He shoved his hands into his back pockets. ‘Sorry, I shouldn’t have gone off like that. Just didn’t know what I was signing up for when I started the book.’
‘God, Finn!’ She took a plate of sliced fruit to the table and sat. ‘That’s taking commitment phobia to a whole new level.’
He indicated her plate. ‘I’m supposed to do breakfast. That was part of the deal.’
‘Part of the deal was calling me Audra too.’
She lifted a piece of melon to her lips. He tried to keep his face smooth, tried to keep his pulse under control as her mouth closed about the succulent fruit. ‘So...what’s on the agenda today?’
She ate another slice of melon before meeting his gaze. ‘I want a Finn-free day.’
He fought the automatic urge to protest. An urge he knew was crazy because a day spent not in each other’s company would probably be a wise move. ‘Okay.’
‘I bags the beach this morning.’
It took all his strength to stop from pointing out it was a long beach with room enough for both of them.
‘Why don’t you take the car and go buy your books, and then go do something you’d consider fun?’
Lying on a beach, swimming and reading a book, those things were fun. He rolled his shoulders. So were jetskiing and waterskiing and stuff. ‘Okay.’ He thrust out his jaw. ‘Sounds great.’
She rose and rinsed her plate. ‘And you’ll have the house to yourself this evening.’
Her words jolted him up to his full height. ‘Why?’
‘Because I’m going into the village for a meal, and maybe some dancing. Not that it’s any of your business.’
She wanted to go dancing? ‘I’ll take you out if that’s what you want.’
‘No, thank you, Finn.’
‘But—’
Her eyes sparked. ‘I don’t want to go out to dinner or dancing with you.’
‘Why not?’ The words shot out of him and he immediately wished them back.
She folded her arms and peered down her nose at him. ‘Do you really want me to answer that?’
He raised his hands and shook his head, but the anger in her eyes had his mind racing. ‘You’re annoyed with me. Because I kissed you?’ Or because he wouldn’t kiss her again?
Stop thinking about kissing her.
‘Oh, I’m livid with you.’
He swallowed.
‘And with Rupert.’
He stiffened. ‘What’s Rupert done? He’s not even here.’
‘And with myself.’ She folded her arms, her expression more bewildered than angry now. ‘You really don’t see it, do you?’
See what?
‘Between you, you and Rupert decided what was in my best interests. And—’ the furrow in her brow deepened ‘—I let you. I went along with it instead of pointing out how patronising and controlling it was.’ She lifted her chin. ‘I’m a grown-up who has the right to make her own choices and decisions, be they wise or unwise. I’m not a child. I don’t need looking after, and I do not have to consult with either of you if I want to kiss someone or...or start a relationship. And that’s why I’m going into the village this evening on my own without an escort—to remind myself that I’m an adult.’
She swept up her beach bag and her sunhat and stalked out of the door.
I do not have to consult...if I want to kiss someone...
Was she planning on kissing someone tonight? But...but she couldn’t.
Why not?
Scowling, he slammed the frying pan on a hot plate, turned it up to high before throwing in a couple of rashers of bacon. He cracked in two eggs as well. Oops—fine, he’d have scrambled eggs. He ground his teeth together. He loved scrambled eggs.
He gathered up the litter to throw into the bin, pushed open the lid...and then stilled. Setting the litter down on the counter again, he pulled out three A4 sheets of paper from the bottom of the bin, wiped off the fruit skins and let forth a very rude word. These were his designs for Audra’s shop. He glared out of the glass sliding doors, but Audra had disappeared from view. ‘That’s not going to work, Princess.’
He pulled the frying pan from the heat, went to his room to grab his laptop and then strode into Rupert’s office, heading straight for the printer.
He placed one set of printouts on the coffee table. The next set he placed on the tiny hall table outside her bedroom door. The third set he put in a kitchen drawer. The next time she reached for the plastic wrap, they’d greet her. The rest he kept in a pile in his bedroom to replace any of the ones she threw away.
* * *
‘You’re not taking the car?’
Audra didn’t deign to answer him.