not.’ He smiled serenely. ‘Do you think I wouldn’t have pulled you in there with me if I’d seen you?’
‘Then how…?’
‘The two cups of tea were something of a give-away.’ He was positively smug. ‘I just put two and two together.’
Cory called him a name which nice, well brought up ladies didn’t say—not often, anyway.
‘What’s the matter?’ He looked at her with an injured expression. ‘It was me in the nude, not you.’
‘I know that,’ she said through gritted teeth.
‘So why are you the one complaining?’
‘I’m not complaining,’ she said icily, her voice in stark contrast to her cheeks, which felt as though they were melting. ‘I just don’t like being tricked, that’s all.’
‘But if I hadn’t got it out of you you’d have been suffering a guilty conscience all day,’ he said with insufferable complacency. ‘This way we’ve cleared the air and everything is back to normal.’ He took another bite of toast as he added, ‘Did you like what you saw, by the way?’
She glared at him.
‘OK, end of discussion.’ He smiled, reaching out and stroking one hot cheek as he said, ‘I love it that you can blush. It’s a lost art, you know. Most women are so hardboiled these days nothing bothers them.’
Most women wouldn’t run like startled rabbits if they saw a man in the nude. She took a swallow of juice because it was easier than having to think of something to say.
‘You were a great hit last night, by the way.’ He smiled over the top of his coffee cup. ‘My sisters are crazy about you.’
‘What about your mother?’ It was out before she could stop it, and something in the tone of her voice must have alerted him that all was not well.
‘Mum, too.’ The piercing blue gaze homed in on her.
‘Good.’ It was flat.
‘Really.’ He reached out and took her hand, lifting it to his lips in one of the little endearing gestures she found so special. ‘My mother likes you; you must have sensed that?’
She nodded. ‘I like her too.’
‘What is it?’ His voice was quiet, all amusement gone. ‘Was something said I don’t know about?’
She couldn’t let Jenny down. She forced a smile to her face. ‘Don’t mind me,’ she said quickly. ‘Just feeling insecure being the new kid on the block, I guess.’
‘You did great,’ he said, but it was automatic. ‘Cory, you’d tell me if something was wrong? If someone’s upset you?’
How could she say that she knew she wasn’t really wanted, by his mother at least? That Margaret was destined for him? It would look as though she was criticising Catherine for a start and she wouldn’t want to do that. She didn’t blame Nick’s mother for wanting the best for her son, and Margaret, with her stunning looks and superintelligent brain, had more to offer him than she did. ‘Nothing’s wrong.’ She had to defuse the tension. She reached out and touched his hand. ‘I had a lovely time last night and it was great to meet everyone.’
I love you so much. I don’t want to be a ship that passed in the night in a few years.
She couldn’t bear to look at him a moment more without saying something they would both regret. She took her hand away and reached for her coffee cup instead, beginning to make light conversation about his sisters and their children. Nick fell in with her mood, making her laugh about some of the antics of the twins in particular.
After breakfast Nick loaded the dishwasher while she wiped the table in the breakfast room, and then they went for a stroll in the grounds to work off the breakfast.
The tennis court and croquet lawn were immaculate, and the trees in the small orchard were gently basking in the summer sunshine, but it was when Nick led her to the walled garden that Cory became absolutely enchanted. It was set behind the orchard and clearly very old, as the ancient walls, mellow and sun-soaked, proclaimed. Nick opened the gate which creaked as they stepped inside, and Cory just stood and stared for a moment.
The stone walls were brilliant in places with trailing bougainvillea—purple, red and white flowers all jostling for space beside the green and red of ivy. There were a host of scents in the air, a winding path meandering past squares and circles of raised flower beds, old trees, borders of hollyhocks and marigolds and secluded bowers with seats surrounded by climbing roses.
‘Nick.’ She clutched his arm as