LITMIR.BIZ

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The swollen split lip made his voice slightly slurred. ‘No, Evie, don’t touch…ouch!’

      ‘Ice…’ she said firmly.

      ‘Sara’s already put ice on it.’

      ‘It looks terrible!’ Subconsciously she registered the significant fact that he’d turned to his girlfriend first, rather than her. She saved her contemplation of birds leaving the nest until later—the thoughts uppermost in her mind right now were for Nick’s immediate health.

      ‘Thanks.’

      ‘Have you had it checked out in Casualty?’

      ‘Don’t fuss, Evie, it’s only a bloody nose and a split lip. I’ll be my usual beautiful self by next week. Besides, I thought you’d be pleased. Just deserts and all that…’ he suggested slyly.

      Eve expelled a pent-up breath and relaxed a little now she could see the damage to her brother’s face was actually quite superficial. ‘If I was a spiteful person…’ she only half teased.

      ‘You’re mad with me?’ Eve grimaced in sympathy as producing his normal winning grin cost Nick a definite wince.

      ‘What do you think?’

      ‘I think you’re not ready to see the funny side yet.’

      ‘How intuitive of you. But, first things first, how did you do that?’ Her gesture covered the swollen and discoloured area of his mouth and the evidence of a bloody nose.

      ‘It’s a bit embarrassing, really,’ he admitted, looking sheepish. ‘If you’d hung around another thirty seconds you’d have seen for yourself. You know how I always say words are more effective than fists? Well, I’ve come to the conclusion that that was a very mature statement. Problem is, I wasn’t feeling too mature when he…when he said…’ He glanced at Theo, his colour heightened slightly. ‘That crack about you, Evie,’ he finished uncomfortably. ‘I just saw red.’ The confession was accompanied by a lot of foot-shuffling and shoulder-shrugging. Confessing to the inexplicable urge to protect his sister’s honour was obviously affording Nick considerable discomfort.

      Eve froze and went dramatically pale. ‘Are you telling me,’ she said slowly, ‘that he did this to you?’ She recalled the greyhound-lean body and the rippling muscles and a wave of incredulous fury fogged her brain. Nick, for all his height, had the slender body of a young man emerging from adolescence.

      ‘That wouldn’t be so embarrassing. The damned man moves incredibly fast for a big bloke,’ Nick admitted, his voice tinged with an admiration that was totally incomprehensible to his sister. ‘I didn’t get to lay a finger on him. I went charging straight past him, tripped over some damn table and straight into some bloody great clock thing. In keeping with the general theme of disaster, it turned out to be an antique family heirloom sort of thing.’

      This minor technicality that Uncle Drew hadn’t actually laid hands on Nick passed over Eve’s head. Her brother was injured, and the damage was directly attributable to Drew Cummings.

      ‘That’s it!’ Insult her and he might get away with, but cause her baby brother harm and there was no way he was going to escape scot-free!

      ‘What do you think you’re doing, Eve?’ Her brother asked in alarm as she scrabbled through the small pile of loose keys deposited on the big old-fashioned dresser.

      ‘I’m going to tell Mr Drew Cummings exactly what I think of him, that’s what I’m doing. Where are your car keys, Theo?’ she continued, ignoring her brother’s groan of dismay.

      ‘Don’t give them to her, Theo,’ Nick pleaded. ‘I don’t need big sister rushing to the rescue. Tell her, Theo. I just about talked the guy around. The last thing I need is you turning up screaming abuse.’

      ‘I’ve no intention of screaming, and I’m not doing this for you.’ That was true. At least in part. It had really got under her skin that she’d been reduced to some sort of compliant moron earlier. ‘I’m doing this for humanity in general. That man needs pulling down a peg or two!’ Why the hell didn’t I stand up for myself when I had the chance? she wondered as she contemplated her missed opportunity with seething frustration.

      ‘I’m not telling her anything.’ Eve flashed her brother a smug grin, which faded as Theo snatched the discovered keys from her hand. ‘But neither am I letting you use my car, Evie. Not until you’ve cooled down.’

      ‘But you know the van’s at the garage until tomorrow, Theo,’ she wailed reproachfully.

      ‘Then wait until then.’

      ‘How can you say that?’ she spluttered indignantly. ‘Look at Nick.’

      ‘Nick’s already explained the man didn’t lay a finger on him.’

      ‘Nick was defending me!’ Because I chickened out when the going got tough, she thought with a wave of self-disgust.

      ‘If you’re honest, Evie, you’re just using this as an excuse because you’re itching for a fight.’

      ‘No such thing,’ she denied hotly, without meeting his eyes.

      ‘You’re mad because you ran away without defending yourself. Or maybe,’ he said with an abrupt change of tactics, ‘it’s a sexual chemistry thing between you and Uncle Drew.’ He looked at her with innocent enquiry. ‘That could explain all this hostility.’ He exchanged a conspiratorial grin with Nick.

      ‘So could being verbally and physically abused,’ she replied frigidly. Didn’t she have the bruises on her arms to prove it?

      ‘The guy certainly has muscles in all the right places,’ Nick agreed solemnly.

      ‘I didn’t notice.’

      Her brother laughed out loud at this one. ‘Maybe you’re going back for another look.’

      A sharp image of a big bronzed body rose up in her mind to add insult to the injury of her brother’s warped humour. A girl didn’t go through life without seeing images of male perfection, and Drew Cummings had to fall into that category, but none of those images had assaulted her senses with a raw, earthy sexuality. Of course not. None of them had ever grabbed hold of her whilst half naked, she told herself crossly.

      ‘It’s nice to know who your friends are.’ She treated them both to her best display of icy dignity as she stalked out of the room.

      ‘I don’t think she appreciated the joke,’ Nick surmised. ‘You don’t think she really…?’ He looked with comical dismay at the older man beside him. ‘Nah,’ he said shaking his head.

      ‘Maybe the walk will cool her down?’

      ‘Do you think so?’ Nick asked sceptically.

      ‘Not really. I was trying to cheer you up.’

      CHAPTER TWO

      EVE’S cheeks were tinged pink with exertion after ten minutes of furious pedalling. Serve Nick right if he thought his bike had been stolen. How many times had she told him to chain it up?

      Actually, she was forced to acknowledge a definite sense of exhilaration at being the one behaving recklessly for once. It was really quite a liberating feeling, she decided thoughtfully as she ran her fingers through her short, fashionably tousled hair.

      She propped Nick’s pride and joy against the gleaming paintwork of a big shiny four-wheel drive drawn up on the gravelled forecourt and walked purposefully up to the porticoed entrance. She regarded the pair of stone lions guarding the entrance defiantly.

      The door was slightly ajar, and she experienced the first twinge of apprehension as she rang the bell. Her nerves were primed for the offensive, however, and all it took was a quick mental replay of her earlier departure through this very door and the generous lines of her mouth firmed into a line of steely determination and her shoulders squared.

      She’d

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