man, Layla. I very rarely let anyone get too close to me … especially women.’
He almost didn’t need to say the words. Straight away she was aware of the turmoil that raged inside him at the mere notion of allowing her more intimate access into his life. It was as though she was the enemy and he was behind an impenetrable wall of steel keeping her from advancing any further.
Her breathing was suddenly uncomfortably shallow. ‘So your previous relationships with women have been based on satisfying sexual desire and nothing more? Is that what you’re telling me?’
‘This really isn’t the time or the place to discuss this.’ Drake’s troubled gaze turned into a warning glare. ‘Right now I need to do my job and look round the site. I’ll ring you later on tonight and we can talk then.’
Indignation that she was being palmed off until it was more convenient made Layla bristle. ‘Don’t bother. I’m not interested in being placated by your no doubt charmingly reasonable explanation as to why you don’t want to let me get to know you properly, and neither am I interested in being some convenient bed partner while you’re in town.’ She unceremoniously shoved the hard hat into his hand. ‘Don’t worry about giving me a lift back to the café. The walk will do me good. I know the route back into town like the back of my hand.’
‘Don’t go.’
There was a heartfelt plea in his voice that stopped her in her tracks.
‘Why? Why shouldn’t I go?’ she asked, her heart thudding inside her chest as though she teetered on the edge of a cliff.
‘Because I want to show you round the site and explain what we’ve got planned to improve it.’ He expelled a frustrated sigh. ‘Aren’t you at least interested in that?’
Even though she was mad at him, Layla couldn’t deny that she was more than interested in the planned improvements. After all, she knew only too well what it would mean to the town and its downtrodden population. It would feel like a betrayal of everyone she knew who lived there to just walk away and pretend she didn’t care.
Pushing her windblown hair out of her eyes, she slowly nodded. ‘Of course I’m interested. All right, then … I’ll stay and let you show me around.’
Quirking a wary eyebrow, Drake smiled. ‘And what about me ringing you later on tonight so we can talk about another date?’
‘If you agree to seriously consider my request about letting me into your life a little … then, yes … you can ring me.’
Shaking his head, as if he knew it was pointless to pursue the matter further, Drake lightly placed his hand at Layla’s back and led her onto the site.
‘SO WHAT do you think of the planned improvements?’ As he drove them out of the site, Drake stole an interested glance at his passenger and saw that her incandescent brown-eyed gaze was definitely reflective.
‘Ithink it’s terrific what you plan to do,’ she replied enthusiastically. ‘Especially the idea of having a communal garden with lots of lovely planting and an adjoining play area for the kids.’
‘You don’t think the kids will pull up the plants?’
‘No, Idon’t. Give people a place to be proud to live in, a place that’s aesthetically beautiful as well as practical, and in my view they’ll do everything they can to take care of it. A lot of the smaller children Iknow love plants and flowers, and if someone shows them how to plant and water them they’ll love them even more.’
‘So the plans have your personal seal of approval, Miss Jerome?’
Layla’s pale cheeks were suddenly flooded with the most becoming shade of pink. ‘You don’t need my approval … but I’m glad you asked my opinion just the same.’
‘There’s one more place I’d like to show you before Itake you back—a place that we’re planning to improve as well. It’s a short, nondescript side-street in one of the more rundown areas.’
‘Okay.’
Drake’s heart was thundering on the drive to the location where he’d been raised as a boy, but he tried to look beyond the now emptied shabby Victorian houses and envisage instead the more modern and attractive buildings he intended to erect in their place.
‘This is the street you were talking about?’ his companion asked, her expression puzzled as she peered through the windscreen.
‘Yes. It’s been empty for a long time now. Do you know someone who used to live here?’ Immediately Drake prayed that she didn’t. He didn’t want her view of him tainted by some gossipmonger’s lurid account of his family.
‘I don’t know anyone that lived here, but I know there are a few locals who are petitioning the council to save the buildings and have them renovated.’
His lips twisted ruefully. ‘I heard about that. As well-meaning as those folks are, I’m afraid the petition has already been discarded.’
‘Why?’
Taken aback by the look of horror on Layla’s face, and a little rattled by it, Drake sighed. ‘Because an independent party has purchased the entire street and has plans to demolish the houses and construct more contemporary residences in their place.’
‘When did you hear that?’ The huge brown eyes that had dazzled him right from the start widened in shocked disbelief.
‘About three months ago … when I put in a bid to buy the street.’
Layla’s even white teeth clamped down against the soft flesh of her plump lower lip and her slender hand pushed shakily through her hair. ‘So you’re the independent party?’
‘Yes … I am.’
‘And you plan to pull down these historic old buildings and replace them with cheap modern “Identi-Kit” houses with about as much character as cardboard egg-boxes?’
Drake would have grinned in amusement if it weren’t for the fact that Layla looked so painfully aggrieved. ‘I hope I have a lot more taste than that,’ he said dryly. ‘And for your information I never build cheap modern houses … no matter where they’re situated. First and foremost, it’s important to me to build housing that residents will be proud to live in, and I always utilise the most skilled craftsmen I can find to build them—as well as using the very best materials.’
‘Be that as it may, the Victorians knew how to build houses that stood the test of time and were elegant too, and I have to tell you that I’m one of the town’s residents who petitioned the council. If you’re planning on improving the area why can’t you just invest your money in renovating what’s already here?’
‘Because I’d rather rebuild than renovate, that’s why.’
‘I don’t understand. Why won’t you consider renovating?’
Even though seeing Layla’s obviously distressed glance was akin to being punched hard, and it had shocked him to learn that she
