the heck had it come to this? An hour later, pulling up outside Millie’s cottage, Ed’s internal panic alarm was blaring.
‘I’ll wait in the car while you go for your gear. Bring a quilt, my place is rough, I’ve got the builders in. And hurry up.’ As if barking at her would improve the situation at all.
He had to be mad to be doing this, but somehow Millie had caught him off guard. Maybe it was the wild, haunted flare in her eyes. Stroppy woman and sex kitten had melted away, leaving one girl who was just plain scared, though perhaps the full-on curve of her lips in that one begging smile had swung it. Then his own instinct to work every situation to the max kicked in, and he was straight on the phone to Carrie, saying ‘Dating Challenge on.’
When Millie re-appeared – not that he expected that to be any time soon – he’d drive into town, pick up a take-away, and then head back to the barn he was converting out on the estate. All agreed with Carrie as a suitable wealth-concealing, coupledom activity.
Twelve hours from now Date One would be over. All good.
Except now it came to it, he was the one bricking it, and he had no idea why.
MILLIE stretched out on Ed’s threadbare sofa, loving the tea-lights placed at intervals around the floor edge, and the flickering shadows which danced up the rough stone walls.
‘You okay there?’ Ed leaned over the back of the sofa, and gave her quilt a tweak.
Was that a glimmer of a smile playing across his mouth, or just another ironic grimace? She’d definitely got her gratitude-goggles on here.
‘Yep.’ She nodded. Way more than okay in fact. Try couldn’t be better. Perfect even.
Indian take-away, watching the sun go down on the terrace-to-be outside the huge barn doors, and washed down with alcohol-free beer, in case there was an emergency later. Bossy Ed had come through. So far, he was looking like a whole lot more than just a pretty face. And then all rounded off with luxury ice-cream. Now he was looking like a god. Not necessarily the best news for her, with her strict man-ban in place.
‘The barn’s still a work in progress, obviously. We’ve stripped out, done the roof and drains, and enough electrics to run a fridge. Should be good for a night of summer camping.’ As he craned his neck scanning the roof timbers, she reeled as one glimpse of the exposed column of his throat fired a shiver down her back. Then he sent her a grimace so close to a smile it made her tummy tumble into free-fall. ‘Better than hospital, I guess.’
‘You bet.’ The secret cat-who-got-the-ice-cream grin she’d been guarding made a surprise escape, somehow plastering itself from ear to ear. Hopefully he’d turned away before he saw.
As for her man-ban, he’d given her no reason to think she had any chance with him. On the contrary, he was keeping his distance.
‘So, if it’s okay with you, I’ll get on with that work I told you about.’ He sauntered to the table by the doors, flopped onto a chair and opened his lap-top.
There you go. Point made. One more flip of her stomach as she took in those long legs, and the chiseled perfection of his cheekbones in the last of the daylight. Unusually, she didn’t correct herself. For one night only, given she had a head injury, she would let her mental tongue hang out.
Now he’d lost the bad temper, if you overlooked his gloriously decorative side, there was something reassuringly basic and normal about this guy, sitting in his stripped out barn. It was going to be years before she had consolidated her independence enough to consider hooking up with anyone again, but when she did, she hoped it could be with someone like this. Someone hard working. Honest. As far away from trust-fund-on-a-plate Josh, and his rich-boy throw-away morals as she could get.
‘Another beer? Hot chocolate? Ibuprofen?’ Ed was at the fridge now, waggling a bottle. Smart black fridge too. She liked that. A bit like the one back home at her parents’ place in London. Expensive, then. Good to see he’d got his chilled-beer priorities right.
‘No thanks to all of those, I’m good.’ Another escaping grin.
And thinking of home, she knew her family would blow a fuse when she chose to settle down with someone ordinary, so lucky it was a long way off then. Hopefully by that time she’d have proved she was capable of living without the intervention of their wealth, and was capable of making her own decisions, her own mistakes. She’d been independent of them for almost a year now, and although at times it had been tough, she knew that was how she had to play it. She had to be her own person.
‘I’ve a lot to do here; I’ll be busy for the next few hours at least.’ He screwed the top off his beer as he walked back to the table and took a swig. Exposed his beautiful, kissable throat. Again. ‘Settle down whenever you want. I’ll leave the candles to burn. They should last beyond dawn.’
A shame he’d dismissed her so firmly. She’d have liked to know why a guy who appeared from the quarry in ripped jeans had so many hours of lap-top work to do. Costing out the building work perhaps? Too late to ask. She’d probably never find out now.
Pulling the quilt up under her chin, she felt a pang of disappointment that she’d dashed to sponge the blood out of her scalp, rush on some make-up, and pile up her hair, and he’d still shown no sign of noticing she existed. Not that she’d wanted him to. But as she closed her eyes to sleep, a tiny part of her was hoping she’d have the same dream as this morning. Okay, come clean. A large part. How ridiculous was that?
That when she woke up, it would be to find him giving her the second snog of her life.
***
Millie was woken at the crack of dawn, not by Ed snogging her socks off sadly, but by Ed shaking her shoulder, and bellowing in her ear.
‘It’s six thirty! The builders are on their way. I need to get you home.’
Less of the chocolate, more of the fog-horn voice this morning.
She groaned, dragged her fingers through her hair, and groaned again. ‘Sorry – I’m not a daybreak person!’
‘I gathered that already. Well done anyway. You’ve survived your twelve hours of surveillance, and now it’s time to go!’ He was sounding disgustingly awake, standing by the door, laptop in one hand, take-away rubbish and empties in a carrier in the other. ‘Whenever you’re ready … ’
Twenty minutes later, she was unceremoniously ejected from the Land Rover outside her front door, and he’d driven off in a cloud of dust before she even had time to thank him.
***
There was definitely something to be said for a dawn start. By nine, Millie had caught up on most of what she’d missed yesterday, and was about to head for a shower when she heard the sound of hooves on gravel, and caught the un-mistakable neigh of Cracker the pony, on his way home.
Blast. She’d been hoping to make herself presentable, and then go up to the quarry to collect Cracker herself. Not that she wanted to attract the attention of anyone special, obviously, but simply to prove she wasn’t always mud-streaked and bloodied, although seeing
