made sure not to dress up. She’d always had the sneaking suspicion that he had been a little threatened and overawed by her appearance and so she had unconsciously accommodated his insecurities.
For the first time, she had the crazy urge to make the absolute most of herself and the only person who could help her was Amy.
Amy had the clothes she lacked and, although they weren’t really the same size at all, Amy’s clothes were tight, small and stretchy. Many of them were a one size fits all variety and Sunny, having had her first few picks ruled out as way too boring for a night out on the town, had allowed herself to be led.
‘It’s not a night out on the town,’ she had protested, stepping out of one dress and straight into another. ‘His daughter is going to be there!’
‘You’re going out and it’s night time. It’s a night out in my book, and he’s cute, isn’t he? You said so before when I asked.’
‘He’s full of himself.’
‘But cute and sexy.’
‘Arrogant and way too...too...much for my liking.’
‘I notice you didn’t dispute the sexy bit.’ Amy had laughed and spun her round to the full-length mirror.
And now Sunny was staring at the young woman she had spent a lifetime making sure to hide.
Her long slender legs seemed to go on for ever and were on full view in the little stretchy skirt which was a demure pale pink in colour with a far from demure cut. She was taller than her friend, so what would have sat a couple of inches above knee level on Amy just about managed to skim Sunny’s thighs.
She had a driving urge to tug the skirt down and had to squeeze her hands into fists to stop herself from doing it.
The skirt was accompanied by an equally small stretchy top with a scooped neckline and three-quarter length sleeves. Together, she appeared to be wearing a dress, were it not for the fact that when she moved little slivers of her flat belly were exposed.
‘Perfect,’ Amy declared with satisfaction. ‘You have no idea how long I’ve been wanting to get my hands on you and do this. You can leave your hair the way it is; just run your fingers through it to make it look a little wilder and if you stay still for a couple of seconds I’ll put some eyeshadow, mascara and lipgloss on you.’ Amy shot her a sly look. ‘I must say you’re putting yourself out for someone who is arrogant, full of himself and way too...too...much for your liking...’
Sunny didn’t reply because she was too busy staring at the stranger staring back at her.
Despite the disparity in their height, she and Amy both wore the same shoe size and Sunny had been persuaded into a pair of her friend’s shoes which weren’t particularly high and weren’t particularly flamboyant, at least compared to the revealing outfit, but which still managed to make her look...
Sexy...
She had a sudden attack of panic. She would never, ever have worn anything like this if she’d been going out with girlfriends. She would have been far too terrified of attracting unwanted attention from all the wrong sorts but she would be going out with Stefano and Flora and she was wickedly excited at the prospect of showing him that, yes, she was a fun girl. She was someone who went out, who did all sorts of exciting things in her free time.
She was a sheep in borrowed clothing but he wasn’t to know that, was he?
She teamed the outfit with her own denim jacket and hung onto her casual backpack even though Amy did her best to entice her into something small and sparkly.
‘You look fab,’ her friend said, practically pushing her out of her door because her legs suddenly felt quite leaden. ‘Your arrogant dinner date is going to be bowled over! Now, shoo! I have to work on bowling my own dinner date over! Hurry up so that I have time to spray some more perfume and get myself arranged in a way that makes it look as though I haven’t been hanging around waiting for him to get back!’ Amy smiled and impulsively stood on tiptoe to kiss Sunny on her cheek. ‘And have fun, Sunny. You don’t do enough of that...’
STEFANO STROLLED OVER to the French doors overlooking the garden and stared in the general direction of the swimming pool. It was darkening outside, the bright turquoise of the sky fading into violet and navy. Upstairs, Flora had taken herself off to change. He hadn’t seen her so animated since she had come to live with him. It wasn’t to do with him or a sudden interest in developing a father-daughter relationship. He wasn’t stupid. He knew that. She had been energised by the excitement of the afternoon because, no matter how surly, grown-up and serious she was, she was still too young to really appreciate the potential danger Sunny had been in.
He shoved his hand in the pocket of his beige casual trousers and frowned, recalling every word she had told him of her unfortunate childhood.
When he had told her that he didn’t know every person working in the law firm, he hadn’t been lying, just as he didn’t personally know every single person working in the legal department of his own company, but he knew enough to suspect that the majority of them had not had to struggle to get where they were.
They would mostly be the products of comfortable middle-class families, put through private schools or excellent state schools, brought up on a diet of holidays abroad and generous pocket-money allowances, more than enough to ensure that they didn’t have to hold down an extra job in a restaurant to pay the bills.
So what was he to do with this information?
The bottom line was that he fancied her but alongside that elemental physical reaction was the sobering thought that she wasn’t like the other women he dated. That, in itself, was inherently disconcerting. Add the relationship she had with his daughter and things moved from disconcerting to downright dangerously foolhardy.
But the more he saw, the more he wanted...
And would she go out with him at all anyway? Was she even interested? Was this physical urge that was making a mockery of his common sense even reciprocated?
She didn’t give off all the usual signals. There were no coy looks or glances held for slightly too long or little-girl helplessness designed to bring out his protective instinct. He didn’t know any other woman who would have gone into detail about a miserable, deprived childhood because no one would have seen that as the sort of light-hearted chit-chat which formed part and parcel of verbal foreplay.
And the way she always looked as though she couldn’t escape his company fast enough...
She wasn’t playing hard to get.
But she blushed...and there were times when there was the ghost of a vibe, some electrical current that he could feel passing between them...soft, subtle, barely there but there enough to make his blood run hot...
Was that why he couldn’t seem to get her out of his head? He’d wrapped up his work as quickly as he could earlier today, had delegated a great portion of it to Bob Coombes, one of his CEOs...and he knew he had done that because not only had he wanted to take advantage of the thaw in relations with his daughter, but because he had also wanted to see Sunny.
It was a weakness he didn’t
