Page 30 of About Last Night
He cocked a disparaging eyebrow. ‘I wouldn’t have minded so much, but I’d just started to get to like my new stepmother when he dumped her and moved on to the next one. Then the next one, then the next.’
He snorted and ran a hand over his hair. ‘I stopped letting myself get close to any of his wives or girlfriends pretty quickly after that. As far as I’ve seen, marriage is nothing but an expensive court case waiting to happen.’
He looked at her to find she was staring at him in dismay.
He flipped her a grin. ‘Hey, just ignore me, it’s a subject that gets me fired up that’s all.’
She frowned as if she’d found what he said sad.
Luckily, their food arrived then and they tucked in, giving him a few moments to pull himself together.
What the hell was he doing talking to her about this stuff? They barely knew each other and here he was spilling his guts. He needed to slap a lid on that quickly – but she was just so easy to talk to with her open expression and kind eyes.
‘So, what are theseperksyou mentioned in your note?’ she murmured after another minute of silence, not looking at him while she worked her knife carefully through her sirloin steak.
He rested his cutlery on the plate while he addressed her question, glad to get back to a subject he felt comfortable with. ‘Well, Jez had a company mobile phone and a taxi allowance for getting to any functions he attended as the lead presenter at the station…’
He ran through a couple of other entitlements, which to him made the whole deal sound like something someone would be crazy to turn down.
When he’d finished, she nodded and gave a small, controlled smile. Could she really have been expecting more?
‘That’s a good package, Tallulah.’
Her gaze met his and something like disappointment flashed across her face.
‘It’s a very good package,’ she said, sounding as though she really believed it. So why the long face?
He decided to wait until they’d finished eating before pressing on with more business talk, asking her instead about what she liked about living in London and how she spent her downtime.
It turned out they liked to do the same kinds of things: taking long walks on a Sunday morning, eating Indian food, checkingout photography exhibitions. The more they talked, the more he found himself relaxing into her company again. She was a superb dinner companion, receptive and responsive in turn – the things that had drawn him to her the other night – and he had to remind himself a couple of times that he wasn’t here on a date with her.
Unless they both decided to take things further again later. His body hardened at the thought.
‘So, are you happy with the terms of my offer?’ he asked, when they’d both cleared their plates and waved away the suggestion of dessert. A coil of tension tugged at his insides as he waited for her answer. Surely, he’d done enough to clinch her return?
‘Yes,’ she said finally, leaning back in her chair looking at him with her bright, steady gaze, the corner of her mouth twitching up into a smile.
‘Yes?’ he repeated, hoping against hope that she was agreeing to come back to Flash but needing to hear those exact words come out of her mouth before he believed it.
‘I’m accepting your offer of re-employment and promotion to Breakfast Presenter.’
He was so relieved he could have kissed her. In fact, he had to grip the edge of the table to stop himself from leaping out of his seat and pulling her out of her chair into his arms.
She must have sensed this impulse because she fixed him with a hard stare. ‘You understand that nothing else can happen between us now though, right? I can’t work for you if everyone at the station thinks we’re sleeping together. I’ll lose all credibility with my co-workers and I’m not prepared to let that happen. It’s really important to me that they respect and trust me so we can function as a team on equal terms. Getting into bed with the boss isn’t something that would go down well. Trust me, I know.’
All the joy had slowly drained out of him as she’d talked, but he managed to nod confidently, clinging on to his professionalismby a thread. ‘Of course, I didn’t come here expecting anything more from you. Just that you’d take your job back.’ He swept a conciliatory hand in her direction, ignoring his self-disgust at voicing such a convincing sounding lie. ‘There wouldn’t be any point us pursuing anything other than a business relationship anyway. As soon as I’ve found a replacement for Jez I’ll be back off to Edinburgh. Back to my life there.’
He could have sworn he saw another flash of disappointment in her face, before she formed a smile and tipped her head in agreement.
Shemuststill feel the same pull of desire that he did. He didn’t believe she could shake him off so easily after what they’d shared. The need to know he was right prodded at the edges of his control.
The next few weeks were going to be a trying time if he had to keep his hands off her, but it didn’t mean he had to totally ignore the irrefutable connection between them.
There was still some fun to be had here.
6
Over the next couple of days, they managed to maintain a friendly, but business-like atmosphere between them, although Lula made sure to leave the room as quickly as was polite so she didn’t have to deal with the weird, tight ache in her chest that appeared whenever he did.
