Lusty Billionaires Bundle(145)

‘I was just going to make myself some pasta,’ Tessa said reluctantly. ‘If you wait here, I can stretch it to two. I guess.’

He could hardly blame her for the lack of graciousness in her offer. He had descended on her with Anna in tow, ruined the peaceful evening she had planned, and she had now been further inconvenienced because his daughter had decided to fall asleep in her bed, leaving him here like a spare part.

That being said, Curtis didn’t for a minute contemplate taking her up on her suggestion that he return to his date for the rest of the evening.

‘I’ll go and check on Anna,’ he informed her, ‘and pasta sounds great.’

‘You can watch a little television if you like. Nothing much on and I’m afraid we don’t have cable, but…quiz shows can be quite entertaining…provided you don’t want to think too much…’ She knew that she was gabbling on, but his eyes were mesmerising, that was the only word to describe it. She had to inhale deeply and turn away to break the connection, then she hurried top speed towards the kitchen, hearing him as he headed up the stairs towards the bedroom.

Calm down, she told herself! She took a few steadying breaths and switched on the portable CD player on the kitchen counter. Lucy found it hilarious that her big sister actually listened to easy listening music, but right now it was exactly what her jangled nerves needed.

A soft, soothing melody filled the little kitchen and she began to slow down, humming quietly to herself as she began chopping onions and mushrooms and tossing them into the plastic bowl next to her.

She imagined Curtis sitting in the room watching a tedious quiz show and couldn’t stop herself from smirking.

In all her life, she could think of no one less suited to being condemned to enforced immobility in front of a boring television programme. Curtis Diaz had way too much energy surging through him for that. Well, she couldn’t help but think that there was a spot of justice to be found in the fact that he had wrecked her evening, intruded upon her private life despite her having made it absolutely clear from the word go that it was off limits, only to now find himself forced to sit down and kiss his own thrilling evening goodbye in front of the box. She began peeling the cloves of garlic, sniggering heartily at the thought.

The grin was still on her face when she swung around to grab a frying-pan from the cupboard, only to hear the subject of her musings say, in his smoky, sexy voice, ‘Care to share the joke?’

Tessa looked up in sudden shock. She had been so absorbed in her pleasant thoughts, so lulled by the melodic strains of music, that she had had no inkling of his presence. She hadn’t heard him approach! How long had he been there? Watching her? It made her feel as though he had been standing, spying on the workings of her mind.

‘I thought you said that you were going to go and watch some television!’ she accused hotly, snatching the frying-pan from the cupboard and proceeding to give him her most withering look.

‘No, actually you said that I was going to watch television, so that I could be tucked safely out of the way…’ He grinned with wicked amusement as his barb homed in with staggering accuracy.

Tessa recovered her aplomb quickly. ‘And why aren’t you?’

‘I did make an effort…’ He shrugged and walked into the kitchen where, infuriatingly, he began poking around in the bowl of chopped vegetables while Tessa watched in affronted silence. ‘But…’ he spun around and looked at her ‘…absolutely nothing on…’#p#分页标题#e#

‘Not even a quiz show?’ she asked sweetly.

‘Oh, yes, a couple of those. I wasn’t convinced. Can I help?’

‘Yes. You can go and watch TV and leave me in peace to get this food ready.’

‘I like your taste in music. What is this? Compilation?’ Without asking, he gathered up the stack of CDs that she kept on the counter by Lucy’s assortment of herbal tablets, and made himself at home on one of the kitchen chairs so that he could sift through them and give her his valued opinion on each and every CD.

‘I think we should stick this one on,’ he announced, waving one of the CDs at her in a satisfied manner. ‘Lots of old numbers. In fact, I’m a little surprised you’re not into more modern music!’

Tessa made an inarticulate noise and began her work with the frying-pan, some butter and garlic, and the vegetables.

With staggering arrogance, he put on the CD he wanted to hear, a compilation of old soul songs, from way back to Otis Redding, and the next thing she felt was his warm breath fanning her neck as he asked her for a dance.