‘I am too,’ she agreed.
‘Okay, we’d better get dressed before the food arrives.’
‘All right.’
‘Then after we’ve eaten we’ll come back upstairs to bed for the night.’
‘Really?’
‘Yes, really.’
‘I would have thought you’d be too tired.’
‘The food will revive me. But if we get tired, we’ll go to sleep.’
‘Am I to stay the whole night with you? Is that part of our arrangement?’
‘I’d like you to.’
‘We’ll see,’ she said. But she was smiling.
CHAPTER TWENTY
‘HOW DID SATURDAY night go?’ was Janice’s first question when she arrived on Monday morning.
‘What are you talking about?’ Ruby answered, alarmed that Janice somehow knew something.
‘The dinner with the boss’s mother,’ Janice went on, giving Ruby a puzzled look. ‘You can’t have forgotten.’
She had, of course. The dinner for Sebastian’s mother seemed like eons ago. All Ruby could think of this morning was what had happened on Saturday night. And last night. And then again this morning, after Sebastian awoke. The man was insatiable. But then, so was she. Already she could not wait for him to come home tonight and he’d only been gone a couple of hours.
‘Oh, the dinner,’ she said, hoping she didn’t look as distracted as she was feeling. ‘It went well.’
‘I’ll bet she liked the pie. My kids certainly did.’
‘Yes, she liked everything,’ Ruby said, only then noticing that Janice looked tired, which was understandable. The woman had three school-age children and a husband who Tom said was often out of work. To earn money she worked hard as a cleaner, doing Sebastian’s house, and Gloria’s, as well as her own place.
‘Come and have some coffee before you start,’ she offered.
Janice glanced around her agitatedly. ‘I should get on with things. The end-of-year presentation at the school is this afternoon and I promised the kids I’d be there. It starts at one-thirty.’
‘You should be well and truly finished in time,’ Ruby said. ‘I’ll help you.’
‘Would you?’
‘Of course.’
‘You’re a life-saver, Ruby. I... I want to go home and freshen up before I go. Do my hair. Put on a dress. The kids love it when I make an effort to look nice.’
‘I’ll make sure you’re out of here in plenty of time.’
After their coffee, Ruby suggested Janice do the downstairs whilst she did the upstairs, leaving Ruby alone with her thoughts as she cleaned away. She started in the master suite, doing her best not to look at the bed and think about what had transpired there.
In truth, Ruby still hadn’t come to terms with her bold behaviour, despite Sebastian’s logical argument that they weren’t doing anything wrong; that they were just indulging themselves sexually after denying themselves for too long.
It all sounded rational, but something inside Ruby kept ringing alarm bells. It was probably still just lust with both of them, but she wanted to keep it that way. Ruby didn’t want to fall in love with her boss. She really didn’t.
But such emotions didn’t always respond to reason.
Eleven o’clock saw her come downstairs to tell Janice that she was finished upstairs, and if she wanted to go home early, she could.
‘But I haven’t done the bathroom down here,’ Janice protested. ‘Or got the laundry ready.’
‘I’ll do them. You go and make yourself beautiful for your children.’
Janice laughed. ‘I’ll do my best but I’d need a fairy godmother to look beautiful. I’ll settle for nice.’
‘Nonsense. You’re a good-looking woman. Your husband is a lucky man.’
Janice’s flush of pleasure gave Ruby pleasure. She liked making people feel good about themselves.
‘He doesn’t always think so,’ Janice grumbled.
‘Then he’s a fool! Now off you go. I’ll see you on Friday and you can tell me all about the presentation.’
‘I’ll do that,’ Janice said cheerfully as she pulled off her cleaning gloves. ‘Thank you so much, Ruby. You’re a doll.’
Being called a doll brought a smile to Ruby’s face. But once Janice had gone, it occurred to her that she was exactly that to Sebastian. A doll, to be played with for a while but easily discarded.
It was a depressing thought. But not, Ruby accepted ruefully, depressing enough to dampen her desire for Sebastian. She still wanted him to hurry home, still wanted tonight to come sooner than it would. She wanted him to take all her clothes off and, yes, to play with her at length before having all sorts of sex with her. There wasn’t a position they’d tried that she hadn’t enjoyed. She had no preferences as long as it was Sebastian she was having sex with.
Ruby sucked in sharply at this last revealing thought. Oh, dear. Maybe it was already too late. Maybe she was already emotionally involved with him. Not that it would change things. She was in way too deep to walk away. Just thinking about Sebastian made her fizz with longing. It didn’t matter whether it was lust or love driving her actions. Until Georgia came back, she was his for the taking.
Strangely enough, the notion that she might be falling in love with Sebastian didn’t upset Ruby as much as she’d thought it might. At least it showed she could fall in love. Ever since her father’s betrayal, Bailey’s cruel dumping, and Jason turning out to be married, she hadn’t thought she would ever fall in love with a man. Or trust one, for that matter. Not that she needed to trust Sebastian. Such thinking was only an issue if he loved her back. Which he didn’t. They didn’t have a relationship. They had an arrangement, and it would come to an end in a few months.
Ruby was wondering how she would survive that when her phone rang, her chest tightening when she saw it was Sebastian.
‘Yes, Sebastian?’ she answered, trying to sound like a housekeeper and not a woman obsessed.
‘I have a problem,’ he announced baldly. ‘Those bastards I sold my shows to in the UK are trying to pull a swiftie with the contract and I have to go and sort it out. I’ve already booked a seat on a flight to London tonight but I need you to pack a bag for me and taxi it over to my office. I can’t afford the time to come home and do it myself. I have things I have to do here before I go.’
‘Can’t this problem be fixed up over the Internet?’ she said, dying inside at the thought she would not see him tonight after all.