trailing off on to the floor but the general illumination was enough to show him that his crisp, tight, pristine sheets were a tangled memory. A woman lay sprawled on her stomach in his bed, one arm splayed across the rumpled sheet towards him, the other folded in at her side, her hand disappearing into the tawny froth of hair that rippled across her shoulders, glinting in the subdued light with the lustre of old gold. Her face was well and truly buried in one of Benedict’s rare, private self-indulgences—the super-size down pillows with which he furnished his beds.
He closed his eyes and shook his head sharply, sure that what he saw must be a fatigue-induced hallucination.
He looked again, moving hesitantly towards the bed, still unwilling to trust the evidence of his weary, less than perfect eyesight.
As he got closer he could see the slow rise and fall of her back and hear the faint snuffle made by her breath on the pillow. She was definitely real.
Above the white cotton sheet which draped in modest folds over her hips and legs she wore a wisp of white satin, although judging from the turmoil of the rest of the bed any modesty was purely accidental. One thin white strap had straggled almost entirely off the arm tucked against her body and the consequent lop-sided sagging of white satin revealed a long, breathtaking sweep of graceful back sheathed in lustrously smooth-textured skin the colour of dark honey.
A powerful outrage gripped Benedict. It didn’t even occur to his befuddled brain to question who she was; all he felt was a furious sense of betrayal. His precious privacy had been invaded!
This was his bed, his room, his home, God damn it! No matter that he had never called it such before, nor that it was only one of a number of residences he maintained.
And, hell, he was tired! All he wanted to do was sleep. Was that too much to ask in a man’s own home?
Most infuriating of all was the fact that neither the shower nor the light had woken the feminine invader. Where he desperately longed to be she was already—fathoms deep in contented slumber. Well, not for long!
He bent over and growled savagely, ‘Wake up, Goldilocks; Papa Bear wants his bed back.’
There was not a flicker of response. The allusion that had sprung unconsciously to his lips was ridiculously apposite, he thought as he straightened and glimpsed himself in the mirror of the dressing-table on the other side of the bed. Not only was he feeling emotionally bearish...he was physically bare as well!
The little nip of sardonic humour restored a small measure of Benedict’s normal equilibrium. He suddenly realised that waking up to find a stark-naked man looming over her was more likely to fling his mystery guest into hysterics than prompt a meek departure. The last thing his exhausted mind and body needed right now was to get involved in a dramatic scene.
He turned, intending to fetch his bathrobe from the hook in the bathroom, when the muted burr of his cell-phone distracted him. Tired as he was he couldn’t ignore the siren-call of master to technological slave. He detoured to his briefcase and pulled out the humming unit.
‘So, are you home yet?’
Benedict raked his fingers over his cropped head as he recognised his friend and colleague’s distinctive American drawl. ‘Yes, Dane, just...and you won’t believe what I found!’
A lazy chuckle that was Dane Judson’s good-humoured trademark vibrated in his ear. ‘What do you think of her? Can I pick them, or what? Isn’t she the most gorgeous thing you’ve ever seen?’
Benedict spun on his heel and stared incredulously at the woman on the bed. ‘She—I—you’re responsible for her being here?’ he stuttered.
His friend laughed and Benedict could hear the faint clink of bottle against glass in the background. ‘Uh-huh. Rendered you speechless, huh? I knew I’d do it one day. I just wish I could have been there to see your face, but I’m stuck here in Wellington until next week.’
‘But what in the—?’
‘Many happy returns for tomorrow, pal.’ There was the audible sound of a toast being drunk.
Benedict cleared his throat as understanding burst upon his sluggish brain. ‘This is your idea of a birthday present? For God’s sake, Dane—!’
‘Don’t worry, pal, it’s all pleasure and no responsibility,’ Dane gleefully misunderstood him. ‘You don’t have to look after her for keeps—she’s strictly on weekend loan. I promised you’d return her in perfect nick so make sure you treat her real lover-like—’
‘What—?’ Benedict moved jerkily back towards the bed, stunned by the revelation that the anonymous female body was there purely for his temporary delectation.
Another rolling laugh. ‘I keep telling you, all work and no play makes Ben a dull boy. And don’t tell me you’re not feeling jaded because I know you well enough to read the signs. You need to revitalise yourself with a little hell-raising and, believe me, this babe is guaranteed to loosen you up real fast. A few days with her and you’ll feel eighteen again...’
‘I wouldn’t wish a second time around as a teenager on my worst enemy,’ Benedict said sardonically, unconsciously lowering his voice as he leaned against the bedside cabinet, wondering what Dane would say if he knew that his outrageous birthday present had got tired of waiting to spring her surprise and was out cold. Benedict decided not to spoil his friend’s mirthful pleasure by telling him. ‘Let alone my best friend. I hesitate to inject a dose of unwelcome reality into your adolescent fantasies, Dane, but isn’t this kind of arrangement a bit unhealthy these days?’
Dane gave a whoop of delighted laughter. ‘Afraid you’ll have a heart-attack from the excitement? Come on, Ben—would I give you something that I thought would kill you? When was the last time you had some innocent, macho fun? A year? Eighteen months ago? Trust me, you have nothing to worry about. I had her thoroughly checked over inside and out and she’s in prime, A-1 condition—’
‘For God’s sake—!’ Benedict could feel the heat in his face, almost as if he was embarrassed on behalf of a woman who was obviously either a high-class call-girl or a free spirit who got her kicks out of having sex with total strangers. He knew it had been quite some time since his last relationship with a woman ended but he had been so absorbed in his work that he had never worried about his inactive libido. Not so Dane, it seemed, whose sex life was as active as his bizarre sense of humour.
‘Dane—’
‘No need to thank me, pal,’ his friend interrupted, ringing off with a breezy, ‘Just enjoy! And remember, it’s pumpkin time Monday morning...’
Benedict swayed slightly under another rolling wave of fatigue as he switched off the phone and placed it clumsily down on the bedside table. He struggled to keep his eyelids open as he wearily debated his options.
There were plenty of other beds in the house but his proprietary interest in this one was stubbornly acute.
Despite her apparent sprawl, his nameless birthday gift actually trespassed on little more than half of the bed, he noted, her left arm and hip neatly aligned with the far edge of the single mattress. He looked down at her outflung arm, at the long, slender fingers curled laxly over the edge of the bed. Her fingertips almost touched his hair-roughened knee. Gently he encircled her wrist and lifted the sleep-heavy arm, placing it neatly back against her side. There was now an inviting expanse of empty
