The Morning After The Wedding Before Read Free Page A

blond boy diet.
    Tonight he wore tailored dark trousers and a chocolate-colouredshirt open at the neck. Hair the colour of aged whisky lifted ever so slightly in the salty breeze.
    ‘So here you are.’ His tone was brusque, those black-coffee eyes focused sharply on hers.
    ‘Yes, here I am,’ she said, trying to ignore the hot flush seeing him had brought on and reminding herself where she’d seen him last. The flashback to the strip club made her feel like a gauche schoolgirl and it should not. But she was the one at fault tonight—and the reason he was standing in her doorway.
    She gave him a careless smile, determined not to let yesterday spoil this evening. For Stella’s sake. ‘And running late,’ she rushed on. ‘I assume that’s why you’re here?’
Why else?
    One eyebrow rose and she knew he wasn’t impressed. ‘You had some people concerned.’ He said it as if he didn’t count himself amongst those people—where had yesterday’s twinkle gone?—while he stepped inside and scanned the dining room table covered in the hand-made goat’s milk soaps she’d been working on.
    ‘You weren’t answering your phone.’ His gaze swung back to hers again. ‘Not handy when people are trying to contact you.’
    Her smile dropped to her feet. Was that
censure
in his voice? ‘This from the guy who was too busy at his
other business
to answer his own mobile yesterday?’ she shot back. ‘You do realise I had to pry the info as to your whereabouts from your PA?’
    He nodded, his eyes not flinching from hers. ‘So she told me. I apologise for the inconvenience, and for any embarrassment I caused you.’
    Emma drew in a deep breath. ‘Okay.’ She forced her mature self to put yesterday’s incident to the back of her mind for now. ‘As for me, I have no legitimate excuse forforgetting the time, so it’s my turn to apologise that you had to be the one to come and get me.’ She tried a smile.
    He nodded, his dark eyes warmed, and his whole demeanour mellowed like a languid Sunday afternoon. ‘Apology accepted.’ He leaned down and brushed her cheek with firm lips, and she caught a whiff of subtle yet sexy aftershave before he straightened up again.
    Whoa
. Yesterday’s tingle was back with a vengeance, running through her entire system at double the voltage. ‘So … um … I’ll just go …’ Feeling off-centre, she backed away, ostensibly towards the tiny area sectioned off by a curtain which she used as a bedroom, but he didn’t take the hint and leave. ‘Look, you go on ahead. I’ll be ready in a jiff and it’s only a ten-minute drive to the restaurant.’
    He shrugged, stuck his hands in his trouser pockets. ‘I’m here now.’
    Slipping off her flats, she glanced about for her heels. But her eyes seemed drawn to him as if they were on strings. He dressed like a million bucks these days. Still, those threadbare jeans he’d worn way back when had fuelled more teenage fantasies than she cared to remember. She watched him wander towards her table of supplies. With his hands in his pockets, drawing his trousers tight across that firm, cute butt …
    No
. Sleazy club-owner. Dragging her eyes away, she scoured the floor for her shoes. ‘There’s really no need to wait …’
    ‘I’m waiting. End of story.’ She heard the crinkle of cellophane as he examined her orders. ‘Your hobby’s still making you some pocket money, then?’
    Irritation stiffened her shoulders. She glared at him. ‘It’s
not
just a hobby, and it’s never been about the money.’
Unlike others who shall remain Nameless
. Exhaling sharply through her nose, she swiped up a black stilettoand slipped it on. ‘I have to wonder why it is that helping people with skin allergies seems to you to be a waste of time.’
    ‘I never sa—’
    ‘Why don’t you go while I …?’
Calm down
. ‘Find my other shoe.’
    ‘So uptight.’ He tsked. ‘You really need to get out more, Em. Always was too much work and not enough play