him a lot, she smiled and nodded.
‘Your courage is only exceeded by your personal beauty,’ he told her and, having added the eggs, put a plate in front of her. ‘There you are, tuck in. You’ll feel a lot better when you’ve eaten.’
He took a napkin and his own plate and sat down companionably on the edge of the bed.
It was all so intimate they could have been lovers for years, she found herself thinking, or an old married couple.
But familiarity brought, if not contempt, a kind of serenity, and serenity was absent. His close proximity, her keen awareness of him, alerted all her senses and made her heart race and her temperature rise like a rocket.
Distracted, her appetite suddenly non-existent, she sipped her coffee and considered telling him that she wasn’t hungry after all.
But, unwilling to hurt his feelings, she finally picked up her knife and fork and began to eat. After the first mouthful or two she found, unexpectedly, that her appetite had returned.
Somewhat to her surprise—most of the men she had known in the past could scarcely boil water—everything was cooked to perfection and the eggs proved to be deliciously light and fluffy.
But then he was the kind of man who would excel at anything he set his hand to.
Glancing up, she met his tawny eyes.
‘Well?’ he queried.
‘You’re awarded a black belt.’
‘That’s good.’ With a small secret smile he added, ‘It’s my aim to please you in every way.’
That smile and the gleam in his eyes made her wonder if the innocent words had a double meaning and, feeling the colour rise in her cheeks, she hastily returned her attention to her meal.
He had put their empty plates on one side and offered her the toast rack before he broke the silence to ask, ‘Feeling any better?’
Starting to butter her toast, she answered, ‘Much better, thank you,’ and was surprised to find it was the truth. Her headache had lifted and the feeling of nausea had vanished.
Smiling at her, he said, ‘That’s good.’
He had leaned forward to help himself to a piece of toast when, glancing up, she saw that a stray shaft of sunshine had fallen across his handsome face, lighting it up.
Fascinated, she stared into his eyes. The irises, dark green and ringed with gold, had flecks of hazel and gold swimming in their tawny depths.
It seemed an age before she could tear her gaze away and return to her toast.
As, somewhat distractedly, she finished spreading it, she got a smear of marmalade on the index finger of her left hand. She was about to lick if off when he lifted her hand and, putting her finger in his mouth, sucked.
Feeling the warmth and wetness, the slight roughness of his tongue, she caught her breath and her stomach tied itself in knots.
A moment later he released her hand and, as if nothing had happened, as if he hadn’t shaken her to the very core, remarked, ‘By the way, while breakfast was cooking I phoned the garage. I’ve made arrangements to have your car picked up and repaired as soon as possible.’
Her voice impeded, she said, ‘Thank you. That’s very kind of you.’
‘It’s the least I can do.’
‘Perhaps if I give you my friend’s address, you’ll ask the garage to let me have the bill?’
Flatly, he said, ‘I shall do no such thing. As I ran into you, the responsibility is mine…Now, then, more coffee?’
‘Please.’
As he reached to replenish their coffee cups, his tone careless, he enquired, ‘I take it you have no plans for the weekend?’
‘I’ve trespassed long enough on your hospitality, so the first thing I must do is find a hotel…’
His mouth tightened. Once again she wasn’t reacting as he might have expected and he couldn’t afford to let her move into a hotel. While she was under his roof, he wanted to keep her there.
‘Then I intend to visit some employment agencies,’ she went on, determinedly, ‘and see what kind of jobs are currently available…’
That was another thing he couldn’t let her do.
‘Surely there’s no need to look for work immediately? Won’t you be receiving some kind of redundancy payment?’
‘I was given six months’ salary, which is really very generous. But when my flat is finished the rent will go up considerably. And, apart from that, I have financial commitments that make it necessary to find another job without too much delay.’
That could well be to his advantage, he thought. And then, though he already knew, he asked, ‘What exactly did your previous job entail?’
‘Tying up with the buyer to gather data and taste as many of the new vintages as possible; describing and cataloguing the wines; sending out promotional leaflets; organising the various social occasions and parties that are part of a sales push and making sure we received maximum press coverage.’
‘Sounds like a job and a half. But I gather you enjoyed it?’
She sighed. ‘Yes, I did, very much. Losing it came as a blow.’
‘It must have done.’
‘What are the chances of joining another vintner?’
‘Unfortunately, not very high, unless I was prepared to work abroad.’
‘And you don’t want to do that?’
‘Not really.’ She needed to be on hand to try and make sure that Didi didn’t go off the rails again.
‘But you’d prefer to be in the wine trade?’
‘It’s what I spent over three years studying for.’
‘Three years?’ He seemed surprised.
‘I did one year at college and another two on the practical side.’
‘Where did you get your hands-on experience?’
‘I spent two years working at the Château de Renard, learning about soil composition, planting methods, culture and yields, what factors need to be present to produce a good vintage, how to most successfully blend the various grape types—’
She stopped speaking abruptly, wondering if she was boring him.
But, looking anything but bored, he exclaimed, ‘Then you’re just the woman I need!’
As she stared at him, he explained, ‘You have exactly the kind of knowledge and experience that I’ve been hoping to find.
‘Our
