Irresistible Temptation(8)

Humph was getting restive, so she bent down and slipped off his leash.

'Don't wander off,' she adjured him. And saw, as she straightened, a movement in the bushes. A cat.

She grabbed at Humph's collar. But in a crescendo of yapping he was off,  his legs a blur, pursuing the fleeing cat through the shrubs with  Olivia flying after the pair of them.

She hurled herself through the bushes, guided by another flurry of  hysterical barking and an angry feline yowl, and arrived panting on the  gravelled walk, just in time to see Humph's hindquarters disappearing up  a flight of stone steps and in through some open French windows.

'Oh, no,' she groaned, and started after him.

She was halfway up when Declan Malone appeared at the window. He was carrying Humph, who was licking his face frantically.

He looked at Olivia, his mouth tightening inimically.

'Miss Butler,' he said expressionlessly. 'Now why am I not surprised? If you're here looking for Jeremy, he's not back yet'

'I'm not,' Olivia said stiffly, silently cursing the day she was born.

He was wearing chinos, she noticed, and a white shirt, with the sleeves  turned back to reveal tanned forearms, and his feet were bare. His hair  was damp, as if he'd just got out of the shower, and she found herself  wondering if last night's lady was still around somewhere.

Not, she reminded herself hastily, that it had anything to do with her.

She mounted the last few steps and took the little dog from him. 'I  didn't mean to disturb you. Humph was chasing a cat. I-just followed him  through the bushes.'

'You seem to have brought a fair bit of them with you.' Declan reached  out and removed a twig and some leaves from her hair. It was the last  thing she'd expected him to do, and an odd shiver ran through her at his  touch.                       
       
           



       

He said abruptly, 'The rules of the garden state that dogs must be kept on leads at all times. Did Sasha not tell you?'

Olivia bit her lip, recalling the typewritten sheet she hadn't bothered to read 'Yes-I mean, I think so.'

He said silkily, 'But then rules don't mean much to you, do they, Miss Butler?'

'And you seem to invent yours as you go along, Mr Malone,' she returned icily. 'But I'll make sure I remember in the future.'

'You do that,' he said with a certain grimness.

'Before I go,' she said, 'there's something I'd like to say. You implied  I was a home-wrecker. But it's not true. Jeremy's marriage was finished  long before I met him again.'

'You've known him for a while?'

'It seems like all my life. Perhaps like you-and Maria.'

'I doubt that.'

She said, 'Sasha told me she was your cousin-that you were close. So you must have known that things were- going wrong.'

'I've never had many illusions about the state of her marriage.' His  tone was short. 'But that doesn't mean I'd choose to connive at its  breakdown.'

'Nor I.' Olivia lifted her chin. 'But-these things happen.'

'Indeed they do,' he drawled. 'I've read the statistics.' He gave her a  level look. 'Have you anything else to say in mitigation?'

'No,' she said. 'Actually, I didn't have to explain to you at all. But I  felt I owed it to myself.' She paused. 'Do you have no other comment?'

'Nothing you'd particularly want to hear. Just a repetition of advice  already given. Which is: go back to-' his brows lifted enquiringly  '-where was it?'

'Bristol,' she said stonily. 'And I'm staying here.' She clipped Humph's  lead to his collar. 'I'd better take him home.' She hesitated. 'And I  apologise for letting him chase the cat. Is it all right?'

'Fighting fit. It was the Fosters' Maximilian.' He put out a hand and  scratched the top of the little dog's head. 'If he ever turned on Humph  he'd have him on toast. So take care, Miss Butler.'

'Of Humph?' Her voice was saccharine-sweet 'Of course I will.'

'Of everything.' he said. 'And I'm sure you won't.'

She turned and descended the steps, aware of his eyes boring into her spine. As she leached the path she looked back at him.

'When Jeremy does come back, will you ask him to call me, please, on my mobile? He has my number.'

His mouth twisted. 'I'll refrain from the cheap retort. And, yes, I'll tell him to make contact-if that's really what you want.'

'Yes,' she said lifting her chin. 'It is.'

He gave her one last cool look, then walked back into the house and closed the French windows behind him.

This, Olivia told an unresponsive pane of glass, is getting to be a  habit. But at least this time she'd had the last word. Or had she? With  Declan Malone it was difficult to be certain.

But she could ensure it was the last word in another sense, she thought as she walked away, Humph prancing beside her.

She could take immense care never to set eyes on Declan Malone again.

In a city the size of London, it shouldn't be too hard.

And she'd begin by never straying to his side of the garden again, she vowed silently.



Declan was not in a good mood when he returned to his computer screen.  Introducing the Butler girl to Sasha had been a bad mistake, he told  himself savagely. What the hell had possessed him to do such a thing,  instead of sending her away with a flea in her ear? Now she was  ensconced just across the garden, and far too close for comfort.

He shook his head in exasperation, glaring at his notes on William Pitt  the Younger, which now seemed stilted and totally without interest Maybe  in trying to breathe new life into these long-dead politicians he'd  simply bitten off more than he could chew.

Or maybe that damned girl was sitting in his skull, distorting his thinking.

Oh, come on, he derided himself. She's just a passing irritation, not a  major problem. When Jeremy returned, he'd give him a sharp piece of his  mind, and tell him to get rid of her or get out. And that would settle  the matter.

Declan pressed 'Save' and deliberately switched his thoughts with far more satisfaction to last night's dinner with Claudia.

She was lively, intelligent and extremely attractive, he reflected. And  she'd let him know, albeit with charming subtlety, that she was also  attracted to him.

Without conceit, he knew that he could probably have ended the evening  in her bed. But he'd decided instead to slow the pace. Establish a  relationship before taking the quantum leap into intimacy.

They'd talked about music and theatre over their meal. He'd give it a  couple of days, then ask her if she'd like to go to the Ibsen revival  that had been so well reviewed.

Claudia had admitted to liking cooking, so it was on the cards she'd offer to make dinner for him. And then they'd see …

He frowned swiftly. It all seemed rather measured-even calculating,  perhaps-but what the hell? He was past expecting to be knocked fiat by  passion at first sight-the genuine coup de foudre that people sighed  about.                       
       
           



       

On the other hand, he wanted to be sure that when he married his  marriage would last, and not fall into the kind of disarray he saw all  around him.

Like Maria and Jeremy, he thought grimly, and cursed under his breath as the Butler girl invaded his mind's eye again.

I should have sent her packing, he told himself, restively. So why didn't I? And what can I do to salvage the situation?

He swung his chair round and picked up the phone, punching in a familiar number.

'Maria?' His face relaxed into a smile. 'So, how's it going?'



As evening approached Olivia was on tenterhooks, pacing up and down her room, eyeing her mobile phone. Willing it to ring.

When it finally obliged, she pounced on it with a sob of relief. 'Jeremy?'

'No, it's Beth. Just calling to see how you're settling in?' Beth paused. 'I gather lover boy isn't around?'

'Not at the moment.' Olivia managed to sound amused as well as rueful.  'I would choose a weekend when he's working away. But I'm expecting him  back any minute now,' she added hastily.

'Then I won't keep you. I just wanted to make sure you were all right,  and check on your address. It is number sixteen, isn't it?'

Olivia hesitated. 'No,' she said reluctantly. 'Actually it's 21B Lancey  Terrace. As Jeremy wasn't here, I thought it was better to establish my  own base. I've found this terrific bedsit. Cheap too. I can't believe  how lucky I've been.' She paused, aware of the over-brightness in her  tone.

'Well,' Beth said, after a pause of her own, 'just as long as you're OK. Let me know how the job-hunting goes.'

'I will. Bless you.' Olivia switched off the phone and put it down  beside her on the sofa, homesickness washing over her like a tidal wave.  She'd planned to call her parents, but wasn't sure she could manage it  without bursting into tears and worrying them both to death. Better to  wait until she had some good news for them, she thought. Something that  would lift her own spirits too.

She wasn't used to hiding things from the people she loved, or  pretending. She'd let them think that coming to London was a career  move. She hadn't told them that her future included Jeremy, because she  knew they wouldn't approve while he was still nominally a married man.