LITMIR.BIZ

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she sure as hell wasn’t going to take a bikini. She would take a very sensible one-piece and sneak out under cover of night to have a swim. The thought of frolicking in a pool with him made her feel sick.

      ‘There you go again.’

      ‘There I go again what?’

      ‘Frowning and getting that distant look in your eyes.’ He reached forward and before she was aware of his intention he smoothed her brow with his thumb. It was such an unexpected gesture that Rose literally jumped and gave a little yelp of shock.

      ‘You’re on edge. Why? If you’re not scared of flying, then is it the unknown?’

      ‘Yes.’ She wanted to rub where he had touched and brush away the scorched sensation she was feeling. ‘I’m scared of the unknown.’

      ‘Thought so,’ Nick said with satisfaction, ‘although I can’t understand why. You had a pretty nomadic existence growing up. If anything, I would have thought you would have found the unknown quite appealing. Don’t we always long to revisit our childhood?’

      Rose had done her best to discourage any personal conversation between them. She felt safer when their relationship was purely on a business footing. Yes, of course he asked about the house and the work being done on it and naturally she answered him because the house was, really and truly, the reason why she now found herself working for him. But beyond that, she was vague when he asked her what plans she had for the weekend, or how she spent her evenings or even what sort of people she met in the hotel, whether she liked them or not.

      However, she was so relieved that he had misunderstood her apprehensive expression that she gratefully clung onto his fear-of-the-unknown nonsense for dear life.

      ‘Sometimes it doesn’t work that way,’ Rose said distantly. She stood up and began clearing away the empty containers, which looked a little unhealthy as the leftover contents began to congeal.

      ‘No?’ Nick pulled a chair towards him and propped his feet up on the black leather. After weeks of working with her, sitting within touching range of her when they brainstormed over some niggling problem, brushing her arm with his as he leaned to consult architectural drawings, growing strangely accustomed to seeing her now when he came in through the front door, he could honestly say that he still didn’t know much about her personal life. She had piqued his curiosity a long time ago but, instead of proximity doing what it should have done, and diminishing it, he was more curious about her than ever before.

      Now she was throwing him a glimpse into her thoughts and, like a dog tossed a bone, he was annoyed to find himself picking it up and preparing to run with it.

      ‘You mean you’re scared of what you don’t know even though you spent your formative years dealing with it?’

      Rose shrugged. She had her back to him, which suited her. It helped her keep her voice steady as she spoke. ‘You should be doing this, Nick. This is your house and these are your dishes.’

      ‘But you’re a woman and I’m a man. Don’t women love doing things like that? Keeps them busy and happy.’

      Rose spun around, but her heated accusation of sexism died on her lips when she saw the grin plastered across his face. Without thinking she flung the tea towel at him and he caught it and tut-tutted under his breath.

      ‘I should punish you for that,’ he drawled. ‘Trying to cause grievous bodily harm to your employer…’

      Rose felt her mouth go dry. This was the lazy, flirty voice he sometimes pulled out of the bag, with the dexterity of a magician pulling a rabbit out of a hat, and, it didn’t seem to matter how many times she told herself that he was just one of those born charmers, that voice still got to her every time.

      ‘With a tea cloth?’ she said lightly. ‘You must be a lot more delicate than you look if a tea cloth can inflict serious injury.’ A brief, electric silence greeted this remark and Rose clenched her hands into fists behind her back. She didn’t know what had possessed her to say that.

      ‘Should I take it as a compliment that you consider me big and strong?’ Nick murmured provocatively. He could tell that she would have liked the ground to open and swallow her up and for the first time since she had started working for him, he felt suddenly enraged. Enraged that he had given this woman an opportunity many would have killed for. Enraged that she continued to treat him with the studied politeness of a stranger. Enraged that every single time he had tried to get under that armour of hers, he had found himself gently but firmly repelled. Enraged now that she was back to looking at him with something like horror, as usual turning a perfectly innocent, teasing remark into something diabolical.

      ‘Forget I said that.’ Nick’s voice was cool and dismissive. He even turned away.

      Rose was stricken. How was he supposed to know that she shrank away from him because she was just so damn scared that if she didn’t her treacherous legs would have her pelting towards him and her even more treacherous arms would wind themselves around his neck and cling?

      What must he think of her? That she was ungrateful? Churlish? Buttoned up? The sort of woman who had suffered a sense-of-humour bypass somewhere along the line?

      Rose wondered whether maybe she had.

      ‘I’m sorry,’ she faltered.

      ‘What about?’ Nick enquired politely.

      ‘I’m really excited about going to Borneo…’ Humourless. Buttoned up. An efficient little worker bee who actually thought that what she had to say mattered to Nick Papaeliou. He was courteous, even teasing and flirtatious sometimes, and yet here she was, lips tightly pursed, as if her maidenly honour were under threat. Clutching her precious, uninteresting private life as if one single lapse would send him into a sexual, predatory frenzy. The idea was so nonsensical that Rose inwardly cringed.

      ‘But I guess I’m a little scared as well…’

      ‘Oh, yes?’ Nick reluctantly felt himself drawn to that simple, hesitant admission. ‘Why?’

      Rose sighed and went to sit at the kitchen table. She rested her chin thoughtfully in the palm of her hand and stared back down the years. She had agreed with him, initially, because he had conveniently supplied her with an excuse for her own disturbing train of thoughts, but now she thought that maybe he was right. Maybe she was scared of the unknown.

      ‘Tony and Flora always thought that traipsing around the country would make me brave and adventurous. I think they kind of figured that some of their let’s-change-the-goalposts lifestyle would rub off on me, but it never did. When you move from school to school, you end up dreading each upheaval even more than the last one. At least, that’s what it did for me. It’s why I like working for Fedco.’

      ‘You can hide behind the size?’ he guessed shrewdly, now fully ensnared by her dreamy, distant voice.

      ‘I can be safe. Borneo…’ Rose laughed and blinked so that he was back in her line of vision. ‘Well, Borneo is just something else altogether.’

      ‘All that heat…’

      ‘And insects…’

      Anything could happen. He nearly said it out loud and caught himself in the nick of time. ‘But Tony and Flora would be pleased…’

      Rose gave him a dazzling grin. ‘More than pleased. They’d be overjoyed. You want to hear them on the subject of Lily. They’re thrilled to bits that she’s now on the other side of the world making her fortune. I think they feel that they’ve somehow contributed to that.’

      ‘And what about you?’

      ‘I would never contemplate living across the Atlantic.’

      ‘I mean, are you thrilled that your sister is making her fortune on the other side of the world?’

      ‘I’ve got accustomed to it,’ Rose told him. ‘I miss her terribly, but it helps knowing that she’s happy and fulfilled.’

      ‘And

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