She gave him a sweetly insincere smile. ‘Not very pleasant, is it?’
Hellish more aptly described it!
But he was trying—he really was!—not to have another argument with her this morning.
Luccy didn’t look as if she had got much sleep after they had parted last night, but neither had Sin as he had tossed and turned restlessly in his bed, the memory of their last bitter argument refusing to go away. Sin had resolved that he would not argue with Luccy again this morning.
He wasn’t doing too well so far.
‘I’ll go then.’ He stood up abruptly.
She looked away. ‘Goodbye.’
‘Luccy—’
‘Sin.’ She turned back and met his gaze challengingly.
Sin fought an inner battle with his frustrated anger. ‘This isn’t helping at all, you know,’ he finally bit out tautly.
She arched dark brows over those haunted blue eyes. ‘I think, after last night, that any sort of friendship between the two of us, even on a superficial level, is out of the question, don’t you?’
‘You really don’t want to know what I’m thinking right now!’
‘Oh, I think I could take a good guess,’ she jeered coolly.
Half of Sin wanted to throttle her for her coolness towards him this morning—and the other half of him wanted to pick her up and carry her back to her bed. At least when they made love they didn’t argue! Well…not until afterwards, at least…
‘Somehow I doubt that—’
‘Oh, thank you so much, Wallace,’ Luccy cut warmly across Sin’s barely controlled anger. She turned to smile at the elderly butler as he came out onto the terrace with her tea and toast, leaving Sin to stand impotently by while Wallace poured her tea for her. ‘Mmm, that’s good.’ She sighed after taking her first sip, a little colour returning to her cheeks.
Wallace looked pleased. ‘Master Sin kindly has my favourite brand imported from England once a month.’
‘Really?’ Luccy came back non-committally—telling Sin that if Wallace had been trying to do a little PR work on Sin’s behalf, then he might as well have saved his breath; Luccy was certainly not impressed by Sin’s thoughtfulness towards the elderly butler!
‘I’d better go,’ Sin bit out tersely.
‘Before you go, Master Sin…’ Wallace turned to speak to him. ‘The reason I was so long getting the tea was because Mrs Claudia telephoned…’
Luccy’s attention was caught and held as a silent exchange seemed to take place between the two men, alerting her curiosity as to exactly who Mrs Claudia was. A girlfriend of Sin’s, perhaps?
Why not? After all, Sin was a very attractive and eligible bachelor; it would be ridiculous to imagine there hadn’t been a woman—or even women—in his life in the two months since they had last seen each other.
Even if the very thought of Sin intimately involved with another woman made Luccy’s stomach churn anew!
She hadn’t quite known what to expect from him this morning, or quite how to act towards him either, and the brief conversation they’d had certainly hadn’t helped to ease her tension. Being witness to a conversation between Sin and Wallace, possibly concerning the latest women in Sin’s life, certainly wasn’t going to help.
‘Perhaps I’ll go for a brief walk in the garden and leave you two men to talk—’
‘That won’t be necessary, Luccy,’ Sin rasped, his expression one of irritation. ‘In fact, it might be better if you were to stay.’ He turned to the elderly butler. ‘What did she want, Wallace?’
‘Sin, I really think—’
‘Don’t,’ he advised impatiently. ‘Mrs Claudia is my mother,’ he added as Luccy frowned.
His mother? That had been the very last explanation Luccy had been expecting!
Not that Sin had to explain himself to her. Far from it. Just as she didn’t owe him any explanations, either.
‘Wallace?’ he prompted.
The older man nodded. ‘Well, as you know, it’s your birthday at the weekend—’
‘I’ll be thirty-six,’ Sin told Luccy dryly as she gave him a questioning look. ‘My mother isn’t intending to “surprise” me with a visit, is she, Wallace?’ he asked.
That was the last thing Sin needed. The very last thing, in the present circumstances. Luccy was as determined to leave as he was to make her stay, without his mother adding to the confusion!
‘Not that I know of,’ Wallace answered cautiously.
Too cautiously as far as Sin was concerned. ‘So what did she want, Wallace?’
Wallace looked pained. ‘She was enquiring as to whether you would be here or in the city for your birthday on Saturday, in order that she might have your card and gift delivered to the appropriate address.’
‘And?’ There was more, Sin was sure of it.
‘And I explained to her that as you have a guest staying here with you at the moment, I believed—’
‘Wallace!’ Sin groaned before dropping wearily back down into the chair he had recently vacated.
‘What is it?’ Luccy asked as she looked from one man to the other, Wallace looking almost guilty, Sin sitting with his gaze raised to the heavens. ‘Surely it’s only natural for your mother to want to send you a card and gift for your birthday?’
Although Luccy could honestly say she wasn’t sure what she was supposed to do about the event. Not that she still intended being here on Saturday, but even so…
How did one treat the birthday of one’s baby’s father? Somehow Luccy doubted there was a book of etiquette on the subject!
‘It’s natural for my mother to want to send a card and gift,’ Sin answered her tetchily. ‘What isn’t natural—or, indeed, normal—is for me to have a guest staying here with me. I don’t bring people here, Luccy. Any people. Any entertaining I do, business or otherwise, I do in the city,’ he elaborated as Luccy obviously still looked puzzled.
‘I see,’ Luccy answered slowly.
And she did. Sin had told her yesterday, when she had questioned the bathing costume in the changing-room, that he didn’t bring women here. He had obviously been telling the truth if his irritation and Wallace’s look of apology were anything to go by.
Although she couldn’t help wondering what Wallace had made of the fact that Sin had brought her here yesterday…