All Male

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The shrug was good-humoured. ‘I hate being driven.’

‘Better that, surely, than having to pay exorbitant sums to the clamping company—to say nothing of the waiting around?’

‘I’m sure you’re right.’

‘But you’ll still continue taking the risk.’ It was a statement this time, not a question, her tone expressing her opinion.

He gave her a sideways glance as he started the engine, his eyes taunting. ‘What’s life without a little risk?’

Safe, it was on the tip of her tongue to answer, except that it sounded so dull, so unimaginative. She was taking a risk herself in leading him on the way she planned, if it came to that. Who was to say how he might react to the kind of put-down she had in mind for him?

She was jumping the gun a little, she reflected at that point. One luncheon hardly established an ongoing interest. She stole a glance at his clean-edged profile, registering the sensuality in the fuller line of his lower lip and the strength of purpose in the jut of his jaw. Crisply styled, his hair was layered thickly into his nape, arousing in her a sudden urge to reach out and touch.

She was going to need constant reminders of the reason she was doing this, came the wry acknowledgement. His physical attraction was too obtrusive to be set wholly aside.

With the sun shining and the sky blue, Battersea looked more prepossessing than usual. Lee went straight to the right street without asking directions, suggesting that he’d probably looked it up on the map after discovering her address.

‘Thanks for the lunch, and for the ride,’ Kerry proffered as he drew up. ‘I expected neither.’

‘A small return for services rendered.’ There was a brief pause before he added lightly, ‘I wouldn’t say no to a coffee to round things off.’

Kerry hesitated, torn between two fires. Common courtesy made a flat refusal difficult, but she was reluctant to be alone with him right now.

‘Just coffee,’ he added on an ironic note, watching her face. ‘I never jump on a woman who doesn’t want to be jumped on.’

‘In that case,’ she heard herself saying without having come to a conscious decision, ‘by all means come up for coffee.’

Redecorated earlier in the year by Jane and herself in pastel colours, and with their own personal choice of fabrics at the windows and objets d’art around the place, the first-floor flat looked ten times better than when she had lived there with Sarah, but it still bore little comparison with what Lee was accustomed to.

The majority of the furniture came with the place. Apart from adding a scattering of colourful cushions and a throw-over cover to the sofa, there was no disguising the general mediocrity.

Whatever Lee might think of it, he gave no indication. He seemed to fill the small living room with his presence.

‘Have a seat while I make the coffee,’ Kerry invited, dropping her wrap on a chair along with her bag. ‘It will have to be instant, I’m afraid. We’re right out of ground.’

‘Instant’s fine,’ he said easily.

Instead of sitting down and waiting, he followed her to the tiny kitchen, lounging in the doorway while she put on the kettle and set out a tray.

She could see him on the periphery of her vision, his hands thrust into trouser pockets—pulling the material taut across his thighs in a way that tensed every nerve in her body.

Her hand caught against the rim of the jar as she spooned coffee, scattering some of the contents over the work surface and drawing an automatic exclamation of annoyance at her own clumsiness. It didn’t help to see Lee’s grin when she glanced round.

‘Don’t mind me,’ he said. ‘I’d have probably come out with something a whole lot stronger in similar circumstances.’

Kerry took care to keep her tone easy. ‘Except that you’re unlikely to find yourself in similar circumstances, of course.’

‘Oh, I’m not beyond making myself a cup of coffee. I even cook a meal on occasion.’

She looked at him in surprise. ‘When would you need to?’

‘Mrs Ralston has all day Sunday off. Since Mother came to stay I’ve sometimes cooked for us both. She’s far from being the domesticated type.’ The last without rancour. ‘Men make the best chefs, anyway.’

Kerry took that statement no more seriously than she was sure it was meant to be taken. ‘Of course they do!’

Lee quirked an eyebrow. ‘It makes a change to have you humouring me.’

‘Just so long as you don’t expect it all the time,’ she came back lightly.

‘I wouldn’t be so presumptuous.’ He paused, viewing her reflectively. ‘Have we said a final goodbye to the antagonism?’

Green eyes met grey, riveted by the sheer mesmeric quality of his gaze. Kerry felt her pulse quicken, her heart start thudding against her ribcage.

‘It depends on whether or not you arouse it again,’ she murmured.

‘I’ve still to work out just what it was that aroused it originally.’ He held up a hand as she made to speak. ‘Don’t give me that “what you’ve read and heard” story. You’re too intelligent to take gossip column reports on trust.’

‘Perhaps you’re giving me too much credit,’ she said.

‘Or perhaps it’s because I remind you of someone else?’ he suggested.

Kerry reached for the boiling kettle, concentrating on pouring the water without slopping it over the rim of the cups. ‘Like the man who supposedly let me down, for instance?’

‘It might explain your attitude.’

She could explain her attitude by bringing in a single name, but that would finish the game too soon, she told herself.

‘If I’ve reacted differently today it’s because you’ve been different, too,’ she prevaricated, leaving him to draw his own conclusions.

‘In what way?’

‘Less arrogant, for one thing.’

‘Arrogant?’ The intonation was humorous. ‘Is that how I come across?’

‘Normally, yes. You’re too used to dishing out the orders.’

‘If you’re referring to that taxi business I was simply being solicitous.’

‘For my own good, you mean?’

‘Something like that. You are going to take advantage of the arrangement, I hope?’

‘I’d be a fool not to.’ She softened her voice with deliberation to add, ‘And I’m sorry for being such a boor about it.’

‘Apology accepted.’ He moved to take the tray from her as she lifted it. ‘I’ll carry this through. You just bring yourself.’

As she followed him Kerry found herself assessing the breadth of his shoulders again, visualising the rippling muscularity. No woman with normal reflexes could fail to be stirred by his sheer physical attraction, she acknowledged, but that was as far as it went. What he lacked, along with so much more, was integrity—in his personal affairs, at any rate. Business-wise, he appeared to be above board. At least, nothing untoward had ever been publicised.

It would look a little too pointed if she moved her wrap and handbag from the nearby chair in order to avoid joining him on the sofa, she decided on reaching the sitting room, although she wasn’t entirely convinced by his earlier declaration.

‘You have a good memory,’ Lee commented as he took his cup of the black, sugarless liquid.

‘Easy when you like it the same way I do,’ she claimed without haste. ‘Mrs Ralston’s tastes better, of course. I shouldn’t imagine she’d give house room to anything but the genuine article.’

‘She might not. I certainly do. I’m all for the easy option.’

‘I doubt that.’

Head back against the cushion and feet comfortably crossed, he gave her a deceptively lazy look. ‘You don’t really know me.’

‘I don’t know you at all,’ she returned. ‘Only, as you keep telling me, what others say about you.’ She infused a tinge of regret into both voice and expression. ‘Perhaps it’s not all that fair to judge anyone on that basis alone, I admit.’