Page 43 of The Couple Behind the Headlines

‘No, not really.’ He sighed, the grimace slowly morphing into a smile. ‘It was fine, but you are still a wicked wicked woman.’

‘Thank you,’ she said demurely. ‘I do my best.’

‘You have a close family,’ he said, flicking a glance at the dozens of photos on the shelves.

Imogen nodded. ‘Yes. It’s not that big, but we are close.’

She thought she saw something flicker in the depths of his eyes, something that in anyone else she’d have suspected was envy, but couldn’t possibly be that in Jack. He seemed to value his solitariness highly—thrived on it even—so there was no way he’d ever want a noisy, messy family, the kind hers was.

Or would he?

Imogen blinked as the thought ricocheted round her head, and immediately warned herself not to go there. She was not going to try and inveigle her way into his psyche. She wouldn’t be welcome and she didn’t need to know his feelings about marriage or family or anything, in fact, other than whether he’d be up for a fling.

‘So what did you and Daisy get up to?’

Jack rubbed a hand over his face and smiled, the shadows thankfully disappearing. ‘What didn’t we get up to? I thought I had a fairly short attention span but it’s not a patch on Daisy’s. We went to Regent’s Park, then the zoo and had an ice cream. And that was just the first hour.’ He shuddered. ‘I don’t think I’ll ever be the same again.’

Imogen laughed. ‘She ran rings round you.’

‘She did.’

And he didn’t sound entirely happy about the fact. ‘So I take it you’re not tempted to join the ranks of fatherhood just yet?’

Jack’s hand froze mid rub, his gaze jerked to hers and he tensed. ‘No way.’

At the vehemence in his voice curiosity spun through her hard and fast and made a complete mockery of her determination to stay away from his psyche.

‘What, never?’

‘Not planning to,’ he muttered, relaxing his shoulders, she thought, with rather more effort than was natural.

Now she really was intrigued. ‘Why not?’

‘Why would I?’ he said, taking a sip of wine, then sitting back, to all appearances the epitome of indifference. ‘You’ve seen my mother.’

‘Well, yes, but she’s not exactly typical, is she?’

‘Perhaps not, but she didn’t make for an idyllic childhood. Certainly not one I’d want to inflict on anyone else.’

‘Do you think you would?’

Jack shrugged, and she had the feeling that this wasn’t the first time he’d had this conversation. ‘I work hard. I travel a lot. It could happen.’

‘But presumably there’d be another party involved.’ The hypothetical child’s mother, for instance, not that she particularly wanted to think about anyone else enjoying Jack’s considerable charms.

‘They could be worse, and I’m not prepared to take the risk.’

No, well, she could see how having a mother like his might make a man wary of parenthood. At the memory of Jessica’s flamboyant behaviour on Friday evening, Imogen inwardly winced. While Jessica looked like fun, she couldn’t honestly admit she’d like her as a mother. And imagine having a grandmother like that.

‘I must say your mother didn’t look particularly maternal,’ Imogen murmured.

‘She doesn’t have a maternal bone in her body,’ Jack said, and she wondered if he was aware of the bitterness that laced his voice. ‘The minute I was born she handed me over to her parents and carried on partying. She’s barely stopped since.’

‘So you were brought up by your grandparents?’ She’d read something about that on the Internet, but the details had been sketchy.

He nodded, but his jaw was tight. ‘And a string of au pairs.’

‘What was that like?’

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