Oh God.
Vivienne swallowed.
‘Now I can go away next week without worrying about you,’ Marion was saying.
Vivienne blinked. ‘What was that? You’re going away?’ she asked a bit blankly.
Marion shook her head at her. ‘I thought you might have forgotten, what with everything that’s happened. I’m going to Europe for a holiday, remember? London first to visit some of my long-lost rellies, then over to Paris, and then I’m going for a cruise down the Rhine. Be gone nearly six weeks. You’ve no idea how much I’m looking forward to it. It’s been a long time since I had a decent holiday like that. But none of that for now. Tell me more about this house Jack bought. What’s its name again?’
‘Francesco’s Folly.’
‘Sounds rather romantic.’
Vivienne laughed. ‘It’s nothing of the kind,’ she said, thinking that she would never associate that house with romance. Just sex, along with lust and uncontrollable passion.
Vivienne suddenly frowned. How odd. They were not words which she’d ever associated with herself. She’d never fallen in lust before or suffered from uncontrollable passion. But she was definitely in lust with Jack Stone. And yes, when she was in his arms, she became uncontrollable with passion. She could hardly wait for tonight to come.
‘I have some photos of it, if you’d like to look at them,’ Vivienne offered. Perhaps unwisely, as it turned out. Because she couldn’t look at the various rooms without thinking of what they’d done in them, especially that spare bedroom with that old brass bed in it.
‘It’s going to be a big job,’ Marion said. ‘You’ll be away for weeks. Maybe even months!’
‘Possibly,’ Vivienne agreed, all the while thinking she didn’t care how long it would take.
Marion gave her one of her rather sharp looks. It was hard to put something over on Marion. She was very good at reading between the lines.
‘I was somewhat surprised by Jack Stone,’ she said. ‘He wasn’t nearly the ogre you’ve painted him out to be. I rather liked him.’
‘Yes, well, he can be quite nice when he wants something from you,’ she said drily. Which was very true.
‘He’s also better looking than I thought he’d be,’ Marion added.
‘He’s passable, I suppose,’ Vivienne said offhandedly as she sipped her coffee.
‘More than passable. But then, he’s my type. I’ve always liked manly men. My Bob was a manly man,’ Marion said in that wistful tone which warned Vivienne Marion was about to get maudlin over her long-dead husband. Normally, Vivienne didn’t mind listening to Marion’s memories of happier times, but not today. She didn’t want to hear about what true love felt like. And she didn’t want to think about lost loves.
Her phone ringing at that point was a blessed distraction until she picked it up and saw it was Jack calling. From the frying pan into the fire, she thought as her heart started racing and her head worried about Marion twigging what was going on between them.
‘Hello,’ she said, deliberately leaving out Jack’s name.
‘And hello back,’ he said. ‘Did you sleep well? I know I did.’
Vivienne could see Marion looking at her with curiosity in her eyes.
‘It’s Jack,’ she mouthed, as though it was nothing.
‘How nice of you to get back to me so quickly about the door,’ she said aloud to him.
Jack got the message straight away. ‘Ah...you have someone with you. Marion, I presume?’
‘Wow, that was quick,’ she said and he laughed. ‘So I can expect the man to come with the new door tomorrow,’ she went on in a matter-of-fact tone. ‘What time?’
‘Well, certainly not at seven in the morning,’ he said. ‘You’ll be too wrecked to get up that early after what I have in mind for you tonight.’
Vivienne swallowed convulsively as she struggled not to blush. But, oh, the heat which immediately flooded her body at his highly provocative words...
‘Noon will be fine,’ she said, amazed at how cool and calm she actually sounded. Who would have imagined she could be such a good actress? ‘Thank you, Jack. And thank you again for offering me such a wonderful job. I’m looking forward to it.’
He laughed again. ‘Not as much as I am, Miss Cool. Now, as much as I am enjoying this titillating conversation, I have to go now. Work calls. I’ll pick you up at seven tonight. And don’t wear anything too sexy, if you want to pass it off as a business dinner.’