It Started With... Collection

‘You must be Aunt Cynthia,’ he said, beaming broadly. ‘What a lovely place you have here!’

When she stepped forward to extend her hand, her beady eyes, which turned out to be a faded blue, actually sparkled at him.

‘We think so. It’s so nice to meet you at last, Mr Armstrong.’

Ryan shook her hand with his right hand, at the same time keeping his left tightly clasped around Laura’s lest she bolt for it. Which she just might do, judging by the tension in her fingers.

‘Call me Ryan, please,’ he insisted warmly. ‘And perhaps you’d allow me to call you Cynthia? After all, you’re way too young to be my aunt.’

‘Oh, go on with you,’ she simpered in return, her cheeks going pink with pleasure as her free hand fluttered up to touch her hair.

Laura could not believe it—Aunt Cynthia, actually blushing. The man was a menace all right. But this was why she’d brought him with her today, wasn’t it? To see this kind of reaction from her family, and Aunt Cynthia most of all. It was worth taking the risk of making a fool of herself with him in private to experience this moment of public satisfaction.

When her aunt turned stunned eyes towards her, Laura found a slightly smug smile along with a surge of confidence.

‘He is gorgeous, isn’t he?’ she said.

Ryan was momentarily thrown, not only by Laura’s compliment but by the smoky voice she used.

Wow, he thought. A guy could get used to her talking to him like that. Of course, he knew it was just an act, but a very convincing one. It looked like he didn’t have to worry about her making a hash of their charade.

‘Thank you, darling,’ he said, giving her hand a little squeeze. ‘You’re so sweet.’

Laura almost laughed out loud at the look on her aunt’s face. Dear, but it was priceless! Like she had something stuck in her throat.

‘How’s Gran doing?’ Laura asked whilst her aunt was still floundering.

Cynthia blinked. ‘What? Oh … Er, not too badly.’

‘Can we go and see her straight away?’

‘Perhaps we should take our things in first,’ Ryan suggested. ‘I’d like to freshen up as well.’

‘Yes, yes, of course,’ Cynthia said, quickly recovering her composure to play the perfect hostess, gushing over the car whilst Ryan collected their luggage. He carried Laura’s bag as well as his own, though he left Laura with the coat-hangered dress to carry, along with his dinner suit, which was also underneath a plastic cover. Ryan was glad now that he’d brought a suit with him, rather than more casual clothes. It wasn’t a tux, just a dark grey, single-breasted number which looked good on him and fitted in with any occasion.

The house was as grand inside as out, Ryan noted, with a wide foyer covered in black-and-white tiles an elaborately carved hall-stand which had to be an antique, and an impressive curved staircase made of a rich red wood.

‘It’s cedar,’ Cynthia informed Ryan proudly when he asked about it. ‘There’s quite a lot of cedar in this house,’ she continued as she led the way upstairs. ‘The house was built back in the thirties before the war almost ruined everyone, the racing industry as well. Did Laura tell you this was once one of the most successful racehorse studs in Australia? No, of course she didn’t,’ the woman rattled on before Ryan could reply. ‘Laura’s not all that interested in this place or its traditions.

‘Now I didn’t put you in your usual room, Laura,’ she threw over her shoulder towards her niece who was trailing a little behind. ‘It’s way too small for two people. Shane and Lisa aren’t staying the night, so I made up the main guestroom for you,’

she said, opening a brass-handled door on their right with a flourish.

Ryan heard Laura make a small choking sound which, thank heavens, her aunt didn’t seem to notice, perhaps because she was busy bragging about the people who’d once slept in the very large four-poster bed which dominated the room. She mentioned a past prime minister, as well as a governor general, a couple of English aristocrats and a Hollywood star along with her very wealthy lover.

‘This house has a lot of history,’ she finished up by saying.

‘It’s a very beautiful house,’ Ryan complimented, having dropped both their bags by the door to wander across the room to the French doors which led out onto the verandah. ‘And a very beautiful room.’

He turned to see a pale-faced Laura still standing in the doorway, staring over at the bed. ‘But Gran won’t like us staying in the same bedroom,’ she suddenly blurted out.

Cynthia made a dismissive gesture with her hand. ‘Jane doesn’t need to know,’ she said airily. ‘She’s not allowed to walk up the stairs any more.’

‘So where’s she sleeping?’ Laura asked as she entered the room and draped the coathangers over the back of a chair.

‘We’ve refurbished the old servants’ quarters for her.’

‘The servants’ quarters!’ Laura exclaimed, her face flushing.

‘Before you blow a gasket, missy,’ her aunt said sharply, ‘Jane is very happy with the arrangements. So don’t you go making a fuss and making her unhappy.’

‘Laura would never do or say anything to make her gran unhappy,’ Ryan defended her, moving over to put a protective arm around Laura, warning her with a sharp squeeze not to lose her temper.

‘Yes, I do appreciate that, Ryan,’ Cynthia said through slightly pursed lips. ‘But Laura has the bad habit of opening her mouth before her brain is in gear.’

‘She can be a bit impulsive,’ he said, tightening his arm again around her shoulders. ‘But she always has people’s best interests at heart. Especially her gran’s.’

‘I suppose so. But, as I said, Jane won’t find out unless you tell her. Of course, if you’d prefer to have separate rooms, then …’

‘Absolutely not!’ Ryan broke in forcefully. ‘I’ve been dying to get Laura away for a romantic weekend together. And, let’s face it, that bed has romance written all over it.’

Laura might have enjoyed the flash of envy on her aunt’s face if she hadn’t been in a state of complete panic. Her worst fear had come about, that of having to share a bed with Ryan. It was bad enough having to stand where she was with his arm wrapped tightly around her shoulders, but at least they were dressed, and there was someone else in the room. How would she be able to cope lying side by side whilst wearing next to nothing with no one else in the room to stop … To stop what, exactly?

Laura knew full well that Ryan would never force himself on her. So what was she afraid of?

Herself again, of course. That self which even now was trembling inside at his touch.

‘Now, my dears, I really must go downstairs and tell Jane you’ve arrived,’ her aunt said brightly. ‘I thought since it’s such a nice day we could have afternoon tea together out on the back verandah. Could you join us there in, say, fifteen minutes?’

‘No trouble,’ Ryan said when Laura remained silent. ‘See you shortly.’

The moment Cynthia closed the door after her, Laura twisted out of his hold. ‘That woman is just so impossible!’ she exclaimed heatedly. ‘Fancy just presuming we’d want to share a room.’

‘It’s perfectly logical that we would,’ Ryan said. ‘It’s not as though we’re teenagers, Laura. We’re an adult couple, having an adult relationship. Of course we’d be sleeping together.’

‘But we aren’t, damn it! And now we’ll have to—actually sleep together, that is. I mean, just look around you. There’s nowhere else to sleep in here except on the floor.’

‘Well you can count me out on that one,’ Ryan said, marching over to lift his bag up and carry it over to the bed, where he dumped it down on top of the richly embroidered red-velvet quilt. ‘I’m not sleeping on any wooden floor. Look, this is a very big bed. You can put some pillows down the middle if you like. That should stop me from accidentally brushing up against your very desirable female body and ravaging you on the spot. Which is exactly what you’re thinking, isn’t it? That I might not be able to control myself.’

Laura just stared at him for a long moment, before dropping her eyes and shaking her head irritably. ‘That’s not what I was thinking at all.’

‘Really? What were you thinking, then? And don’t say nothing. You are never thinking nothing, Laura.’

She turned and walked over to collect her own bag, wheeling it across the room before hoisting it up onto the bed on the opposite side to where he was.

Her eyes, when they finally lifted to meet his, were decidedly mutinous. ‘I don’t have to tell you what I’m thinking. And I don’t have to sleep in the same bed as you. I’ll sleep on the damned floor if I have to.’

Ryan scowled at her. She was one seriously irritating woman! ‘Be my guest,’ he said. ‘Just try to do it quietly. I don’t want to be kept awake with your moaning and groaning.’