“I saved you a leg!” Ruby announced by shouting at him and Julia tamped down her awkward feelings from before. She was letting strange things get to her and she allowed herself to trot out what were becoming familiar excuses – exhaustion and homesickness – and she felt marginally better.
After they were done, Veronika cleared the table and Julia made certain the children were packed and they all trooped to the cars. Douglas had his Jaguar in London and he decreed in his usual bossy manner that Julia was to ride with him. He then swept her in the car so quickly she had no chance to call good-bye to the children.
She had wanted Lizzie to ride with him. Lizzie who looked at him with a longing that tore at Julia’s heart. She was looking to replace Gavin, Julia knew, and the only replacement available was Douglas. However, it was clear Douglas was entirely uninterested.
Julia turned in her seat and looked back at them. Lizzie was climbing in the backseat of the Bentley while Veronika was settling into the front. Willie was impatiently dancing behind Lizzie, waiting his turn, and Ruby was jumping up and down, waving at Julia.
Julia waved back.
Douglas expertly manoeuvred through the streets of London and finally found the motorway, all this was accomplished in complete silence.
Once they made it to the far right lane, flying by the two other lanes of traffic as if they were going a snail’s pace, to her chagrin, the smooth ride of the car and constant sleep deprivation caused her to fall asleep, her head on the window.
She was awakened by a hand on her thigh squeezing it gently. Her eyes flew open and she saw that Douglas was leaning over her, his face close to hers, his hand still on her.
“Wake up, we’re home,” he said, his deep voice strangely, and invitingly, soft.
She glanced around dazedly, shaking her head and cursing herself for falling asleep. She hoped fervently that she hadn’t drooled or snored or done anything else utterly humiliating.
They were parked in the drive at Sommersgate. The sun was setting but light still covered the house, gardens and the rolling fields to the west. They’d enjoyed wonderful weather all weekend, chilly but dry and mild.
Once she’d pulled herself together, she realised both the jelly-feeling legs and the pleasant warmth in her belly were present at his proximity.
Therefore, Julia announced, “Great!” in order to dispel the intimate mood in the car and turned to let herself out but Douglas’s hand on her thigh tightened.
“Julia.”
She turned back even though she didn’t want to. In fact, she really didn’t want to.
“Yes?” she asked when her eyes met his.
I am innocence and light, blithely unaware of his hand on my leg, innocence and light, innocence and light, she repeated in her head.
For some reason, he grinned, the effect was a shock to her system and she watched the wrinkles crinkle handsomely at the corners of his eyes and those same eyes warmed lazily as they stared into hers, so very close. She felt her stomach flip nervously as that familiar thrill chased up her spine.
To hide it she repeated, “Yes?” Clipping the word’s sibilant end tersely to try and convey an impatience she really didn’t feel. In truth, even though she hated to admit it, she could have sat there forever.
His grin widened to a smile as if he knew her thoughts exactly, the brilliant flash of his teeth against his tanned skin and that deathly alluring scar on his lip disarming her completely.
“We’ll talk tonight,” he said, leaving her to think that he had thought better of what he was about to say… or do. Thankfully, he removed his hand and she exited the car with all haste, practically running into the house (after a brief struggle with the impossibly heavy front doors) and straight to her rooms.
Tonight they would talk about their “arrangement”.
This was good, she told herself. They had to get some things settled.
No, she had to get some things settled. She had to get herself sorted, get some rest, get her thoughts together and get her body under control and find out where the rest of her life was taking her.
One place she was determined it wasn’t going to take her and that was into some ill-advised fling with the man she was forced to live with for the next however-many years.
No matter how damned handsome he was.
Or how beautiful his smile.
She changed from her lovely outfit into a pair of faded jeans and an equally faded, tight-fitting black t-shirt that said, “Harry’s Chocolate Shop – Home of the Great Indoorsman” in yellow printing which promoted a popular bar at Purdue University where she and Gavin went to school. They were comfortable clothes and reminded her of home.
She donned them like armour.
To prepare herself, she gathered her notes and wrote more, reading through them carefully.