He gave her a sympathetic look. ‘Being in love is not a crime, Lucy love.’
‘Oh, no? Risking my job by getting involved with my employer? My mother will have a field day on that one, let alone keeping the convertible and…’ She bit down on the worst sin of all—getting pregnant outside of marriage.
‘And?’ Josh instantly prompted.
‘Never mind.’ She gave him a glum look. ‘My crimes against common sense are legion at the moment.’
He adopted a stern headmaster pose, shaking his finger at her. ‘Well, may I advise you…don’t forget her birthday, which she let me know was this weekend, and if you don’t call and grovel, and subsequently turn up with the fatted calf…’
‘Mum’s birthday!’ Lucy smacked her forehead with the heel of her hand. ‘Oh, Josh! I am awful!’
‘Not at all. Intensely pre-occupied might cover it.’
‘I’ll go and call her right now.’ She pushed herself off the wall, tossing him an apologetic wince. ‘Thanks for catching me.’
He grinned. ‘Just don’t kill the messenger boy.’
It won an ironic laugh. ‘You’re safe, Josh.’
The safest person she knew, Lucy thought as she let herself into her own apartment. He never judged. He was there for her when she needed a friend. He listened and tried to help. But her current biggest problem was painfully private and not up for discussion…yet.
First things first, she told herself, heading for the telephone on the kitchen bench.
She had to talk to her mother.
Her mother…who had married the man who’d made her pregnant, a mistake in judgement that had scarred the rest of her life, all because of her need to be respectable. Though she would have hated the social blight of being an unmarried mother, which might have been just as scarring for her.
It had been different for Zoe Hancock. Respectability hadn’t meant so much to her, not enough to marry a man who had only been a brief spark, not a lasting passion. She seemed to have taken being an unmarried mother in her stride…with a lot of help from the people James called honorary aunts and uncles.
Neither woman had considered an abortion and Lucy knew she wouldn’t, either. She was twenty-eight years old and had no doubt in her heart there would never be another James. Whatever his response to her pregnancy, she would have the baby and keep it. But she desperately wanted to be the lasting passion in James’ life.
Four weeks…it really wasn’t enough time to be sure this was a rock-solid relationship to James. He had never talked about love. What if his passion for her reached burn-out before she was even visibly pregnant?
Should she wait, holding her secret from him until she was as sure as she could be that she was the only woman he would ever want, not just the sexiest woman he’d ever met up until now?
Yet if he truly felt they were natural partners…
Lucy shook her head.
It was all so terribly risky, whichever way she looked at it.
And she had to call her mother.
Four weeks, James reflected, claiming his Porsche from the airport car-park and happily eager to drive to the office and get back to Lucy. Best four weeks of his life, he decided. Not one falling out with Lucy over work or play, and she suited him brilliantly in both areas.
In fact, the trip to Melbourne had been a drag without her. He’d missed her company—missed her comments on the client and situation he’d had to deal with, missed her smiles and the sparkle of shared understanding in her eyes. And the hotel bed would definitely have provided more comfort and satisfaction—not to mention pleasure—with her in it.
What they had together was great. No doubt about it. Even the sluggish pace of the traffic into the city could not fray his good mood this morning. It gave him more time to plan what he’d do with Lucy over the coming weekend. For once, he was entirely free of work and social commitments. They could do anything they fancied. James entertained himself with various highly desirable fancies all the way to the office.
And there she was, waiting for him, saucily sexy in a little scarlet shift with a gold chain belt dangling provocatively around her hips. Her green eyes had that look of eating him up which always excited him, and even as a grin of sheer pleasure broke across his face, he could feel himself stirring, wanting the more intense pleasure of connecting physically with her.
‘How did it go in Melbourne?’ she asked.
His office, he decided.
‘Everything settled,’ he assured her, not the least bit interested in going into details.
With his briefcase occupying one hand—something he had to get rid of—he hooked his free arm around Lucy, drawing her with him as he headed for the connecting door and his larger, more comfortable, more private office. It felt so good, having her at his side again.
‘All washed and ironed?’ he teased.
‘Enough to go on with,’ she answered wryly.
‘Good. Because I have big plans for us this weekend.’
He felt her body tensing. It alerted him to a problem even before she stopped, momentarily halting the purpose burning in his mind. Her face turned up to his, her eyes filled with an eloquent appeal for understanding.
‘I can’t be with you this weekend, James,’ she said, the decision clearly paining her.
‘Why not?’ he asked, trying to sound reasonable against a rush of frustration.
‘I have to go home. To Gosford, I mean.’
‘Visiting your mother?’
‘Yes. It’s been six weeks and…’
‘It’s okay.’ Not what he’d fancied, but he could ride with it. ‘I’ll go with you. I don’t mind meeting your mother. You’ve met mine.’
‘No!’ she cried, showing clear signs of agitation. ‘I mean…it’s just not appropriate this weekend, James. It’s her birthday.’
‘So?’
He frowned over her obvious reluctance to introduce him to her mother. What was the problem? Why was she acting so oddly, floundering in the face of his perfectly logical question.
‘It’s a mother/daughter thing. We always celebrate her birthday together,’ she babbled, actually wringing her hands.
His gut told him it was more than this. ‘Which day is your mother’s birthday?’ he asked, needing to get to the bottom of what was really going on.
‘Tomorrow. But I’ve got my bag packed and in the car, and I’ll be leaving straight after work. My mother has already made plans, James, expecting me to fall in with them, so I’ll have to spend the whole weekend with her.’