Minding Amy (12 page)

He nodded, thoughtfully. "What really made you want to go into the same line of work as your father?"

She had to give it some thought. "Admiration for what he'd achieved, I suppose. When I was a little girl he always seemed to be traveling and having adventures."

She noticed that made him smile.

"You've certainly got an adventurous spirit, I'll warrant you that." He glanced over her, his expression smoldering.

Amy felt something warm and receptive flaring inside of her. He had that sort of immediate affect on her. "Now, why do I get the feeling that every so often you are going to remind me of our first meeting?"

He grinned. "Because it was great."

"It was?"

"Oh yeah. Many a man dreams of having a sexy woman fall into his lap and start talking as if she's known him forever."

"Well, when you put it like that, I can see your point." Amy shook her head, laughing. "It was kind of funny wasn't it?"

"And it led on to even better things."

She stood up, doing so because she wanted to make contact with him. As she stepped over to him he put his arm around her back. She rested her hands up against his chest, enjoying the embrace, then pressed her hips against his. "Do I have to put up with you minding me when we're back in London?"

His eyes twinkled. "I'm afraid so. That's the rules, take it or leave it."

"I guess I'm going to have to take it." She tipped her head back, and as he move to kiss her, she could see he was every bit as happy about the arrangement as she was.

* * * *

The car spluttered to a halt. Sebastian pulled on the brake and switched the engine off. "I suggest we abandon the car and you allow me to deliver it back to the car pool, tomorrow."

"Okay," Amy replied. She looked out of the window at the unfamiliar London street with its pretty Victorian street lamps and terraced houses. "But where are we now? Is it far to the nearest tube station?"

"About five minutes walk, thataway." He pointed ahead. "However, this house here is Chez Armitage." He indicated the terrace property to his right.

"Oh." She broke into a smile. The man had ulterior motives and she liked them. "I see. So, are you going to ask a girl in for a drink?"

"That was the idea."

"Marvelous, I'd be delighted."

"I'm not being entirely altruistic, believe me. If you come inside it will give me some more time with you, alone."

He was full of surprises. All of them very nice, and Amy was certainly in no rush to get home to her little studio flat. She followed him from the car up the path to the house. The small front garden housed a pretty rockery.

"Self sufficient," he said, when he caught her looking over at it. "I like plants like that."

She nodded, wondering how self-sufficient he was. It wasn't the sort of house she expected him to live in, but then what did she expect? She wasn't quite sure, and her curiosity was now well and truly piqued.

No sooner had he opened the door—a dark oak affair with stained-glass panels—than a loud banging sound emitted from somewhere inside the house.

"Cat door," he explained.

Before he'd even stepped into the house, a pretty tortoiseshell cat appeared at the end of the hallway. It ran to him, meowing at the top of its lungs in the most bitter, complaining tone. Sebastian dropped down to pick it up.

"Hey noisy girl, did you miss me?"

She certainly looked as if she had. And who could blame her, Amy mused, her eyes roving over Sebastian while he fussed the cat. The noisy feline was busy rubbing her head against the stubble on his chin, purring extremely loudly and still giving out the occasional complaining meow.

Sebastian gave Amy an apologetic smile.

"She's gorgeous. Does she mind sharing your company with other women?"

"Well, we'll have to wait and see." He looked quite serious. "She hates Mrs. Arkwright, the neighbor who feeds her while I am away. Don't you, you little fusspot?" He put the cat down and she started to lead him into the house, glancing back to ensure he followed. "She won't even touch any of the food she puts down until the poor woman's left the building." He laughed, but Amy felt as if gaining the cat's approval was her new task for the day.

"Come in, come in," he ushered, directing her into a sitting room that overlooked the front garden. He darted in and shifted a pile of newspapers of a chair. "Make yourself at home, I'll feed Lydia." And with that, he disappeared.

Lydia, she gathered, was the cat.

She looked around. It was a large, comfortable and obviously male space, but with friendly female touches Amy's survey couldn't miss. A long leather sofa was augmented by a carved rocking chair, decorated with an embroidered Indian cushion. A display of dried wild flowers in a tall pottery vase, together with staggered oriental prints, broke up the uniform white walls. An impressive array of stereo equipment filled a good third of a wall of shelves, along with some sports trophies and framed photographs. The rest of the space was crammed with books. A set of dumbbells were scattered near the TV, as if they had just been used. The newspapers he had taken from the chair were copies of The City News, which made her smile.

She could hear him talking to the cat, presumably from the kitchen. Dropping her bag on the sofa, she wandered over to the photographs on the shelf, immediately drawn to one of Sebastian with two young people, presumably the nephew and niece he had mentioned. They stood beside a canoe, drenched and laughing, as if they had been riding the rapids. In another shot, Sebastian was with two other men in a snow scene, snowboards under their arms. The third photo looked like some sort of a dinner party. The men were smartly dressed in evening suits and bow ties, and the two women with them wore cocktail dresses. Sebastian looked so attractive in his formal dress, and she looked at the image for quite some time, her body flickering with the yearning she got whenever she observed him.

She supposed it was a work function, perhaps a Christmas dinner party. He hadn't talked much about the company he worked for, she realized, or the type of security jobs he usually got. Perhaps he worked as a bodyguard to people he wasn't able to speak about freely. She made a note to ask him more about it. He'd spent so much time supporting her job over the two days since they'd met, and now they were in his space she became aware of the gap.

"Sorry about the mess." Sebastian had reappeared, sticking his head around the corner of the door to check on her. "What can I get you, tea, coffee or something stronger?"

"Tea would be good."

"Assam or Earl Grey?"

Once again, she found herself impressed. "Earl Grey would be just the ticket, do you have lemon?"

"Yes indeed." He was about to leave when he glanced over at the phone, which was on a small table. "Better check for messages," he said, as if to himself. He hit the play button and began to tidy up as the machine whirred into action.

Amy took a seat on the sofa and watched him as he lifted the stray dumbbells and slotted them into place on their metal rack.

"Hey boss, Gary here. I wanted to let you know we now have a beautiful daughter who we've called Emily. She was born just before midnight last night. I should be back at work by Wednesday, but I'll confirm with the office on Monday. Oh, and Chrissie and I would like you to come to the christening if you can. It'll be two weeks today, that's Saturday. We'll be having a bit of a shindig afterwards so come along…yeah, right, sorry that was Chrissie, she says hi and you're to bring a guest."

Sebastian had stood bolt upright and watched the machine as the message played. He looked relieved when it came to an end. He turned to Amy.

"Work colleague," he explained, then went back to his dumbbells.

The next message played. "Hello big guy, Alex here."

The woman's voice had a warm, persuasive tone. Amy tried to ignore the nervous butterfly that had taken up residence in her stomach. Sebastian smiled at the machine, affectionately. Her heart sank. Why wouldn't he have plenty of other women interested in him, a gorgeous hunk of man like him?

"I wanted to ask you to join me for dinner. I fancied Italian food and well, it's Saturday night and I'm all alone…but I guess you are away doing something much more exciting. Give me a call when you're back in town."

The machine gave a bleep that marked the end of the recorded messages.

"I'll get that tea," he said, disappearing again.

* * * *

Sebastian shut the kitchen door behind him and gave a sigh of relief. Once he'd started to play the messages he realized what he'd done. That was a close shave. If he wasn't more careful it would be obvious he wasn't a regular bodyguard. He put the kettle on and grabbed a lemon from the fruit platter, glancing around the cluttered galley kitchen for sight of the chopping board.

Lydia watched him while he worked.

"Be nice," he instructed. The cat looked back at him steadily. She'd hated Catherine, his ex, vehemently, and she'd made it quite obvious. The cat had appeared at the most inappropriate of times and fixed his ex with a determined stare, as if she could oust the woman from her master's bed through willpower alone. There was nothing as off-putting to your stride as a cat with an expression of extreme distaste on its face. After the onset of the rather acrimonious split he realized the cat was probably a better judge of character than he was.

When he got back to Amy she'd curled herself into the sofa, shoes off, her legs folded under her. The soft, black jersey mini dress she was wearing clung to her body. His hands ached to follow it over her curves. All in good time, he told himself.

"Mm, lovely." She took the cup from his hand.

"So, what are the plans for the week ahead?"

She looked up at him, surprised. "Oh, let's just think about today for now," she whispered, running her hand over his thigh as he got comfortable next to her on the leather sofa.

That was a very inviting gesture.

"I'm not arguing, I just wondered what else you had in store for us, work wise. A man needs to be prepared." He gave her a cheeky grin. He was asking because he had to put in an appearance at his office, although he hoped to fit that around whatever plans she made. Then there was the little matter of pursuing his own investigations regarding Quentin Edwards, their missing TV host.

"I'm going to have to spend a bit of time on my regular job tomorrow," she said, looking down into her tea.

"So you'll call me when you need me?"

She smiled. "I believe my father hired you to accompany me when I'm on the road for Quentin material. Besides, as much as I adore your company, I think it would be overly indulgent of me to ask you to accompany me on my regular chores, don't you?"

"Oh, I don't know…"

"Well, seeing as you're on offer," she paused, eyeing his body. "Why don't we compromise, and meet later on, for the evening?"

"Sounds good."

"Monday is my Tae Kwon Do evening, so it'll have to be after that."

"Tell me where you'll be and I'll meet you there."

"Okay, I will. I finish up the class about seven. If we meet then it'll give you some time for yourself. Besides, don't you have a message to return?" She nodded over at the answer machine.

Sebastian puzzled over her remark, then realized she must have meant the message from Alex.

"Alex is my sister," he said. "But yes, I will have to call her back." He winked. When she smiled, he could see relief in her expression, she really must have thought it was a girlfriend. Surely not? He thought he'd clarified his status already.

"The one with the kids?"

"No, that's Sandra, my older sister. Alex is younger than me and she lives here in London too. Sandra and her family are in Yorkshire, close to my Mother, in the town I grew up in. Filey, on the east coast."

She nodded.

"It was because of Alex I bought this house. She moved down to London the year after I did and I bought the place so she could use it for a base, but she got her own place soon after."

"That explains the female touches."

Sebastian smiled. She could pull out investigative skills when she put her mind to it.

"It must be nice to have a big family. I'm an only child and I always wanted that."