behind him he curled his fingers into her hair and pressed his hand to the nape of her neck, gently making sure she kept up with him and slowing his naturally long stride to accommodate her much shorter one.
People turned and looked.
They clearly didn’t know exactly who Theo was, but Alexa could almost see their brains churning, trying to figure out why he was famous—because he just had to be, looking the way he did.
Something weird rippled through her. A surge of pride. That he was with her.
They bypassed the first three jeweller’s they came to and went directly to the fourth, which was little more than a nondescript door leading into a shop that was barely visible from the street outside.
‘How on earth do you know about this place?’
‘You’re a woman. How on earth do you not?’ From behind his dark shades Theo looked down at her upturned face, amused. ‘Have you made it your life’s mission to avoid leading the sort of life you were expected to lead?’
‘I’m not into expensive jewellery. Do you come here with your girlfriends?’
She was acutely conscious of his fingers, still in her hair, absently stroking her neck. It sent shivers racing up and down her spine, and she had to forcibly remind herself just how over the moon she was that he would be disappearing to salvage his business deal and she wouldn’t have to put up with these public shows of phoney affection.
Theo paused. ‘Quite some time ago a woman I was dating dragged me here and made a point of telling me how exquisite and expensive the jewellery was.’
‘So you bought her a diamond ring?’ Alexa squeaked.
‘Quite some time ago’ implied that the woman he had been dating might have been her age, and she was struck again at just how sheltered a life she had led—more interested in her studies than in getting a guy to buy her baubles and trinkets...waiting for love to knock on her door and refusing to spread herself thin in the meanwhile...
‘I broke off the relationship,’ Theo returned wryly. ‘I didn’t like the direction it was taking.’
Alexa stopped dead in her tracks. ‘You must hate this,’ she said with sudden force. ‘Being trapped into marrying me.’
‘The rewards outweigh the inconvenience,’ Theo said, fighting an urge to brush the hair blowing softly around her face from her eyes. ‘And your dowry is certainly a healthy incentive.’
Feeling like cattle that had been successfully bartered to a new master, Alexa spun round on her heels and pushed open the door to the jewellery shop—which was as unprepossessing on the inside as it was on the outside.
‘Take your time,’ Theo urged as they were ushered into comfortable chairs and the process of displaying rings began.
The owner of the shop was small, thin and extremely knowledgeable. He seemed to know everything there was to know about diamonds, and tray after tray was brought, with rings nestling in beds of velvet, unpriced and therefore probably priceless.
Since it wasn’t a real engagement Alexa didn’t care which ring she wore, but it would be ridiculous to choose something that was big and ostentatious.
‘What is your preference?’ She turned to look at Theo, who was lounging in the chair, his long legs stretched out to one side, lightly crossed at the ankles. ‘Why don’t you choose?’
Theo linked his fingers on his washboard-flat stomach and looked at the proprietor with a knowing, man-to-man grin.
‘Women!’ He shook his head with an expression of rueful indulgence. ‘As if my opinion would count for anything!’
He stroked her back with one possessive hand and his fingers lingered for fractionally too long on her bra strap. Alexa kept a smile pinned to her face and wriggled a little to dislodge his over-inquisitive hand.
‘The women do usually take the lead when it comes to choosing jewellery, sir.’
The proprietor returned Theo’s smile and Alexa gritted her teeth as Theo patted her a couple of times on her back and then linked his fingers lightly on his lap once again.
‘And this feisty little lady knows that she can have whatever she wants! So what do you want?’ He looked at her with lazy, sexy bedroom eyes. ‘Your wish is my command...’
‘If only that were true,’ Alexa returned pointedly.
She bared her teeth in a smile and hoped that he was sharp enough to read the hidden message, which was along the lines of If my wish was your command, you would be on the other side of the world...
Without warning, Theo leaned forward and quickly, but far too effectively, planted a kiss on her mouth.
Their eyes tangled and she realised, heart beating frantically, that he knew exactly what she had been implying and had duly punished her with that kiss.
To add insult to injury, as she returned her attention to the tray in front of her, she felt his big hand rest on her leg and then, shockingly, move upwards, curving over the sensitive skin of her inner thigh and sending a frisson of electric response through her.
Perspiration beaded her upper lip. She snapped her legs shut and pointed to any ring on the tray—she didn’t even notice which one she had chosen.
‘That’ll do!’
Theo’s hand on her thigh tightened.
‘Perfect choice, if I may say so myself...’
The proprietor reverently removed it from its velvet bed and they listened to his rhapsodies about the purity of the diamond and the rarity of its setting. They were asked to pay attention to the tiny details in the band, which marked it out as a one-off. Alexa was made to try it on. Measurements were painstakingly taken.
The ring cost a small fortune, so it wasn’t hard to understand why the whole process was taking for ever.
‘That’ll do...?’ It was the first thing Theo said as they made their way out of the shop.
‘Your hand was on my leg,’ Alexa said stiffly. And his arm was around her shoulders now. The public face of unity was back in place, although her body was as rigid as a plank of wood.
‘Perfectly natural,’ Theo purred, giving her shoulder a little squeeze as he guided her to one of the hippest cafés in the area—a place where people went to be seen. ‘You’re my fiancée. Of course I’m going to want to touch you. Frankly, I can’t keep my hands off you...’
It was a load of nonsense, but Alexa still shivered with an illicit little thrill.
Her treacherous mind wondered what it must be like to have this sinfully sexy guy say those words and mean them...
What would it feel like to actually know that he couldn’t keep his hands off her...?
Her eyes skittered across to him—a quick glance at his face, once again shielded behind his sunglasses. Then, rebelling against all common sense, she noted the width of his shoulders, the lean muscularity of his body, the strength of his forearms and the way his dark hair curled around the dull metal of his watch strap.
She found herself drinking him in and felt her nervous system ratcheting up a notch.
In a couple of days she would be wearing a large diamond rock on her finger. Speculation, such as there was, would be over and she would be officially engaged to the guy now attracting stares from every single woman under the age of eighty and over the age of eighteen.
She was short and unspectacular. He was physical perfection. Even if he did get under her skin in ways that made her want to scream, there was no way that she could deny the sheer beauty of the man.
Was it any wonder that he was taking all this in his stride? He was accustomed to women. A phoney engagement wouldn’t faze him and he would be particularly incentivised by the carrot at the end of the stick. He didn’t need yet more money, but since when did the wealthy ever turn down the opportunity to add to their bank vaults? Never.
As expected, every head swivelled in their direction, and Alexa saw one very leggy blonde disengage herself from her group of friends and make a beeline in their direction.
She stifled a groan.
The blonde stalked towards them, her sharp bob expertly cut and dropping squarely to her shoulders. Even in flats she was close to six foot, and wearing next to nothing. She was rake-thin, flat as a pancake, and had the longest legs Alexa had ever seen—and most of those long legs were exposed because her skirt barely covered her underwear.
Her body language said it all as she chose to ignore Alexa completely, focusing one hundred per cent of her blue-eyed attention on Theo. Surely it couldn’t be true? The blonde ran her china blue eyes dismissively over Alexa. The press had it all wrong, hadn’t they?
‘I mean, I just can’t believe it!’ she squeaked, sliding him a naughty smile that was designed to eliminate Alexa from the conversation.
She placed a flattened palm on his chest and shimmied a little closer. Her hair was so silky and so unbelievably blonde that Alexa could only stare in wonder.
‘Andrea...’ Theo caught the blonde’s hand, halted it firmly in its tracks and held it slightly at a distance before dropping it. It was a gesture that was cool and indifferent. Alexa would have been mortified. The blonde remained perky and upbeat. ‘I’d like you to meet Alexa...’
‘You’re really short, aren’t you?’
‘Alexa is my fiancée.’ Theo’s voice was soft, silky, glacial. ‘And now, before I start getting annoyed at your interruption, I suggest you take yourself back to your group of friends.’
For a few seconds the blonde was nonplussed. Alexa almost, but not quite, felt sorry for her. In her world she would rule supreme, but with a few words from Theo she was reduced to a woman of no standing.
‘You don’t mean that...’
She tried for provocative and Alexa, with a stab of pure womanly satisfaction, could have told her that she had made a mistake. One look at Theo’s shuttered face should have sent the blonde running for cover.
‘I mean it, Andrea. I’m giving you two seconds. You don’t leave...you see that big guy, standing on the corner...?’
Andrea left, head held high, long, slim body taut with anger and wounded pride.
‘I don’t mind leaving if you feel that you might be uncomfortable here...’ Alexa hovered, uncertain as to what to say in the wake of that dramatic scene.
Theo looked down at her, bemused. ‘Why would I feel uncomfortable?’
He signalled with a nod to a hassled-looking waitress, who immediately patted her hair and plastered a smile on her face when she spotted him. Every other customer apparently forgotten, she dashed over to them and cleared a path to a table at the back of the restaurant.
‘It’s reserved,’ the waitress confided with a giggle, ‘but I’ll sort something else out for the women who reserved it...’
Alexa automatically opened her mouth to protest, but Theo was already sitting and ordering a bottle of wine for them to share without looking at the menu.
‘Why do you think I would feel uncomfortable?’ he asked again, as soon as she was seated. ‘And stop looking guilty because someone else had reserved this table. That charming little waitress said she’d sort it out—let’s let her do her job.’
‘Her job isn’t to pander to customers who haven’t booked a table.’
‘Not my problem.’ He shrugged. ‘Now, moving on...’
Alexa sighed. The man was utterly impossible. The more time she spent in his company, the more cemented that impression became.
‘I guess that woman must be one of your girlfriends and I just thought it might be awkward for you to be in the same place as she is when you know she’ll probably be gossiping about you to her friends...’
Theo was looking utterly relaxed. ‘You guess correctly,’ he said, pushing back his chair to accommodate his long body. ‘Ex-girlfriend. Barely lasted a month, if you want the truth. The woman turned out to be a bunny-boiler. What started as a little bit of fun with a reasonably attractive woman turned into a dozen phone calls a day and attempts to get into my diary to make sure I wasn’t seeing anyone else...’
Andrea had wanted a hell of a lot more than he had been prepared to give. Big mistake. On the love front...he had nothing to give. He’d seen what unrestrained emotions did to a guy—had seen the way his mother’s death had destroyed his father...the way it had left a great gaping hole in his and Daniel’s lives. No. Frothy, dewy-eyed looks from women were the ultimate turn-off to him, and trying to get anything more out of him than passion was their fastest way to the exit.
Alexa’s mind had become stuck on his description of the blonde bombshell as a ‘reasonably attractive woman’.
What on earth did he consider stunning? Were his values so much different from everyone else’s because of the way he looked? What on earth must he think of her?
‘Some women are possessive, I guess...’ she said.
Wine had been brought to the table and poured into oversized goblets and she took a sip of the chilled liquid and then stared at the glass—which seemed less fraught with potential danger than staring at him and getting into a mental muddle.
Theo nodded. He found it amazing that a life of luxury and wealth appeared to have had so little effect on the woman sitting opposite him. The privileges which should have turned her into the sort of vain, self-obsessed young woman he met every day of the week in his social circles seemed to have had the opposite effect. Frankly, and against all odds, she roused his curiosity.
‘I’ve always found it a healthy option to stay away from those,’ Theo drawled. ‘Life’s too short to waste any of it with a woman who wants to micro-manage my life. No, I don’t give a damn if Andrea is sitting five inches away from us, gossiping with her friends.The only thing Andrea will tell anyone is that I am now engaged.’
‘Engaged to someone short.’
He laughed, and his cool green eyes skirted over her flushed face. ‘There’s no law about falling in love with someone who doesn’t fit the insane prototype other people have come up with,’ he murmured.
No, Alexa thought, and as he had pointed out they made the perfect society match. Two prominent families united in marriage. Who would think to scratch beneath the surface to see two individuals who couldn’t have been less suited?
‘How is it that you have never settled down?’ she asked with blunt curiosity.
It was an extremely personal question—but why not? There would be occasions they spent together away from the spotlight, and they couldn’t lapse into silence whenever they were together, could they? It would make living together extremely difficult—even if their living together would be taking place in opposite wings of whatever house they ended up living in...
She wondered whether they might not end up being friends, and then nearly laughed hysterically at that notion—because the man was just too much, too larger than life, to be considered a potential buddy. Potential buddies didn’t make you feel as though you were standing on the edge of a precipice, looking down. Buddies were comfortable to be around, unthreatening, safe...
Theo looked at her consideringly. Out of the corner of his eye he could see his ex-girlfriend shooting venomous looks in their direction. He wanted to grin, because he knew that the single thing that would enrage Andrea and all those women like her—all those beautiful, arrogantly self-assured women he had dated in the past—was the fact that he was engaged to someone they would consider downright plain.
The fact that Alexa had been born to privilege would make little difference. Beautiful women were notoriously superficial when it came to judging other women, by standards that were almost always according to looks.
He felt a sudden surge of protectiveness towards his fake wife-to-be.
He reached forward and stroked the side of her face, linking his fingers through hers at the same time.
Another public display of affection, Alexa thought as her heart picked up a frantic pace. And particularly appropriate given that their actions were being minutely watched by an ex-girlfriend who would be busy spreading the news that the most eligible man on the planet had been caught.
An ex-girlfriend who was probably appalled and stunned that he had been stupid enough to fall for someone like her...
Alexa had always known that when it came to looks she could only ever aspire to be average. She didn’t have razor-sharp cheekbones or long, thirty-four-inch legs or shiny poker-straight hair. She had never felt comfortable in revealing clothes and largely avoided wearing anything that was too bright or too eye-catching.
And yet here she was. Engaged to a man who could have any woman he wanted with the crook of one imperious finger.
Okay, so it might all be pretend, but just for a moment she felt something wicked steal into her. A purely feminine response kicked into gear. His fingers were still entwined with hers and she slowly lifted them to her lips and grazed his knuckles with her mouth.
Heat flared in Theo’s eyes. She could almost hear his sharply indrawn breath.
Alexa felt a rush of unfamiliar daring. She raised her eyes to his and held his stare, watched the way his slow smile transformed his face and tried hard not to panic when he leaned in close to her, creating a little bubble of intense intimacy between them.
Nerves threatened to overtake her, but she could feel the blonde’s glassy blue eyes boring into her back and that gave her the impetus she needed to lean right into him. To offer her lips to him.
And when he kissed her she responded with an enthusiastic lack of inhibition. She slid her tongue against his and stifled a little moan as, eyes closed, she indulged in naked, forbidden desire.
This was what was expected of her. She was his fiancée. He had confirmed that to an ex-girlfriend, who would have been surprised if they had continued sitting opposite one another making polite conversation. Theo De Angelis was an intensely physical man. You just had to look at him to know that. So kissing him like this, curling her hand into his hair, was only to be expected.
She was just playing the part she had been commissioned to play!
It was liberating to think that she wasn’t doing anything out of the ordinary.
It was permission granted to sink into a kiss that was...explosive.
When she pulled back she knew that she was shaking a little, and she licked her lips and forced a smile.
‘Just for show,’ she mumbled, and Theo raised his eyebrows.
‘I like it,’ he murmured softly. ‘I sense a change from all those other displays of affection you didn’t seem to enjoy—or was I wrong about that...? Were you actually burning up and looking for a few encores?’
‘Of course not!’ Her mouth was still tingling from that searing kiss. ‘But...’
‘But you thought you’d take the opportunity to get one up on the delectable ex-girlfriend who’s been shooting you daggers behind your back...?’
‘Of course not!’ But she blushed furiously.
Theo grinned. ‘Trust me, I don’t have a problem with your reasoning.’
‘I...I hope you don’t think that was anything but acting,’ Alexa breathed forcefully. ‘It’s just that you’ve announced that we’re engaged... I thought it would look odd if we didn’t act like a newly engaged couple. I mean...you’re the one who’s kept telling me that we have to make this stupid charade look real...’
‘Of course...’ He paused, wondering just how real he would like the charade to be. Complications aside... ‘And I’m heartened that you’re now in such a positive mindset,’ he told her, ‘because I should tell you that I’ve been called away on business. I will be out of the country for a week. Maybe a bit less...maybe a bit longer. It’s hard to tell because this is a complex deal...’
‘I know.’
‘You do?’
‘My mother broke the news while she was poring over all the pictures of us together at that art opening we attended last night. Don’t worry...’ Now, more than ever, Alexa was looking forward to a few days on her own—away from his powerful, charismatic personality and the weirdness of their situation. ‘I’ll make sure to keep the home fires of the newly engaged couple burning...’
‘You won’t have to do that,’ Theo informed her kindly.
‘I won’t?’
‘Don’t be silly. How could you think for a moment that I would want you out of my sight for an hour, never mind a week...? No, there will be no need to keep those home fires burning, because you will be right there with me...by my side...’
