Chapter One
It wasn’t exactly crowded in the pub, even though it was lunchtime.
It was a cold Tuesday in February, in the Cotswolds.
We didn’t get many tourists at this time of year, and at least half the population of Chipping Fairford had dragged themselves off to the train station at six a.m. for the grim commute into London, while those of us smart enough to work from home were gleefully still in bed.
In other words, there was more than enough room at the bar. So why the guy who’d just blown in on a cold blast of rain-scented air felt it necessary to shove himself right up beside me, I had no idea. He was so close, I could feel his body heat, and smell his rather nice shampoo.
I eased to the side, putting some distance between us, and did my best to catch Lenny the bartender’s eye. When Lenny had finished pulling a pint of Guinness for the glum-looking man I thought was my postie, he glanced my way.
And his eyes skimmed right over me to land on the newcomer instead.
I scowled.
For god’s sake. It wasn’t like we were in a crowded nightclub where the hot guys get served first.
Then I turned to the guy beside me and thought, okay. Wow. He belongs in a nightclub.
The invitation-only kind, populated by actors, models, minor royals, and Beyonce.
The loose curls of his thick, red-gold hair lay in a sexy, tousled mop that sparkled with scattered raindrops. A fashionably beat-up leather jacket hung open to show a navy t-shirt that clung lovingly to his broad chest and lean torso, and his full lips were curved in a smile as I…
…as I gawked up at him like an idiot.
The smile slowly grew.
Mesmerised, I continued to gawk.
Who knows how long I’d have stayed there, frozen, if Lenny hadn’t broken the spell. “Usual for you, Adam?”
At the sound of his name, I recoiled.
You’d think Adam had suddenly lunged at me with bared fangs. I hadn’t meant to be dramatic; it was pure protective instinct as my brain finally caught up, put the name together with the face, and I realised exactly who I was gawking at.
It had taken long enough. Then again, the last time I saw Adam was a year ago and he’d looked very different, what with being wet and naked in my shower.
His bright hair, saturated with water, had been a sleek dark bronze. He’d been even more intimidatingly beautiful without clothes on.
And he hadn’t been smiling.
Kind of like now.
The smile had dropped clean off his face. “Ray was next,” he said to Lenny in a deep voice.
The voice I’d have recognised in an instant. The last time I’d heard it, he was saying, Yeah. Like that. Just like that. Deeper. Now suck it. Good.
He hadn’t been saying it to me.
He’d been saying it to my boyfriend.
I was the horrified idiot in the bathroom doorway, home unexpectedly early and struggling to process the fact that my boyfriend was on his knees for the checkout boy from the Co-op.
If you wanted to get technical about it, the last time I heard Adam speak was actually when he showed up on my doorstep the next day with an I’m so, so sorry, and an I didn’t know, he said he was single, and a Can I please—
I’d slammed the door in his face.
“Ray?” Lenny said. “Ray.”
“Huh?”
Lenny looked from me to Adam and back again with sky-high eyebrows. “What can I get you?” he asked.
“A glass of Chenin Blanc and an IPA, please.”
I proceeded to stare at Lenny helplessly as he leaned into his forearms on the bar and reeled off a list of ten different IPAs, with names that ran the gamut from sounding like vaguely threatening sex positions to fantasy novel titles generated by an enthusiastic but confused AI.
I was at the pub for a business lunch with my favourite client, Paulina, who’d stopped in for a rare face-to-face meeting en route to a conference in Milton Keynes. The IPA was for her. I had no clue.
“The Hobgoblin is good,” Adam said about twenty seconds into my blank silence.
I did my best not to shiver, but the hairs on my arms lifted anyway. “In that case, I’ll take the Threshing Orc, thanks,” I said, grabbing one at random.
It sounded like an advanced sex position and a fantasy novel. A decent choice for Paulina, who was very much into both of those things.
“Oh-kay,” Lenny said, looking from me to Adam and back again before he shook his head and ambled off.
I did my very best not to fidget as I waited.
Adam was staring at me. I knew he was. I literally felt his attention go up and down my face like a warm stroke. Huffing out a breath of irritation, I tipped my head to glare up at him.
And he—oh. He wasn’t glaring back. His expression was wary. Almost…soft?
“Hi, Ray,” he said.
“Go fuck yourself, Adam,” I said. Oh, shit. Where did that come from?
Adam’s hazel eyes flared. “Mm. Already did that twice this morning. Once in bed when I woke up, and once in the shower. Maybe I can fit something in after lunch, though.” He ran his gaze over my trembling body. “I’m certainly in the mood for it now.”