Читать книгу Mistress by Mistake - Ким Лоренс, KIM LAWRENCE - Страница 6

‘WE DON’T have to…you know…?’

Eve took pity on the teenage youth, who was looking more like the traditional sacrificial victim by the second. ‘Kiss? Definitely not,’ she said firmly. A ghost of a smile touched her lips as, with an unflattering sigh of relief, he slumped farther back onto the leather Chesterfield, his thin shoulders hunched.

‘Nothing personal,’ he added gruffly, casting a quick glance in her direction, just to see if she was holding up to the weight of his rejection.

‘Don’t fret. I’ll live,’ she promised with a gravity that was belied by the humorous light in her wide-spaced dark brown eyes.

It said a lot about her brother’s powers of persuasion, she thought, experiencing a tweak of resentful admiration for her manipulative sibling, that they were both sitting there like a pair of ill-matched bookends on Daniel Beck’s parents’ sofa, in Daniel Beck’s parents’ rather awesomely magnificent house. Eve was trying hard not to be over-awed by her surroundings. She hadn’t realised until today what sort of background her brother’s quiet, earnest friend came from. Everything in this magnificent house spoke of taste and money—serious money.

She doubted the black silky bias-cut creation that clung to her slim hips and thighs was the only designer label this particular sofa had seen. It was certainly the only designer label her body had ever worn—or was ever likely to for that matter!

That wasn’t just because her income didn’t run to such luxuries; Eve chose her clothes for comfort rather than impact. Her wardrobe boasted one skirt, which she wheeled out for weddings, funerals and interviews with her bank manager. She probably looked just as uncomfortable as poor Daniel, who was looking—well, frankly he looked ready to bolt!

‘Not long now,’ she said, glancing at the chunky, utilitarian watch on her wrist—a watch that definitely didn’t match her slinky outfit. Nick hadn’t exactly said synchronise watches, but he’d still managed to instil a strong sense of edge-of-the-seat tension when he’d given his detailed instructions.

‘Oh, God!’

My thought exactly! She summoned a smile that was meant to be maternal and comforting. The maternal part wasn’t that difficult, chronologically a mere five years might separate her from this boy, but in every other way she felt centuries older!

‘How long are your parents away for, Daniel?’ I’ll kill Nick for talking me into this, she decided as her high, curving cheekbones began to ache from the effort of smiling. What’ll I do if he faints before they all get here? Or, worse still, throws up over the carpet—a carpet that incidentally looks far too rich and sumptuous to actually walk on. The voice of impending doom in her head was growing stronger by the second.

‘Mum’s book tour of the States lasts another week or so,’ he said listlessly. ‘Dad might come back a few days early—business, you know.’

I could do with him walking through that door right now, she thought, eyeing the wooden panelled entrance hopefully. On the few occasions she’d met Alan Beck he’d seemed a really warm, friendly person, who’d be quite capable of sorting out his son’s problems without any outside help.

‘Lucky them. I wouldn’t mind being there now.’ Being anywhere would be an improvement on here. Soft-hearted? I must be soft-headed!

‘Mum doesn’t like being away from home.’

With this home who can blame her? Eve thought with a tinge of envy. Next month she’d make herself afford that paint they needed for the kitchen. She didn’t actually need a new winter jacket; the old one was more than adequate.

‘Not like Uncle Drew. He’s been everywhere.’

Not Uncle Drew! Eve’s groan was hastily transformed into a soft grunt of interest, which was enough to encourage Daniel to expand eagerly on the theme—she’d known it would be. Her expression glazed over slightly as he warmed to his subject, his pale features becoming animated as he extolled the virtues of his hero.

Eve knew all about Uncle Drew. She could have written a thesis on the man and all the daring, manly things he apparently excelled at! Since the uncle had moved in while his parents were away he’d been Daniel’s main—no, only topic of conversation, with the exception of the predicament this crazy charade was meant to extricate him from.

To Eve, Uncle Drew sounded as if he had a bad case of arrested development. She could easily imagine him as an indulged rich kid growing into just the sort of brash, immature action-man type she couldn’t stomach—a prize pain in the posterior!

She gave a small shudder of distaste as she mentally contemplated carefully nurtured biceps and an outsize ego. She strongly suspected half his supposed exploits were very probably fictional. He had to be the world’s worst role model for a sensitive type of boy like Daniel, who already had a budding inferiority complex about his lack of sporting ability.

‘Uncle Drew says…’ Daniel suddenly froze mid-sentence, and she was spared further worshipful detail. ‘They’re coming up the drive,’ he breathed. His eyes were fixed, horror-struck, on the view through the window of the sweeping drive. ‘I can see them! What’ll we do?’

‘Right, don’t panic,’ Eve said as her stomach did a nervous back flip. ‘Mess up your hair,’ she said, regarding him with a critical frown. Ignoring her brother’s parting instruction of, ‘For God’s sake, Evie, show a bit of leg,’ she automatically pulled down the black fabric of the short dress she was wearing.

‘What?’

‘Like this,’ she said, rubbing her hands impatiently through the short wavy ebony strands of her own soft, silky cap of hair. ‘Here, let me,’ she said with ill-concealed exasperation. She leant forward and rumpled the teenager’s straggly blond locks. ‘Put an arm around me, or something; make it look as if we’ve been…kissing.’

Daniel made a couple of vague movements towards her. ‘I can’t. I’ve never…’

You and me both, mate, she thought, managing a small ironic grin. ‘Don’t worry, I’ll show you what to do.’ A classic case of the blind leading the blind!

‘I just bet you would, sweetheart.’ The deep, cold voice made her start violently. ‘But I don’t think Daniel requires instruction from the likes of you.’ There was the touch of the surgeon’s scalpel to the insulting glance that flickered comprehensively over her tall, athletically slender figure.

He summed her up in glance: this was no gauche schoolgirl; this was a woman who knew what she was doing—and the fact that she planned to do it with his nephew caused Drew Cummings’ protective instincts to go into overdrive.

‘Likes of me?’ Just what the hell did he mean by that? Eve looked indignantly towards the intruder. She didn’t have to be particularly intuitive to know that she wouldn’t like it, whatever it was!

Even as she was being pulled unceremoniously off the sofa Eve realised she was at last making the acquaintance of the dreadful Uncle Drew. Even if she hadn’t, Daniel’s faltering, ‘I thought you were out,’ would have clinched it.

It turned out she’d been wrong to assume Daniel had exaggerated his uncle’s physical attributes. The muscles in the arms that were manhandling her were seriously well developed, and the chest she stumbled against was rock-hard—it was also still damp. Uncle Drew had obviously strolled into the room directly from the shower. One towel was looped far too casually for her liking around his slim waist, another was draped over his shoulders. Her sensitive nose quivered as she was treated to a heavy dose of a clean, sharp masculine odour.

‘One day you’ll be glad I wasn’t, Dan.’ Drew Cummings flicked a quick, wry grin in his nephew’s direction before turning his attention back to Eve. His expression grew openly contemptuous. ‘Sorry, sweetheart.’ Eyes big and soft as a startled fawn’s stared back at him, all confusion and innocence. Innocence? That was rich! ‘But, unlike Dan, I’m not interested in providing a shoulder for the likes of you.’

A flash of anger flickered into the beautiful dark eyes which had been made even more exotic by skilfully applied make-up. ‘Though it didn’t look like you were having much luck in that direction from what I saw,’ he recalled with a taunting half-smile. ‘Besides, it seems to me like you’ve got more than enough leg to support yourself.’ His eyes moved consideringly over her legs, clad in fine denier, as he set her on her own feet.

‘Guilt’ had to be written in mile-high letters across her forehead she decided drearily, with subtitles of ‘scarlet woman’ and ‘cradle-snatcher’ for good measure.

Under the circumstances she was prepared to swallow his crude insults—just. Even though the snide, sneering superiority of this man made her want to scream. She told herself she had to remember that anyone could and probably would have misread the situation. He was going to feel pretty silly when he knew what was happening, and it was probably time she put him straight. The thought of Drew Cummings feeling silly was a warm thought to cling to when she felt she was drowning in her own humiliation.

‘This isn’t what it looks like, Mr Cummings.’ Calm composure was the best way to defuse this unpleasant situation, she told herself hopefully. Unpleasant, Eve? Who are you kidding, girl? This is on par with nightmares of walking around a supermarket stark naked!

‘You know my name?’ The blue eyes narrowed suspiciously. ‘You do your research.’

Name, shoe size, favourite colour… ‘Daniel talks about you all the time.’

I bet he does, Drew thought, his eyes slipping of their own volition back to the incredible length of this girl’s legs. He’d yet to meet a teenage male who wouldn’t tell a female who looked as sleekly sexy as this one just about anything she wanted to know. He could recall all too well what it was like to be ruled by rioting hormones.

She wasn’t the type he personally went for, he preferred petite and blonde, but it wasn’t hard to see what Dan saw in her. The girl herself obviously had a good nose for money. Call him cynical, but he felt pretty confident about ruling out emotional involvement on her side. One thing was certain: she wasn’t getting her hooks any deeper into his nephew.

‘That gives you the advantage.’ Eve found his smile more threatening than any abuse he might have hurled at her head. ‘No, don’t tell me your name.’

If Katie ever found out about this he was dead meat. His sister was very protective—over-protective, some might say—of her only child. It had taken all her husband’s persuasive powers to convince her that her younger brother was a fit temporary guardian for their son’s physical and moral welfare.

‘I wasn’t going…’ Eve began hotly. Advantage! If she’d ever been in a situation that had made her feel less advantaged she couldn’t recall it right now.

The way he’d looked at her—as if she was a piece of meat! She shuddered, and shook her head from side to side as a wave of dizzying fury washed away her last idiotic impulse to apologise. No man had ever looked at her like that before.

This musclebound bully wasn’t what she’d pictured—he was worse! God, but she wished he’d put some clothes on. It was nigh on impossible to avert her eyes from that bare golden-brown flesh; there was so much of it! His shoulders and deeply muscled chest were extraordinarily wide in proportion to his slim hips. Hips that looked far too lean to stop that towel from obeying the laws of gravity. She doubted if the blushes would be his if the unthinkable occurred; modesty wasn’t one of the characteristics that leapt to mind when you looked at this man! Now if you were talking insufferable arrogance and smug superiority—that was another matter!

Was the hair on man’s body normally a shade darker than that on his head? In this man’s case a deeper shade of antique gold. The warm, squirmy, unpleasant feeling in the pit of her belly grew unaccountably more intense, and she swiftly raised the level of her eyes—and her thoughts too!

Even in these stupid heels she still had to look up at him, which was a novelty for her, and one she didn’t enjoy. He had to be at least six-four or five, she estimated. Concentrating on his face didn’t improve her growing sense of antipathy. His angular jaw was hard and uncompromisingly set, and his features, from heavy-lidded startling blue eyes to firm, sculpted mouth, managed miraculously to combine regularity with an individuality which made it impossible to dismiss him as just a pretty face.

If he sneered once more she might just give in to the growing desire to throw an unladylike punch.

‘Oh, but you are going—and now.’ The soft observation left no room for negotiation.

‘Uncle Drew, don’t!’ Daniel discovered his voice as his uncle’s hand fell heavily on Eve’s shoulder. ‘You don’t understand.’

Some of the implacable hardness died from Drew’s eyes as he looked towards his nephew’s horrified face. ‘I understand, all right. At best she’s a tart with a heart, Dan—at worst a predatory little bitch who targets boys like you because anyone with a bit more experience can see past her innocent eyes, beautiful face and sexy body.’ It was obvious from the contemptuous curl of his lips as he glanced at Eve which version he favoured.

Sexy body! Eve was so stunned by this assessment that all that emerged from her lips by way of defence was a strangled croak.

‘When I came in it looked to me like you were having second thoughts. Am I right, Dan?’

‘Yes, But not… She’s…’ the boy began, throwing Eve a horrified look of apology.

Eve looked at the stuttering boy and willed him to spit out the explanation. Since when did I need people to speak for me? she thought as she was hit by a wave of self-disgust for this display of wimpish behaviour.

‘You don’t want to learn the stale tricks she can teach you, Dan. Some day you’ll understand that fumbling can be a lot of fun, especially when you’re both fumbling.’

Eve, taken aback by this unexpected recommendation, caught herself thinking he looked almost human for a second. Was it the memory of a girl he’d fumbled with that brought a quite unexpectedly bleak expression to his eyes? Much more likely it was indigestion, she told herself, dismissing this fanciful notion; he wasn’t the type to get mushy and nostalgic about old flames.

The notion of his perfect uncle being personally acquainted with fumbling robbed Daniel of his last remaining powers of articulation.

If Nick and his companions, carefully selected for their ability to spread gossip, hadn’t entered the room at that moment Eve had no doubts she’d have been ignominiously expelled from the house.

Nick Gordon didn’t have to call on his excellent acting ability to display shock. After a brief moment of startled amazement, tinged by a degree of irritation that his excellent plan would have to be ditched, he swiftly assessed the situation and recovered his poise. Damage limitation was the best he could hope for, he decided regretfully.

‘Clear out, you lot,’ he announced casually.

It didn’t occur to Nick that his contemporaries wouldn’t follow his instructions. He didn’t even glance around to see them leave. Eve found herself envying her sibling’s casual ability to inspire obedience.

‘What’s going on here?’

‘Nick, isn’t it?’ Drew Cummings looked at the tall dark boy with a frown of recognition. ‘Did you have anything to do with this little initiation ceremony?’

‘You all right, Eve?’ Nick said anxiously, ignoring the older man. She looked a bit fraught. Eve took everything so seriously. She really should lighten up, he decided disapprovingly, but he’d never have asked for her help if he’d known it was going to upset her like this.

‘Does it look like I’m all right?’ All right? Eve bit back a hysterical giggle that rose inappropriately to her tight throat. ‘Will you sort this out—now, Nick?’ Her soft, attractive voice rose a quavering octave.

‘You know this girl, then?’ Drew was looking from brother to sister with hard suspicion. Conspiracy theories began to solidify suspiciously in his head.

‘Of course I know her. She’s my sister.’

‘Do you get your kid brother to pimp for you often, angel?’

A gasp that came from somewhere was loud in the pregnant silence. Eve turned her head and had the brief impression of scalding scorn in those impossibly blue eyes. When Nick’s plans went wrong they did so thoroughly, but this present situation was in league of its own.

Let him sort it out. She was out of here. Her first faltering steps turned into a sprint hampered only by the ridiculous heels. She knew her tears were only the irritating outward display of sheer, inarticulate fury, but she wasn’t going to let this monster see them and think otherwise.

The door she’d been hammering on for almost the past five minutes finally swung open. Eve watched Theo’s expression change from initial lack of recognition to open-mouthed shock.

‘Say a word and you’re dead,’ she promised him venomously, just as the grin was beginning to form. ‘I forgot my key.’

The grin was swiftly deleted. ‘New look, Evie?’ He gave an appreciative leer.

‘If we’re talking make-overs…?’ She allowed her eyes to run speakingly over the tall, rangy figure of her lodger. ‘Do the words ‘‘ageing hippie’’ strike a chord?’ Head high, slender back ramrod-stiff, she stalked up the stairs trying to ignore the sounds of inexpertly muffled laughter. ‘I’ve had a very bad day!’ she yelled in warning over her shoulder.

The carpet beneath her feet was beginning to get thread-worn. It wasn’t the only thing in the big Victorian house that needed replacing—a circumstance that sometimes kept her awake late at night. When her parents had died five years earlier the first thing the solicitors had suggested was putting the rambling old building on the market.

But how could she have wrenched her thirteen-year-old brother away from the only home he’d ever known? He’d already lost his parents, and if they’d moved house he’d have had to change school too. She’d known there wouldn’t be enough left after the debts were settled to buy a place in the same area. Their parents had had many admirable qualities, but a knack with money had not been one of them. Eve had been fiercely determined that no matter what happened Nick wouldn’t suffer—he’d have all the advantages, bar loving parents, that she had had.

When she’d told the solicitors about her idea they’d regarded her with the sort of superior scorn that some people reserve for teenagers.

Impractical, they’d said. Not economically viable. Well, they’d been wrong, she thought with satisfaction. Five years on and Theo was their only long-term lodger, and, with a few exceptions, they’d been lucky with the succession of people who’d rented the other two rooms in the ugly Victorian monstrosity she’d always called home.

Right now they had a lady librarian in her early thirties and a postgraduate engineering student in his twenties as well as Theo, whom they’d known since they were children. She didn’t actually know at what point she and Nick had accepted him as extended family.

Eve had asked Theo once why he stayed, and he’d laughingly told her he was too lazy to move. He’d used to look at property, but he’d stopped pretending some time ago that this was a short-term measure. There had been a few wagging tongues when he’d moved in—she hadn’t yet been nineteen and he wasn’t exactly in his dotage—but unkind gossip had been the exception even then. Now it was non-existent. Eve thought maybe they—she and the other residents of 6 Acacia Avenue—filled a gap in Theo’s life, a gap where, but for a cruel twist of fate, there would have been a wife and children.

The old place ate up the cash, of course, so at the end of the day they weren’t much better off financially, but they coped. Actually, she was better off financially at the moment than she’d dared hope, since Nick had won a prestigious scholarship that was going to ease the financial burden of his three years at university considerably.

‘Do something reckless with it, Evie,’ he’d advised when she’d suggested spending the money she’d been putting aside for his education to replace the leaking flat roof on the kitchen extension.

‘Reckless,’ she said in disgust to her reflection in the mirror on the old mahogany dressing table. She pulled the back of her hand across her crimson-stained lips. This was the last time she let her silver-tongued sibling persuade her to do anything!

‘I’ve planned it with military precision, Evie. Nothing can go wrong.’ Nick had played expertly on her soft heart. Soft heart, she thought once again with a disgusted snort—soft brain, more like! Nick’s meticulous planning had gone wrong—big time.

She blamed herself for being so easily conned. She should have known things were getting out of hand when Nick had produced the expensive designer outfit belonging to his latest girlfriend’s sister and suggested she go into the kitchen to change. She ought to have kicked up a fuss when the girlfriend had produced cosmetics from an apparently bottomless make-up bag. To her amusement the teenager had been scandalised when Eve had casually confessed she didn’t actually bother with make-up normally.

In fact, if it hadn’t been for a miserable-looking Daniel saying, ‘She doesn’t have to do it, Nick,’ she might well have chickened out there and then. Stripping off the borrowed finery, she wished she had done just that, and been saved the most embarrassing, humiliating experience of her life.

That man, she silently fumed as she tightened the draw-string waist of her loose combat trousers with unwanted viciousness. No wonder poor Daniel didn’t confide his personal problems to an insensitive brute like that.

Recalling the flick of those icy cold blue eyes made her feel grubby and guilty all over again. She rubbed fiercely at the rash of goosebumps on her forearms and shuddered. No, she told herself firmly. I refuse to let that feeble excuse for a guardian make me feel like this. I’m not the one who should feel guilty. If Mr Marvellous hadn’t been so busy polishing his own ego he might have noticed his charge was suffering a major dose of teenage angst!

Now, of course, she could think of several choice phrases which would have cut that musclebound bully down to size. What had she come up with at the time? ‘This isn’t what it looks like, Mr Cummings.’

‘I still can’t believe I said that,’ she said out loud.

Theo looked up from the steaming pan to which he was adding indeterminate amounts of a variety of spices.

‘Why don’t you use the extractor? The whole place reeks of curry.’

‘Curry,’ the tall man repeated with offended dignity. ‘That word hardly describes the delicate balance of spices in my work of art.’

‘Fine. The whole place reeks of your work of art.’ She pulled out one of the mismatched chairs that were set around the long table in the middle of the room and slumped dejectedly down.

‘Want to tell Uncle Theo all about it?’ he suggested deserting his culinary enterprise with a regretful backward glance.

‘About what?’

‘Come off it, Evie,’ he said bluntly.

She gave a small concessionary shrug and rested her chin upon her arms, which were supported by the comforting solidity of the oak table. ‘I’ve never been so humiliated in my life!’ she confided, her voice muffled by the soft fabric of her olive striped top. ‘It was Nick’s fault.’

‘It would be,’ her companion acknowledged, speaking with the authority of someone who hadn’t escaped unscathed by that absent young person’s inventive schemes. ‘You’ll feel better if you talk about it.’

Being an innately sensitive human being, he didn’t laugh as the whole story spilled out.

‘There, I knew it—you think I was stupid!’ She lifted her head and tossed a feathery dark curl away from her cheek.

‘I think,’ he soothed, ‘it was a classic case of bad timing.’

‘I couldn’t refuse, could I?’ she appealed to him. ‘Poor Daniel was going through hell at school; he’s such a sensitive boy,’ she said, unable to think of his pale, sensitive features without a gush of maternal anguish.

‘So it was this girl—the man-eater who came on to him—that spread the rumour in school about him being gay?’ Eve nodded. ‘But he’s not…’

‘Gay? Of course not. The poor boy was just petrified by her. Not all seventeen-year-olds are like Nick.’ Confidence with the opposite sex was not something that her brother lacked—a fact that had given her several sleepless nights over the last couple of years.

‘So Nick was supposed to arrive with an audience guaranteed to spread the story just as Daniel was in a clinch with the object of all adolescent male fantasies—a desirable mature woman. Overnight his name would be synonymous with stud.’

‘In a nutshell…’ She pressed her fingers to her temples as if to physically remove the sickening throb of the terrible headache which was developing. ‘A case of bad casting, I know.’

‘It’s quite clever, really,’ Theo mused with grudging admiration.

Eve cast her lodger a look of intense dislike. ‘Clever! Pardon me if I don’t sound suitably appreciative. I doubt if you would either if you’d been threatened and abused by that disgusting man. Do you know what he called me?’ she demanded, her voice quivering with outrage. ‘A predatory, grasping little tart who couldn’t handle real men.’ Even when she closed her eyes she could still see the scornful blaze, hot enough to strip flesh from the bone, in the distinctive blue eyes.

‘Ouch.’

‘Ouch—is that all you can say?’

‘Well, I suppose it must have been a shock for the guy, finding his nephew in the clutches of a—’ He came to an abrupt halt and cast her an apologetic lop-sided smile. ‘That outfit did make you look pretty—well let’s just say you looked the part. Not a tart, you understand,’ he added hastily, ‘just…’

‘You’re digging yourself a very deep hole, Theo,’ she pointed out, uncharitably glad to see someone other than herself suffering foot-in-the-mouth syndrome. ‘He very obviously thought I was a tart.’ Her bosom swelled with indignation. ‘I suppose you think I should be flattered.’

Theo was too wise a man to respond to that challenge. ‘Didn’t you explain? Didn’t the boy put him straight?’

‘What chance did I have? I couldn’t get a word in edge-wise.’ Theo looked openly sceptical and she grated her teeth, at a loss to explain to someone who knew her how she’d been inexplicably reduced to a witless zombie by the sheer trauma of the situation. ‘Plus the fact,’ she continued tartly, ‘Nick and his cronies rolled up about thirty seconds after Drew Cummings put in an appearance. It was a circus. And as for Daniel, he obviously thinks the man can walk on water,’ she spat in disgust.

When Drew Cummings had entered the room she’d thought for one awful moment his nephew was going to pass out. She’d almost envied him; at the time losing consciousness had had a distinct appeal.

‘Talk about macho man!’ she added scornfully. ‘And I’m positive he’s just the type to encourage Daniel’s hero-worship. Having a young boy thinking he’s a cross between James Bond and Mother Teresa is just the sort of ego stroking he would enjoy. He’s the typical product of an over-privileged background—you know the type. He’s got that unshakeable sense of his own superiority.’

Theo let out a long, slow whistle. ‘And how many products of an over-privileged background do you know on a first-name basis, Evie? You sound as if you’re addressing a political rally.’

Eve had the grace to blush. ‘You had to be there,’ she said defensively.

‘This bloke’s really got to you, hasn’t he? You really shouldn’t jump to conclusions, Evie. I thought you were the one down on people who generalised,’ he reminded her. ‘It’s not like you actually know the man.’

The gentle censure in his tone brought a further self-conscious flush to Eve’s cheeks. ‘True, I don’t know him. So things could be worse,’ she agreed tartly. Under the circumstances she felt she was being quite restrained.

‘God, I wish I had been there—as an observer, of course. Come on, Evie!’ he chided. ‘This isn’t like you. Where’s your sense of humour? I don’t doubt Nick’s sorting things out right now. You’ll all laugh about it later.’

Eve stared incredulously at him. Laugh! It was obvious to Eve that Theo failed to appreciate that Drew Cummings was a person totally without redeeming features.

‘I hope that all doesn’t include Uncle Drew. Because I can’t conceive of a situation where I’d go within ten miles of the man, let alone share cosy laughter!’

‘Talking about Nick—where did he get to?’

‘He’s big enough to look after himself,’ she responded grumpily. All the same, she did glance with some anxiety at the clock. She didn’t doubt for a minute that he’d manage to talk his way out of this as easily as he did every other difficult situation he’d ever found himself in his short life—but even so…

‘Talk of the devil. That sounds like dear Nicholas now.’ At the sound of the front door slamming Theo raised his head from his cooking. ‘Follow your nose, Nick, we’re in the kitchen,’ he yelled. ‘Well, well, who’s been a— Hellfire, Nick, what happened to you?’ Dropping his wooden spoon, an expression of genuine concern on his face, Theo rushed past Eve.

Eve forgot about the cold disdain she’d been going to dish out to her brother and spun around in her seat. With a gasp of horror she too was on her feet.

Nick held out his hands to ward them off. ‘It’s worse than it looks,’ he assured them hastily. The swollen split lip made his voice slightly slurred. ‘No, Evie, don’t touch…ouch!’

‘Ice…’ she said firmly.

‘Sara’s already put ice on it.’

‘It looks terrible!’ Subconsciously she registered the significant fact that he’d turned to his girlfriend first, rather than her. She saved her contemplation of birds leaving the nest until later—the thoughts uppermost in her mind right now were for Nick’s immediate health.

‘Thanks.’

‘Have you had it checked out in Casualty?’

‘Don’t fuss, Evie, it’s only a bloody nose and a split lip. I’ll be my usual beautiful self by next week. Besides, I thought you’d be pleased. Just deserts and all that…’ he suggested slyly.

Eve expelled a pent-up breath and relaxed a little now she could see the damage to her brother’s face was actually quite superficial. ‘If I was a spiteful person…’ she only half teased.

‘You’re mad with me?’ Eve grimaced in sympathy as producing his normal winning grin cost Nick a definite wince.

‘What do you think?’

‘I think you’re not ready to see the funny side yet.’

‘How intuitive of you. But, first things first, how did you do that?’ Her gesture covered the swollen and discoloured area of his mouth and the evidence of a bloody nose.

‘It’s a bit embarrassing, really,’ he admitted, looking sheepish. ‘If you’d hung around another thirty seconds you’d have seen for yourself. You know how I always say words are more effective than fists? Well, I’ve come to the conclusion that that was a very mature statement. Problem is, I wasn’t feeling too mature when he…when he said…’ He glanced at Theo, his colour heightened slightly. ‘That crack about you, Evie,’ he finished uncomfortably. ‘I just saw red.’ The confession was accompanied by a lot of foot-shuffling and shoulder-shrugging. Confessing to the inexplicable urge to protect his sister’s honour was obviously affording Nick considerable discomfort.

Eve froze and went dramatically pale. ‘Are you telling me,’ she said slowly, ‘that he did this to you?’ She recalled the greyhound-lean body and the rippling muscles and a wave of incredulous fury fogged her brain. Nick, for all his height, had the slender body of a young man emerging from adolescence.

‘That wouldn’t be so embarrassing. The damned man moves incredibly fast for a big bloke,’ Nick admitted, his voice tinged with an admiration that was totally incomprehensible to his sister. ‘I didn’t get to lay a finger on him. I went charging straight past him, tripped over some damn table and straight into some bloody great clock thing. In keeping with the general theme of disaster, it turned out to be an antique family heirloom sort of thing.’

This minor technicality that Uncle Drew hadn’t actually laid hands on Nick passed over Eve’s head. Her brother was injured, and the damage was directly attributable to Drew Cummings.

‘That’s it!’ Insult her and he might get away with, but cause her baby brother harm and there was no way he was going to escape scot-free!

‘What do you think you’re doing, Eve?’ Her brother asked in alarm as she scrabbled through the small pile of loose keys deposited on the big old-fashioned dresser.

‘I’m going to tell Mr Drew Cummings exactly what I think of him, that’s what I’m doing. Where are your car keys, Theo?’ she continued, ignoring her brother’s groan of dismay.

‘Don’t give them to her, Theo,’ Nick pleaded. ‘I don’t need big sister rushing to the rescue. Tell her, Theo. I just about talked the guy around. The last thing I need is you turning up screaming abuse.’

‘I’ve no intention of screaming, and I’m not doing this for you.’ That was true. At least in part. It had really got under her skin that she’d been reduced to some sort of compliant moron earlier. ‘I’m doing this for humanity in general. That man needs pulling down a peg or two!’ Why the hell didn’t I stand up for myself when I had the chance? she wondered as she contemplated her missed opportunity with seething frustration.

‘I’m not telling her anything.’ Eve flashed her brother a smug grin, which faded as Theo snatched the discovered keys from her hand. ‘But neither am I letting you use my car, Evie. Not until you’ve cooled down.’

‘But you know the van’s at the garage until tomorrow, Theo,’ she wailed reproachfully.

‘Then wait until then.’

‘How can you say that?’ she spluttered indignantly. ‘Look at Nick.’

‘Nick’s already explained the man didn’t lay a finger on him.’

‘Nick was defending me!’ Because I chickened out when the going got tough, she thought with a wave of self-disgust.

‘If you’re honest, Evie, you’re just using this as an excuse because you’re itching for a fight.’

‘No such thing,’ she denied hotly, without meeting his eyes.

‘You’re mad because you ran away without defending yourself. Or maybe,’ he said with an abrupt change of tactics, ‘it’s a sexual chemistry thing between you and Uncle Drew.’ He looked at her with innocent enquiry. ‘That could explain all this hostility.’ He exchanged a conspiratorial grin with Nick.

‘So could being verbally and physically abused,’ she replied frigidly. Didn’t she have the bruises on her arms to prove it?

‘The guy certainly has muscles in all the right places,’ Nick agreed solemnly.

‘I didn’t notice.’

Her brother laughed out loud at this one. ‘Maybe you’re going back for another look.’

A sharp image of a big bronzed body rose up in her mind to add insult to the injury of her brother’s warped humour. A girl didn’t go through life without seeing images of male perfection, and Drew Cummings had to fall into that category, but none of those images had assaulted her senses with a raw, earthy sexuality. Of course not. None of them had ever grabbed hold of her whilst half naked, she told herself crossly.

‘It’s nice to know who your friends are.’ She treated them both to her best display of icy dignity as she stalked out of the room.

‘I don’t think she appreciated the joke,’ Nick surmised. ‘You don’t think she really…?’ He looked with comical dismay at the older man beside him. ‘Nah,’ he said shaking his head.

‘Maybe the walk will cool her down?’

‘Do you think so?’ Nick asked sceptically.

‘Not really. I was trying to cheer you up.’