The wind outside beckoned. Escape to the moors and the world beyond. Anjuli shook her head. Tempted as she was, she couldn’t run away from Heaverlock. Not this time. She had to stay, talk to Rob. Tell him about the house and then make him understand she never wanted to risk her heart again. She made a noise between a sigh and a sob, her insides twisting along with her thoughts.
Damien laid a comforting hand at the back of her neck and kneaded it. “You’re tense, gorgeous.”
“I had a stressful night.”
He drew her to the day bed and sat down behind her, legs planted either side of her hips. “I know exactly how to work out those knots.”
“Seduction on Sunday?” she said, only half-joking.
“Only if you insist. Scout’s honour,” he said.
Anjuli relaxed, and he pushed her hair out of the way and massaged the back of her neck. He knew what he was doing, and when he talked of the course he’d done on animal muscle massage, she relaxed. Tension eased from her body and she forgot her discomfort, giving herself up to his pressure point, circular sweeps. Firm fingers, working out the kinks.
Her eyes shut and she leaned forward so Damien could move his massage to her upper back. He paused, his hands on her shoulders. “It’s best hand to skin.”
She glanced back, expecting to see a flirtatious look, but he was frowning at her back as if she were one of his patients, his expression clinical. Well, if she could open her legs to her gynaecologist, then surely she could bare her back to a veterinarian.
“Scout’s honour?”
His wounded look made her laugh, and she turned back and unbuttoned her shirt dress. Tiny, tricky buttons in mother of pearl, and it took her a minute or so to unfasten them to her waist. She slid her shoulders out, hesitated, and then unclasped her bra. Holding her dress up to her breasts, she nodded. “Five minutes, then I’ll start lunch.”
He pressed his palms into her shoulder blades, soothing her into pleasant lassitude. His hands left her for a few moments, and she heard a soft, rustling noise. Before she could ask, he was back at the knots in her back, pressing hard. She breathed out a long sigh. “Oh God, that’s good.”
“That’s what they all say.”
“I’ll bet they say a lot more,” she said tartly.
His fingers tightened. “I heard about what happened at the ball last night.”
Well, that hadn’t taken long. She grimaced, thinking about her non-performance and dramatic exit. “Who told you?”
“Mrs. Scott,” he said quietly and when she started, “Don’t hold what she did against her. She’s not thinking straight.”
There was a tender, yet frustrated note in his voice. “You like her, don’t you?”
“I like you.”
“I certainly hope so. We’re friends and—”
Damien kissed her neck and she jumped, then twisted around to look at him, mouth dropping at the sight of his naked chest. Impressive, but what the hell? “What happened to ‘scout’s honour’?”
He winked. “Don’t know anything about it. I belonged to the Boy’s Brigade.”
Another smooch, this one on her open lips. Forceful, and strangely...mechanical. It was as though Damien was trying to convince himself that he wanted her. Did he? Somehow she doubted it.
Anjuli pulled away and he let her. “You’ve got it bad, my friend, but not for me.”
Damien made a frustrated sound. “I like you Anjuli, very much, but...”
She raised her hand to his cheek. “But no matter how much you try to feel something more for me than flirty friendship, I’m not her.”
He sighed. “And I’m not Rob.”
“What a sorry pair we are,” Anjuli said. “But if I’ve learned one thing, it’s that you can’t help who your heart wants, no matter how it kills you.”
A low grunt of consent. “Better eat then, before I tell the village you tried your wiles on me.”
Anjuli laughed and scooted forward. She pulled her dress over her shoulders feeling lighter than she had in months. Hopeful. Her neck and back pain were gone, if not the ache in her heart, but maybe, just maybe, she could slowly come to terms with her guilt. Maybe she could risk her heart again in spite of dark shadows.
Maybe she had panicked over Rob’s cancer for nothing.
The front door opened and banged shut. “Anjuli,” Rob called out. “Ben offered to take the boys in my place so he could practise his uncle skills.”
It was time to panic. Steady footsteps were in the corridor, in the kitchen, sitting room, turning back and around to the morning room, getting closer every second. Anjuli worked frantically at her dress. Her black bra got caught in one of her buttons, mocking her efforts at modesty.