The Billionaire Boss's Bride(45)

‘Sweet of you to agree with me on that one.’

Tessa’s eyes flickered to his face. His expression was serious but there was just enough of an edge of sarcasm to his voice to make her think that the syrupy appeal to his male ego hadn’t been as accurate as she had hoped.

‘So, what do you think of Lucy?’ she asked, idly brushing some non-existent fluff from her jogging bottoms. Her body tensed. To have not asked the question would have spared her any unwanted truths but she knew that she had to find out. For her own peace of mind. She wasn’t looking at him but she could almost hear him thinking.

‘Not what I expected.’

‘What did you expect?’

‘Someone a lot more frivolous.’

But you found her attractive, didn’t you? Tessa wanted to press on. In other words, you were attracted to her, weren’t you? In ways you could never be attracted to me?

‘She’s got some interesting things to say. Would you like to look at me when I’m talking?’

‘Sorry. Just a little sleepy, that’s all.’ I have a stunningly attractive, deep and interesting sister. More silly, foolish, unfamiliar, unacceptable jealousy seared through her. She wanted to point out that, gorgeous and interesting though she might be, she hadn’t invented a cure for cancer, for goodness’ sake! ‘What?’ she asked irritably, because he looked as though he was about to say something.

‘It’s nothing,’ he said eventually. ‘You’re tired. You need to get to sleep.’ He stepped towards her, undeterred by the wall of frost she had erected, and sat on the bed next to her. When he lowered his head to gently kiss her on the lips, she wanted to pull back. Pride should have made her pull back. But the pressure of his mouth was so sweet, so unbearably sweet, that she closed her eyes and kissed him gently back. And hated herself for it the minute her eyes were open again and he was back by the door, lounging against it and eyeing her with brooding speculation. The kind of brooding speculation that made her wonder what exactly he was thinking and what he had been on the verge of saying to her before he changed his mind.

For someone who could be flamboyantly open, he possessed a talent for self-concealment, she thought uneasily.

Catching herself thinking and staring, Tessa made a show of yawning widely before snapping off the bedroom light and rolling onto her side.

He left quietly, without shutting the bedroom door. The corridor light will keep me up, she thought, but the effort of doing something about it was too much. Besides, now that she was lying down, she discovered that she really was tired. Exhausted from the battle that had been raging inside her.

She expected to hear the sound of the front door any minute, but in fact she nodded off before the anticipated click came and only awoke, groggily, some time later. She didn’t know how much later because she had left her watch on the dressing table.

She was only aware of two things. The sound of voices from below and an urgent need to go to the bathroom.

Her foot had stiffened up and was aching, but it struck Tessa that it was amazing how Nature’s setbacks could be circumnavigated provided the incentive was right.

In this case, the incentive was her burning curiosity to find out what was being said at the bottom of the stairs.

Shouldn’t Lucy have dropped him off and be back home by now? Because, even though she couldn’t discern the words, she could instantly recognise the timbre of Curtis’s voice.

She hobbled to the door, pulled it slightly wider and then dropped to all fours. Ludicrous but necessary. If she walked, or rather staggered, to the top of the stairs, they would both notice her, unless they coincidentally had their backs both turned. They would see her the minute she emerged from behind the wall, from which the staircase down went directly to the small hallway.

On the other hand, it would be highly unlikely that they would notice if she just peered round the wall at ground level.

She slithered into position, peeped and saw Lucy and Curtis both by the front door, which was open. Through it Tessa could see the back end of a taxi. He had somehow managed to find one. That momentary distraction didn’t last long.

They were making no attempt to keep their voices low, obviously expecting her to be well away in the land of Nod, so she didn’t have to strain to hear what was being said.

All the usual pleasantries. And they didn’t appear to be standing too close to one another. Tessa wondered whether she had mistakenly jumped to wrong conclusions. Her mind was halfway wandering off, dreaming up impossible scenarios, when he said it, appropriately dropping his voice to a lower decibel.

‘So are you sure it’s okay if I get in touch with you…?’