He unclenched his teeth before they cracked. ‘Why didn’t your friends wait with you?’ And why so early? She didn’t usually stroll home till three. He fisted his free hand against his trousers and tried to maintain an outwardly calm and composed façade.
‘I’ve got a headache so I caught a cab home and it was gone before I realised I’d forgotten my keys,’ she said. ‘I didn’t notice because I left first and wasn’t the one who locked the door tonight—you were. Sorry, are you…busy? I can—’
‘Stay right there. I’ll be home in ten minutes.’ He swung around to Sophie. He wasn’t going to make it with her tonight. ‘Lissa’s not feeling well, I have to go.’
‘Yeah, you do.’
‘I’m sorry about the coffee. I’ll ring you.’ He paused on his way to the front door to look back at her. She was still watching him with that wide expressive and slightly stunned gaze. ‘What are you doing this weekend?’ He realised he’d never asked his PA that question in quite that tone nor with the same interest and expectation.
The rush of surprised excitement in her eyes was quickly doused. ‘I’m going to keep Pam company since she can’t go out in public. I’ve got chick flicks, calamine lotion, chocolate ripple ice cream and a book of cryptic crosswords.’
He had to grin at the cosy scenario. ‘Sounds like you’ve got all bases covered there.’ So Sophie was the kind of person who was willing to put her weekend on hold for a friend. She knew what he was offering but she’d turned him down because she was needed elsewhere. Putting her needs aside. Not so selfish as you profess, are you, Sophie Buchanan?
He understood all too well. He also knew she understood why he had to leave now. He opened the front door, stepped onto the common balcony. ‘I’ll be in Brisbane first thing Monday morning and back late Tuesday.’
Sophie caught up with him, curled her hand around the door. ‘Have a successful trip.’
He nodded briefly. ‘Any problems, ring me.’ His tone sounded brusque to his own ears as he turned abruptly away. Abrupt because he had to force himself not to touch her again. Because if he kissed her goodnight, he’d not want to stop at one and Liss was waiting and it was well past midnight.
Sophie was glad to have something to do over the weekend. During the day, Pam’s companionship took her focus away from Jared. It was a different story at night when she lay on hot sheets and her body itched and burned so that she had to wonder if she was coming down with chicken pox too.
She watched the stars track across the night sky. She knew she and Jared would have ended up in bed if he hadn’t been called away. Overwhelmed by the burning tension between them on her balcony and his obvious intention to take things further, she’d let her hair down. Literally.
She’d never played the seductress role but with Jared…well…it was different… And there’d been just enough wine in her system to loosen her up and free that inner woman she’d denied for so long.
Maybe he was the best thing to ever happen to her.
No. She shook her head against her pillow. She couldn’t allow herself to think that. Would not. She had to keep her focus on her future. Hers. She was going overseas. Her goal, her life. He was just that fling she’d fantasised about.
‘Yes, fling,’ she declared into the darkness. And, as she’d stated to him on her opinion of flings, it was going to be self-indulgent and irresponsible. And risky, a little voice whispered.
But didn’t she deserve one self-absorbed, giddy and reckless performance before she turned thirty? Only two years away.
She pushed away the melancholy thought that by that age she’d always expected to be happily married with her boisterous brood of three kids and assorted pets.
Circumstances changed, expectations changed accordingly.
Back at the office on Monday morning there was a mountain of work and preparation to be done before Wednesday. She shook her head when she reread the report she’d written, jabbed the delete key and started over. It seemed that every two minutes Jared popped into her mind. His name, the way he kissed, something he’d said, making her flustered and forgetful and somehow rendering her incapable of stringing together a coherent sentence, let alone transferring it to the computer.
What was this? There didn’t seem to be any room in her mind for anything else but him. Nothing like it had ever happened to her before. Not with Glen, and he’d been the only man she’d dated seriously and she’d married him at eighteen.
Jared phoned on Tuesday afternoon to make final arrangements for their trip. Because she hadn’t been expecting to hear his voice, her heart did a stop-start and her pulse rat-a-tat-tatted. He made her feel like a ditsy teenager, self-conscious and giggly.