Jill Mansell - Mixed doubles

She quivered helplessly. Oh, that soft, purring Irish drawl! It really should come with a government health warning .. .

‘I’ll let you off, this once,’ she said faintly as Liam began kissing the tips of her fingers. Damn, why couldn’t Patrick and Claire be here to witness this now?

‘In that case,’ his blue eyes crinkled at the corners, ‘I’ll let you have a ride in my new car.’

‘Oh dear, I’m afraid I don’t accept lifts from strange men,’ said Dulcie.

‘It’s a Lamborghini.’

‘What colour?’

‘Red of course.’

‘Oh, all right then.’

Chapter 27

Liza, rubbing her eyes and pulling open the front door, protested, ‘Good grief, it’s only seven o’clock.’

Kit looked as if he’d been up for hours. He winked, unperturbed by the grumpy welcome.

‘Do you know what today is?’

She had to think for a minute. ‘Tuesday.’

‘No. Well, yes,’ he admitted, ‘but what else?’

‘I give up.’

‘It’s time you got bored with me.’

Liza already knew that. She smiled.

‘Do I have to?’

‘It’s been a month,’ said Kit. ‘Aren’t you bored yet?’

Her arms went around his neck. When she had finished kissing him, Liza looked up into his extraordinary yellow-gold eyes.

‘You know I’m not. I’ve never been less bored.’ Or more frustrated, come to that.

‘The thing is,’ said Kit, reading her mind and looking amused, ‘you aren’t bad. I quite fancy you, in fact. Maybe we shouldn’t risk spoiling things.’

‘Meaning ...?’

He shrugged.

‘Well, I don’t know. Maybe we should stay as we are. Platonic friends. No sex for at least the next ten years. What are you doing?’

Ask a silly question.

‘Unfastening your belt.’’Oh. Not keen, then, on my idea?’

‘Not very keen, no.’

Kit kicked the front door shut and leaned back against it, his eyes fixed on Liza’s face.

‘What are you doing now?’ he said finally.

‘Just unzipping your trousers.’

‘Liza.’

‘Mm?’

‘I love you.’

Liza looked away, unable to speak. All these years and it had happened at last. She’d heard these words so many times before, but this was the first time she’d actually wanted to hear them. Until now, they’d always made her feel sick.

‘It’s almost killed me, waiting this long,’ Kit went on. ‘I want to make love to you more than anything in the world.’

Liza quivered helplessly. She knew it was corny, but a tingling sensation actually was going down her spine.

She cleared her throat and nodded. ‘Me too.’

‘But if it’s going to change things between us ... if it’s going to spoil all this ...’

‘I don’t think it is,’ said Liza, who had wondered the same thing herself. This time she shook her head, desperate to convince him she was right. ‘I really don’t think it is.’

‘Tell you what.’

‘What?’

Slowly, he slid the straps of her white nightdress off her shoulders.

‘You don’t get bored with me,’ whispered Kit, his breath warm against her neck, ‘I won’t get bored with you.’

He was so in control. Liza wondered how on earth a twenty-three-year-old could be so self-assured. Heavens, he acted older than she did.

‘Is that a promise?’ she said, dry-mouthed. The need to know was overwhelming.

As he carried her through to the bedroom, Kit said, ‘Cross my heart, hope to die.’

* * *

It wasn’t a let-down.

Thank God.

Not that Liza had seriously expected him to be lousy in bed; it was just when you built something up so much in your mind, your expectations soared so sky-high they became almost impossible to live up to.

Anyway, thought Liza, smiling with her eyes closed, it hadn’t been a let-down in any shape or form.

And she definitely hadn’t been bored.

‘By the way, my cousin wants to meet you,’ said Kit, much later that morning.

Liza was admiring his brown legs. Better legs, possibly, than any she had ever seen on a man.

‘Which cousin?’

‘Nicky.’

‘You mean from the Songbird?’

Kit mimicked her look of horror.

‘Yes, from the Songbird.’

‘Oh my God, does she want to kill me?’

‘Don’t panic, business is on the up. The restaurant isn’t going to close after all.’

Liza covered her face with the duvet. Her voice was muffled. ‘She must hate me.’

‘Actually, she agrees with you. As soon as I said you’d eaten there on New Year’s Day, it clicked. That was the day her chef turned up half-cut, apparently, and Nicky had to do most of the cooking herself.’

‘Poor thing.’

‘She’s okay. You’ll get on fine,’ said Kit.

Liza rested her head in the crook of his shoulder.

‘This is proper boyfriend-girlfriend stuff. Meeting the family.’ She smiled at the thought. This was something else she’d shied away from over the years, simply because there hadn’t seemed much point. ‘Whatever next?’

‘May as well mention it while we’re on the subject,’ Kitsaid evenly. ‘My father. This thing is, he

—’

‘Your father wants to meet me too? My God, talk about popular! How does—’

Kit put his hand gently over Liza’s mouth to shut her up.

‘Don’t jump to conclusions. I was about to say don’t expect anything like that from my father, because he absolutely doesn’t want to meet you.’

‘Oh.’

‘No offence.’

‘I’m not offended,’ said Liza, deeply offended.

‘Look, he’s pretty old-fashioned. Upsetting Nicky didn’t do you the world of good, for a start.’

‘Right.’ Liza nodded against his chest. She could understand that.

‘Well, so basically, he wasn’t thrilled when I told him I was seeing you.’ Kit paused and drew breath. ‘Then, when he found out how old you were ...’

Liza winced.

‘Don’t tell me. It was scrape-him-off-the-ceiling time.’

‘Like I said, he’s old-fashioned. He has these set ideas. Set in concrete,’ Kit amended wearily.

‘You know the kind of thing. My sister’s thirty so she should be married and having babies. I’m twenty-three so I should be playing the field.’

‘How does he know you aren’t?’

‘He wants me to play the field with nineteen-year-old girls. Twenty-year-olds. I said I wasn’t interested.’

‘Heavens, maybe he thinks you’re gay.’

‘Worse still,’ Kit looked down at her, ‘I told him I wasn’t playing the field. I told him this thing with you was serious. And, God knows, that’s a first for me.’

Liza’s stomach did a slow, snake-like somersault. Not normally superstitious, she was nevertheless terrified of tempting fate.

‘Isn’t that jumping the gun a bit?’

Kit shrugged.

‘Maybe, but I meant it.’

Oh please, please, thought Liza, squirming with pleasure as his hand trailed down her stomach, don’t ever get bored with me.

Everyone else always seemed to sneer at it, but Dulcie adored daytime TV. She loved the pointlessness of it all ... the viewers’ makeovers, the snippets of movie gossip, the panel of experts deciding which baked beans were the least disgusting. She also enjoyed the effortless jolly banter between her favourite presenters, the how-to-transform-a-box-room-into-a banqueting-hall items, and the cookery slots, which Dulcie found quite soothing to watch.

Best of all though, she liked Nancy, the five-times-married resident problem-solver, who was wonderfully motherly and quite unshockable. If anyone said anything shameful or embarrassing she immediately told them in her lovely soothing voice that she understood completely because that had once happened to her too.