He hadnt denied it. Westleigh Hall belonged to him yet he had hired her without telling her that fact. Indeed he had deliberately deceived her. A deep flush carmined her fine skin. She was so shaken by the realisation that her tongue was glued to the roof of her mouth. This was her employer. Blaze Kenyon. What was he playing at? What was to happen now? Had he offered her the job as a cruel joke?
Dimly she had assumed that her new boss might be a little strapped for cash and that was why he was willing to take on someone without references or any real experience. Blazes Ferrari put paid to that idea. She found it hard to believe that Blaze had not been able to find someone more suitable...someone without a child in tow.
I didnt know it was y-your bed... It was the only bed, she reminded him in an undertone. We had to sleep somewhere. There was no light, no food, no heat
Money for food. With a flourish, Blaze slapped down a handful of notes and a small sheet of paper instructing her to do some shopping. It had been sitting on the top of the fridge, which was taller than she was. With only the aid of a torch, she would never have seen it.
We only got here at t-ten. She explained about the bomb scare. I didnt see the note.
I was expecting food tonight, he divulged grimly.
Chrissy understood why women occasionally battered men to death. She thought of their joyless arrival and the complete absence of anyone willing to show them how to settle in.
If the furniture didnt come, Hamish should have taken you back to the lodge to spend the night with him and Floss, Blaze mused impatiently. Werent you prepared to accept the offer?
She nearly told him the truth, but that might get the charmless Hamish into trouble. If there was the smallest chance that she could work here...and she couldnt afford not to fight for that chance...it wouldnt be a good idea to get on the wrong side of Blazes other employees. I didnt want to bother them, she muttered. I think he was busy.
I pay him to be busy at what I tell him to be busy at. It was chillingly cold and she suppressed a shiver. Why dont you put on the kettle? I could do with something warm...considering that the something that was warming me up appears to be out of bounds.
K-kettle? she echoed jerkily, naïvely unbalanced by that softly added double entendre.
The object with the spout and the flex.
Mercifully she espied it on the top of the fridge. She filled it although she felt more like throwing it at him. W-why didnt you tell me that Id be working for you?
I didnt want you to turn it down without thinking it through, he murmured flatly. You werent going to get a second chance. I need a housekeeper without a lot of fancy ideas and you need a job. Basically, thats all there was to it.
But she sensed something more. Biting at her lower lip, she glanced across at him. His shirt hung open, framing the muscular brown breadth of his chest and the curling black hair hazing his pectorals before it arrowed down over his flat stomach. In the act of staring, she caught herself up and shut her eyes on an aching sense of chagrin and confusion. Was she becoming like all the rest? Couldnt she take her eyes off him? Or was it that much harder now since that night all those years ago when he had touched her and the whole world had vanished as though he had pressed a destruct button somewhere deep down inside her?
And if that was true, how did she feel after tonight? She did not feel equal to meeting those fiercely intelligent eyes of his. She might have believed she was dreaming, but she had responded wildly to those intimacies. She had never felt like that before, but then she hadnt had much opportunity to experiment, she reminded herself. Maybe any experienced male could make a woman feel like that...but only if the chemistry was right.
That shook her rigid. How could she continue to deny that she found him physically attractive? She had melted in his arms. She had been electrified by his touch. And if that was so obvious to her, how much more obvious was it to him? All of a sudden, she knew she couldnt bear to stay in this house and work for him.
The kettles boiling.
He was so cool now. What had happened in that bed might almost have existed only in her imagination. I dont think I can stay after
He expelled a long, laconic sigh. After what? I didnt know you were there. I turned over and found a female body and reacted on instinct...
Chrissy was mortified. Thats s-so disgusting.
Blaze raised a winged brow. You talk like a teenage virgin, but you didnt find Rosie under any gooseberry bush
I dont w-want to talk about it! In her distress, her back was rigidly presented to him.
You must concede that I have some grounds for curiosity. Did you love Rosies father?
She spun round. No! she rebutted with sharp distaste and then abruptly she remembered that she was talking for her mother, not herself. Reddening, she muttered, I thought I did but, when it came down to it, it was j-just an infatuation.
Are you in touch with him...? Unusually he hesitated. I mean, do you visit him?