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you find a model?’ he asked, really, really, hoping that she had.

      ‘That would be a negative,’ she said, glancing over at her daughter and taking in the Darth Vader helmet and cape with a slight shake of her head, before sliding her gaze back to Luke. ‘Was she all right for you?’

      ‘Yep,’ he replied, thinking they obviously weren’t at the laughing about him saying ‘no’ stage yet, then. ‘We went out for the Sunday papers and then she insisted on watching a DVD with me, before getting out every single one of her toys to perform multiple marriage ceremonies.’

      ‘God, don’t tell me,’ Sephy moaned, ‘Woody has committed bigamy again?’ There was an accompanying and exasperated shudder that had Luke grinning in spite of the new wariness between them.

      ‘You’d think Buzz would help a buddy out, but he’s obviously seeking out infinity and beyond,’ he said.

      ‘Actually he’s in my bag,’ Sephy confessed in a whisper. A smile chased out some of the stress as she looked again at her daughter. ‘I found him earlier when I was looking for my tape measure.

      Luke wanted to ask her what the hell she had been measuring, given that she was supposed to be looking for a male model to re-shoot her ad campaign.

      ‘So,’ Sephy made a circling motion with her hand, as if to encompass Daisy’s Weddings R Us setup. ‘Is it only Woody who’s off to jail as soon as the honeymoon’s over, or did my daughter rope you in for a little bigamy too?’

      ‘Nope. No bigamy here.’

      ‘Phew,’ she said, blowing out an oversized breath of relief. ‘Not that I’m looking to get married.’

      ‘And not that I’m asking,’ he countered.

      Sephy looked as if she was going to say something, but in a majestic show of self control, she walked around to the squashy armchair and plonked herself down instead.

      ‘Mummy,’ Daisy announced, ‘I think Luke will come back tomorrow and then you and he can get married like Belle and Woody.’

      An interesting sensation spread under Luke’s chest wall as his gaze whipped to Sephy.

      Her expression said it all. Comical horror that said in equal measures: ‘What the hell?’ and ‘We so need to remember my daughter has the hearing of a bat.’

      Luke wondered if Sephy even realised her hand was rubbing unconsciously over her sternum, as if to chase away her instinctive recoil at the mere mention of a make-believe marriage.

      Disappointment ditched its cloak and streaked naked through his head and Luke needed a couple of seconds to work out that Sephy’s reaction should mean nothing to him personally.

      He was no longer a young boy facing rejection after rejection and she wasn’t rejecting him for real or otherwise.

      The whole world knew Sephy King was marriage-phobic.

      He didn’t know why, and probably never would. They weren’t the kind of friends to focus on their pasts and make that about who they were now. They were the kind of friends who bantered, supported and championed each other – but only with the lightest of touches.

      All of which was fine by him.

      At least it had been, until Sephy had had to go and break the rule she had put in place the first time they had met.

      Luke cast his mind back to seeing Sephy for the first time. She had been sitting alone in their local college canteen one summer evening and instantly caught up in the pull of her, he had ended up performing a move so completely uncool, it was only sheer dumb luck no one had whipped out their phone, filmed it and stuck it up on YouTube.

      One moment he had been Mr Jackson, after-school coding-club mentor, giving a little back to the community. The next, in an actual tripping-over-a-chair-leg, tray-flying-up-in-the-air moment, he had managed to recreate every teen-movie pastiche of the geek falling for the popular girl. The fact that he and Sephy were both a good few years past their teen incarnation hadn’t, in any way, made the move look ironic.

      She had been so sweet about the coffee splash-landing against her portfolio and he had felt like such a schmuck when he had discovered she was waiting to interview for a place as a mature student on a degree course in fashion design. But as if used to men making an absolute fool of themselves in her vicinity, she had calmly mopped up the mess and offered to buy him a replacement after her interview.

      Used to having way better game, Luke had spent the wait working out how to charm her into exchanging coffee for dinner. But when she had met with him thirty-five minutes later she’d had a determined look in her eyes that said she had cast their roles the moment of his initial bungled approach. They were going to be friends, nothing more.

      Over that coffee, looking into eyes the colour of dark, good-for-your-heart chocolate, he had learnt that once Sephy King made her mind up about something that was that.

      So friendship it was, and a year on neither of them had ever overstepped the terms Sephy had set out. Until she had asked him to be in her lingerie ad and he’d had to tamp down the spike of adrenalin that came with being reminded she had the power to surprise him.

      ‘Daisy,’ Sephy said mock-sternly and pulling Luke’s focus back to the present. ‘I know you know tomorrow is a school day. Stop fishing for more playtime.’

      Daisy giggled.

      ‘Uh-huh,’ Sephy nodded. ‘Knew it. Besides, I really think I’m going to have to limit you on how many marriage ceremonies you perform a week. Your toys must be exhausted.’

      ‘No, Mummy, they love it,’ came the confident reply as Daisy promptly started preparing to marry another set of toys.

      Luke could tell Sephy was chewing the inside of her cheeks to stop herself laughing and as she turned her attention back to him and he mentally took his cue to put her back into the friend box, he knew that aside from the unconscious sexuality she exuded, what really drew her to him, and had him accepting her boundaries, was simple. Put her daughter anywhere in her sightline and the softness that washed over her expression merged with a sort of defiant warrior-like strength that reminded him of the way Lily and Steve Jackson went about loving their kids.

      Even him, which he knew he hadn’t made easy.

      ‘I’m sorry,’ Sephy said, flicking her gaze apologetically to his laptop, ‘I was much longer than I said I’d be and I know it’s impossible to work with Daisy running around.’

      ‘Relax. I wouldn’t have offered if I wasn’t happy to help out,’ and if I didn’t feel guilty as hell for not helping you with the other thing. ‘Besides, it wasn’t Daisy who stopped me working. It was me.’ He glanced down at his laptop and closed the lid. ‘I’ll get there.’ At least he would as soon as he ‘fessed up his white lie to his foster parents and dealt with the fallout.

      ‘So are you staying for take-out, or is this a date-night for you?’ Sephy asked.

      Luke’s gaze was drawn to the silks and satins and frothy laces hanging out of the leather bag next to him on the sofa and he remembered he hadn’t had a date in…quite a while.

      Damn.

      No wonder he was focusing so much on Sephy and her out-there request.

      Maybe he ought to go home, grab a shower and give the woman from the gaming convention he had attended in London last week a call.

      Amy, he thought her name was. Or was it Laney? Jamie?

      His gaze slid to Sephy, who was looking at where he had been staring. He caught the tinge of pink high on her cheekbones and noticed she wouldn’t quite look at him as she stood back up and went to give Daisy a quick hug before wandering out to the kitchen, where he could hear her filling the kettle.

      When he’d picked up the bra that had fallen out of her bag the other night, he hadn’t liked that his first thought – his only thought – had

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