And the grin was unlike any grin he’d ever given her before.
It was a Royce-like grin, teasing, playful, knowing and intimate. As if he found her amusing and adorable. She felt her body instantly react and had to fight against the overwhelming desire to throw herself across the room into his arms and kiss him senseless.
But maybe he was Royce again. Maybe, she thought with alarm, that Royce was back.
Her head tilted to the side and tentatively she called, “Colin?”
“Yes?” he answered.
A gush of relief spread through her, then her body tensed again because it was Colin giving her that grin, not Royce.
She didn’t know what to make of that.
“Nothing,” she muttered and continued writing on the labels.
He came forward and kissed her shoulder in a gesture so intimate Sibyl had to steel herself against it.
Maybe, she thought, there were residual Royce-waves floating through him. This was not Colin, nothing like him.
This was not arm’s length.
This was real, heady, wonderful, couple-like stuff.
Maybe he felt guilty about hurting her. That had to be it.
“I’ve got to go,” he said.
She nodded, wanting to be alone to think about all of this.
At the same time wanting to throw herself at him, beg him to spend the night and make love to her. Not have sex with her but make love to her.
“Sibyl.”
Her body jolted at his voice then she turned her head to him. The look on his face was now definitely the Colin she knew.
“I’ll take a good-bye kiss now.”
Definitely the Colin she knew.
She moved forward and gave him what he demanded.
Regardless of the fact that when she first met him he behaved like a deranged madman then he had charmed her and she thought he was her dream man then he’d bought her body, and she thought she hated him – despite all that, despite how she knew it was very, very dangerous – she was beginning to have feelings for him. Strong, wonderful, scary feelings that were no good for her at all.
And because of that, when she kissed him, she pressed her body to his and pulled him to her by wrapping her arms around his sides and pressing hands between his shoulder blades. Then she went up on her toes and kissed him with all the strong, wonderful, scariness she felt. She opened her lips under his and slid her tongue in to taste his beautiful mouth and when she did, his arms swept around her, pulling her deeper into him and, at the touch of her tongue against his, he took over her good-bye kiss.
It wasn’t Royce’s beautiful kiss, but it was a good-bye-for-now kiss that she would never, ever forget.
As she stood, shaken and trembling from the kiss, watching him walk with his masculine grace back through her garden, she heard his mobile ring again.
* * * * *
Marian saw Colin walking toward his car and would have been alarmed at his much-earlier-than-usual exit had she not seen the look on his face.
Colin Morgan looked quite content with the world.
He got in his Mercedes and deftly manoeuvred down the lane.
Marian was about to follow when she saw something out of the corner of her eye.