He was still fast asleep, his jaw dark with an overnight growth of beard. His hair was tousled, one tanned shoulder exposed where the sheet had slipped away. He smelled musky and male, the scent of his skin sending small skittering sensations racing over her skin.
She felt too relaxed to move, too lazy to…She tensed abruptly as she heard a sound downstairs.
Someone was opening the kitchen door, and running lightly upstairs.
Before Lacey could do a single thing to react to this knowledge her bedroom door was thrown open and Jessica came rushing in, announcing, ‘Ma, I’m sorry about going to see Dad without telling you first, but I—’
She stopped abruptly, her eyes rounding with shock as she focused on the dark head on the pillow next to Lacey’s, immediately starting to back towards the door, her face faintly flushed.
‘Jess!’
Beside her Lacey felt Lewis move and stretch and then sit up.
‘Dad…’
Jessica stared at them both, her shock and embarrassment replaced by a wide grin.
‘Well, of all the…And just how long has this been going on?’ she demanded teasingly. ‘What a pair of dark horses you two are! There’s me, thinking…worrying that…and all the time the two of you…’ She came over to the bed, her face alight with happiness, flinging her arms around them both as she exclaimed, ‘Oh, this is wonderful…brilliant! I can’t believe it! The two of you together!’ She sat down on the bed, happiness radiating out from her, while Lacey stared at her in consternation, trying desperately to find a way to halt her excited chatter and put right her misconceptions.
She knew that, beside her, Lewis was now fully awake, but she couldn’t bring herself to look at him. She knew that he must be feeling as shocked and disconcerted as she was herself. After all, how on earth did one explain to their obviously deliriously delighted daughter that, far from having romantically come together, they…
‘So you approve, then, do you Jess?’
Lewis’s wry question broke into Lacey’s frantic thoughts, halting them.
‘Well, I must say, when I walked in here and realised that there was a strange man in bed with Ma I was a little taken aback,’ Jessica was replying mock severely to him. ‘But once I realised it was you…Oh, for goodness’ sake! How long has this been going on? And I knew nothing about it! It’s so romantic after all these years…the two of you getting back together. When’s the wedding?’ She laughed. ‘I hope you’re not expecting me to play bridesmaid.’
Lacey was too appalled to speak. She had gone through shock, embarrassment, disbelief, and now she felt she was incapable of registering any more emotions but someone had to say something…do something before the whole thing got completely out of hand, and, since Lewis didn’t seem to be going to do so, it was up to her…
She took a deep breath.
‘Jessica, this isn’t—’
Beneath the bedclothes, Lewis reached for her hand and gripped it warningly. ‘What your mother’s trying to say is that we haven’t got as far as making any formal plans yet.’
‘But you are definitely getting back together. Well, you must be,’Jessica said cheerfully. ‘I know Ma, and there’s just no way she’d be here in bed with you like this if that weren’t the case—’
‘Look, why don’t you go downstairs and put the kettle on? Give your mother and me a chance to make ourselves respectable,’ Lewis suggested, interrupting her.
‘OK, I’ll give you just ten minutes, and if you’re not both downstairs by then…’
As she walked towards the door, Jessica stopped and turned back to look at them, tears sparkling in her eyes.
‘Oh, I can’t tell you how much this means to me—both of you together. It’s…it’s…it’s brill…simply brill.’
She turned round and was gone, leaving Lacey looking helplessly at Lewis, her forehead creased with anxiety and concern, her own emotions, her own feelings of embarrassment and guilt forgotten as she worried about Jessica’s reaction when she learned the truth.
Before she could speak, Lewis said quietly, ‘Whether we like it or not, it seems that for the present at least you and I are going to have to play along with Jessica’s belief that we’re reunited and passionately in love.’
‘No, we can’t do that.’
‘What do you suggest as an alternative?’ His mouth twisted cynically. ‘Telling her that, contrary to her romantic beliefs, we just went to bed together for sex?’
The brutality of it made her feel sick, filling her w
ith anguished self-disgust. She had known all along that it was only desire, lust that had motivated him, but hearing him put it so clinically, so coldly made her want to weep with chagrin and despair.
‘Is that what you want?’ he demanded insistently.