Page 2 of Enticement
“A month!”
“Evie, I did try to reach you at work. Your phone’s been off. Look, it is okay, isn’t it? He’s not a scruffy lout or anything, and we go way back.”
“I can see that.” Not that they went way back, obviously, but that he wasn’t scruffy. He’d started drying his hair with another skimpy hand towel as she talked, so that the muscles in his torso rippled with the movement. A lock of thick black hair flopped forward over his brow.
“We’ll talk when I get in,” said Ross.
Yes, they would. Not that there actually seemed all that much to negotiate. Kit was already here. She risked another glance at him. Yep, quite definitely here. Still mostly naked and making himself at home. He sniffed at a bottle of Ross’s aftershave, but discarded it unused.
“Love you,” Ross managed to squeeze in before she hung up.
Yeah, love you too she thought, still bitter but no longer quite so cross.
“That’s some welcome technique you have.” Kit glanced at the shower cubicle and smiled, so that the corners of his eyes crinkled and his lips parted to reveal slightly crooked teeth. “I’m sorry I shocked you. It is lovely to meet you at last.” He offered her a hand.
“Kit?” she said, accepting it.
He nodded.
In the comfort of the master bedroom, Evie shrugged off her wet clothes and collapsed on the rumpled duvet in her dressing gown. Frigging crazy, they’d only been here a fortnight. Two weeks of harmonious bliss away from the inconvenience of housemates and ever-calling friends. No one was quite as keen to drive out to the village of an evening, as they’d been to just nip in when she and Ross were living above the town’s finest take-away. The last thing they needed was a houseguest, gorgeous or otherwise. And he had been that. This move was supposed to be about them gaining some private time, not taking in waifs and strays.
Kit! She huffed out a sigh. She wasn’t even sure she recalled Ross ever mentioning him. She’d met most of his mates. This one had to be from eons back.
There was a rap on the door. Evie sat up, a pillow clamped to her chest. “Yeah,” she called.
Kit poked his head around the jamb. “Tea, coffee, foot massage,” he offered. He was still showing far too much skin. Judging by the way he leaned around the door, he probably only had on a pair of shorts.
“Get real.”
He shrugged. “Just trying to apologize, and drinks is what I do best.”
Her gaze flicked down over the perfectly buffed skin of his chest as he leaned a little farther around the door. Ross was sexy, but compact and rugged, more Sean Bean than GQ model. This guy was rangy and moulded, with lighter skin and a tattoo on his hip that just poked above the line of his shorts. His knees looked as if they’d seen a few scrapes. The skin upon them was silvered and ruddy.
Kit continued to stare at her expectantly from beneath his cloud of coal-dark hair.
He had to have some Asian or Romany ancestry. Had to. No one had hair that dark naturally without it, and of course there were his eyes to consider—equally dark, two pools of glowing temptation focused entirely upon her.
The first stirring prickle of arousal chased across her skin. Evie clutched the pillow a little more tightly. “Just put some clothes on, all right.”
He seemed a little startled by her concern over his near-nakedness. “Okay.” He dug his teeth into his bottom lip.
Really, there was only so much temptation one could accept in a houseguest and still permit him to stay. She sank back against the duvet once he closed the door. Kit was one hell of a package of smut. Not the sort of man boyfriends generally invited over to stay. Give it a few days and she’d probably have all her girlfriends driving over to check him out.
A little while later, back downstairs, Evie flicked on the TV and settled in front of the road traffic update. Another lorry had blown over on the A1 resulting in a twenty-mile stretch of it being closed. Ross called again to say he was stuck in the resulting tailbacks.
Kit cast a shadow over the sofa.
Evie glanced up at him. He’d finally dressed, although, actually that didn’t stop her insides doing a little hop. She sat a little straighter and lifted her feet off the sofa. My God, was he dressed. She dusted the Kettle Chip crumbs from her dressing gown and refrained from putting another into her mouth. Leather trousers hugged his thighs and fell in tailored perfection to rest on leather boots, while a green silk shirt flowed over the contours of his chest, the top three buttons left undone. “Are you going out?”
Kit gave an eloquent shrug. “Figured I’d do some catching up. There are plenty of folks still around that I used to know.”
Evie nodded. She kept looking him up and down as if she couldn’t quite decide if he were real. “You do know there’s only the pub in the village, right? No clubs or restaurants or anything. It’s all a bit downbeat and homely really.”
He shrugged again, a move that pulled the silk taut across his broad shoulders. “Sure. I know that.”
“Oh!”
He cocked an eyebrow as if the remark required further qualifying.
