But, as she was very much aware, loving Adam just made the situation even more complicated.
‘I just disapprove of you probing into Adam’s private life.’ She evaded having to answer the accusation. ‘And as I don’t believe either of us is in the mood to discuss business …’ She prepared to leave.
‘Let’s go out and have afternoon tea somewhere,’ Paul suggested impulsively, the subject of his investigation into Adam forgotten—for now, as he had said. He squeezed her hands affectionately. ‘Like we used to,’ he encouraged huskily.
Reminding her of how things ‘used to’ be made Eve feel guilty rather than nostalgic. He really didn’t deserve to have this happen to him.
‘That would be nice,’ she accepted softly, but without any real enthusiasm for the idea.
She knew the choice of restaurant had been deliberate—it was one of the places they had visited regularly together during happier times—but she deliberately kept the conversation as impersonal as possible. Which wasn’t all that easy when Paul seemed determined to do the opposite!
She was feeling rather ragged by the time she drove back to Ashton House, her mood not improved when she learnt Adam hadn’t returned yet.
He didn’t get back in time for dinner either, although her grandmother did say she had received a telephone call from him to make his excuses and to explain he would be back later that evening. Like her grandmother, Eve was coming to think of him as the strangest house-guest!
She was too restless to work, too eaten up with curiosity as to Adam’s whereabouts to relax. So much for ‘seeing as much of her as he possibly could’, she thought ruefully as she wandered outside in the late evening light. What was the man doing all this time?
‘That face is far too beautiful to wear a frown.’
She spun around joyfully at the sound of his voice, all her disappointment and frustration at his absence completely disappearing as he stood so suddenly before her, launching herself against him eagerly, too pleased to see him to think of holding back or hiding her pleasure at seeing him.
‘Mm,’ Adam murmured appreciatively when he at last raised his head slightly, his lips only fractionally above her. ‘If I’d known I was going to get this sort of reception, I would have come back sooner!’
Her eyes were glowing like jewels after the kiss they had just shared, her body moulded against the lean length of his. ‘Why didn’t you?’ she gently rebuked, her voice husky.
A shadow darkened his face, the humour fading from his eyes. ‘I had some important business to take care of, and it took longer than I’d realised.’
Eve looked up at him searchingly. ‘It was very sudden, wasn’t it?’
‘No, I——Yes, it was,’ he amended heavily, moving away to hold her at arm’s length. ‘Eve, we have to talk,’ he told her intently.
She sighed. ‘Not tonight, surely? Paul has been talking all afternoon, and——’
‘Lester was here?’ Adam prompted sharply, and Eve could feel how tense he had become by the increased pressure of his hands on her shoulders.
‘No, I went to see him,’ she explained with a puzzled frown. ‘That business we had to discuss,’ she reminded, as Adam suddenly looked bleak.
The tension about his mouth relaxed a little, but not much. ‘For a minute there, I——But you would hardly have been so pleased to see me if you had decided to work things out with Lester,’ he realised with relief. ‘What business did the two of you have to discuss?’ His eyes were narrowed.
‘Adam!’ She was taken aback at his probing; she knew she had shown she had been pleased to see him, but she had certainly never asked for the details of his own business dealings. However, she had the feeling he would have told her if she had shown the slightest curiosity!
‘Just tell me whether or not you signed anything—an
ything new, that is,’ he prompted impatiently.
‘As it happens, we didn’t actually get around to talking business,’ she told him frowningly. ‘Adam, what on earth is going on?’ His attitude was beginning to alarm her.
‘That’s what I have to talk to you about,’ he sighed. ‘I found out some things about Lester that I think you should know.’
‘Not you, too!’ she denied incredulously.
Adam frowned. ‘You mean you already know about Lester?’
‘No—and I don’t want to know, either!’ she said exasperatedly. ‘I’ll tell you exactly the same thing I told Paul earlier, when he told me he was having you investigated; I consider it a complete invasion of privacy, and I have no wish to know what either of you found out about the other.’ She glared at him, hurt that he could think he could sway her favour in his direction by finding out something disreputable about Paul; she just wasn’t that shallow.
‘So Lester is having me investigated,’ he mused derisively. ‘I wish him luck with it,’ he mocked. ‘I haven’t been an angel, but I haven’t been a devil either.’
‘I just told you, I don’t care what Paul finds out; I’m not interested!’ Eve reminded stiltedly.