Elusive Lover

Erin flushed. ‘I’m sorry if I’m bad company. It isn’t every day I lose my job and get thrown out of my lodgings.’

‘Mm, we’ll have to see what we can do about that later. Right now I intend to have that talk you vetoed last night. Let’s start at the beginning. How did you get out here in the first place?’

‘Plane!’ she mocked.

‘Very funny! I meant where did you get the money from?’

It must be obvious from her clothes that she couldn’t have afforded the ticket herself, and she flushed her resentment. ‘How do you think I got it? Walking the streets?’

Josh sat forward with a sigh, obviously coming to the end of his patience with her. ‘You tell me,’ he drawled. ‘Did you?’

‘Of course not——’

‘Why so indignant, Erin? You brought the subject up, I’m just asking. Is that the way you got your money together to come here?’

He was serious, damn him! Her sarcasm had backfired on her, Josh’s intent look showed her that he wanted an answer. ‘No, it isn’t! Bob bought me a one-way ticket.’

‘Boy, he must have really wanted to get rid of you. Not a very good reference, is it?’ Josh mocked.

Erin gave him a startled look. ‘I beg your pardon?’

‘It doesn’t matter,’ he dismissed. ‘You aren’t bad at keeping a place clean, anyway.’

She flushed. ‘I’ll get another job, if that’s what you mean.’

‘Honey, I’m sure you will. With your talents you’re sure to be in demand.’

‘If you’re being sarcastic——’

‘Oh, but I’m not. I know a lot of men who would jump at the chance of having someone like you to keep their house clean during the day and their bed warm at night.’

‘You——’

‘Our breakfast has arrived, Erin,’ he interrupted what looked like being a tirade, sitting back while his laden plate was placed in front of him, smiling up at the susceptible Marie.

Erin saw that smile, and the effect it had on the other girl, and looked away. One smile and he thought he had Marie in the palm of his hand. Maybe he did, but his charm wasn’t working as well on her. She would just have her breakfast and go, knowing she had to find herself another job before this evening or risk sleeping under the stars. She had no idea how the police felt about people sleeping out on benches over here; in London they were usually moved on or arrested for the night. That would be all she needed!

She thanked Marie for bringing her meal. ‘I don’t like the implications of your remark,’ she told Josh once the waitress had moved away.

He looked up from pouring maple syrup on his wheatcakes. ‘I wasn’t implying anything, I was stating a fact. On your track record you’re sure to get yourself into another unwanted situation.’

‘I didn’t choose to have Mike makes passes at me!’ Her eyes flashed deeply violet.

‘Just as you didn’t choose to have Bob throw you out and replace you with a woman called Mary. You sure know how to pick ‘em, Erin,’ he shook his head. ‘Now eat your breakfast. And no more talking until I’ve finished eating. I hate arguing with a pretty woman when I’m eating.’

‘You——’

‘I mean it, Erin,’ his eyes were like green chips of glass. ‘Eat.’

She did so, reluctantly at first, and then with increasing enjoyment as her appetite returned.

Josh drank several cups of coffee with his meal, the eager Marie always seeming to be on hand to refill his cup, her manner cooler when she served Erin.

‘Right,’ he finally sat back, his plate completely empty now, a satisfied smile to his lips. He eyed her half-eaten food. ‘Is that all you can manage?’ he frowned.

She nodded, having sat back in amazement as Josh had eaten all the fried food on his plate, plus the wheatcakes and a couple of rounds of toast. It had taken her all her time to eat what she had, and in truth it hadn’t been much.

Josh’s frown deepened, his wide brow furrowed. ‘Will that get you through the day?’

‘Usually,’ she nodded again.

He shook his head. ‘I think you should see a doctor——’

‘Don’t be silly,’ she gave a dismissive laugh. ‘My body has just got used to taking in less, that’s all.’

‘Have you ever heard of anorexia nervosa?’

‘Of course—I haven’t got that!’ she scorned, having heard a lot in the media about the dieting disease that could kill people if they weren’t helped soon enough.

‘Maybe not yet,’ he conceded. ‘But you’re headed that way. You need feeding up, three good meals a day.’

‘After which I would probably be as big as an elephant,’ she smiled. ‘I’ve always had a tendency to put on weight easily.’

‘Contrary to popular belief, most men prefer a woman with a little flesh on their bones,’ he rasped harshly.

‘Show me one,’ she laughed.

‘You’re looking at him.’ He gazed steadily back at her as her eyes widened in disbelief.

‘You have to be thin nowadays to look good in clothes,’ she defended the fashion of being boyishly slender.

‘It’s no good looking good in clothes if you look awful without them,’ he derided.

‘I don’t look awful——’

‘Granted,’ Josh nodded. ‘From the little I saw when that guy almost had your shirt off I would say you have a nice little body. I just think you should be a little more concerned about the fact that you can no longer eat a normal sized meal.’

Erin was still blushing over the fact that he thought she had a ‘nice little body’, but unconcerned about her eating problem. That he had noticed her body at all came as something of a surprise to her, that he liked it made her feel selfconscious.

‘I’ll be fine once I get back to England,’ she assured him.

‘And when will that be?’

‘I—I’m not sure.’ She evaded those all-seeing green eyes. ‘Next month, maybe,’ she lied.

‘Why not now? You have nothing to keep you here, do you?’

‘I—no. I came over to see my father, but it didn’t work out.’