LITMIR.BIZ

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stomach swirled. This was going to be the sticky part. ‘Um…Justin McCarthy.’

      Dead silence at the other end for at least ten seconds. Hearing Justin switch on the shower was a blessing. He wouldn’t be returning for a while. Time enough, hopefully, to smooth things over with Isabel.

      ‘Justin McCarthy,’ Isabel finally repeated in her best I-don’t-believe-you-could-be-such-an-idiot voice. ‘Your boss. You’re sleeping with your boss. Your obviously not gay but pathetically paranoid boss.’

      ‘Um… Yes.’

      ‘But why? How? When, for pity’s sake?’

      Rachel did her best to explain the circumstances leading up to their first going to bed together, as well as where their affair had gone since then, without it all sounding as though she was desperate and Justin was simply using her for sex.

      Her friend’s sigh told it all. ‘You are just setting yourself up for more hurt, love,’ Isabel said.

      ‘Maybe. Maybe not. Either way, it’s my choice.’

      Isabel sighed. ‘True.’

      ‘He’s really a very nice man.’

      ‘I suppose I’ll have to take your word for that.’

      ‘No, you don’t. If you’ll let me bring him over to dinner tonight then you can judge for yourself.’

      ‘What a good idea,’ she said in a tone that worried the life out of Rachel.

      ‘Promise me you won’t say anything sarcastic.’

      ‘Who? Me?’

      ‘Yes, you, Miss Butter-wouldn’t-melt-in-your-mouth. You’ve got a cutting tongue on you sometimes.’

      ‘I’ll do my best to keep it sheathed.’

      ‘You’d better.’

      ‘Where is lover-boy at the moment?’

      ‘In the shower.’

      ‘Good, because I have something I want to say to you.’

      Rachel rolled her eyes. Here it comes. ‘What?’

      ‘Now, don’t take that tone with me, Missy. Someone has to look after your best interests and that someone is me. I know you, Rach. You probably think you love this man. But I seriously doubt it. It’s just a rebound thing after running into Eric like that. You’ve also been very lonely. And loneliness can make a girl do incredibly stupid things. From the sound of things, your boss has been very lonely too, not to mention having had the stuffing kicked out of him. Not too many men could come through an experience like that without a seriously damaged soul. How do you know he’s not living out some sort of sick revenge, doing to you what he imagines Carl Toombs is doing to his wife? Have you thought of that?’

      ‘Yes.’

      ‘And?’

      ‘It doesn’t fit his character. He’s too decent for that.’

      ‘Decent! Reading between the lines, he’s been screwing you silly all over your office. I haven’t forgotten that little joke you made during our last phone call. Only that wasn’t a joke, was it? That was the truth!’

      ‘Sort of. But things have changed.’

      ‘Huh. He’s just changed the scene of his crimes, that’s all. He’s probably afraid you’ll slap a sexual-harassment suit on him if he keeps doing it on his desk. He’s thinking ahead.’

      ‘Thinking ahead to what?’

      ‘To that day when he gets bored and gives you the bullet.’

      ‘He’s not like that.’

      Isabel groaned. ‘You do think you love him.’

      ‘I do love him, OK? So shoot me.’

      ‘For pity’s sake, girl, it could just be lust, you know. Even on your part.’

      ‘Like it was on yours? With Rafe?’

      ‘That was different.’

      ‘How?’

      ‘It just was.’

      ‘Wait till you meet Justin. Then tell me if you still think that.’

      ‘All right. I will!’

       CHAPTER FIFTEEN

      ‘I STILL can’t believe it,’ Isabel said to Rafe as the returned honeymooners made the after-dinner coffee together in the kitchen.

      ‘What can’t you believe, darling? That you’ve come back home to find Rachel looking utterly gorgeous and glowing? Or that her creep of a boss—the one you’ve been ranting and raving about all afternoon—is actually a genuinely nice guy?’

      ‘Both. Frankly, I don’t know what to think any more. If I didn’t know Justin McCarthy’s history I’d say he just might be in love with her. The way he looks at her sometimes… As for Rachel, I’ve had to abandon any desperate hope I was clinging to that she might only be in lust with the man. She’s obviously mad about him.’

      Rafe glanced over the kitchen island at the woman he was mad about. ‘Then why are you still so worried?’ he said.

      ‘I just couldn’t bear to see her get hurt again. She’s had such a rotten deal in life so far, Rafe. She deserves to be happy.’

      ‘I know, sweetheart,’ Rafe said soothingly. ‘I know. But she’s a grown woman. She has to make her own choices and decisions in life. You can’t make them for her. Even if you could, what would you say? Leave him before he leaves you? You saw for yourself the physical transformation in her. Whatever happens between them in the end, that can’t be a bad thing.’

      ‘No… No, you’re right. If nothing else, falling for Justin McCarthy has done wonders for Rachel’s looks. It’s difficult to believe she’s the same girl who was worried about having a bit of red dye put in her hair three weeks ago today. I wonder what Alice makes of all this.’

      ‘Alice?’ Rafe frowned.

      ‘Justin’s mum. She was the one who got Rachel the job as Justin’s PA in the first place.’

      ‘Aah, yes. I remember now. Well, maybe Alice doesn’t know that her son’s new Girl Friday has been promoted to Girl Saturday and Sunday as well.’

      ‘If she doesn’t then that would be telling, don’t you think? You told your mother about us quick smart. Maybe I’ll try to find out over coffee.’

      ‘Isabel,’ Rafe said sharply. ‘Don’t interfere.’

      ‘But…’

      ‘No buts, darling, except butt out. It’s their life.’

      ‘Oh, don’t be so typically male! The trouble with you is you don’t really care. Rachel’s not your best friend.’

      ‘No. She’s not. Which is possibly why I’m a better judge of what you should and shouldn’t do. Now, let’s take this coffee out to our guests and finish this very pleasant evening chatting about non-inflammatory subjects.’

      ‘Such as what?’

      ‘How about Rachel’s new look? That should keep you two girls going till after midnight, talking about hair and make-up and clothes.’

      ‘Very funny.’

      ‘Justin and I could discuss manly things, such as money and football and sex.’

      ‘You’re a male chauvinist pig, Rafe St Vincent.’

      ‘Not at all. Just a typical male, as you so

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