style="font-size:15px;"> Her golden eyes challenged him as she snuggled down into her linen jacket. ‘Was I?’ she asked throatily.
He sighed, switching on the ignition to manoeuvre the car out into the steady flow of traffic. ‘Yes, you were.’
Eden looked at him closely, noting a certain tension about his mouth. ‘Are you angry with me?’
He sighed again, turning to give her a warm smile. ‘No, Eden, I’m not angry with you. But I wish you wouldn’t play with me. One of these days I’m going to take your teasing seriously.’
‘You mean…’
‘Yes, I mean! I know you’re an innocent, Eden, but I’m not. It can be quite a strain behaving like a gentleman. Not that I mind,’ he added hastily. ‘But it doesn’t help when you keep playing with me.’
‘I never realised…’ She looked at him with new eyes, not seeing him as the fun-loving partner of innocence of the past six weeks but as the young rich socialite that he was. Seeing him like this she could well imagine that there had been plenty of girls in his life who would give anything to become the wife of Tim Channing, heir to millions. It was something she had never thought about before, that showed him in a new light. And she wasn’t sure she liked it.
‘You aren’t that innocent, Eden,’ he scorned.
She blushed in the darkness, glad he couldn’t see her confusion. ‘I didn’t mean that,’ she said impatiently. ‘I meant I didn’t realise about—about——’
‘The girls in my past,’ he finished for her. ‘You grow up quickly in the society I mix with.’
She knew he was sophisticated for his age, had admired the way he always took control on their dates together, but it had never occurred to her that his relationships with other girls hadn’t been as innocent as their own friendship. Somehow this new knowledge frightened her, unnerved her, made her suddenly shy with him.
It made her wonder if their mutual friends thought their relationship more intimate than it actually was. Colour flooded her cheeks at the thought. She couldn’t bear for people to think such things about her, no matter how erroneous those thoughts were.
She looked down at her clenched hands. ‘I suppose so,’ she mumbled.
Tim gave her a sharp look. ‘Hey, are you okay?’
She gave him a quick nervous smile, looking hurriedly away from his probing glance. ‘I’m fine,’ she lied.
One of his hands left the steering wheel to cover the nervous movements of hers as she fidgeted with her small black evening bag. ‘I’ve shocked you, haven’t I?’ he guessed with a sigh.
Eden attempted a light laugh, flicking her head back in a careless gesture. ‘Don’t be silly, Tim. I’m not a child who doesn’t know the facts of life.’
‘No, but you are an innocent, no matter how assured you like to act. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you.’
‘I’m not upset.’ Her attempt to laugh it off sounded dismal even to her own ears.
‘Shocked, then.’
‘I’m not that either,’ she lied. ‘Good heavens, Tim, this is the twentieth century, and you’re quite old enough to do what you want, with whom you want.’
‘Yes, but——’
‘Let’s drop the subject, Tim,’ she said sharply, uncertain in her own mind why she was so shocked by his disclosure. She was aware that most of her friends freely engaged in sexual relations with their boy-friends. Why should Tim be any different from them, especially with the temptations he must have had? She was being stupid, childish, all the things he accused her of being, and yet she couldn’t stop herself. ‘Where are we going tonight?’ she herself changed the subject.
‘Delanie’s. Claire will be meeting us there later. She and her date are having dinner elsewhere.’ Claire was Tim’s older sister, a hard-headed career woman who had sacrificed any idea of marriage in preference to running the popular woman’s magazine she edited. She had little time for men and Eden was surprised at her having a date this evening. Not that Claire Channing wasn’t beautiful, she was, extremely so, but her intelligence and ambition often frightened away any would-be boy-friends. Besides, no man liked to date a woman who was earning more money than they were.
‘I didn’t realise she had a boy-friend,’ Eden couldn’t hide her curiosity.
Tim grinned. ‘She doesn’t. This is an old friend, someone she’s known for years. Whenever he’s in town she drops everything to go out with him.’
He must be something to affect the supremely confident and hardened Claire in this way. Eden felt a burning curiosity about the man who could make Claire forget her job. She herself liked Claire, had tremendous respect for her, but given the same choice, a career or marriage, Eden felt sure she would choose quite differently. But then Claire was nothing like her.
‘Have I ever met him?’ she asked now.
He shook his head. ‘It must be six months since he was last here. But don’t worry, you’ll like him, most women do. Although I don’t want you to like him too much,’ he added hurriedly. ‘And don’t be bowled over by his charm.’
‘Is that likely?’
‘Oh yes.’
Eden could feel herself starting to relax, the tension starting to leave her body. She laughed huskily, back on a footing with Tim she could cope with. ‘Could I make you jealous, Tim?’ she teased.
‘All too easily. Although I wouldn’t recommend it tonight, Claire is likely to do you an injury if you attempt to steal him away from her.’
‘She likes him that much?’
‘And the rest. She would marry him tomorrow if he asked her.’
‘And will he?’ So there was someone Claire considered more important than her career!
‘Not in a million years,’ Tim said with brutal honesty.
‘Does Claire know that?’
‘Oh, sure. But where he’s concerned she isn’t too proud to accept any crumbs he cares to give her.’
‘You mean…’
Tim laughed softly at her expression. ‘Poor Eden, this is your night for shocks. Yes, I mean they’re lovers.’
‘And yet it’s six months since she last saw him?’ She was dumbfounded.
He nodded. ‘But it could be six years and she’d still go running when he snapped his fingers.’
It didn’t sound like the Claire she knew, the Claire who could handle the advances of any man with chilling hauteur. ‘Doesn’t it bother you?’ she asked.
‘Why should it bother me? Claire’s a big girl, she makes her own decisions.’
‘Yes,
