over ran, had dug her heels in and lashed out at trips abroad and had eventually started look- ing elsewhere for someone who could give her undivided attention.
It had been a salutary lesson. So leading women up a garden path was definitely not a route he was interested in taking. From the very start, they knew that commitment wasn’t going to be on the agenda. He was honest to a fault which, he personally thought, was a virtue to be praised, for it was in short supply in most men.
Which brought him back to the issue of this mysterious guy about whom she was being so secretive.
‘But perhaps you don’t agree with me,’ he drawled, flicking a sidelong glance in her direction. ‘Or maybe I’m wrong. Maybe you’ve been bitten by the big-city bug and come to the conclusion that there’s nothing pointless in having fun. Is that it? I notice you still haven’t mentioned Stewart’s marital status.’
‘Of course he’s not married! He happens to be a very nice person. In fact, he’s taking me out to a very expensive restaurant in Knightsbridge—San Giovanni. Stewart says that it’s famous. In fact, you’ve probably heard of it.’
At which point, Luc’s ears pricked up. This was definitely not the kind of man he’d pictured and, yes, he certainly had heard of the restaurant in question. It was the frequent haunt of the rich and famous.
So what did Agatha have that would attract someone who could afford to take her there? He shot her a sidelong glance and frowned; it struck him that she did have something about her, a certain innocence that a wide-boy Londoner might find suitably challenging. He didn’t like to entertain the notion but sweet, prim Agatha might just be seen as ripe for corruption.
Not an eco-warrior, not a married man…so just someone out to use her? Or was he reading the situation all wrong?
Curiosity, lamentably in short supply in his life, shifted somewhere inside him. He had acted on the spur of the moment in offering her a lift home, and really he should be heading back to his office to put the finishing touches to reports that needed emailing sooner than yesterday. But, hell, work could wait for a little while. Hadn’t he been entrusted with a mission, in a manner of speaking?
In the space of seconds, plans for the remainder of his evening were put on hold.
‘I’ll drive you to Knightsbridge. And before you say anything…’ his sensuous mouth curved into a half smile ‘… there’s no need to thank me.’
CHAPTER TWO
LUC settled down with a cup of coffee for the long haul. Never mind about running late; it was his experience with women that their ability to get changed in under an hour was practically zero. Agatha might not follow the normal pattern of the women he knew, but she was of the female species. Enough said.
He glanced around the poky room with an expression of distaste. He had nothing against bedsits, per se, but it was evident that, whoever the landlord was, he specialised in the art of ripping off the young and inexperienced. The walls showed promising signs of damp and the single radiator looked like something rescued from the ark. The large, old-fashioned sash window overlooking the busy pavements was reasonably attractive but the wood was peeling, and he knew that if he stood too close to it he would be in danger of frostbite from the cold air blowing through the gaps in the frame. He wondered whether he should get more details about the guy. It would take next to no effort to put the fear of God into him.
He was restlessly pacing the room, stopping to scowl with displeasure at the hundred and one little deficiencies in her living accommodation to which Agatha had grown accustomed over the months, when she emerged from her bedroom.
‘I got ready as quickly as I could. You didn’t have to wait here for me. I could easily have got the tube back into London.’
Luc spun round at the sound of her voice behind him, and for a few seconds he stood very still, his stunning eyes unreadable—which was a disappointment. Although she hated the situation she was in, and hated the fact that he now considered her a burden with which he had to deal, he did still happen to be in her bedsit and she was quite dressed up. For her.
‘How do you think I look? ‘ she asked nervously, stretching out her arms and trying in to suck in her stomach.
An only child adored by her parents who had given up on ever having children until she’d come along, Agatha was still keenly aware that her figure didn’t fit the trend, despite all the reassurances she had had growing up. She wasn’t tall enough or skinny enough or flat-chested enough ever to look fashionable. Nor was her blond hair poker-straight.
But, having been insulted about her clothes, she had made a special attempt to look as smart as she could for her date—and incidentally to prove to Luc that she wasn’t the complete fashion disaster that he seemed to think she was.
‘You’ve done something to your hair,’ he commented neutrally. She had a figure. Hell, how had he managed to miss that? It was weirdly shocking to see her in figure-hugging clothes that made the most of what he now registered, with a stunned attention to detail, as a tiny waist and the sort of lush breasts that made teenage boys and grown men stop in their tracks. When had she grown up? When had she stopped being a gauche, awkward teenager who hovered in the background and become…? He had to look away because his body had been galvanised into a response that stunned him.
‘Well, I left it loose. It’s so curly and unmanageable that I tie it up for work.’
‘And it’s heart warming to see that you possess something other than a flowing skirt and baggy jumper. It bodes well for your new approach to dressing for the office, although you might want to have a serious re-think about the length of the skirt.’ Slender legs encased in sheer, black tights staged an all-out battle with his self-control. He was in the grip of utter, stupefied surprise—unfamiliar territory for him.
‘What’s wrong with it?’ She bent slightly to inspect the hem of her dress with a frown. ‘It’s no shorter than some of the skirts the other girls wear.’ She sighed, knowing what he meant without him having to spell it out. Short and tight was only acceptable on stick insects. ‘Anyway,’ she added defensively, ‘I wouldn’t dream of wearing anything like this to work. In fact, it’s the only dress I have. Well, the only—’
He was reaching for her coat, clamping down on a reaction that he deemed inappropriate, inexplicable and ridiculous, and she winced at her propensity for rambling. Her mother had always called her a chatterbox and they had all been convinced at the garden centre that her success with the difficult plants lay in her ability to talk to them about anything and everything. But Luc wasn’t interested in anything she had to say. She shut her mouth abruptly, and stiffly allowed herself to be helped into her coat.
‘The only what?’
‘It doesn’t matter. It wasn’t very interesting, anyway. I was just going to say that I don’t have an awful lot of dresses. There was never much need to wear them when I worked at the garden centre.’
‘I do recall some green overalls,’ he drawled.
‘I’ve never seen you at the garden centre.’ Embarrassed colour was spreading to her hairline, and she was really relieved that he was following her so that he couldn’t see her face.
‘You would have remembered seeing me? That garden centre was pretty big.’
‘Of course I would have remembered seeing you—because…because
