Jill Mansell: Sheer Mischief

How was I to know they were going to plaster your face across just about every hoarding in the country?’ With an extravagant sigh, he concluded, ‘All in all, you’re one difficult lady to fall in love with, Janey Sinclair, and I think you should apologize for all the trouble you’ve caused.’

‘Do you really mean it?’ She shivered. He had just said he was in love with her.

Somewhere out there in the real world, Paula was expecting her back to close the shop, and here she was, standing in the middle of Guy Cassidy’s kitchen listening to this.

‘Of course I bloody well mean it,’ Guy declared indignantly.

‘It’s just that I still keep expecting Jeremy Beadle to leap out of the fridge,’ Janey murmured, glancing over her shoulder to make sure. ‘What time did you say Maxine was bringing Josh and Ella back?’

‘Not for ages.’ He grinned. ‘This was a carefully planned campaign, sweetheart. You don’t seriously think I’d risk being interrupted by that rabble, do you?’

Janey, her fingers still unsteady, touched his mouth. ‘Just as well I didn’t ask Paula to deliver the flowers.’

Guy kissed her again. ‘I seem to be making all the running here.’ His tone was gently admonishing. ‘You haven’t even told me yet how you feel about all this. Is it OK with you or do you have strong feelings about getting seriously involved with a bad-tempered photographer, two noisy juvenile delinquents and an out-of-control nanny?’

Janey’s thoughts flew back to the night of the fair, when Alexander Norcross had warned her of the dangers of one-parent families.

‘I don’t know,’ she said lightly. ‘Are you only doing this because it’s easier than finding a replacement for Maxine?’

Guy laughed. ‘Brilliant idea. I haven’t threatened to sack her for weeks. Do you really think she’d go, if we asked nicely?’

Janey breathed a guilty sigh of relief. So Maxine hadn’t told him yet. She hadn’t seriously suspected he would do such a thing but it was nice to know for sure.

Then she smiled, because ‘nice’ was such a hopelessly inadequate word to describe how it felt, knowing that Guy really did love her for herself. Not all men had ulterior motives, Janey reminded herself. Alan was a bad experience she could put behind her now. No two men in the world, after all, could be more different than Alan and Guy.

‘No, I’m not looking for a cheap childminder,’ he told Janey, stroking her hair away from her face and gazing into her eyes. He was looking for a wife, but there was no need to alarm her with that just now. There was no need to hurry; they had all the time in the world to get to know each other properly .. .

‘Good,’ said Janey, ‘because I’m not cheap.’

‘Unlike your very reasonably priced roses.’

‘Nobody’s ever given me flowers before.’ She gazed lovingly at them, her eyes bright with tears of happiness. ‘Oh dear, I’ve got a terrible confession to make.’

Guy looked at her. ‘Go on.’

‘I thought you were buying them for some horrible new woman in your life. I almost chose the not-so-good ones that I knew wouldn’t last.’

‘You’d have been sorry.’ He grinned. ‘So you were jealous? That’s encouraging.’

‘Of course I was jealous.’ Janey looked ashamed. ‘All right, I’ll admit something else. I couldn’t face going to London with you because I was too afraid of making a fool of myself. I thought you’d be able to tell how I felt.’

If only she’d realized, thought Guy, how badly he had wanted to know how she felt.

But that was all in the past. Smiling, he stroked her cheek. The flawless skin, as soft to the touch as warm silk, was positively addictive.

‘Never mind,’ he murmured. ‘I know now. And you feel just about perfect to me.’

Document Outline

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��