Undertaking Love Page 0,71

home just because he’d deigned to visit?

She fell onto her knees commando-style and crawled around the edge of the living room, staying out of sight in case he looked through the window. Her dress snagged on the floorboards, and laughter at own absurdity bubbled in her throat.

He’d gone quiet at last. Oh God. Was he listening out for her?

She stopped dead by the hall doorway and eyeballed the front door. Crap, he was still there, she could see his silhouette through the glass. And double crap, he could probably see hers, at least enough to know she was skulking around on the floor like a burglar in her own home. She held her breath and debated her next move. The mature thing would be to stand up and answer the door. Could she make up some excuse about not having heard it? He would be too polite to point out that he’d spotted her doing her best canine impression, and she could get rid of him.

She squinted at his outline through the glass. He seemed to be messing around in his pockets, and she was just about to get up off all fours and bluff it out when he bent down too.

Shit! Oh God! Please don’t look through the letterbox!

Marla stayed glued to the spot in horror, but instead of peeping at her, he pushed a small folded piece of paper through. It skittered across the polished floor towards her, and she inched her arm forward to grab it. She stared at it in confusion. Why was he giving her his old petrol receipt? Was he trying to claim that she owed him reimbursement for fuel? She racked her woozy brain to no avail, until finally she noticed there were words scrawled across the back. She flipped it over.

‘I can see you. Open the damn door.’

Oh, the shame. Marla let her head drop onto the wooden floor for a second and wished it would open up and swallow her. Then inspiration struck.

She opened the letterbox and tilted her head to the side next to it, which was no mean feat given that it was less than three inches off the floor.

‘I’m looking for my earring, if you must know,’ she yelled, and threw her arms around under the table in an exaggerated fashion to search for the non-existent missing jewellery. She heard him laugh, a rumble that shuddered through the door and all the way into her bones.

She hauled herself onto her feet and glanced in the hall mirror. Christ, her hair was a sight. It had dried naturally in the garden as she’d snoozed and turned into a holy red mess. She pushed it behind her ears and threw back her shoulders. If he would be so impertinent as to turn up on her doorstep uninvited, then he’d just have to take her as he found her. She swallowed hard and opened the door, braced for the inevitable chemical reaction.

Dark waves. Merry eyes. A dirty laugh. And whoops, there went her stomach.

‘You aren’t wearing any earrings. Rookie mistake.’

He laughed again as she guiltily touched her naked earlobes. Marla flicked her hair over her tell-tale ears and stared at him, wishing she hadn’t had a drink because it seemed to have amplified his beauty even more.

‘Did you want something?’

He nodded, completely unperturbed, that big, annoyingly gorgeous smile still plastered all over his face.

‘To say Happy Birthday.’

How the hell did he know it was her birthday?

‘Well, thank you. You’ve said it now, so you can leave.’

He raised his eyebrows in mock shock. ‘Aren’t you going to be polite and offer me a coffee?’

‘Let me think about that …’ Marla tapped the tip of her nose. ‘Nope.’

‘Shame. I brought you a gift too.’

‘Why would you do that?’

He studied her for a second with inscrutable eyes. ‘Because despite our professional differences Marla, I like you, and I want you to like me too.’

His honesty wrong-footed her, making her feel ungracious in the face of his charm offensive.

‘Fine. You can have coffee.’ She grumped. ‘But I have to go out soon, so …’ She tailed off in the hope that she’d said enough for him to make his visit a short one.

‘Really? That’s weird, because your mum said you were hiding out in here all day and pretending it wasn’t your birthday.’

She gasped. ‘I’m doing no such thing!’

Her mother. She might have guessed. That woman had some serious questions to answer when she came back on Monday.

She leaned sideways and glanced around him at