The Billionaire Boss's Bride(23)

Tessa did not want to get caught up in this. She didn’t want his private life to begin infiltrating into hers and she didn’t want to find herself reluctant referee in a disagreement between him and his daughter. On the other hand, what choice did she have? She remembered Anna’s forlorn face and felt sorry for her, so she just nodded.

Susie had her hand resting on his, and her face, raised to his, was disappointed. She looked, in fact, as though she had just been put through a wringer, as though, suddenly, from being the woman who was all dressed up, she had become the woman who was all dressed up with nowhere to go. And on top of that she couldn’t even command her date’s attention, which was very firmly focused on a sullen fourteen-year-old tucked away in the kitchen.

Curtis was back almost to the minute but the trip had done his tension no good. He was still unusually brooding when he stepped into the hall, glancing towards the small kitchen at the back.

‘Thanks for that. Where is she? I’ll take her home and let you enjoy the remainder of your evening in peace.’

‘Bed.’

‘Bed? You were going to enjoy your Saturday evening in bed?’ Hard on the heels of that came a crazy thought, And who’s the lucky man? He wasn’t looking down at his efficient secretary who always had her hair pinned back and always, but always, wore neat little suits and blouses carefully buttoned all the way up. He was looking at someone with calm eyes but a stubborn chin, someone with glossy hair and a figure that managed to be boyish but very, very feminine.

He felt a dangerous stirring in his loins. Never had he felt this sudden, uncomfortable prickling under his skin when in the company of a woman. For a man who was highly complex underneath the easy charm and self-assurance, Curtis had never been drawn to his female counterpart. He liked his women to be easy on the eye and easy on the intellect.

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.

‘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.