Wild and Willing! Read Online Free PDF Page B

clothes in the bath and combing her hair with her fingers, she donned the shirt, which came down to her knees, and padded barefoot back downstairs, her feet echoing on the bare boards. She tried the water to wash off the muddy stains, but it was icy cold and faintly brown.
    She was shivering when she re-entered the kitchen. Adam was sipping a cup of tea. He didn’t seem to be feeling the cold but at least he had put on a shirt.
    ‘Hang your wet stuff up there.’ He indicted the old-fashioned drier suspended above the Aga. His wet jeans were already hanging there. In her absence he’d exchanged them for a drier and shabbier pair. She tried not to stare at a strategic tear in the seat of them. The effort made her cheeks pink.
    Hands still full of wet clothes, she looked at the pulley system that lowered the contraption with indecision.
    ‘Here, let me.’ He took the clothes from her hands before she could object and began to arrange them on the drier, not needing to adjust the height with his advantage of at least a foot.
    She tried to hide her embarrassment as he shook out the more private items of her outfit; beneath the cotton drill jeans and shirt, she’d been wearing a frivolous satiny matching set of bra and pants in pale peach.
    ‘Very you .’ His large hand casually stroked the scrap of fabric.
    ‘How typical!’ she said in disgust, wishing desperately her colour wouldn’t rise so easily at the provocation. ‘And so boringly predictable. Men are nothing but large schoolboys. The mention of knickers is enough to send them into paroxysms.’
    His dark brows shot up at her heated reaction. ‘I just meant your underwear reflects your personality.’
    ‘Let me guess—tawdry.’ She decided to beat him to the punchline.
    ‘Erotic,’ he contradicted her firmly. His eyes held a very definite glitter that made her knees feel odd. ‘Cup of tea?’
    Distracted by this casual assessment, she had trouble replying to his mundane question, so accepted a cup in silence. She winced as the liquid scalded her tongue. ‘It’s hot,’ she gasped, sitting down on a packing case pulled up to the table as a makeshift seat. Adam was seated on its twin, his long legs stretched out before him.
    ‘You seem pretty familiar with the layout here. You knew the way to the bathroom,’ he pointed out as she looked up.
    ‘The place has been empty for quite a while. I had a look around, perfectly legitimately, with the agent. So you can stop looking so suspicious. I’ve always liked the place, and the previous owners didn’t mix much, so I was satisfying my curiosity.’
    ‘Current or old boyfriend?’ he enquired drily. ‘Or don’t you differentiate? The estate agent,’ he elaborated as she looked blankly at him.
    ‘I like to keep on good terms with all my old friends.’
    ‘I can imagine.’
    ‘If it brightens up your drab existence I’m glad to be of service. Personally, I don’t like to live vicariously, but then I’m not tied down.’ He seemed to need reminding that he was occasionally, she thought, glaring at his handsome face disapprovingly.
    ‘The original free spirit.’
    ‘I have no ties; I’m entitled to be free.’
    ‘Why do I think that statement is unfinished?’ he said, contemplating her with weary resignation.
    ‘Married men who go around kissing women otherthan their wives don’t have much room to sound so smugly sanctimonious.’
    ‘I’m not married.’
    This outright lie made her furious. She slammed her cup down on the table, slopping the liquid over the brim.
    ‘You expect me to believe that?’ she said scornfully.
    ‘Believe what you like. As the man said, I don’t give a damn.’ He clicked his fingers to emphasise the point.
    ‘You bought this house to fill the bedrooms with all your non-existent children, I suppose?’
    ‘There are children, but I inherited them rather than participated in their conception. And, for the record, I’m engaged, not married.’
    She felt a little