Mattie could see it all in her mind‟s eye and her mouth fell open at the imaginary scenario.

„Holed up with enough food to last the duration, but a little boat moored on the jetty just in case we needed something on the mainland…‟

It was the we that snapped her back to the present and away from the land of fiction he was leading her confidently into.

„And did you take Rosalind there?‟ she asked, dipping her eyes.

„Never even crossed my mind,‟ Dominic said truthfully. What he could have added was that holidaying with women was not something he had ever practised. He had been skiing as a group, in which his current girlfriend might be included, but beyond that his holidays had mostly centred around returning to Greece to see his family. He just worked too damn hard to afford the time off to relax somewhere exotic and remote.

As he had said to her, his weekends in the country were his only real retreats from his working life.

„How come?‟

„To start with, because I couldn‟t take the time off work. And then, later, I wouldn‟t have wanted to anyway.‟ He shrugged. „I don‟t like talking to you when you‟re sitting all the way over there,‟ he said in a husky, coaxing voice. „Come over here.‟ He patted the space right by him and Mattie crawled over and collapsed in front of him, her back to his chest, her head finding the hollow between his neck and shoulder.

There was something possessive and familiar about the way he slung his arm around her, the way she slotted so neatly between his legs. She wanted to purr with feline pleasure.

„A man like you should never plan holidays with women,‟ Mattie said a little ruefully.

„And why would that be?‟

„Because by the time the holiday came round, there‟d be a good chance that you would have gone off the woman in question.‟

„Which brings me back to a weekend in the country. I can guarantee that by tomorrow I won‟t have gone off you.‟ He began undoing the little pearl buttons, taking his time. „Shirts like this should only be worn by confirmed spinsters,‟ he muttered, and her smile somehow managed to transfer itself to him even though he couldn‟t see her face.

„And why would that be?‟

„Because, my darling, no one would be interested in getting into them.‟

Mattie felt a surge of pure, honeyed warmth seep through her and she squirmed against him, tempted to hurry up the whole process of getting undressed by undoing the tricky little buttons herself.

„Say you‟ll come with me tomorrow,‟ he murmured into her ear and Mattie reached up to clasp her hands behind his head, her breasts jutting forward with the movement.

Dominic groaned and fumbled with the last stubborn button, almost ripping it off in frustration in the process. Then he unhooked her bra from behind and shoved it up and over the creamy orbs with their pouting pink nipples.

Mattie didn‟t answer. When he touched her like this, she always found that she couldn‟t think properly. He was massaging her breasts with both his big hands. She looked down and saw them on her body, the tensile strength of his fingers as they played over her. When he shifted his weight so that he could reach further down and undo the button of her black trousers, quickly followed by the zip, Mattie almost gasped.

Her legs parted automatically. With him, she had no inhibitions. She closed her eyes as his fingers slipped beneath her underwear to slide along that throbbing crease that was wetly awaiting his touch.

He stopped and she nearly groaned in frustration. „Mattie, look at me.‟

She swivelled reluctantly around so that she was looking right at him.

„I want you to come with me this weekend and I don‟t understand what you‟re so

reluctant about.‟ He inclined down to deliver a chaste kiss to her lips before straightening back into position.

„We‟ve never slept together.‟

„ Never slept together? Good heavens, woman, what have we been doing with glorious abandon for weeks?‟

„No, I meant we‟ve never spent the night together. You know what I mean. Fallen asleep and woken up the following morning in the same bed, next to one another.‟

„Not for want of me trying.‟

„I just don‟t think it‟s such a good idea.‟

„You can‟t make statements like that without benefit of an explanation.‟ Like a dog with a bone, he wanted her to try and tell him what her reservations were, simply because he knew that he would be able to repudiate them. Naturally this was a relationship based on freedom and mutual attraction, but still, he felt driven to have her do more with him than she seemed willing to do. Why he felt his way, he had no idea. He could only put it down to some hitherto unknown stubborn streak in him that was compelled to gain entry to what appeared out of bounds.

And there were too many out-of-bound areas in this woman for his liking.

Yes, he hated possessiveness in a woman, but did she have to treat him with such relentless, blithe, cheery detachment?

„Are you scared of spending one night with me?‟ he enquired silkily and Mattie flushed.

„Should I be? Do you turn into a werewolf at midnight?‟

„Try me. It‟s a very pleasing country house. Very quiet up there. Nothing like London.

No crowds or tourists. No hailing cabs to get from A to B. Or, in your case, using underground trains, as you enjoy telling me.‟

„Well, I was planning to doing a little work tomorrow morning. Before I went on my television search…‟

„Work?‟ Dominic paused and then inhaled deeply. „Aren‟t you taking this

job-commitment thing a little too far?‟

„ You work all the hours God made, if I‟m not mistaken.‟

„That‟s different,‟ he muttered uncomfortably.

„Why? Because your job is so much more high-powered than mine is? I know I‟m

starting at the bottom of the ladder, but honestly, Dominic, I feel I can really go places.‟ She propped herself up so that she could look at him properly and was touched to see that he had reddened slightly. „Try not to forget that this is all new to me,‟ she persisted gently. „I want to make a mark and it‟s hardly as though I have to travel to the ends of the earth to get to work! It‟s a matter of minutes to walk from my apartment to the conference room they‟re using on the ground floor!‟

„Look,‟ Dominic said gruffly, „there‟s something I feel I ought to tell you…‟

„But I only intend to work for about an hour or so. I told Liz that I could pop in and finish off some of the accounts she was doing for the promotion on the billboards by Charing Cross…‟