Lusty Billionaires Bundle(144)

He turned away abruptly and was aware of her following him into the sitting room. ‘Anna? So where is she?’ he demanded sharply, which drew an instant bristling response from Tessa.

‘She’s upstairs in my bed. Asleep.’

‘At this hour?’

‘She was upset, Curtis. I told her to head upstairs to wash her face and when she didn’t come down I went to check her to find her fast asleep. Like a baby.’ They stared at one another and Tessa felt her heart begin to race. He had disposed of his jacket, but he was still disturbingly tall and dark, especially in the confines of her house. She had a sudden feeling of being invaded and she had another spurt of resentment that he had brought his private life here, in her house, where she was defenceless.

‘I’ll go and wake her up.’

Good idea, Tessa thought to herself, and then you can both head off to wherever you had planned on going. Anywhere but here would suit her fine.#p#分页标题#e#

‘Maybe you should let her sleep off her stress for a little while,’ she said reluctantly. ‘You can always come back if you want to take your girlfriend out. I’m home all evening and I don’t mind keeping an eye on her.’

‘You’re home on a Saturday night?’ For some reason that gave him quite a satisfied feeling and he relaxed enough to grin at her.

‘Yes, that’s right. Home on a Saturday night. How dull of me.’

‘I never said that staying in was dull. In fact, I rather enjoy staying in sometimes myself…’

The implication behind that hovered tantalisingly in the air between them, the implication that stay in he might but he would be doing it in the company of a woman, a Susie clone. Champagne in bed. Certainly not pasta on a tray in front of the television.

‘You never answered my question,’ Tessa repeated coldly. ‘I can babysit Anna if you’d like to pick up what you were doing with your girlfriend.’ Neither of them had sat down. Curtis had strolled over to the window and was perched on the ledge, arms folded over his muscled chest. Tessa had stopped in mid-stride in the middle of the room and hadn’t moved.

‘Oh, I think Susie’s better off where she is. No point making her endure my company tonight.’

‘I doubt she would consider it hard work,’ Tessa muttered sourly and he tilted his head politely to one side in a parody of someone doing their best to catch what was being said.

‘I can’t hear you when you mutter like that.’

Tessa panicked. What was she supposed to do with him if he stayed in her house till his daughter woke up? She had had enough experience of fraught teenagers to know that they could retreat for a quick nap only to fall into a deep four-hour sleep. Lucy had had a talent for just that when she had been younger. Tessa thought of Curtis Diaz prowling through her house for four hours while she tried to make conversation, and every ounce of self-composure went into immediate meltdown.

‘I said that I thought she looked…well, very let down…that your plans for the evening had changed…I’m sure she’d appreciate you going over and, honestly, there’s no point you being here if Anna’s sleeping…’ She wondered whether he had detected any desperation in her voice. He was still gazing at her with every semblance of attentiveness, though she had a feeling that she was getting precisely nowhere. ‘And I…I hadn’t planned on any company. There’s nothing to eat in the house…’

‘Nothing to eat in the house?’

‘Well, nothing fancy…’ He had managed to make her plausible-enough excuse sound ridiculous, as though a rooting-through of her cupboards and fridge would unearth nothing more than a few crusts of bread and some mouldy cheese.

‘I’d prefer to stay here. I understand your evening’s been spoiled, but I’m relieved you had nothing planned…’

Tessa felt her cheeks burn at what she thought was amusement in his voice. ‘Lucy’s away for the weekend…I enjoy the peace and quiet…’

‘So you said. Now, what were you planning on eating?’

‘Nothing! I mean, nothing much…’

‘Nothing much. Sounds fine. Unless you’d rather I went and brought us back something? There’s a supermarket I noticed on the high street. I’m pretty sure it’ll still be open.’

‘No, that won’t be necessary,’ Tessa said in a strangled voice. Visions of him returning in his fast car with shopping bags for an evening in cooking together was enough to bring her out in clammy perspiration.#p#分页标题#e#

It occurred to her that she had never entertained a man at home, not in the sense of make a meal together, sit and watch television. She had had a scattering of dates but no one important and she had always been happy to either go out somewhere or meet in a crowd. No wonder this man found her so amusing, accustomed as he was to the women he went out with.