Only You - Lord of the Manor book 1

Chapter 6

'When will your car be ready?' she asks.

Crap! She's supposed to be borrowing it to visit her Nan in Yorkshire on Saturday, and it's Thursday already. I need to sort this out. 'I'll give the garage a ring later.' I assure her.

'I don't mind taking the van.'

'No, it's fine. I don't think Margo will get you there.' She's a twenty year old, hot pink VW camper van that spits and fires all over London on cake deliveries. Beth's carbon footprint must be huge.

My phone shouts and Beth leans over to see who's calling me. I whip it off the table, far too hastily. But it's too late. I look at her nervously as I red button him again, before placing it back on the table as casually as I can. My jumpy reaction doesn't get past Beth. Not much does.

'Harry,' she says with an arched brow. 'What would he want?'

I've not shared any of the hideous events of Tuesday with Beth. I'm too ashamed.

I shrug. 'Who knows?'

'Have there been any more suggestive texts?'

Oh, more than texts. There have been endless phone calls and the fact that he tricked me into going back to The Manor on the pretense that I was designing, only to have me trapped in one of his hotel suites so he could seduce me. Beth would thrive on my misfortune, which is exactly why I've not told her. If I don't hear the words out loud, then I can almost pretend it didn't happen...almost. I'm a fool. I've thought of little else, and he's not helping me in my attempt to eradicate him from my mind with all his calls. I don't need to be getting involved with anyone, especially someone who's already involved with someone else. Besides, I'm just a mission for him to accomplish. The man's a playboy and not the sort of man I need to be getting involved with. He quite obviously has commitment issues. I don't like Nick, but I do feel sorry for him.

'No.' I answer on a sigh.

She looks at me questioningly, making me feel like I'm under examination. I am. I'm playing with my collar. I release it on a huff.

'You deserve some fun.' she says thoughtfully. Fun? I don't call getting tied up with an involved man fun by any stretch of the imagination. I call it stupid! 'After Luke, you definitely deserve some fun.'

I'm keen not to get into a conversation about Luke. Beth doesn't know that he still calls me now and then. I don't know why he does.

'I've got to get back to work,' I lean over, giving Beth a peck on the cheek. 'Love you.'

'Yeah, ditto. I'll be late tonight. There's a cake convention at The Hilton.' She gets up, waving me away when I try to give her some money for lunch. 'It's my turn.'

I put my money back in my wallet. 'Okay, but it's my shout next time.'

We leave each other outside the bar, Beth heading back to her workshop, me back to the office.

***

I collapse onto the sofa when I get home. I need an early night. Tomorrow will be a long day at Lusso and I need to be on form. My phone rings. I roll my eyes as I look at the screen, but it's not who I expected it to be. It's Luke. I groan to myself. When will my phone ring and it be someone that I actually want to speak to?

'Hi,' I all but groan.

'All right?' he greets, with his usual confident tone.

'Yeah, and you?' I know he's fine. I've heard he's out almost every night, catching up on lost time. Not that our relationship prevented him from living exactly how he wanted to anyway.

'All good. I was ringing to wish you luck for tomorrow. It's tomorrow, right?'

I'm surprised he remembered. He never really took an interest in my career. 'Yeah, thanks. I was just thinking about getting an early night.'