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Rose looked at him sharply.
Was he being sarcastic? She decided to give him the benefit of the doubt. ‘It came furnished and the landlord won’t let me paint anything, but it’s a good location and in my price bracket, and there’s no spare bedroom so my dad can’t stay over.’
Her eyes widened as the last bit slipped out. This was one of the reasons her dad considered her a social liability. She’d ruined more than one of his scams by blurting out the truth at an inopportune moment and, while she was good at putting people at their ease, she was not good at being polite to men who looked at her boobs, not her face. As for when one‘important contact’had put his hand on her knee, lucky for him she had drunk half the cup of coffee she had tipped in his lap.
‘I like my own space and the alternative, on my salary, would be a flat-share. I’m too old for that.’
His eyes skimmed her smooth, youthful skin. ‘Oh, yes, I can see that,’ he mocked, but the joke was on him as he imagined seeing more, much more...and touching... His breathing slowed and his core temperature jumped.
The tension zinged into life out of nothing and, unable to hold his dark gaze, she looked away, a tingle under her skin.
‘So do I, like space, I mean. Families can be a pain?’ he probed, reminding himself belatedly of why he was here.
‘Do you mind? I need to get to the...’ He stepped aside to allow her access to the sliding shower-room door.
A moment later she emerged with a toilet bag and she stretched up to drag a small holdall off the top of a wardrobe. It was a big stretch and gave him an excellent view of her taut behind. She stretched a bit higher and he bit back a groan. The little sadist had to knowexactlywhat that wriggle was doing to him, he decided cynically. No woman who looked like her could be oblivious to her power.
She huffed a little as she finally got a grip. ‘I’ll only be a minute now.’
It took actually five.
‘I’m impressed, except you’ve forgotten your luggage.’
‘No, I haven’t,’ she contradicted smugly, nodding to the holdall she was hugging against herself like a protective blanket.
His brows lifted. ‘A woman who travels light. I’m impressed.’
She took the compliment, if that was what it was, but it wasn’t actually deserved. Her wardrobe, out of necessity given the storage space, was pretty limited. Even if she had packed everything she owned she could have fitted it into one suitcase.
‘We moved around a lot when I was growing up. I got used to packing.’ Sometimes in the dark—a moonlight flit, her dad had called the occasions when they’d moved by cover of darkness before the landlord came knocking for his rent.
The small secret smile that tugged at her lips as she looked at him through her lashes was intriguing. ‘So you are well travelled...?’
She gave a dry laugh. ‘My father travelled. I stayed at home mostly.’
With her dad it was always good to have an exit strategy.
‘With family...friends...?’ he probed casually.
‘I was not a child.’ Though actually, of course, she had been.
‘It sounds like your father had a high-powered job.’
Her eyes dropped. ‘He is very...entrepreneurial. I might need to buy a swimsuit.’
Recognising the neat change of subject and her discomfort when it came to discussing her father, he nodded, wondering if that meant she was afraid of incriminating herself, or alternatively she was ashamed of him. ‘You’re good swimmer, then?’
She waited for him to follow her through the door before closing it. ‘No, I stay in the shallows.’
‘You’re afraid of water?’
‘Not at all, just of drowning.’ She could feel his eyes on her as she walked to the staircase.
‘You should learn to swim.’
‘I had a lesson once.’ Her dad had thrown her in the deep end.
Her expression was veiled but Zac sensed an untold story in her response. ‘What happened?’
