Leo watched Abby approach his car as if she were floating on air, her eyes shining, her cheeks pink and her smile wide, and satisfaction shot through him.
Oh, yes, fixing up this trip had been a stroke of genius. A
stroke of bloody genius. He’d thought she’d love it, and it seemed as though he’d been right. And as a result, she was his. Absolutely and without doubt.
Or she would be before very long, he amended, climbing out and striding round to the passenger side to open the door for her, because those light bulbs that had started flashing a week ago in the pub hadn’t stopped and he’d come up with an offensive that couldn’t possibly fail.
Once they got back to London he was planning to capitalise on the success of this morning by inviting her out to a dinner designed to seduce. Then there’d be another and another, and possibly another. He’d intersperse the dinners with a picnic. The theatre. The Boat Race. And whatever else he could think of.
She wouldn’t have time to question or doubt or wonder what he was doing. Her head would be too busy spinning with the charm he’d be hitting her with. Or trying to, at least, because he had to admit that therein lay the only flaw to an otherwise perfect plan. Not that it was a major flaw. No. He was, perhaps, a little rusty on the charm front, but he used to have gallons of the stuff, and surely it couldn’t be that hard to dust it off and put it into practice.
‘Hi,’ she said, giving him a dazzling smile as she slid into the passenger seat.
‘Hi,’ he replied, duly dazzled as he shut her door, made his way round to his side, got in.
She was peering at the dashboard. ‘Do you have air conditioning in this thing?’
‘This thing,’ said Leo, a bit bemused by the effect that a mere smile could have on him, ‘can do nought to a hundred in six point eight seconds. It has a V12 engine, five hundred and forty-seven horsepower, and every gadget known to car manufacturing. Of course it has air conditioning.’
Abby flashed him another blinding smile. ‘Great. Would you mind switching it on?’
‘Not at all,’ he muttered, pressing a button and switching the temperature to low because now he thought about it it was kind of warm in here.
‘Thanks.’
He fired up the engine and then they were on their way. ‘So how did it go?’
‘It was completely and utterly amazing,’ she said, the delight in her voice so obvious it made him smile. ‘I don’t think I’ll be coming down off the high for days.’
‘I told you to trust me, didn’t I?’
‘You did.’
‘Was it worth it?’
Abby flashed him a grin. ‘What do you think?’
‘The job?’
‘In the bag.’
‘Well done,’ he said, and told himself that whatever it was that had just stabbed him in the chest was hunger because it couldn’t possibly be pride. Definitely hunger. He was ravenous.
‘Thanks. Although I’m not sure how much of it was down to me and how much of it was Caroline wanting to stay in Jake’s good books.’
‘Don’t be modest,’ said Leo, knowing that wanting to stay in Jake’s good books was a complete waste of time. ‘You’re brilliant at what you do.’
‘Thank you.’
‘Tell me more about this morning.’
‘Are you sure? Because once I start I might not be able to stop.’
‘We have an hour to kill,’ he said. ‘So I say, go for it.’
She shifted and twisted round a bit and even though he had to keep his eyes on the road he could feel hers on him. Could feel the heat of her gaze right down to his bones.
‘Well,’ she said, her voice brimming with enthusiasm, ‘first of all I had the set tour, which was absolutely fascinating. You know parts of it are actually like a proper hospital. I bet if push came to shove they could carry out real operations there.’