He chuckled, turning to tip boiling water into the cafetière. ‘You’ll have me making mood boards next.’
‘Pinpoint’s the way to go—you can do it on the computer—it should be right up your street.’ He was putting the cafetière and the cups on a tray. She tilted her head. ‘Are we going somewhere?’
‘Yep.’ His smile was mischievous. ‘I’ve saved the best till last. We’ll take our coffee upstairs, in the observatory. Follow me!’
CHAPTER SIX
HER EYES WIDENED. ‘You definitely saved the best till last!’
The only thing this space had in common with the rest of the house was the colour of its panelled walls—but this white was fresh and crisp, its expanses punctuated with bright abstract paintings. It took her a full minute to assimilate everything: the pale, plush carpet; the huge burnished-leather sofas; the imposing desk and bookcase; the wall-mounted television which was larger than the screens she’d seen in some small cinemas.
He set the coffee tray on a low table. ‘I pretty much live in here.’
‘I’m not surprised.’ She smiled. ‘I’m relieved, actually.’
His eyebrows lifted.
‘What I mean is that I’m glad you’ve got somewhere comfortable. I don’t like to think of you...’ She pressed her lips together.
‘What?’
A blush tingled in her cheeks. ‘Not being...’ He was doing it again, looking at her as if he could see right through her. She swallowed. ‘Not being comfortable...’
She broke his gaze. She might as well have told him straight out that she cared about him. How had that even happened? He was practically a stranger...and he was divorced! He might seem inordinately kind and noble—not to mention sexy—but it was entirely possible that his marriage had fallen apart because of him. That bitterness in his eyes...
‘My ex-wife soured the milk...’
Her instinct was to believe him, but she’d trusted her instincts before and it had cost her dearly. She touched the sofa back, eyes drifting as she tried to stop the doors in her mind revolving. At the far end of the room there was a short flight of steps that she hadn’t noticed before. She turned, caught his eye. ‘What’s up there?’
‘The dome—where the telescope lives!’
She felt her brow creasing. She’d thought this was the observatory. She scanned the room again. No telescope. How could she not have noticed? Too busy tying herself in knots over Theo and his big empty house, that was why. She pressed her teeth into her lower lip. Maybe if she got him to show her his observatory it would divert him, make him forget that she’d expressed care and concern about his comfort.
She turned to look at him. ‘Can I see it?’
He seemed to hesitate, and then he smiled. ‘Of course.’ He walked across the room and she followed, trying not to notice the breadth of his shoulders, the way his hair curled slightly at the nape of his neck.
At the top of the steps was a small landing, just enough clearance for the door he was opening. He stood aside. ‘After you.’
There was a moment of disorientation. Going from the vast white room into the compact circular pod was like stepping into a different world. In the centre, a huge white telescope sat on its mount like a king on a throne. The ceiling was domed, like the observatory at Greenwich, but much smaller—a diameter of ten feet or so. There were various gizmos, pieces of electronic hardware and a laptop computer connected to a black box.
She turned. ‘When you said you owned a telescope...’
He was right there, barely a foot away. The floor seemed to tilt. She caught the clean smell of his skin, felt the heat radiating from his body. She tried to step back, but her heel struck the telescope mount. She swallowed hard. ‘I thought you meant a telescope on a tripod...’ She swallowed again. ‘Near a window or something. Not like a whole dome with...’ Green eyes were locked on hers. She waved her hands about, drowning not waving. ‘This is some very serious kit.’
She thought he might have stepped back a bit, but he seemed to be rooted to the spot. She moistened her lips, trying to ignore the butterflies taking flight in her stomach. He looked very much like he was going to...
‘It is. Very serious.’ For an instant, his gaze dropped to her mouth, then he lifted his hand, stretching his fingers to her cheek.
Her heart exploded softly then a gentle warmth flooded her veins. She wanted to close her eyes, melt into his touch, but she was supposed to be keeping her head... Wasn’t she? It was why she’d had mineral water at lunch instead of wine. It was why she’d asked him to show her the dome. It was meant to distract him. She shifted her foot, felt the immoveable bulk of the mount behind her heel.
‘It’s a research-grade telescope...very powerful.’ His eyes held hers as he slid his fingers along her jawline to her neck. ‘On a clear night, you can see the Sombrero Galaxy...’ His voice was a lullaby, his touch unhurried. She hadn’t been touched like this for a long time and his fingertips felt so warm, so perfect, that she couldn’t not surrender a little. She took a baby breath, resting her hands lightly on his chest.
He bent his head so that their foreheads were almost touching. ‘The rings of Saturn...’
She could push him away, but he was stroking her cheekbone with his thumb and it was making her weak.
‘Sometimes the Horsehead Nebula...otherwise known as the Nebula of Orion...’
There was no keeping her head now. She was undone. She lifted her face so he could close the infinitesimal distance between them, and instantly his lips were on hers. She closed her eyes, lost herself in the warm, sweet taste of him, the scent of him, the sensation of his mouth taking over hers. When he pulled her closer, deepening his kiss, she pressed her body against him,
