‘Ignore it,’ said Jason.
‘I was going to. I don’t want to see anybody for at least the next forty-eight hours.’
‘Forty-eight hours of shagging?’ he said hopefully.
‘Do you think we could do that?’
‘I reckon we could.’
There was a full, fat, sated silence, then Jason yawned and said, ‘You’re not kicking me out then?’
She propped herself on her elbow.
‘Don’t,’ she said, her voice catching.
‘Don’t what?’
/> ‘Just don’t. You’re here and you’re with me and I want to believe it’s going to stay that way forever. Let me have that, even if it’s only for tonight.’
He laughed uncertainly. ‘Why would it only be for tonight?’
‘Don’t.’
‘OK.’ He shrugged, and lay back down, while she tried to calm the storm-force thoughts in her head.
He’s a free agent now. He can go where he likes and do what he likes. Why would he want to be some celeb’s Kept Man? He has his pride, after all. And he’s young and handsome and can have who he likes. He’ll leave …
‘Jen,’ he said. ‘I love you, you know.’
Her doubts were tossed into the back of her mind. She reached for his hand.
‘I love you too.’
‘You were all I thought about when I was in there. Whether you’d still be there. Y’know. Afterwards.’
‘You thought I might not be?’
‘Well, a woman like you, why would you hang around? I know I’m not a fucking rock star, or a millionaire, or anything close.’
‘Sh. I don’t want those things. I want you.’
‘But now it’ll be in all the papers. I was worried you’d be, y’know, embarrassed. Ashamed of me. It’s one thing when it’s all a big secret and another when the whole world knows your business. I don’t think many people’ll understand it.’
‘They can get lost, then. I don’t care what they think. You can stay as long as you want. And maybe you aren’t a rock star or a millionaire but you’re a genius and you’re a good man, which is worth more than all of that.’
‘I’m not a good man! I’ve never done anyone any good in my life.’
‘Maybe not, but you can be. You will be. I have every faith in you.’
He leant over to kiss her and his dark eyes brimmed.
‘Thank you,’ he said. ‘Nobody’s ever believed in me before.’
The moment, poignant and laden as it was with emotion, was interrupted by a loud yowl from outside.
‘Bowyer,’ said Jason, leaping up out of the bed to stick his head through the half-open sash window. He whistled. ‘Here, boy. Where are you?’
‘I haven’t seen him since breakfast,’ said Jenna. ‘He’s been in that garden, all day every day, lately. I bet it’s wall-to-wall dead mice under all those weeds.’