he was.
‘I was in the waiting room talking to a parent,’ he said. ‘I saw you through the glass...’
‘I guess I stand out in those green overalls.’
‘I don’t think it’s the green overalls, Victoria.’
She gave a soft laugh.
She was dressed in black now after all.
Yet he was confirming that he noticed her too.
‘Did you see me come up tonight?’ Victoria asked.
‘No. I just wanted some space. I thought you were finished for the night.’
‘I am. I was supposed to be going out,’ Victoria said, explaining the reason for heels and things. ‘But I cancelled.’
And now he thought he knew the real reason she was sad.
‘Have you just broken up with someone?’
‘I don’t think you can really call it a break-up if you cancel a second date.’
No, she wasn’t sad about that; Dominic could tell from her dismissive shrug. It would seem it really was just the building.
‘Well,’ he said. ‘I’m sure he’s very disappointed.’
And then he went to retract that because it came out wrong, as if he was alluding to how stunning she looked.
‘What I meant was that—’
He stopped; whatever way he said it would sound like flirting, and he was avoiding all that.
‘I think I’ve done us both a favour,’ Victoria said. ‘He didn’t seem to understand the concept of shift work. So,’ she asked, ‘if it wasn’t me, then what brought you up here?’ She wanted to know more about those difficult days he had alluded to.
‘I’m in the middle of something right now...’ Dominic said. ‘Well, not in the middle—I’ve taken myself out of the equation. I’m staying back from getting involved with anyone.’
‘Good,’ Victoria said, ‘because I don’t like to get involved with anyone at work.’
Yet here they were and the tension that had been in the annexe wrapped and slivered around them.
‘Are you married?’ she asked.
It was a very specific question and the answer was important to Victoria, because the cold air had turned warm.
‘No.’
‘Seeing someone?’
‘Of course not,’ Dominic said, or he would not be doing this—and his hand moved to her cheek. ‘You got your earring back.’
‘They were a gift from my father.’
‘That’s nice,’ Dominic said.
‘Not really, it was just a duty gift when I turned eighteen. Had he bothered to get to know me, then he’d have known that I don’t like diamonds.’
‘Why not?’
‘I don’t believe in fairytales and I don’t believe in for ever.’
There was, to Victoria’s mind, no such thing.
She held her breath as his fingers came to her cheek and lightly brushed the lobe as he examined the stone.
If it were anyone else she would have pushed his hand away.
Anyone else.
Yet she provoked.
‘It was the other earring that I lost.’
And he turned her face and his hands went to the other.
This was foolish, both knew.
Neither wanted to get close to someone they had to work alongside but the attraction between them was intense.
Both knew the reason for their rows and terse exchanges; it was physical attraction at its most raw.
‘Victoria, I’m in no position to get involved with anyone.’
They were standing looking at each other and his hands were on her cheeks and his fingers were warm on her ears. There was a thrum between them and she knew he was telling her they would go nowhere.
‘That’s okay.’
And that was okay.
‘If you don’t like diamonds, then what do you like?’ he asked. His mouth was so close to hers and though it was cold she could feel the heat in the space between them.
‘This.’
Their mouths met and she felt the warm, light pressure and it felt blissful. That musky, soapy scent of him had been imprinted and, this close, it made her dizzy. His tongue sliding in made her move closer and the fingers of one hand reached into her hair as the other hand slid around her waist.
It was almost like setting up to dance, as if the teacher had come in and said, Place your hands here.
But not.
Because then she hadn’t felt a tremble, no matter how warm the palm.
They kissed softly at first as his hand bunched in her hair; he explored with his tongue and it met with hers and he tasted all that had been missing.
Passion coiled them tight; his palm took the weight of her head and pressed her in at the same time.
The pent-up rows and the terse exchanges had been many and could not be dispersed with a single kiss.
It was a deep slow kiss and it birthed impatience in both. He held her head very steady and kissed her hard, and the scratch of his unshaven jaw and the probe of his tongue was sublime. But then, unlike with most men, she tasted resistance.
There was resistance, because Dominic knew very well where they were leading. ‘I don’t have anything with me,’ he said.
And she wanted to feel him unleashed.
‘I do.’
And when most would kiss harder, instead Dominic made her burn with his stealth. He stepped back and moved her coat down her shoulders and did not drop it to the dusty floor. Instead he placed it on the window ledge and she went for her purse that was there.
He came up behind her as she rifled through her purse, praying that the condom was still there and trying to find it. One hand wrapped around her and rested on her stomach as his other hand slid up between her inner thighs to the damp in the middle. His fingers stroked her and she closed her eyes to the bliss.
‘Here.’ She had never been so pleased to find a condom as he peeled her knickers down
