‘You’re welcome. I like the way you speak your mind, I like your opinions and I don’t want you to go away thinking that I ever make unfavourable comparisons between you and my previous secretaries. I use the term secretaries loosely.’
Something funny was happening to her inside, something confusing and frightening. ‘Okay.’ Quick agreement, quick exit.
He released her and she nearly fell backwards. ‘Brilliant!’ He remained where he was, watching as she left his office, only calling out behind her, ‘Just don’t see that as a licence to go shopping with my daughter, though!’
This time Tessa closed the door just a little too loudly behind her.
CHAPTER FOUR
A QUIET weekend at home would be just what the doctor ordered.
Curtis’s outspoken comments, not meant to be insulting but insulting anyway, had got to Tessa and she didn’t quite understand why. In fact, she spent most of Saturday trying to work it out. It was proving annoying, as if the question were like a demon sprite, willing to be boxed in for intermittent periods, but only so that it could leap out at her just when she wasn’t expecting it.
Lucy had gone away for the weekend and the house was blissfully calm.
At five-thirty, Tessa returned to the house after a hectic but essential visit to the supermarket. When she had been at her last job, she had always done her shopping on a Thursday night after work. Her hours had been fairly regular there and she had slipped into a routine that had suited her.
Now…
She had to do several trips from her small, second-hand car to the kitchen and it was half an hour before she had finally unpacked the last of the groceries, then she sat down wearily on a kitchen chair, tipping her head over the back and closing her eyes.
The demon sprite lunged out at her again.
She found herself thinking about him, thinking about the intense beauty of his face, the way his eyes crinkled when he laughed, the way they narrowed when he was thinking about something. She found that she had even committed to memory his various little habits, like the way he always yanked open the bottom drawer of his desk whenever he wanted to lean back in his chair and stretch out his long legs.
Tessa shook her head impatiently, snacked on a bar of chocolate, even though she knew that she would be eating in a couple of hours’ time and was in the shower, in the process of washing her hair, when she heard the sharp buzz of the doorbell.
Lucy, was her first thought as she reluctantly turned off the shower, stepped out and wrapped herself in a bath sheet. Had she come home early from her weekend away? Lucy had a problem with keys. She continually went out and forgot to take them with her. Whenever she was faced with Tessa’s wrath at having to drag herself out of bed at some ungodly hour to let her in, she invariably smiled sheepishly and swore never to repeat the same mistake again.
Her hair clung damply around her face, which was in a definite scowl as she pulled open the front door, lips parted to inform her sister that this was absolutely the last time she was going to go through this predictable charade.
No words came out. Something did but it was akin to a choking, strangled noise.
On the doorstep was Curtis, dressed in an impeccable charcoal-grey suit with a very conventional white shirt peeping out from between the lapels of his jacket. On one side was a highly disgruntled-looking daughter and on the other a leggy blonde with hair tumbling in disarray past her shoulders and a full complement of war paint. Her glossy red lips matched her glossy red fingernails, which in turn matched the glimpse of glossy tight dress that was only loosely covered by a startling terracotta-coloured silk trench coat. On anyone else the combination of colours would have brought on a sudden rush of nausea in the casual observer, but on her the clash of colour was dramatic and overwhelming.#p#分页标题#e#
Tessa shrank back and mortified colour crept slowly up her face. She still couldn’t seem to string two words together to form a sentence.
She stared dumbly at Curtis and for once he didn’t give her that lazy, amused grin.
‘Do you normally answer the door with nothing but a towel wrapped round you?’ he asked, levering his eyes upwards to her face.
‘I thought it was my sister.’ At last, she had managed to corner some vocal cords. ‘What are you doing here?’
‘You’d better let us in before you catch a death of a cold,’ he said reasonably. Tessa was very tempted to slam the door on their faces, but he had already wedged one foot on the doorstep. She stood back, burning with embarrassment.
‘Excuse me. I need to change.’
‘Oh, don’t put yourself out for us,’ Curtis said, grinning now and raking his eyes over her semi-clad body in one wicked sweep. Just the sort of look she could imagine him giving the blonde at his side. That thought was enough to put frost into her voice.