‘Us kissing?’
‘Yes.’ She took a jagged breath, searching for control. ‘Ridiculous,’ she repeated. ‘You’re my boss. We have a business relationship.’
‘A business relationship?’
‘Yes. Nothing more.’ She closed her eyes and hugged Bruce closer. ‘Nothing else. Otherwise it’d be…a disaster.’
He nodded, watching her face. If he took one step closer to her now she’d run, he knew, and he also knew quite desperately that the last thing he wanted was for this woman to run. And it wasn’t for the sake of two small children and one puppy…
Keep it light, he told himself. He’d scared her. What woman had ever reacted like this to him kissing her? he asked himself, but Wendy was doing just that, and it was Wendy he wanted most desperately to stay. So he had to learn some new rules. Fast.
‘I always kiss women who weep,’ he said, making his voice light. ‘It serves you right for turning on the water- works.’
‘I didn’t cry.’
‘Ha!’
‘I just…I just got a bit emotional when I saw the puppy.’
She was playing for lightness, too. Good. They could take it from here.
‘Great. Soggy puppy. Soggy woman. I have a houseful.’
‘He’s…’ She’d withdrawn, but she had herself almost under control and she was searching for a safer topic. ‘He’s really for Gabbie?’
‘He’s really for Gabbie.’ He gave her an encouraging grin. ‘But not tonight. If we give him some milk now he can sleep in my room.’
She looked up at him, startled, and he gave a mocking smile. ‘Now, why does that surprise you?’
Her brow creased. ‘I guess I had you down as the sort of guy who’d say put him on the veranda to sleep.’
‘Yeah, right.’ He had his voice almost completely back under control now. Pity about his emotions. ‘I tried that. Or sort of.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘I put him in a cardboard box when I picked him up from the dealer. I put him on the back seat for the drive here and it lasted exactly five minutes. First of all he howled so much I sounded like a police car belting down the freeway, and then he proceeded to eat the cardboard box. Once the box was eaten, he threw up, then kept right on howling.’
‘Oh, Luke!’ The tension of moments ago was passing. Almost. He had her chuckling. ‘So what did you do?’
‘What any sane man had to do,’ Luke said, sighing. ‘He spent the remainder of the trip on my knee, which is a totally illegal, dangerous but admittedly peaceable way to carry a dog. About half an hour from here he fell into such a deep sleep that he fell sideways and upside down onto the passenger seat, but even then he kept an eye on me. So if I stick him on the veranda, what’s the chance of us getting any sleep at all tonight?’
‘Somewhere about zero, I’d say,’ Wendy agreed, grinning, and Luke nodded.
‘Well, there you go, then. You have your baby for the night and I have mine. Opposite ends of the house and I hope my baby doesn’t need feeding any more than yours. And I hope to high heaven mine doesn’t snore.’
He did.
Bruce snored happily well into morning, wuffling contentedly in a basket right underneath where Luke lay. He snuffled and snorted and it was enough to drive a man mad-but then, to be fair, maybe it wasn’t Bruce who was driving him nuts. Maybe he was feeling he was going nuts anyway.
Above, on his grandparents’ lumpy bed, Luke lay awake and stared into the darkness, searching for answers that weren’t there. He didn’t know why he was feeling like he was. He didn’t even know for sure how he was feeling! All he knew was that every time he saw Wendy she had the power to shift his world on its axis.
He wanted her so much it was a physical ache.
Why?
She wasn’t his sort of woman, he told himself over and over. How would she fit into his life?
She wouldn’t. He couldn’t see her entertaining his sophisticated friends back in the city, but then… Suddenly the thought of entertaining his sophisticated friends didn’t seem so desirable any more. Not when the alternative was being here.
Being with Wendy.
It was a passing phase, he told himself desperately, rolling over and thumping his pillow as if it was personally responsible. It was just that he’d never met anyone like Wendy before, and she was a novelty. It’d wear off. If he spent a bit more time here…
Hmm. A bit more time here… He turned the idea over in his mind and he liked it.
Well, why not? What was so urgent back in the city, after all? He had his laptop computer here-he never travelled without it. He had his mobile phone. He could set up one of the spare bedrooms as an office, hook up an internet connection and really get to know this place again. Get to know Grace and Gabbie. Play with Bruce.
Get Wendy out of his system.
Yeah, right.
Well, a man could only try. Underneath his bed, Bruce snuffled again in sleep, nosing round anxiously for another of his litter. He really was being incredibly brave for a puppy having his first night away from his mum, and Luke’s heart went out to him. His hand dropped down from the bed to fondle the little dog’s ears, and next minute Bruce ended up right in there beside him, snuggled into his grandmother’s bump.
‘I’m no soft option here,’ Luke warned him. ‘I don’t do attachment.’
Bruce wuffled his agreement and a warm pink tongue came out and licked his face from jaw to nose. Then the little dog snuggled closer.
‘What the hell am I letting myself in for?’ Luke demanded of him. ‘Do you have a clue?’
But there was only silence, and then, finally, Bruce’s soft puppy snoring as the little dog slept.
Luke was left to figure things out alone.
Damn, he was tired. He should sleep. He
How could a man sleep when in the other end of the house there was Wendy?
Not that Wendy was getting any sleep, either. While Luke tossed and turned and had useless conversations with one small canine, Wendy was doing pretty much the same with the sleeping Grace.
‘He’s dangerous, your brother,’ she told the snoozing infant. ‘Of all the stupid things to do, to let him kiss me…’
Unconsciously her fingers came up to her lips, tracing the pressure Luke had placed on her mouth. It had felt just wonderful-
‘Which is stupid!’ she told herself fiercely. ‘I don’t get attached. I’m
She sighed and thought it through, and when she spoke again some of the bitterness was gone, leaving only bleakness.
‘Not that he’s offering anything more,’ she told the dark. ‘Luke’s a man who takes what he wants when he wants it. Anyone can see that. He’s rich and he travels and he’s here for a night or so and then gone. Gone! So, Wendy Maher, you can take what your crazy emotions are telling you, and you can go wash those feelings down the sink with some ice water. Get a grip on yourself, woman. Right now!’
Which was all very well, she told herself an hour later, and an hour after that. It was all very well, but it was totally impractical advice when all she could think of was how that kiss had felt.
Impossible!
Finally she rose and crossed to look out the window to the sea beyond. Luke’s precious car was parked just below the veranda and the sight of that extravagance helped her resolve.
‘He’s like Adam,’ she whispered. ‘They all are. Men! And if you let him get close-if you let emotions muck up
