“I mean, you genuinely live here? In the summer house?”
“Well, yes. Where else would I live?”
Max gave her an odd look. “In Geoffrey’s room. Like the rest of them.”
“The rest of who?”
All of a sudden, Max shook his head. “Forget it. It doesn’t matter.”
“No, it does. Why would I live in Geoffrey’s room? I don’t understand.”
“Forget it,” Max said again. “Just forget I said anything. I thought that—” he paused. “It doesn’t matter what I thought.”
Cold realisation suddenly crept down Bo’s spine. “You thought I was sleeping withGeoffrey?” she asked, utterly aghast. “Why would you think that? That’s an awful thing to imagine. He’s an old man. A kind and harmless old man.”
“Old I’ll give you,” Max sounded wary. “Kind and harmless? Not always.”
Bo shuddered. “Why would you think I was sleeping with Geoffrey?”
“Let’s just say history has taught me to be guarded around the women in this place. And then earlier . . .”
“Earlier? What, you think that because I was invited to dinner I must be sleeping with your uncle?”
“No. Because you were naked in his bathroom, I assumed you must be sleeping with him.”
“I’m hiscarer.” Bo was indignant. “I take care of him, sometimes 24/7. I have to stay clean, don’t I?”
“Like I said, let’s just forget I said anything. I made a mistake.”
“Damn right you did,” Bo snapped at him. “More than that, you’ve been unspeakably rude to me all evening. You walked in on my shower, climbed in through my bedroom window and then accused me of sleeping with my employer. Didn’t anyone ever teach you social niceties? Manners of any sort?”
“Clearly not,” Max snapped back. “Look, I really didn’t think anyone would be here. It was pretty much abandoned when I was a child and I spent a lot of time hiding in this room. I need a place to stay tonight, and I came here by default. I didn’t know you would be here. I didn’t know anyone would be here.”
“Well, I am here.”
“So I see. Again, my mistake.”
His tone was petulant, his response short, and it occurred to Bo that while he’d acknowledged his mistakes, he hadn’t apologized for them. He probably never would, she realized. For a moment, Bo stared at him, completely at a loss of what to do or say next.
“What are you even doing here?” she finally asked. “It’s the middle of the night.”
“Let’s just say Geoffrey and I had a difference of opinion this evening,” Max replied, suddenly vague, before his face changed.“Look, I don’t want to disturb you any more than I already have. You said it yourself: it’s the middle of the night.”
Bo shifted uncomfortably. “You didn’t disturb me. Not really. I couldn’t sleep and . . . well, I was awake. You didn’t disturb me.”
He said nothing, looking at her for a long minute. “No wonder. It’s hot as hell here. Rip Van Winkle couldn’t sleep in this room.”
Bo shrugged, but as she did so, the strap of her vest fell over her arm and she saw Max’s eyes trail greedily over her skin. It was unexpected, and she licked her lips as she pulled the strap back over her arm. Suddenly, she was aware that she was in her bed clad only in a vest and her shorts and she blushed red, scrabbling at the sheets and pulling them around her quickly.
She looked back up, and swore she could see amusement in Max’s grey eyes.Smug bastard,she thought angrily.
“Could you, umm, turn around for a minute? I’m not wearing much. Let me just get some clothes on.”
Max gave her a long look. “You’re wearing more now than you were in the bathroom earlier,” he replied, but he turned around all the same, facing the wall. “Look, don’t go to any trouble on my behalf. If you could just loan me a pillow and a blanket, I’ll head back outside. I can lay on the grass until the first trains start running.”
Bo shrugged on a nearby T-shirt, before she sat up in her bed so that she was on her knees, regarding him curiously.
“You’d sleep on the grass?”
