opening gambit.
‘Lucky you,’ Jasmine told her, not willing to let the subject go just yet. ‘I’m always dieting. I’ve tried just about every diet ever written.’
‘Oh, but surely you don’t need to diet, Jasmine.’
Other women might have said the same reassuring words without Theo even noticing, but to him it sounded as if Grace was making an effort to be nice—as if social chatter didn’t come easily to her.
Jasmine, too, must have sensed something strange for she smiled uncertainly, conveying enough apprehension for even someone as seemingly insensitive as Grace to see.
‘I didn’t mean to sound critical of diets or people who diet,’ she added quickly. ‘But research has shown that dieting fads can do more harm than good.’
For Theo it was like watching an act in a play and he waited to see if Jasmine would be mollified.
Apparently she was, for she smiled at Grace.
‘I know,’ she said with a big sigh. ‘I’ve read that too, but I think I’m addicted to diets.’
It was said as a joke, but, sensing it would go straight over Grace’s head, Theo plunged in.
‘Like I’m addicted to good pizza,’ he said, forgetting he’d just ordered steak. ‘Which is why I’m spending all my off-duty time building a wood-fired oven in my already too small courtyard.’
‘Is the pizza no good here that you didn’t order it?’
Of course Grace had picked up on his error.
‘No, the pizzas are great, I just needed a change,’ he assured her. OK, so she’d zeroed in on him again, but at least discussing food likes and dislikes was better than discussing marriage—or his lack thereof. And Jasmine was off the hook—she’d turned to talk to Aaron on her other side, so Theo took another slice of garlic bread and relaxed.
‘So, are you in a relationship?’
Had he heard correctly? He stared at the woman he thought had asked an extremely impertinent question and she gave an embarrassed shrug.
‘I told you I asked questions—I explained why,’ she said. ‘And you didn’t answer about why you’re not married, so I wondered…’
Theo studied her a moment longer, sensing something he couldn’t quite pin down behind the brash manner.
Something uncertain?
It sounded that way, but surely not!
Given the attraction he felt towards her, he knew he had to keep his distance, not find excuses to learn more of her.
‘Why?’ he asked, cool and distant again. ‘Why are you wondering—why do you need to know? As you said, you’re here for six months. I could work with people for six months and not need to know about their personal lives. In fact, there are people at this table— No, that’s not right, the team mostly know the surface things about each other’s lives, although the fact that I am single is enough for most of them to know. No one in the eight months I’ve been here has ever asked me why.’
‘Yes, well…’
She pursed her lips—lush, full lips which, when pursed, looked extremely inviting and turned the tug into a more insistent feeling—and studied him in turn, then shook her head.
‘I’m sorry! I’ve been far too intrusive. My father was always telling me that, right from when I was a small girl, asking questions all the time and not differentiating between acceptable questions and personal ones. Although—’
She stopped, and Theo forgot he was trying to keep his distance and was intrigued enough to prompt her.
‘Although?’ he echoed, and she smiled and shook her head, the blue eyes looking…sad? Vulnerable?
Vulnerable? This super-confident woman?
Super-efficient, too, he suspected.
Vulnerable was the last word he’d use…
She’d gone too far. Again! Grace knew that, but somehow the switch that turned her off before she pushed that extra bit further had always been missing from her genetic programming. She should never have asked him about his marital state in the first place, then pushing when he didn’t answer…
Terrible!
But he’d be ideal. She’d known that from the moment she’d seen him, recalling his bio in the team info sheets she’d read. He was intelligent, well-built, good-looking—although she knew that shouldn’t be a prerequisite—and apparently available. Not that she needed available—she wasn’t intending to have an affair with him.
All she really wanted was his sperm…
She felt a blush stealing into her cheeks and was furious with herself. She might be blessed with a good metabolism so didn’t need to diet, but she’d have preferred a tendency to run to fat than this terrible blushing thing she had.
Had Theo seen the colour in her cheeks that he lifted the bottle of cold water off the table and offered to pour her a glass? How embarrassing!
Surely this was the time to ditch the Grand Plan—to forget all about it and just get on with her life. She’d lived with the ache for a long time—she could live with it a little longer…
She thanked him and watched his concentration as he poured the water, then noticed the back of his hand as he passed her the glass—long slim fingers and a slight scattering of dark hair at the wrist—and for some strange reason the heat of embarrassment left her, and a shiver travelled up her spine.
Looking at a man’s hand couldn’t make you shiver, so maybe she was sickening for something.
Not that she ever got sick…
‘Although?’ he said again, and it took her a couple of seconds to go back far enough to pick up the prompt.
She smiled. Father had told her when she was very young that she had a beautiful smile and that you could never go wrong with a smile.
‘I can’t tell you the “although”,’ she said, wondering if this was flirting. ‘But I am interested.’
Duh! Blushing again. Who would have thought it would be this hard?
‘In me?’ Theo asked, and she felt her blush deepen so she must be scarlet-cheeked by now.
‘In everyone on the team,’ she said.
‘Oh!’ His dark brown eyes lit up to match his delighted smile. ‘So you’ll ask all of them about their relationships? Actually, I can fill you in on some of them. Jasmine’s just got engaged, Phil and Alex and Aaron—with Aldo added we have a lot of As, don’t we? Anyway those three are all happily married—’
‘Stop! You’re making me more and more embarrassed. It is none of my business.’
Theo stopped, but only because
