“Please don’t go on.”
This time I laugh.
“With the kids in the house, I’ve had to adapt, so I wear a pair of trousers, but I can’t wear underwear. I feel… restricted, that is.”
“Interesting. Very interesting.”
I look at him sideways, but he doesn’t flinch, on the contrary.
“I wonder how he sleeps…”
“I don’t want to know, for God’s sake!”
All we need now is that other thought!
“Would you prefer it to be a surprise?”
“I prefer you to be silent.”
“Whatever.” Ross raises both hands. “Not a word more will come out of me, but I expect a lot more will come out of you tomorrow when you tell me in great detail about your first night with our sexy lawyer.”
WHEN I RETURN home at two in the morning, I find only Mr Yang in the living room, who must have fallen asleep in the armchair. As I approach to wake him, his quiet, unassuming presence makes the hairs on my arms stand up.
I turn to face him. He is still wearing this morning’s clothes, but no jacket and no tie. The first buttons of his shirt are gone, as are his sleeves, which are now rolled up to his elbows. His glasses on his nose, his hair less groomed than usual. His broad shoulders fill the frame of the living room door.
I suppose this is Rowan’s version of relaxed and cosy.
God, if you’re there, smack me on the head, because I don’t think I can stand this new version of Rowan in my house, so close, so damn sexy, and so within my reach.
“Hey,” I greet him, nervous as hell. “You’re… a-awake.”
“I’ve been waiting for you.”
I can’t believe he’s been waiting for me.
Don’t get excited, Seth, for God’s sake!
At least not yet.
“You didn’t have to do that.”
“I had to work on a case.”
“Oh…” The stupid disappointment immediately creeps into my voice.
Did I hear the church bells too soon?
“Work. Sure.”
“He didn’t want to leave the kids alone with me,” he informs me, alluding to Mr Yang.
“I suspected that.”
“I think he’s keeping an eye on me.”
“Typical Mr Yang. He does it every time…” I’m about to say ‘every time he sees me with a man’, but I swallow my words. He is not a man I am dating or sleeping with. He is my fake partner.
“It’s good for the kids,” Rowan says.
