(2012) Evie Undercover (4 page)

             
He
threw back his head and laughed. ‘I deserve
d
that. All I can say is, I hope you don’t feel about beetles as you do about scorpions or we’re going to have a difficult few days ahead.’ Still laughing, he fell back against the pillow.

             
Evie started to laugh with him, and they turned at the same moment to look at each other across the pillows.

             
‘Well, then, Evie,’ he said, his laughter dying away. ‘What comes next?’

             
‘Nothing comes next,’ she said quickly. Even she would baulk at flinging herself on top of her employer’s muscular body and d
emanding immediate action. No,
although
Plan A had worked – he was where she’d wanted him to be
–
he didn’t look likely to start spilling the bea
ns, and
she
was clearly going to
need a Plan B after all. Maybe something involving
hot sun
and plenty of wine
. When he wasn’t
as
physically close to her, she’d be able to think more clearly.

             
‘Then I’ll be a gentleman and get up first, shall I?’

Without waiting for an answer, he swung his legs over the side of the bed, reached for his robe and put it on. He stood up and
mad
e his way across the room to the door. When he reached
it
, he started to turn the handle, then
he paused and
glanced back at her.

‘I’ll see you on the terrace
in half an hour
for breakfast. After that, I think we
ought to
buy something to deal with any insects that might threaten our future comfort,
don’t you?
’ he said cheerfully, and he opened the door and went out.

‘Holy cow
.
’
S
he groaned inwardly as she heard hi
m close his
door behind him. ‘What
does
come next?’

Chapter Three

Their first
morning
in Umbria

Perhaps it hadn’t been such a brilliant idea to wear her grey trouser suit, she thought,
com
ing out
from the
hotel into the bright morning sun
. I
t was amazingly
warm
for the beginning of June. She wriggled uncomfortably in her jacket, pushed her glasses more firmly on to the bridge of her nose and looked around
the terrace
, but there was no sign of Tom.

She hesitated a moment, then
mad
e her way towards one of the small iron tables
next to the
balustrade that ran round
the edge of the terrace. The jacket would have to go
, she decided, and
she
started to unbutton it as she walked. I
t was going to be much too hot to be all starchy and formal. She slipped
it
off as she sat down. And it was much too hot for glasses she didn’t need. She took off her glasses, put them in the centre of the table and reached up to adjust the tortoiseshell barrette that held her hair back from her face.

God knows what he
w
as going to
say when he turned up for breakfast, which would be at any minute –
it
must
have
surely
been a
first
for him
that
an almost naked woman practically forc
ed
him into her be
d
.
Looking back on the night before, she wondered how she’d had
the nerve. She groaned aloud
. S
he couldn’t even bear to think about it in the light of day.

Yes, he’d seemed OK about everything when he’d woken up that morning – in fact he’d seemed almost amused by what had happened
–
but that was then and this was now, and by now he’d have had time to
think about it some more
. Instead of going one step forward after their night
together
between the
sheets,
they might have
just
gone two steps back.

But she wasn’t g
oing to panic; no, she wasn’t. S
he’d deal with the fallout when it fell out and not before. Hopefully
,
her formal get-up that morning, softened by a slightly
more
relaxed hairstyle, would strike the right note and things wouldn’t be too embarrassing between them.

Anyway, s
he wasn’t going to give him another thought.

Taking a deep breath of lavender-scented air, she turned to stare at the slopes that swept away from the terrace towards distant hills that were
a
rich green and
purple
in colour. On top of one of the hills, a small town sh
one
brightly in the clear light.

She wondered whether she should still call him Tom.

‘It’s a lovely view, isn’t it?’

The sou
nd of his voice made her jump. She glanced at him a
s he
sat down opposite her. H
e nodded towards the distant town. ‘That’s Todi. You can also see it from my house. Obviously, it’s a different outlook, but the view from the house is stunning, too. The scenery around here is one of the reasons why I fell in love with the
area
.’

‘It certainly is beautiful,
Mr
Hadleigh.’

‘I thought we’d agreed on Tom for the week. But if you’d prefer to be more formal …’
His voice t
r
ailed off and he gave a slight shrug.

She shook her head.
‘I don’t do formal if I don’t have to.’

‘I’d r
ather guessed that,’ he said dry
ly. ‘Ah, here’s the waiter with the coffee.’

What on earth d
id
a girl talk to her boss about after a night like the one they’d just had
?
S
he
bit her lip
anxi
ously
as she
watched
the waiter fill their cups. Handy Hints for Investigative Journalists
didn’t
exactly
cover
t
hat situation. S
he was going to
have to
wait
unti
l
he
start
ed
a
conversation
and then
take the lead from him.

‘The system is to
help ourselves from the buffet,’ he said, standing up. ‘T
he
re’s
always
a selection of
cold
cuts and cakes.
Come on
,
let’s go
.
I’m starving.’ And he moved off in the direction of a table at the far side of the terrace. She quickly got up and followed him.

‘The main thing,’ he began when they
’d returned
to
their table
having
help
ed
themselves to slices
of the cheeses and cold meats, ‘
is
to make sure that the house stays in perfect harmony with its surroundings. Every piece of furniture has to be in keeping with the age of the property and
its
environment.’ He paused in the middle of cutting a piece of
prosciutto
and looked
across
at her. ‘And that’s where you come in, Evie. I need an exact translation of everything I tell the surveyor, or perhaps I should say
geometra,
since
we’re in Italy. T
here must be no mistakes.’

‘I’ll do my best,
Mr
Hadleigh
…
Tom.’ She gave him a bright, confident smile. This was safe ground.

‘I’m sure you will. Now, I think I’ll go and get some cake. Can I get you something, too?’ He
stood
up, pushing back his chair.

‘No, thanks. I’ve had as much as I want.’

‘I didn’t think I’d ever get used to breakfasts like this, but I have and I like them. If you catch the waiter’s eye, you could get us some more coffee
. A
nd obviously whatever you want for yourself
–
I hope that goes without saying.’
He gave her a quick smile and began to
move off
in the direction of the buffet.

Her eyes followed him
as he
wound his way between the tables
.

It was a mega relief that
he’d put the night’s events totally behind them and was focused solely on the day ahead. He didn’t seem at all mad at her, and they were still Tom and Evie. So far, so good.
Plan A might not have resulted in the hoped-for pillow talk but it had still been a step in the right direction
. N
ow all she had to do was learn as much about the contents of his life as she was going to learn about the contents of his house
,
ideally keeping
all of her clothes on this time
, and her editor would be one happy man
.

She
wasn’t sure that she’d be
one
happy woman, b
ut
she wasn’t going to
go down that path
. S
he’d no choice
but
to do
what she’d been told to do
, a
nd that
meant
that
she had
to come up with
some
ideas
.
That had got to be her focus, and not
hing else.

A
noth
er shot of caffeine was a must.

‘
Un altro caffè
,’ she called to the waiter. ‘
Per noi due
.’

While she w
ait
ed
for
t
he
i
r coffee to arrive and for mind-blowing inspiration to fill her head,
not necessarily in that order, s
he i
dly glanc
ed
across at Tom
. He’d just
ben
t
over the breakfast bar
and
was
reach
ing
fo
r a plate. His forearm gleamed
in the rays of the morning sun
. Her eyes
dropped
to
the
stone-coloured chinos
fitt
ing
smoothly over his buttocks. He could win rear of the year, she thought, and leaned slightly forward.

A dark shape stepped in front of her
,
and
cut
off her line of vision.
Damn
!

She looked up and saw the waiter standing in front of her, coffee pot in hand.
Impatiently she waited for him to fill
their cups and move on,
but by the time
he
’d done
so,
Tom was
already
on his way back to the table.

‘So, Evie,’ he said in an easy, conversational tone as he sat down and started to cut up his cake, ‘apart from something to deal with scorpions, and possibly even beetles
–
we’ve yet to establish your thoughts about beetles
–
is there anything else we need to
buy
in order to ensure that we sleep in our own beds tonight?’

Bloody
hell
—
T
he events of
the
night weren’t totally behind them
after all
.

‘About yesterday evening,’ she began, twisting her features into an expression of tortured regret. ‘I’m
truly
sorry about everything.
I don’t know what came over me,
but whatever it was, it won’t happen again. I’ve always been terrified of scorpions.’ She put her hand across her heart and leaned forward, sincerity shining from her eyes. At least she hoped it was. ‘I should have thought ahead and brought some spray with me. It wa
s
unforgivable of me to put you in such a difficult position.’