ducky little tassel on the belt.’ She folded his fingers round the tassel. ‘Got it?’
‘Got it,’ he said gravely, leaning over her and starting to pull the silk sash very, very slowly.
‘Well done,’ she said, approving and just a little breathless.
‘Mmmm?’
She felt hot and cold, between the flames and the shadows; weak as water under his hands – and, at the same time, the most powerful force in the world.
She smelled wood smoke and wine, with a side order of garlic bread. The old cushions felt heavenly. The intensity in his eyes was dazzling. It felt so right to be here, in this place, at this moment.
They stopped talking.
8
‘Can You Keep a Secret?’ – Girl About Town
It was the start of the strangest two weeks of her life. Basically she felt she was living two lives. There was the Bella who was picking up the strands of her old life, seeing friends, working at the dentist’s surgery, meeting her brother for a drink.
And there was the Bella who took Richard’s phone calls and made dates to meet him which got cancelled at the last minute.
Lottie, the only one who knew, shook her head. ‘He’s got you on a string.’
‘He can’t help it,’ said Bella defensively. ‘His father isn’t well. Richard’s taking up the slack. And I can’t call him. He’s always in a meeting or on his way somewhere. Surrounded by people anyway. So he can’t talk, not properly. He has to phone me when he’s alone. Well, he does if we want to keep it secret.’
Lottie sniffed. ‘Which leaves him calling all the shots.’
‘Yes, but that wasn’t his choice,’ Bella said candidly. ‘He was willing to take our chances with people finding out. I was the one who wanted to keep it, well, private.’
Lottie shook her head over this lunacy. ‘Why on earth?’
‘I thought it would be easier to back away from, if it didn’t work out. You know the idea. Keep it casual and nobody gets hurt.’
‘This is casual?’
Bella stiffened. ‘We’re not committed or anything.’
‘You could have fooled me,’ muttered Lottie into the fridge.
‘Neither of us has made any promises,’ Bella told the back of her head, loudly and clearly.
Lottie took out her breakfast orange juice. ‘OK, OK. Keep your hair on. You’re both fancy-free. You can each date anyone you like.’
Bella glared.
‘No, I thought you didn’t mean that,’ said Lottie with satisfaction. ‘Oh, go to work and give someone else hell. I need to put on a happy face.’
But, even if her flat-mate disapproved, at least Bella could talk to Lottie about Richard. With everyone else, she had to remember not to mention him. What was worse, she couldn’t talk about anywhere they’d been together in case it invited questions and she let something slip. It made for some silent coffee breaks.
‘This thing is changing my character,’ she told Richard when they snatched half an hour in a bookshop café in Piccadilly.
‘Mine too,’ he said cheerfully. ‘Until I met you, I’d never gone out in disguise before.’ Today he was wearing jeans and a lopsided baseball cap along with Clark Kent spectacles with no lenses in them.
She leaned forward and straightened the baseball cap. ‘Your own mother wouldn’t know you.’
‘I know. I’m getting good at this. The secret is to look like a nerd. Nobody looks at nerds twice.’
She grinned. ‘Greater love hath no man, than he will dress up as a nerd for his lady.’
He made a face. ‘Not just dress up. I’m playing hide and seek with my security patrol too. And those guys are trained.’
That hadn’t occurred to Bella. She said in quick alarm, ‘You’re not putting yourself in danger?’
‘Nah. I’m just being a bit less amenable than usual. It gets us half-hours like these while they scamper round looking for me.’
But Bella was still worried.
He touched her cheek reassuringly. ‘It’s good for them. A couple of those guys had written me off as a pussycat. Now they know different.’
‘But—’
‘Hey, they were due a challenge.’
She stared at him for a long moment and made a discovery. ‘You’re enjoying it.’
‘Too right.’ He caught himself. ‘Though, of course, I’m only doing it for you.’
‘I feel truly cherished,’ said Bella with irony.
‘So you should.’ Even though he was teasing, the warmth in his eyes was like a caress.
She laughed and conceded him the point. And after he had slipped away, back to business-as-usual, she carried that look with her all day.
It was turning out to be more difficult to see each other than Bella could ever have