the best possible outcome. She needed her time out, undiluted time to mourn the passing of a significant relationship. Under normal circumstances, if the Ramos family had showed up, she would have been busy but her busyness would not have distracted her from her thoughts. Lucas distracted her from her thoughts. Robbie had barely registered on her radar! In fact, when she tried to think of him, a darker, leaner image instantly superimposed itself.
Behind her, she was aware of Lucas talking rapidly on his phone. He seemed to be very well known in these parts. A man with connections. He was probably doing all sorts of networking right now, getting things lined up now that his stint here had fallen through.
‘You were asking me,’ a dark, sexy drawl said from behind her, ‘how long I intended staying here and I told you that I was keeping my options open...’
Milly spun around, tensing up. ‘I’m fine to stay here by myself,’ she told him without hesitation.
‘But would that require you to curb your keen sense of adventure?’ Lucas couldn’t help asking. He thought of her here, on her own, deciding to explore the slopes at midnight just for the fun of it. ‘Tell me what your plans are when you leave this place. Do you intend to stay here for the full fortnight? Or will you return to London and start looking for another flatmate? What happens if you don’t find one? ‘
Milly frowned, taken aback at his change of subject. ‘I’m keeping my options open,’ she mimicked, and Lucas smiled.
‘Come and sit down. I want to have a talk with you.’
‘What about?’
Lucas didn’t answer. Instead, he strolled towards the sofa, his face revealing nothing of what was going through his head.
Was there anything more annoying than an actively functioning grapevine? He had been in the town no longer than an hour and the world at large seemed to know.
His window of freedom appeared to have shut and now he had a problem on his hands.
Of course, there was no problem that did not carry a solution, but he could definitely have done without this particular thorn in his side. His mouth tightened as he thought of the series of texts he had received, texts that had been in a toxic holding bay until service resumed and he could pick them up.
‘What are the chances of you finding a job the second you return to London?’ he asked, relaxing back on the sofa, his face revealing nothing of what was going through his head or of the vague plan slowly beginning to cohere into shape. ‘In the catering arena? I’m guessing that there are a lot of jobs to work at burger joints but I’m also guessing that those jobs won’t be top of your list.’
‘I honestly don’t see what my future job hunting has to do with you!’
‘And then there’s the little technicality of paying rent when you don’t have a job. Difficult. Unless you have a stash of money saved...’ He steamrollered over her interruption as though she hadn’t spoken. ‘Have you a stash of money saved?’
‘That’s none of your—’
‘Business. Is that what you’re about to say?’
‘Where are you going with this, Lucas? Okay, so I may not have much money saved, but...I’ll have what I’ve earned for this fortnight.’ She frowned and wondered how long that would last. Why did he have to throw reality in her face? Had he no heart at all?
‘“Water through fingers” is the thought that springs to mind,’ Lucas said with what she thought was a callous lack of empathy. ‘The cost of living is astronomical in London.’
‘How would you know?’ Milly muttered and again Lucas opted to ignore her interruption.
‘I guess, in all events, you could always return to your grandmother’s place in Scotland. Ah. I can see from the you way you blanched just then that that option lacks appeal.’
‘Why are you doing this?’
‘Doing what?’ Lucas asked with a show of innocence that set her teeth on edge because it was so clearly false.
‘Ramming all my problems down my throat. I wish I’d never confided in you.’
‘I wasn’t ramming your problems down your throat.’
‘I didn’t come here to...to...’
‘Confront that awkward little thing known as reality?’
‘You can be really horrible.’ Okay, so obviously she would have to address the pressing issue of how she was going to survive without a job and, hard on the heels of that, probably nowhere to live either. But she had been quite happy to put that on hold, at least for a few days. Once she had sorted out the emotional mess she was in which, thinking about it, she realised she seemed to be sorting out rather nicely, all things taken into account.
‘There’s a point to my timely reminder of the problems you’re facing,.’ Lucas leaned forward, resting his forearms on his thighs. He wondered where he should start. Her mouth was pursed into a sulky downturn, her eternally upbeat personality dampened by the way he had forced unpleasant reality upon her.
‘And that point being...?’
‘Point being that I’m about to come to your rescue. In fact, I’m about to open up your world to tantalising new possibilities, and in return all you have to do for me is one small favour.’
MILLY STARED AT Lucas in confusion. For a few seconds, she wondered whether he was joking, whether he was having a laugh at her expense, somehow getting his own back for the tantrum she had pulled earlier.
She dismissed that idea as fast as it had come. His face was impassive, deadly serious. And if her gut was telling her that he wasn’t the sort of guy who liked tantrums, it was also telling her that he wasn’t the sort of guy who would do anything to get his own back for something as silly as her snapping at him.
Whether he had deserved it or not. Which he had. More or less.
‘Tantalising new possibilities?’ she laughed a little weakly. ‘Are you feeling okay, Lucas? How are you going to open up my world to tantalising new possibilities?’ She wished he would stop looking at her like that, with such deadly calm.
‘You might be a little...surprised by what I’m about to tell you.’
‘Then don’t tell me,’ she said promptly. ‘I hate surprises. They’re never good.’
‘Well, that’s one thing we have in common,’ Lucas murmured, momentarily distracted. He stood up and she followed the easy, fluid movement of his long body with something close to compulsion. He walked across to the window and stared out and, even with his back to her, she could tell that he wasn’t really seeing what he appeared to be staring at. She could sense his distraction and that made her nervous because, and she could see this now, there was something so intensely focused about him. Distracted was not his normal frame of mind.
He spun round, caught her staring at him and allowed himself a small smile which immediately made her glower. And that was why he was
