Trish Wylie - His After-Hours Mistress

She ought to walk out. It would be best all round. But young Tim had taken to her so willingly and completely that she couldn’t bear to let him down. It was bad enough that his beloved grandmother was so poorly. He didn’t need any more instability in his life. No, she would stay until the woman recovered. She would do what she had come here for, but that was all. Zane Alexander could go and take a running jump. She would never let him near her again.

Zane’s feelings were running high as he showered off his tiredness. He had been looking forward to coming home and finding Lucinda here. What he hadn’t expected was her animosity towards him. He’d given her a good time in St Lucia. He’d done nothing to hurt her. So what was it all about?

He had half wondered, when she’d agreed to look after Tim, if she would want to carry on their affair. He had been pleased and relieved that she’d accepted—of course he had—but nevertheless he couldn’t help speculating whether it might be because she wanted something more from him.

Clearly, though, nothing was further from her mind. He was shocked by how cool and distant she was towards him. Their brief affair might never have happened. But if that was the way she wanted to play it—then that was all right by him.

When he rejoined her Lucinda was deeply engrossed in the film showing on television and wasn’t aware of his presence, so he stood in the doorway watching her. She was even more stunning than he remembered. Her auburn hair was tied back in a ponytail but he knew how enticingly sexy it was when she left it loose around her shoulders. He had threaded his fingers through it so many times; he had used it to pull her face close to his; he had covered her naked breasts with it, enjoyed the intriguing little glimpses of her exciting nipples.

So many things they had done together and they all came rushing back in a brief moment of madness. Inhaling the sweet fragrance that was essentially Lucinda made him want to leap on her and make love until they were both senseless.

She was so gorgeously sexy. It had definitely been a big mistake to invite her into his house. When Tim had cried in his sleep and refused to be consoled he had been at his wits’ end. He’d taken time off work but even so he wasn’t used to young children and there had been times over the past few days when he had been at a complete loss.

That was when he had thought of Lucinda. He hadn’t dared hope she might agree to his request; indeed he had been shocked when she had. Shocked but pleased. Very pleased, because it meant that he would see her again.

It hadn’t occurred to him how much he had missed her until he’d heard her voice on the phone. Because he had thrown himself into his work, because he had Tim to look after as well, because he had fallen into bed each night dog-tired, Lucinda had not been on his mind. Now she was very much to the forefront and his male hormones began to take over.

Lucinda had shocked him when she’d stated that he had used her. How could that be when she had been a willing partner? And that comment about fraternising with the hired help. Where had that come from? Didn’t what they’d gone through together mean anything to her?

Zane felt both confused and not a little bit angry. She needn’t have come if this was the attitude she was going to take. He cleared his throat and she looked up and, for just a second, he thought he saw desire in her lovely green eyes. Gone in an instant; he might even have imagined it, because they were hard now, almost questioning his presence.

‘I didn’t see you there,’ she lied. In actual fact she had been aware of his presence the whole time; it would be impossible not to be. This house was full of him. Wherever she went Zane was there, whether in the flesh or not. But in the flesh, as now, she had sensed him, felt him, had never been more aware of him. And it made her realise what a big mistake she had made in coming here.

No doubt she would weather the storm, but it would be hard denying her feelings, pretending an immunity she did not feel. All she could hope was that he wouldn’t attempt to carry on their affair. It would be a bittersweet relationship, knowing it could end again once Tim’s grandmother was well enough to take him back. She couldn’t go through with it.

He came into the room. ‘A drink?’ he asked, walking over to a mini-bar in the far corner. The room was high-ceilinged and tall-windowed, with beautiful gold silk curtains against a wall of palest blue. The carpet had a blue and gold pattern and all of the furniture was antique. Money well spent, she thought. Not that it was to her taste; she preferred something more modern, but it suited Zane. The whole house suited him.

Even now, dressed down in black jeans and T-shirt, he didn’t look out of place. While she was all keyed up inside, he looked relaxed and perfectly at ease. And, while she didn’t really want a drink, Lucinda nodded, feeling it might help settle her uneasy stomach.

He poured her a gin and tonic without even asking what she would like and, with a tumbler of whisky for himself, he sat down on the settee opposite her.

The film finished and Lucinda hoped he wouldn’t ask her what it was about because she hadn’t the slightest idea.

‘So tell me,’ he said, ‘what’s been happening in your life since we got home?’

Lucinda shrugged. ‘I’ve been working hard, that’s all. I had a lot to catch up on.’

‘And how’s my project doing?’

She frowned. ‘You still want me to carry on with it?’ This was the last thing she had expected.

‘Why wouldn’t I? I didn’t go to all the trouble of flying you out there for nothing. Is that what you thought? That I took you out to have my evil way with you? Is that why you looked at me earlier as though I were the devil incarnate? Believe me, Lucinda, what happened was as much your choice as mine.’

Lucinda wasn’t sure she would agree with that. He was the one who had started the affair. If he hadn’t she would have got all her work done and she wouldn’t be feeling as though he had robbed her of a very precious part of her being.

‘You look as though you don’t agree.’

There was hardness in his eyes, turning them steel-blue instead of smoky blue and Lucinda felt everything inside her go tense. ‘You were the one who started it.’ Oh, Lord, how childish was that?

‘One of us had to,’ he declared pragmatically. ‘We couldn’t have got through our time there feeling as we did if we didn’t give in to our feelings. Don’t you agree?’

Lucinda shrugged. ‘It’s never happened to me before.’

‘And do you regret it?’ He paused, his glass poised before his lips.

‘Yes, actually,’ answered Lucinda. Honesty was the best policy here or she could see him attacking her defences yet again. And she would unfortunately let him. He was a man who could not be ignored.

Zane took a long swallow of his drink, put his glass down carefully on a side table and looked at her intently. ‘Are you saying to me that if I took you into my arms right now and kissed you, you wouldn’t respond? That your body wouldn’t melt and your arms wouldn’t go around my neck and you’d beg me for more? Are you saying that, Lucinda?’

She eyed him coolly. ‘Yes!’ And her voice crackled into the air like breaking ice.

Well-marked brows rose. ‘And I’m supposed to believe it?’

‘You can believe what you like,’ she threw at him even more crisply. ‘It happens to be the truth. You used me out there and you’re not going to do it again. Actually, I think the location seduced me more than you did.’

His eyes flickered but he said nothing.

‘And now that I’m back on home ground my head is level and I have no wish to carry on an affair with you.’ In fact he was the one who had put an end to it by his behaviour on the plane. But she didn’t tell him that; she didn’t tell him how much he had hurt her. She was glad now that it was finished because it would have hurt even more the longer it had gone on.