HER ONE AND ONLY VALENTINE - (10 page)

Rhiannon took a long time to answer him. 'Maybe.'

His fingers brushed against hers as he took the mug from her, the touch brief but the sensation of it lingering on his skin even as she withdrew her hand and turned away, taking her own mug with her.

Wrapping his hand tighter round the warm mug, he studied its contents for a second, before his gaze rose and he saw her curl her fingertips into the palm of her hand as she walked away.

At the doorway she looked over her shoulder, taking another breath before she spoke. 'If the fire is lit then maybe we could all watch TV for a while before Lizzie goes to bed.'

It would be the first evening they all spent together and they both knew it. And, even with his fingers still tingling against the edge of the mug, something he would have added to his long list of things to resent only a few hours ago, Kane was nodding in agreement.

This had been
his
idea after all, hadn't it?

Rhiannon felt brighter after a few nights' uninterrupted sleep. And the fact that the stormy weather had subdued enough to let the winter sunshine flood through Brookfield's many windows lifted her spirits.

She still wasn't entirely comfortable with spending so much time in Kane's company, even with Lizzie there to act as a catalyst between them. But at least they weren't arguing. And that had to be a good thing. Kane was right; it would be better if they parented with better communication. She couldn't argue that.

It had been his use of words like 'we' and 'us' and 'together' that she'd had the most difficulty swallowing. Those words hinted at a bond between them that just wasn't there.

And yet, reluctantly, she knew it was. Lizzie was a bond that held them together whether Rhiannon liked it or not. At least now she didn't feel like so much of an outsider any more.

So, in the spirit of
entente cordiale,
she made two cups of coffee and then, with a deep breath, she made her way up to Kane's territory. She did, however, have a moment of indecisiveness before she knocked lightly on the half open door.

'.. .and then e-mail them to me.'

He glanced up, his mobile held to his ear, brows rising in question while she hovered in the doorway. Then his gaze dropped and he caught sight of the mugs in her hand ushering her in with a wave of his large hand.

'Yeah, that's fine. But I want Colm to look at the new graphics first; he knows the issues I had with the last lot.'

He leaned forward in his chair and reached for the one Lizzie normally sat in beside him, turning it round to face Rhiannon and inviting her to sit down with another wave of his hand.

But Rhiannon shook her head. She hadn't meant to interrupt him, or to sit down and actually drink the coffee with him. All she'd intended was to leave him the cup she'd made before she went down to look for the laundry there was bound to be in Lizzie's room.

When she went to set the mug on the desk beside him, he tucked the phone between his ear and his shoulder and took it from her hand, his other hand closing around her wrist, tugging her towards the chair.

He could even be bossy silently.

'Absolutely not, that packaging sucked. The whole idea is to have it look like a more expensive game, even when it's not.' He pursed his lips slightly when she resisted his direction and tugged on her wrist again.

So, with a roll of her eyes, Rhiannon complied, sinking down into the chair with a sigh. She could spare him five minutes,
she supposed.

'Not before I see it.'

Blue eyes glowed warmly at her, no doubt another indication that he knew he had 'won' yet again, even on something so simple. But rather than scowl at him, she rested her weight on her toes and rocked the chair around to look at the screens behind her—one filled with images of an animated forest and another with lines of code that may as well have been Swahili to her.

'Yes—' she could hear the smile in his deep voice '—I did ring them.'

His low rumble of laughter drew her gaze back to his face as he rocked his own chair back and forth. 'Well, it must have been another query. No, you just never believe me when I say I did unless
you
put the call through.'

He laughed again. And, by straining her ears a little, Rhiannon heard the tail-end of the voice on the other end of the phone—a female voice. Well, that explained why he was in such a good mood.

'Okay, then, the next time they ring you can check and when they tell you I
did
reply you can call me back to grovel.' He grinned at whatever reply his female friend made. 'No, but you should. Okay. That'll do.'

He withdrew the phone from his ear, flipping the cover back into place with one long forefinger while he reached for his mug with the other hand. 'Thanks.'

'I was making one anyway.' She didn't want him making it into a bigger deal than it was. 'I didn't mean to interrupt. It can't be easy running your business from so far away.'

'It's all right, Sara keeps me informed; it's her job to keep me in line.'

Rhiannon had to force an expression of disinterest on to her face. It was none of her concern what woman kept Kane 'in line' these days, though it would be interesting to meet the woman who could manage it...

As if he had read her thoughts, Kane added, 'She's been my PA for three years.'

Rhiannon nodded, avoiding his knowing look by focusing instead on the images that were moving on the screen—the trees giving way to an open valley where tiny men were working, building houses and chopping trees. 'Is this a new one?'

'Nah.' He set his mug down, tossed his phone beside it and then leaned past her to click on the mouse, moving the image out so that she could see there was a world beyond the busy

valley. 'It's an updated version of one of our best-sellers. Having some peace and quiet here has let me tweak it some.'

'Then I'd better let you—'

But he had his other arm across the back of her chair and used it to stop her from leaving. 'Have a go. I'll take you back to the set-up menu.'

'I don't know how to play computer games.'

'Well, considering how much Lizzie loves them, maybe you should learn.'

Nursing her mug between both hands on her lap, Rhiannon tried hard not to be so aware of how close he was sitting to her, his body creating a frame for her smaller one in the chair. Instead she focused on his profile as he concentrated on the screen, on the way his eyes moved back and forth, making sense of everything in front of him as easily as he breathed in and out.

Her gaze swept upwards, to the short gleaming strands of dark hair touching his forehead, one strand sitting in a different direction to the rest, as if he had run his fingers through it at some point.

And her fingertips itched against the mug, begging that she reach up and smooth it back into place.

Rhiannon frowned in annoyance—annoyance that she knew came through in the tone of her voice. 'I'm the kiss of death to anything electronic.'

She watched the slow smile form on his lips, his voice low. 'Yes, I remember.'

He glanced at her from the corner of his eye and out of nowhere Rhiannon found herself smiling in response to the sparkle of amusement in the blue depths. 'Well, if you remember then you'll hardly want me killing this one. Whatever you design these days is worth a hell of a lot more than anything I killed back then.'

'Yes, but anything I design these days is more user-friendly and better protected. If you manage to kill it, then I've not done my job right.'

He focused his gaze back on the screen while Rhiannon felt her breath catch in her chest at the memories that rushed uninvited into the front of her mind—as they had the day she had walked in and found him playing games with Lizzie. Maybe even stronger because it was just the two of them. She remembered the last day she'd 'killed' one of his creations...

He had stared in amazement that day, his mouth gaping, while the now outdated graphics had got tangled up with lines of code and Rhiannon had laughed her way through her apology. Until he had pulled her away from the screen and coaxed more laughter from her as he'd tickled his revenge from her ribs, the laughter eventually fading as Rhiannon found a way to 'make it up to him'.

She lifted her mug to her lips and swallowed a large mouthful of coffee to dampen her dry mouth, hiding her thoughts behind the rim.

'Right.' The arm that had been on the back of her chair snaked forwards while he forced his chair closer to hers so he could reach the keyboard. 'The idea is that you're the ruler of a new kingdom—you're shipwrecked—and you have to build an entire civilization from scratch using the resources you have at hand.'

His long fingers tapped at the keys. And beside him Rhiannon tried to focus on what he was doing, rather than the fact that his knees were now pressed in against the side of her leg or the fact that somewhere in her clouded mind she'd recognized he wasn't wearing the aftershave he normally did. He just smelled of soap, and shampoo, and that purely male undertone that was all him. And the simplicity of it reached out to the very core of her femininity, where it tugged, hard, until a dull ache formed.

How in hell could she still be physically attracted to him when she had spent a decade of her life hating his guts?

She glanced at the screen as he typed in a user name. 'Is that the game name you're giving me?'

'It's
your
name.' He glanced at her with an amused glint in the depths of his eyes.

Hell. If she was going to play the silly thing she may as well enter into the spirit of it. Anything other than being so very aware of him or running screaming from the room—the latter of which was hard to resist...

'Well, if I'm the
ruler
of this kingdom I think I'd be called something more interesting, don't you?'

'There's nothing wrong with Rhiannon.'

'I doubt you really think that deep down,' she mumbled as she set her mug down, nudging her chair forwards, her voice louder. 'I'll pick my own name.'

The wheels on his chair creaked as he moved back. 'Okay. Just follow the instructions on the screen.' Turning back to his own screen, he grumbled in a vaguely amused tone, 'And try not to kill it.'

It took a while for her to ignore the fact that he was still beside her, or at least be less aware of it as he worked in silence, but eventually the game demanded her attention and after half an hour she chuckled in amusement.

Kane turned towards her. 'What?'

Rhiannon shook her head while her fingertips directed another set of characters across the screen. 'Now I get why kids end up in front of these things for hours on end.'

When she glanced sideways at him he smiled in response. 'Addictive isn't it?'

'It's clever is what it is. There's something vaguely omnipotent, having control over all these little lives.'

'I could argue that the game also teaches you about trade and commerce, how to delegate, the importance of all forms of a society working together for the greater good of the whole...'

Rhiannon leaned back in her chair and eyed him with a combination of open curiosity and silent amusement.

Until eventually Kane shook his head. 'What's that look for?'

'All of your games are for educational purposes, are they?'

His chin dropped an inch as he smiled again, his gaze darting away from hers to the screen and then back into her eyes.
'No-o,
I wouldn't say that.'

'Hmm, 'cos I'd guess they'd be a harder sell to the kids if they were solely for educational purposes.'

'They probably would. But that doesn't mean every game doesn't teach something—even if it's just better computer skills or mouse dexterity.' He fixed her with an intense gaze, but not in challenge, in more of a sincere faith in what he did type of way. 'Computers are a part of everyone's lives these days, not like it was in the days when you knew me before and I was considered a geek for being as interested as I was. So it makes sense that some of the kids' leisure pursuits should have a grain of computer education in there somewhere. It makes it easier for them to prepare for the bigger stuff when they start their working lives.'

Deep down he was an idealist? Rhiannon wasn't overly surprised by that, even though it was at odds with the opinion she'd held of him for so long. But with every passing day she had to face up to the fact that her perceptions of him may have clouded her judgement.

The truth was she maybe didn't want him to be the things she'd liked then, because she didn't want to like him the way she had before. Even if liking him would make it easier to get along with him, which would in turn make it easier for them to make any parenting decisions—
together.

And there was that word
together
again.

She searched her mind for something to say, dragging her gaze from the intensity of his blue eyes and her focus fell on the screen again, where her little kingdom was rapidly growing.

'Well, I'm glad Lizzie has you around to help her with this; it was always beyond me—still is, to a certain extent. She's already flourishing under your influence. She got a glowing report for her maths test.'