His near-black hair was swept back, accentuating the hard, chiselled lines of his face, and he was wearing a pale blue short-sleeved polo shirt that exposed the rippling, muscled strength of his arms and a glimpse of bronzed collarbone that made her mouth suddenly go dry.
‘Because I’m getting the impression that you have a highly developed sense of guilt.’ He stood up, dark eyes fixed on her face.
She was in a pair of jogging bottoms and a black base-layer long-sleeved T-shirt that clung to every curve of her small, sexy little body. It was just as well Ramos was not around. His wife would have spent the entire time trying to peel his eyes back into their sockets. The man was a notorious womaniser.
‘What are you doing?’
Lucas logged off and leaned back, hands folded behind his head. ‘Work.’
‘Oh.’ Milly looked at him, confused.
‘A man has to get by.’
‘What work?’ Then her face cleared and she smiled. ‘Oh, I remember. This and that. You didn’t specify. How long have you been up?’ It wasn’t yet nine and he looked bright eyed and bushy tailed.
‘I’m usually up by six.’
‘Wow. Are you? Why?’ Fascinated, she watched as he strolled towards her, pausing to stand directly in front of her so that she had to look up to him.
‘What do you mean why?’ Lucas asked, amused and puzzled.
‘Why would you get up so early if you don’t have to?’ She felt breathless and exposed. ‘I stay in bed as long as I can,’ she confessed. ‘Admittedly, my hours at the Rainbow Hotel are pretty long. Were pretty long. I’m out of a job now.’
She followed him towards the kitchen, chewing her lip, thinking about having to apply for more jobs as soon as she returned to London. How was she going to afford the rent on the flat? Emily would have disappeared off to her shiny new life that left her without a flatmate and with a disgruntled landlord. He might give her a little bit of leeway, if she explained the circumstances to him, but he wasn’t a Good Samaritan and unless she found the rent money fast she would be out on her ear with nowhere to live.
‘I like to be awake for as much of the day as possible,’ Lucas murmured. Lie-ins were unheard of. Even if there was a woman in bed with him, he found it impossible to waste his time next to her, unless they were making love.
Sex got him into bed and kept him there. Sleep was something essential he had to grab. But, for him, those were the two main functions of a bed.
The kitchen was as they had left it. Milly stared around her, dismayed.
‘You were up at six, made yourself a cup of coffee and yet you couldn’t be bothered to tidy up?’
Lucas surveyed the kitchen as though seeing it for the first time. ‘What’s wrong with it?’
‘Everything. The dishes need putting away...the counters need wiping...the milk’s been left out...’
Lucas shrugged and looked at her with his head tilted to one side. ‘I fail to see the point of tidying away anything that’s going to make an appearance later on in the day. Same goes for the kitchen counters. Why wipe them? Unless you’re planning on having a food-free day?’
‘How can you be so blasé about someone else’s property? You should respect the things that don’t belong to you.’