Читать книгу In Bed With The Boss - Шэрон Кендрик, Sharon Kendrick - Страница 9

LUKE had gone.

He hadn’t even taken his toothbrush, but she knew he had gone. That fact hit her with a certainty even more intense than the blade of lightning that illuminated the bathroom with its harsh blue-white light. Josephine momentarily shrank from its impact, and winced.

The toothbrush was still there, yes, but further investigation showed that her husband of just one year had cleared the rest of the house like a locust.

Gone were the rows of designer suits and the handmade Italian shoes. Gone, too, were the priceless objets d’art which he had always insisted they buy.

Or rather, that she buy, Josephine reminded herself bitterly.

The lightning was followed by a thunderbolt that could have deafened the hounds of hell. And then the rain began—a rain so heavy and remorseless that the loud banging on the front door didn’t register straight away.

And when it did, she froze with a sinking feeling that felt almost like disappointment.

Had he left, only to return?

She ran into the hall and pulled open the door and the sight of the tall, drenched figure made her heart briefly suspend its frenzied beat.

For it wasn’t Luke who stood there like a dark avenging angel, but his cousin Blake. Blake. The man she had not seen for over a year—not since he had stormed round to her flat and told her that she would be a crazy fool to marry a man like Luke.

“B-Blake!” she gasped, but the word dried to sawdust in her mouth.

“Disappointed?” he drawled, but at least she was here. And she seemed to be okay. “Expecting your husband, were you, sweetheart?”

She shook her head, wishing he wouldn’t use that word, not when he didn’t mean it. “He’s taken all his clothes. He’s gone.”

“I know he has,” he said grimly.

Her eyes narrowed. “How can you possibly—”

But Blake wasn’t listening. He had unceremoniously pushed his way past her, to stand dripping raindrops onto the beautiful, polished wooden floor.

“Shut the door!” he commanded, his eyes raking reluctantly over her skimpy evening dress. A pulse began to beat at his temple. So she still dressed to kill. “Or were you hoping to freeze to death? Just shut the door, Josephine! Now!”

Mutely she obeyed him. There was something about the tone of his voice that was impossible to ignore. But maybe if she had listened to him the last time around, she wouldn’t be in this situation.

She stared at him. They said that time healed, but time didn’t always change the way someone made you feel. She hadn’t seen him in over a year, but the sheer force of his personality was devastating as ever. As were his looks. The blue eyes were as vibrant as a summer sky and the hard, lean body as formidably gorgeous as it had ever been.

Lucky Kim, she thought, forcing herself to remember in the most painful way possible that he had a fiancée.

“What are you doing here?” she whispered. “And how on earth did you know that Luke had left, when I’ve only just found out myself?”

He gave a cynical smile, which iced over her. “Because he rang me from the airport.”

“The airport?” she repeated dully. “Where was he going?”

“He didn’t say.”

“I don’t understand,” she breathed, and she heard him swear softly beneath his breath.

“I think you’re just about to,” he gritted. “He’s with someone called Sadie.” The blue eyes bored into her questioningly. “Know her?”

Josephine nodded. “Yes, I know her,” she said dully. Best friends weren’t all they were cracked up to be, were they? And yet, deep down, he wasn’t telling her anything that she hadn’t already guessed.

But despite the fact that Luke had gone, only one question nudged at the edges of her mind.

“So just why are you here, Blake?”