‘And in the meantime, where do you intend to live?’
‘Here, of course.’
‘Dust everywhere? Hidden dangers under the floorboards? And what about when you get the men in to clear the asbestos? What then? Hang around in a mask?’
Rose felt tears of frustration and anger prick the backs of her eyes. ‘Oh, just leave me alone.’
‘So you can wallow in self-pity?’
‘I do not wallow in self-pity,’ she flung back at him through gritted teeth, shaken out of her despondency by the force of rage. ‘I’ve got my solution and as soon as the banks open on Monday, I’ll be there.’
‘You can’t live here.’
‘Oh, you’re right,’ she sniped with dripping sarcasm. ‘I’ll just get my butler to book me in at the Savoy until everything’s sorted out.’
Nick stifled a grin. ‘Better idea. You need money and I have it.’ ‘Forget it, Nick. You might do favours for my sister, but I don’t need anything from you.’ She gave him a mutinous look, which he chose to ignore.
Was there any woman as stubborn as this one? He felt a sudden desire to be the one who controlled the reins and melted the fortresses she had erected everywhere around herself.
‘You’re letting your emotions talk and emotions never solved anything. If you run to the bank for a loan, you’ll spend the next few years paying it back along with the crippling interest accrued.’
‘So instead I take the money from you? And in return you get what?’
A vivid image of her lying naked in his bed presented itself and he blinked it away.
‘You can’t hide a problem of this magnitude from your sister. You might want to protect her from everything harsh that life can throw at her, but she deserves to know the truth about what’s happening over here. Give her enough credit not to be a complete fool and come hurtling back to England when she knows that it wouldn’t solve anything. If she finds out that you’ve been keeping this from her, she’ll feel betrayed.’
‘Don’t pretend you know my sister better than I do,’ Rose retorted, but his words set up a chain of thoughts that began to gnaw away at her composure. She had always been the one looking out for Lily, but where did concern end and smothering begin?
Uncertainty shadowed her face and Nick, spotting it, jumped in. ‘I’m not pretending anything, but you have to tell her. Course she’d want to fly over, make sure you were okay, but she might not if…’
‘If what?’
‘If she knew that I was looking out for you.’ Since when had he ever looked out for any woman? The rules of his game had always been simple. No dependency, no strings attached. Rose ignited some other feeling in him. She didn’t conform to his ideas of physical feminine beauty so, whatever weird stirrings he had occasionally felt in her presence, he was certain it wasn’t lust. But whatever it was, it was certainly novel and to his jaded palate the thought of something new was strangely alluring.
‘Oh, please.’
‘I am trying to help you out here,’ Nick told her irritably. ‘Why can’t you just accept it?’
‘I don’t see you as the kind of guy who helps damsels in distress,’ Rose pointed out, omitting to mention the fine print, which was unless they looked like Lily or unless he wanted something from them. ‘You think you ought to offer assistance because you feel guilty. By some weird coincidence, you happen to show up when all this…’ she gestured vaguely around her ‘…is going on and you think you ought to do something because you have a relationship with Lily. You feel sorry for the plain, ungainly sister left behind trying to cope.’
‘I’m not suggesting I hand over the money and walk away. You seem to forget I’m a businessman.’
‘Well, what are you offering, then? Not that there’s any chance I’m going to take you up on your offer.’
‘Because you’re a stubborn fool.’
‘Because I don’t like the thought of being indebted to anyone.’
‘Except the bank.’
‘That’s different.’ Rose flushed, feeling boxed in by his clever use of words.
Novelty value was fast turning into challenge and it was invigorating. ‘Take a couple of months off work…’
‘Take a couple of months off work?’ Was the man a complete lunatic? ‘Have you been listening to a word I’ve been saying?’ She shook her head in disgust and snatched up the mugs, carrying them off to the sink. Nick swivelled round so that he was looking at her and, while he was staring, she spun around and leant against the kitchen sink, arms folded. ‘You know what’s happening here, the financial strain I’m suddenly under, and your breezy solution is for me to have time off work? That activity that pays the bills?’