She closed her eyes expectantly as Adam laid her gently back against the pillows, his lips moving in a featherlike touch from her mouth to the tip of her nose, softly kissing her closed lids before standing up.
Eve was quivering with tension, waiting for him to rejoin her.
‘Goodnight, my darling.’ His voice came, not from beside her as she had expected, but from across the room. ‘My elusive Unicorn,’ he added huskily.
Her lids flew wide open in alarm but, in the brief moment it took her to turn to him, the door was softly closing as he left her bedroom.
The Unicorn!
Good lord, why hadn’t she realised long before now that, after finding her in her studio, Adam would now know exactly who The Unicorn was?
CHAPTER SIX
‘HE’S ecstatic about the way things have worked out,’ Sophy told her enthusiastically the next morning, after bursting into Eve’s bedroom unannounced shortly after nine o’clock.
Which was certainly more than Eve was! She had a feeling Adam wasn’t going to give her any peace at all now that he had discovered the true identity of The Unicorn.
Why did she have to go and fall asleep in her studio? Why did Adam have to come looking for her? And find her!
She had slept very badly after he’d left her room the night before, wanting to go and tell him right then and there not to get any clever ideas concerning her just because he now knew she was the artist he had been searching for. And that applied to Sophy, too, now that her secret was out!
Eve continued to brush her hair dry in front of the mirror on her dressing-table, having just washed it beneath the shower’s spray. ‘Things haven’t worked out at all,’ she snapped, her face very pale, her eyes appearing deeply turquoise against that paleness.
‘But——’
‘Who or what I am doesn’t make the slightest difference to the way I feel about Adam Gardener,’ she firmly cut across Sophy’s protest.
The other woman’s gaze narrowed on her speculatively. ‘And how do you feel about him?’
She replaced the brush carefully on the dressing-table in front of her, her hand shaking slightly. ‘I think,’ she said slowly, ‘that he’s a very dangerous man.’
‘Dangerous?’ Sophy gave a puzzled frown, for once disconcerted. ‘But he isn’t in the least——Or do you mean he’s dangerous to the life you’ve chosen for yourself?’ She brightened at the idea.
That was exactly what Eve meant. Adam had come along and upset it all.
‘I just mean dangerous,’ she repeated flatly. ‘Shall we go downstairs now?’ She stood up with finality. ‘I have a terrible headache, and I would like to take something for it.’
Sophy made no effort to follow her across the room. ‘You’re in a very strange mood today.’ She was frowning again.
‘I told you,’ Eve shrugged dismissively, ‘I have a headache.’
‘It isn’t only that.’ Sophy shook her head, her gaze searching the closed expression on Eve’s face. ‘You seem somehow—different.’
Different. Was it really that obvious for anyone to see just by looking at her?
‘I’m not different,’ she said dully.
‘Eve——’
‘I’m late for breakfast already,’ she concluded abruptly, leaving the room, as Sophy was making no effort to do so.
‘Eve, if I’ve been too pushy——’ Sophy broke off at Eve’s side as she rounded on her with incredulous eyes. ‘OK,’ she shrugged with a pained grimace, ‘I know I’ve been pushy. But——’
‘It’s for my own good—right?’ Eve finished with bitterness. ‘The fact that Paul isn’t always cooperative with the plans you outline has nothing whatsoever to do with it?’
The other woman frowned at the scornful outburst. ‘Eve …?’
She gave a harsh laugh, shaking her head. ‘ “The worm has turned"?’