‘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.’
Vivienne opened her mouth to reply but he’d already hung up. Which was just as well, with Marion listening avidly.
‘Fine,’ she said into the dead phone. ‘Thank you again. Goodbye.’
‘I think he likes you,’ Marion said straight away.
Vivienne put her phone back down on the table before answering.
‘What makes you say that?’
‘Feminine instinct. I mean, he could have employed any competent interior designer to do up this house of his, but he came looking specifically for you.’
As much as there was a part of Vivienne which was flattered by the truth in Marion’s statement, she wasn’t about to fall victim to thinking Jack had had anything but work in mind when he’d come in search of her the other day. What had happened between them was as unexpected to him as it was to her.
‘Yes, well, he knows my work, doesn’t he? He knows I’ll do a good job.’ And you’ll give him good head at the same time, came the truly wicked thought.
Vivienne still could not believe how much she liked doing that. It was a mystery all right. But Jack’s motivations weren’t a mystery. He was a typical man who could enjoy sex without having his heart involved. Yes, he liked her, but he didn’t care for her to any great degree. He certainly didn’t love her. And she was strangely comfortable with that. Sleeping together whilst they worked together was as much a bonus for her as it was for him. She refused to feel guilty about it any more. Or to continue to worry that she was on some kind of perverse rebound trip.
‘I’m still not convinced,’ Marion said. ‘And you know what? I think you like him back.’
Vivienne smiled at her. ‘Hard not to like a man who brought me flowers then gave me such a dream job.’ Not to mention countless orgasms. ‘But you’re right. I do like him a lot better now than I did.’
‘Hmm. He’s single, isn’t he?’
‘Yes. And wants to stay that way.’
‘Does he have a girlfriend?’
What to say to that? ‘Yes, he does,’ she said at last. Impossible to use the word ‘mistress’.
‘Oh. Pity. What’s she like, do you know?’
‘Not really. I’ve only met her the once.’ Yesterday, when she’d been suddenly transformed into Vivienne the Vamp.
‘Is she blonde?’
‘No. A redhead.’
‘Oh. Like you. Beautiful? Sexy?’
Vivienne shrugged. ‘I dare say Jack thinks so.’
‘But you don’t.’
‘She’s okay, I guess. She’s a working girl. A designer, like me. Jack met her through work.’ Lord, this word game she was playing was getting a bit complicated. Vivienne wished now she hadn’t started it.
Marion snorted. ‘I suppose she’s hoping he falls in love with her and marries her in the end.’
Vivienne