‘Well, you can’t stay here. You have no electricity – no heat or hot water. You’ll freeze.’
‘You want me to go home with you?’ he asked, a smile curling his mouth.
‘Um… well, you have to stay somewhere. Do you have a friend you’d like to stay with? Or your family? I’ll drive you wherever you want.’
He blinked at her for a moment, apparently bemused. ‘No, I’ll go home with you,’ he said finally.
‘Right. Good.’ Somehow he made it sound likehewas doinghera favour. ‘Bring some dry clothes.’
‘Okay. I’ll just throw some things into a bag.’
In his bedroom, Luca pulled open drawers and stuffed a pair of jeans, a long-sleeved top and a sweatshirt into a duffel bag, along with a couple of pairs of boxers and some socks. He didn’t have any other shoes, but hopefully his boots would dry out overnight. Then he opened the drawer of his nightstand and took out a packet of condoms, stuffing them into his jacket pocket. It wasn’t like him to be so obtuse, but Claire had surprised him by being so forthright about wanting him to go home with her. He was usually good at picking up the signals, but it hadn’t even occurred to him that needing the loo was a pretext to come up here with him. She hadn’t seemed such a ballsy type at the bar. Well, still waters run deep, he thought, smiling to himself. Tonight wasn’t turning out so bad after all.
5
It was after eleven when Claire pulled up outside a red-brick semi-detached house on a tree-lined road in Ranelagh. Luca took off his boots in the porch and she led him inside, dropping her keys on a table in the hall. He followed her into a small, cosy sitting room.
‘Nice house,’ he said, horribly aware that he was dripping onto the cream carpet.
‘Thanks.’ She bit her lip. She seemed nervous, as if she wasn’t sure what to do with him now that she had got him here. ‘I was going to make something to eat. Are you hungry?’
‘Well, I had that prawn. So, yeah. I’m starving.’
‘Let me take your jacket. I’ll hang it up in the airing cupboard to dry.’
‘Thanks.’ He peeled it off and handed it to her.
‘Um, sit down.’ She waved to a sofa. ‘Or would you like to have a shower? It’d warm you up. And I could put your clothes in the tumble dryer.’
‘Thanks. A shower would be great.’
‘Okay, this way.’
She led him up the carpeted stairs, and he wondered if she was aware of him perving on her arse as he followed her. It was a very nice arse. She had great legs too. He was tempted to slide his hand up between them, under her dress. Still, that could wait until after they’d eaten. If she had plans to feed him, he certainly wasn’t going to do anything to stop her. Besides, she obviously wanted to get him clean first before having her wicked way with him. Maybe she was one of those uptight girls who always insisted on showering before sex.
‘It’s in here.’ She opened a door off the landing and showed him into a bright, modern bathroom with a stand-alone shower in one corner and a large, claw-footed bath. Luca dropped his bag on the floor, while Claire opened a cupboard and pulled out a couple of towels. ‘I’ll put these here to warm up for you,’ she said, draping them on a chrome towel rail on the wall. ‘There’s shampoo and stuff in the shower. Do you need anything else?’
‘No, I don’t think so.’
‘Okay, well… I’ll leave you to it.’ She smiled shakily. ‘Come down whenever you’re ready.’
‘Thanks.’
As soon as she left, he scrambled out of his clothes, throwing them in a pile on the tiled floor. Then he cranked the shower up as hot as it would go and stepped in. It was bliss standing under the scalding spray, clouds of scented steam billowing around him. He could have stayed there for ever, letting the heat seep through to his bones.
Eventually he turned off the water and grabbed a towel, warm from the heated rail and instantly comforting. When he was dressed in the dry jeans and sweatshirt he’d brought, he picked up his wet clothes from the floor and made his way downstairs. Following the noise of clattering pans, he found his way to a large kitchen. Claire wasstanding at the hob, watching over a steaming pot. She had swapped her shoes for a pair of fluffy slipper boots and had pulled a big woolly jumper over her dress. He was amazed to see that she was actually cooking. It was almost midnight. The most he had hoped for was a toasted sandwich.
‘Perfect timing,’ she said, as he came in. ‘This is just ready. Did you find everything okay?’
‘Yeah, it was great. Thanks.’
‘Give me those.’ She reached out for the bundle of wet clothes and he handed them to her. ‘They’ll be ready for the morning.’ She crossed the kitchen and bent to open a cupboard door that concealed the tumble dryer. She tossed the clothes in and switched it on.
‘Sit down,’ she said, as she straightened, gesturing to a large wooden table in the centre of the room, set for two.
Clearly she was the sort of girl who thought there should be some sort of date before sex, he thought, as he pulled out a chair. He sat and she put heated dishes in both their places.
‘I made carbonara,’ she said, as she placed a steaming bowl of pasta in the middle of the table. ‘I hope that’s okay.’
