Modern Romance March 2015 Collection 2. Jane Porter

      She had made sure to keep that to herself. She knew, from listening to her friends, that they would all have read the writing on the wall and would have known that his only half-hearted attempts at touching her, and her cheerful acceptance of that situation, did not augur a healthy relationship. They had all been born and raised in London and they were streetwise in ways she couldn’t hope to be.

      She fell asleep to images of a dark, swarthy, sexy face. He wasn’t replacement therapy, but he was a distraction, and maybe that was exactly what she needed right now: a harmless distraction.

      The following morning it was snowing when she awoke. She hadn’t drawn the curtains and from the bed she could look straight across to ceiling panes of glass to the winter wonderland outside. She itched to put on her skis and get out there.

      Before she did anything, she telephoned her grandmother to tell her that she arrived safe and sound but that the family in question had had a slight change of plan, after which she managed to avoid directly lying about her new circumstances, about sharing the lodge with a stranger. Then she texted her friends, brief texts telling them that she’d arrived. No more.

      Once changed, she went downstairs and after prowling through the lodge finally located Lucas in a big, airy room behind a desk. She came to a halt outside the door and looked at him. There were papers spread around him and he was peering at a thin laptop computer, frowning.

      ‘You’re going to express concern that I’m sitting here without due respect for the owner, aren’t you?’ he said, without looking away from the computer.

      He had had time to question his motives in offering her the use of his ski lodge. She was a young girl recovering from a broken relationship. In short, she was vulnerable and vulnerable, along with married, was something he didn’t do.

      Was he so jaded that he was prepared to try and take something simply because it made a change? And was a change as good as a rest? Yes, she was refreshing, as was the fact that she had no idea who he was or what he was worth, but was that any reason for him to amuse himself with her?

      In any equation where ‘vulnerable’ appeared, hurt was always its companion.

      He was immune but she wouldn’t be. He knew what it was like to have complete control over the outcome of his emotional life, whilst she clearly didn’t.

      And yet...he couldn’t escape the tempting notion that it would be utterly relaxing to spend a couple of days in her company. He could look without touching. It was called restraint and, whilst it was something he had never had any need to practise, it should be something that he could manage.

      He needed to take time out from the combined stresses of his mother, who would not let up on reminding him that he needed to settle down, and an ex-girlfriend who was still texting him in a way that was heading dangerously into stalker land. The fact that she knew his mother, albeit remotely, had foolishly led her to believe that their fling was more significant than what he’d had in mind.

      He needed to take time out from being Lucas Romero. It was an elevated position he had occupied for his entire life. He had been born and bred to manage the family fortune and to add to it. He had never known what it felt like to be a normal person, with normal concerns. Wariness, suspicion, caution: those were the bywords in a life that was as wealthy and as powerful as his was.

      ‘How did you know?’ Overnight, Milly had wondered whether exhaustion and a build-up of stress were responsible for her exaggerating Lucas’s overwhelming physical impact.

      Not a bit of it. He was sprawled in front of his computer in all his devastatingly good-looking glory.

      His near-black hair was swept back, accentuating the hard, chiselled lines of his face, and he was wearing a pale blue short-sleeved polo shirt that exposed the rippling, muscled strength of his arms and a glimpse of bronzed collarbone that made her mouth suddenly go dry.

      ‘Because I’m getting the impression that you have a highly developed sense of guilt.’ He stood up, dark eyes fixed on her face.

      She was in a pair of jogging bottoms and a black base-layer long-sleeved T-shirt that clung to every curve of her small, sexy little body. It was just as well Ramos was not around. His wife would have spent the entire time trying to peel his eyes back into their sockets. The man was a notorious womaniser.

      ‘What are you doing?’

      Lucas logged off and leaned back, hands folded behind his head. ‘Work.’

      ‘Oh.’ Milly looked at him, confused.

      ‘A man has to get by.’

      ‘What work?’ Then her face cleared and she smiled. ‘Oh, I remember. This and that. You didn’t specify. How long have you been up?’ It wasn’t yet nine and he looked bright eyed and bushy tailed.

      ‘I’m usually up by six.’

      ‘Wow. Are you? Why?’ Fascinated, she watched as he strolled towards her, pausing to stand directly in front of her so that she had to look up to him.

      ‘What do you mean why?’ Lucas asked, amused and puzzled.

      ‘Why would you get up so early if you don’t have to?’ She felt breathless and exposed. ‘I stay in bed as long as I can,’ she confessed. ‘Admittedly, my hours at the Rainbow Hotel are pretty long. Were pretty long. I’m out of a job now.’

      She followed him towards the kitchen, chewing her lip, thinking about having to apply for more jobs as soon as she returned to London. How was she going to afford the rent on the flat? Emily would have disappeared off to her shiny new life that left her without a flatmate and with a disgruntled landlord. He might give her a little bit of leeway, if she explained the circumstances to him, but he wasn’t a Good Samaritan and unless she found the rent money fast she would be out on her ear with nowhere to live.

      ‘I like to be awake for as much of the day as possible,’ Lucas murmured. Lie-ins were unheard of. Even if there was a woman in bed with him, he found it impossible to waste his time next to her, unless they were making love.

      Sex got him into bed and kept him there. Sleep was something essential he had to grab. But, for him, those were the two main functions of a bed.

      The kitchen was as they had left it. Milly stared around her, dismayed.

      ‘You were up at six, made yourself a cup of coffee and yet you couldn’t be bothered to tidy up?’

      Lucas surveyed the kitchen as though seeing it for the first time. ‘What’s wrong with it?’

      ‘Everything. The dishes need putting away...the counters need wiping...the milk’s been left out...’

      Lucas shrugged and looked at her with his head tilted to one side. ‘I fail to see the point of tidying away anything that’s going to make an appearance later on in the day. Same goes for the kitchen counters. Why wipe them? Unless you’re planning on having a food-free day?’

      ‘How can you be so blasé about someone else’s property? You should respect the things that don’t belong to you.’

      ‘You’re cute when you’re being self-righteous,’ he murmured and Milly stood stock still and folded her arms.

      ‘You might think you’re the hottest guy on the planet,’ she said on an indrawn breath, ‘and you might be bored because your job here with the Ramos family fell through, but that doesn’t give you the right to flirt with me just because I happen to be around.’

      ‘Who’s flirting?’ He surveyed her lazily. ‘Simple statement of fact.’

      ‘And I won’t be running around cleaning up behind you like a maid either. I realise I’m being paid by Mr Ramos, who’s been more than generous, all things considered—and I know that that’s thanks to you—but I’m going to use my time here to really relax and try and forget about what I’ve been through. I don’t want to feel as though I’ve got to be on full alert every time you’re around.’

      ‘I’m