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Aware of a simmering tension in the room, she tilted her head to meet his hooded dark stare and felt her stomach muscles twist.
She swallowed, looked away and took longer than necessary to dab the baby’s drooly rosebud mouth with a muslin square. Better to face facts. If there was tension, it was inher, not the room.
She was attracted to him. She knew she was being faintly ridiculous, but it had been a lot easier when she was able to balance his expertise in the kissing department when he was the shallow, selfish boss with ice in his veins, a calculator where his heart should be... Some of the stuff people said about him had to be true.
She was clinging hard to the image of a callous charmer, which was not easy after the way he had looked after her last night and then this morning with the baby... She had to get a grip!
She felt dizzy when she thought about him kissing her. Sheshouldhave felt disgusted, it had been so calculating. Instead she felt...she wasn’t going to think about what she felt because with luck it would go away like her headache. She was not going to make the situation worse by making a total fool of herself by betraying what was a belated sexual awakening.Thatwould be a blow she didn’t think her pride could withstand.
‘Are you packed?’
‘Oh, yes, things are all sorted, Janet had done most of it before she left and I didn’t unpack last night.’
‘You can pick up your migraine medication on the way to the airport.’
‘Thanks. She says that her mum’s sister is coming over from Canada.’
The relevance of this information passed him by until it dawned on him that she assumed that the previous nanny was coming back when her personal circumstances changed. He had no reason to correct her.
‘Did you bring anything dressy?’
She stared at him, her smooth brow pleating at the question. ‘I didn’t think I’d be dressing for dinner...’ Realising he might misinterpret her sarcasm, she added quickly, ‘Declan is OK with informal.’
Rose extended her foot to gently rock the baby chair, smiling as the occupant began to kick his feet with uncoordinated enthusiasm.
‘I just thought you might like to explore in your down time. There are some pretty nice places to eat. But no matter, you can buy what you need when you get there. Order anything you need. I’ve made arrangements for you to use my accounts.’ When he’d made the arrangements it had seemed a good way to test her honesty or otherwise for Marco.
At what point over the last twenty-four hours had the idea stopped being a test of Rose’s honesty and simply a convenience? He didn’t know at what precise moment his suspicions had died a natural death, but, while she might have nothing to prove to him, Marco would no doubt be pleased when he was able to show him this further proof of her integrity.
Unless she cleaned him out and skipped the country?
Her attention swung from the baby to the man standing with his shoulders propped against the wall, his negligent stance in direct contrast to the intelligence glinting in his eyes and the air of barely suppressed energy that even a sleepless night hadn’t put a dent in.
‘I have everything I need,’ she said, acting, to his amusement, as if he had just offered her an insult, not his trust.
‘I don’t need anything I can’t buy myself.’ Certainly not something you are paying for, she thought, before belatedly realising that she had jumped the gun. He hadn’t been offering to buyhera wardrobe. Mortified by her error, she tacked on quickly, ‘But yes, baby will need things, that will be useful. Is the house far from a town?’
‘Aphrodite, my villa, is relatively remote. It is set in its own grounds, which guarantees privacy.’
Rose nodded.Shehad no concerns about isolation. She was excited about her first taste of foreign travel...and isolation had its positives. She had struggled with the decision but in the end she had not contacted her dad to tell him about her temporary move. She felt guilty but she knew that if her dad knew her place was empty, he’d offer to house-sit or, even worse, turn up in Greece and try to cadge a free bed.
‘Won’t the isolation make it hard for you to make your base there on a permanent basis?’
‘There is such a thing as the Internet and I won’t be there twenty-four-seven.’
‘Obviously,’ she said, even though actually it hadn’t been that obvious to her. She’d be able to relax, she told herself, without his presence making her feel as though she were constantly walking a tightrope without a safety net.
‘Athens is a thirty-minute helicopter transfer away and the flight into London is not exactly long haul.’
He spoke casually of helicopter transfers the way only the very rich did. ‘You’ve thought of everything.’
She had to admire his commitment to the role that had been thrust upon him, to the extent that he was prepared to make such a major life change for the baby. But to her way of thinking interacting with Declan was more important than uprooting his life for the sake of the baby and maybe regretting the move.
Though what did she know? Maybe the timing was good and this wasn’t just about the baby, maybe one of those long-legged beauties had pierced his reputedly stony heart and he’d already decided it was time for a lifestyle change?
Her lips twisted into a grimace as she masochistically dwelt on the image of his mouth losing its cynical twist and wearing an intimate smile as he looked at this faceless beauty that had captured his heart.
She pressed a hand to her stomach, and diagnosed the sensation—a touch of envy, yes, but not, obviously, of a woman who landed him.
