‘Why don’t you stay with me tonight? I can guarantee a lot more body heat, Miss Baldoni.’
What? Her poor heart performed a crazy acrobatic dance inside her chest. The very idea was so ridiculous that it made her head spin. It was a terrible suggestion. Wasn’t it? Her fingers clutched tighter to the warm, soft fleece jacket and in a moment of weakness she wondered what it would be like to skip upstairs and find out just how hot this man’s body truly was.
She glared at Scott and even in the faint light she could see that he was grinning at her. As though he knew perfectly well what a temptation he was offering and was teasing her at the same time.
And he was a temptation. A serious one. She was already missing the touch of his mouth on hers and the heavy breath on her skin from the man who had the power to make her feel desirable for the first time in over a year.
Since Peter. Peter.
She instantly pushed Scott away with both hands flat against his chest and slid unsteadily to her feet out of the warmth of his jacket and into the cold air.
‘Oh, I bet that you can. Sorry, but that is such my cue to get back to bed. My own bed. In the guest room, Mr Elstrom!’
Then, before she could change her mind, Toni stretched out and grabbed hold of the edges of his jacket and kissed him on the mouth. Hard and fast and bruising. Taking control. Calling the shots. Then she pulled away, leaving her panting for breath and maybe a lot more.
A cool breeze flitted across Toni’s feet and she slipped in the flimsy mules as Scott laughed. ‘Good night, Antonia.’
She half turned. ‘Actually, my friends call me Toni. See you later.’
The narrow terraced house was in darkness when Toni walked up the path and turned the key in the front door. The light drizzle had turned into sleet and she was immensely grateful to step inside.
This part of Hampstead was only a few minutes away from the busy roads and the hustle and bustle of the main streets of London, but this tree-lined street seemed a world away from all of the noise and pollution.
She had waited for the bus that never came. So she had gritted her teeth and walked for thirty minutes in her smart boots, dragging her pull-along suitcase behind her rather than just stand there and wait or pay for a cab.
Waiting was for losers. Scott would never have waited—and neither would she.
She had waited for her parents to stop telling her that she was ridiculous to throw away her heritage to take up photography instead of fine art. Then waited in vain for her father to acknowledge her talent as she worked with him on his paintings, day after day, week after week until she was doing most of the work.
Slipping off her damp coat, she strolled slowly down the hallway to the kitchen, her feet dragging and her boots feeling like lead weights. Each step made the old floorboards creak and the sound echoed down the tall empty hallway, but she had become used to each familiar sound in this tiny house. Her faithful friends were the chiming of the grandfather clock in the hall and the faint whistling of the wind in the eaves.
Toni looked through the stained glass panel from the kitchen into the artist’s studio where her father used to invite sitters. In summer the house was filled with coloured light and seemed a magical place, bright and positive and bursting with life.
But at that moment it was dark, wet and windy and the sleet lashed against the roof and the only light was from the streetlight outside streaming in from the glass panel over the front door.
And as she stood there in the kitchen, suddenly exhausted, Toni slid sideways on to a hard wooden chair at the kitchen table with her back against the wall as though the events of the day were too heavy to carry any longer.
What a day!
For a start, she didn’t usually go around kissing men she had just met. In fact this was a first. And the fact that she had enjoyed it enormously didn’t change the fact that she might just have made a huge mistake.
Scott had already left for work when she got up that morning and had been out most of the day visiting banks and suppliers bright and early on a Monday morning. In fact she had only seen him once when he’d let her into the building and passed her a set of keys and he had been all cool politeness and calm.
It was as if they had never kissed or snuggled.
So where did that leave her?
Deny it as best she could, at that moment last night when Scott pressed his lips to hers...her poor parched heart had soaked in every precious second of that glorious intimacy and physical sensation like a desert in the rain.
It frightened her just how much she needed someone in her life.
But not just anyone. She wanted to be intimate with someone she could call her friend as well as her lover. Peter had never been her friend.
Scott Elstrom was the last person she wanted to fall for. He was gorgeous and she had been more than tempted to spend the night with him. But then what? A few days of fun before she went back to work?
She had never had a one-night stand in her life and this was not the best time to start.
No. It would be better if she followed Scott’s example and put last night behind them and got back to being professional colleagues who would be working together for the next few days. Side by side. She could do that.
Um. And the garden was suddenly full of a squadron of purple piglets in pink tutus singing as they flew across the sky.
She let her head drop back and just sat there, listening to the sound of her breathing and gentle sobs in the darkness.
Pathetic!
It wasn’t the dark, or the silence.
No, it was the crushing feeling of loneliness which drove her to feel sorry for herself. She had never got used to being so lonely. Amy was the only family she had left and she was currently in the depths of South America so it was silly to want to talk to her so very badly. Amy would ring or text the minute she could. She always did.
And nobody was prouder than Toni.
What had she promised Amy? This was a New Year. A fresh start.
Stupid girl! She didn’t need to be alone if she didn’t want to be. She had friends. Real friends who would come around in an instant if she needed them.
Toni rolled her shoulders back and was just about to pull herself to her feet when her cellphone rang out from her bag.
Amy! She scrabbled around in her bag, terrified that she would ring off before she found her phone in the near darkness, and flicked it open, instantly creating a bright panel of light. Her shoulders slumped down in disappointment. It wasn’t her sister. It was an email.
With a photo of the purple underpants she had modelled last evening at her birthday party. A small smile creased her lips and Toni blinked away her tears and sniffed. Apparently Scott had found the underwear under the sofa and it had looked vaguely familiar.
Did
