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At least for this one evening, she had been very happy to stay in. So the sharp peal of her doorbell was annoying and, while she contemplated ignoring it, she stuck on her bedroom slippers and padded out to get it.
She was programmed never to ignore someone at the front door. When you spent all your formative years in the countryside where everyone knew everyone else, you never let your doorbell ring without answering it, and old habits died hard.
The last person Celia expected to find standing outside was Leandro Diaz and as she looked up and up and up, until their eyes met, she felt the breath leave her in a rush, felt the world narrow down to just him, tall, dark and stupidly handsome.
He was wearing black jeans and a black jumper, visible under the open lapels of a tan cashmere coat, and had a black scarf round his neck. He looked ridiculously elegant and very, very expensive and all those things flashed through her mind before the more prosaic thought...What on earth was he doing on her doorstep?
‘What are you doing here?’
‘I’ve done it again, haven’t I?’ Leandro said apologetically. ‘Shown up unannounced on your doorstep. My apologies. I would have telephoned to warn you of my arrival, but I had a vague suspicion that you might have taken steps to avoid seeing me and I really had no choice but to see you.’
‘Youhadto see me?’ Celia belatedly remembered that he had accused her and her brother of being gold diggers and, now that the shock was wearing off, she resuscitated the anger she had felt at the insult. ‘And you’re damn right I would have taken steps to avoid you! In case you’ve forgotten, you accused Dan of targeting Julie for her money. You implied that I might have had a hand in it!’ She remained firmly planted by the half-opened door, barring entry. She had every right to be furious at him showing up and invading her personal spaceagain, but instead she felt a heat coursing through her that had nothing to do with anger. The same intense physical awareness that had gripped her two days ago was squeezing tightly now again.
Was it because it was such a novel sensation? She had cared deeply for Martin but, even in the height of their teenage romance, she had not felt anything like this, had not beenawareof him as a living, breathing,sexymale...not like this.
Lack of experience, she told herself urgently. She glared at him with barely disguised hostility, but she had to force herself not to let her disobedient eyes rove down the length of his body.
‘How did you find me, anyway?’ she demanded.
‘Celia, I simply went to your shop and asked one of your assistants. Considering my relationship with Julie, she didn’t think that dispensing the information was beyond the pale, and why should she?
‘Please let me in and I’ll answer whatever questions you have.’ Leandro looked briefly around him. ‘It’s freezing out here.’ He scanned her, taking in the bedroom slippers, the light jogging bottoms, the baggy cotton jumper, clothes that weren’t designed for long conversations conducted outside in freezing conditions.
‘What more do we have to say to one another?’
‘I’ve located Julie and your brother.’
‘You’vefound them?’ Had he come, the bearer of bad tidings? Had they been in an accident? He had the information he had come to her for, he’d managed to find out where they were, so why was he here now if it wasn’t to deliver news she didn’t want to hear? News that could only be imparted face to face? That could only herald bad news. It was on a par with the phone that rang in the early hours of the morning. Celia fell back, allowing him to sweep past her. The small hallway seemed to shrink to the size of a matchbox as he turned to face her.
‘Are they okay?’ she asked tersely. ‘Has there been some sort of terrible accident? Are they...?’ Her mouth trembled and she blinked, while worst-case scenarios had a field day in her head.
‘Alive and well,’ Leandro interrupted hurriedly to prevent what looked like a descent into just the sort of emotionalism that was alien to him and unwelcome. ‘To the best of my knowledge. The last purchase made was the day before yesterday and it’s safe to say that they’re en route to my house in Scotland.’ He looked at her warily and she shot him a narrow-eyed, baleful and accusatory look from under her lashes.
‘In which case, why scare the living daylights out of me?’
‘Come again?’
‘If you’ve managed to find them both and they’re fine and dandy, then why come here and lead me to believe that there was something wrong?’
‘Did I do that?’
‘I suppose I should offer you tea or coffee now that you’re here.’ She propelled herself towards the kitchen, acutely aware of the smallness of the house and annoyed with herself for wondering what he might be thinking of his surroundings.
Following in her wake, Leandro vaguely noted what was around him. It was a small house painted in uniformly bland colours but the prints on the walls were quirky covers of old Parisian fashion magazines, nicely framed, and as he glanced to one side he saw through the semi-opened door a wooden mannequin being used as a frame for a half-finished wedding dress and an easel on which a large sheet of paper was clipped—presumably a picture of what the dress in progress was destined to look like.
He paused, pushed open the door and stepped inside, curiosity taking him towards the easel to look at the drawing, and he turned around when she angrily asked him what he thought he was doing and howdared hemake himself at home in her house.
‘You’re very talented,’ he commented, ignoring the heightened colour in her cheeks and the spitting fire in her eyes and the hands placed squarely on her hips.
‘You can’t just come in here and nose around!’
She began moving towards the easel but he beat her to it to stand in front of the accomplished drawing, one hand resting on the paper so that she couldn’t flip it away.
‘Is this one of your commissions?’
Celia wanted the ground to open and swallow her up. He was being complimentary, but she was too aware of him, too sensitive to his overpowering personality and too conscious of the fact that he wasn’ta friend paying her a visitto appreciate the compliment. She could barely think straight as she stared up at him. His eyes were so dark and so deep that she had to fight a drowning sensation. Somewhere at the back of her mind, she knew that he was the sort of guy to find this extreme reaction amusing and she made an effort to put things in perspective.
‘Yes,’ she said tightly.
