Agh. Bad simile, Bella thought as her head began to swim at the images that weddings and bride’s bouquets and saying yes in the context of Will conjured up. Resisting the urge to hit herself over the head with the menu, she set her jaw and harnessed her self-possession. She really had to get a grip. She’d had quite enough of this pointless fixation with Will. Will was long gone. She had to focus on the future.
And the present, come to think of it. She was here with Sam now and even if their date wasn’t going to go anywhere she owed it to him to make more of an effort.
Feeling slightly ashamed at quite how far she’d drifted from the conversation, Bella blinked and snapped her brain back to the man sitting opposite her telling her about … well, about something.
‘I’m so sorry,’ she said, aware that he was looking at her as if expecting some kind of contribution. ‘What were you saying?’
‘Nothing particularly interesting,’ he said, giving her a dry smile and sitting back.
Bella felt her cheeks grow warm and inwardly grimaced. She was hardly the most scintillating date Sam could have hoped for. Pulling herself together, she flashed him a bright smile. ‘Oh, I’m sure that’s not true,’ she said.
‘Believe me, it is.’ He tilted his head and regarded her thoughtfully. ‘I’ve bored you into oblivion, haven’t I?’
‘Of course not.’ And it was true. ‘It’s just been a—ah—knackering week.’ Which was also true. ‘Sorry.’
‘Look,’ he said, putting down his glass after a few long, awkward seconds and leaning forwards a little. ‘How about we cut straight to the chase?’
Bella felt her stomach flutter with trepidation. ‘OK,’ she said a little warily.
‘It’s not happening, is it?’
‘What isn’t?’
‘Us.’
She let out the breath she hadn’t even realised she’d been holding. ‘I’m afraid not. Do you mind?’
‘Not in the slightest.’ He smiled. ‘There’s no … ‘ He paused, as if searching for the right word.
‘Zing?’ Bella supplied helpfully.
‘Quite.’ Sam grinned. ‘There’s no zing, is there?’
‘None at all, I’m afraid.’
Plenty of zing between her and Will though. A shiver ran down her spine and desire began to throb in the pit of her stomach. With a superhuman effort, Bella blocked it out and told herself to get a grip. If she was ever going to stand a chance of moving on she had to stop thinking about him.
‘Good,’ said Sam. ‘Well, now that’s cleared up, we can enjoy supper without worrying if either of us is going to make a move.’
Bella made herself relax, grinned and picked up her menu. ‘I couldn’t agree more.’
The main thing he’d forgotten about Rosie Green, Will reflected as he helped his date out of her coat and handed it to the maître d’, was that while she was beautiful and intelligent, like the wisteria that climbed up the back wall of Hawksley House she had a ferocious tendency to cling.
From the moment he’d picked her up, she’d been hanging on his arm and snuggling up to him, and if it hadn’t been for the fact that he had no intention of sitting at the house brooding about his non-date with Bella he’d have made up some sort of excuse and got rid of her.
Quite apart from the fact that he’d been the one to ask her out and so ditching her would have been extremely ungentlemanly, Will decided he’d done enough brooding already. More than enough, in fact, and he was sick to the back teeth of it. So Bella hadn’t wanted to go on a date with him. Big deal. He really ought to have got over it by now.
But had he? Not one little bit.
Of course, getting over it would be a hell of a lot easier if he could stop thinking about her.
It would be one thing if she confined herself to haun
ting him in his dreams, he thought, watching the waiter scoop up a couple of menus then indicate that they should follow him. He could just about cope with waking up hot and sweating and stiff with desire. After all, that was what cold showers were for, weren’t they?
But did she do the decent thing and stick to his dreams? No, she did not. She wasn’t that considerate. She popped into his head all the damn time, seizing control of his body and derailing his train of thought as she wrapped herself around him, shot him smouldering smiles and squirmed against him.
Over the past two days he’d been asked if he was all right more times than he could remember, and it was driving him insane.