Stephen drained his glass. “I can take a hint.” He moved close to Jackie, and placing his hands on her shoulders, planted a loud, brotherly kiss on her forehead. She closed her eyes and Stephen could sense by the way her head tilted back that she would probably be a willing recipient for something a little more intimate. But he left it there. If anyone was to make the first move, it had to be her. He turned and walked across to the door and opened it. “Use your days here well, Jackie. While you’re happy and relaxed, which I know you are, just try to work out exactly what it is that you want to do. You’re a beautiful, clever woman with a wonderful sense of humour, and I love being with you—as would any man. So please don’t spend the rest of your life in discontent and bitterness. It would be such a waste.”

Jackie stood where he had left her, her arms crossed as she looked down at the floor and traced the point of her shoe around the pattern of the carpet.

“I’ll give you a call, say about nine o’clock, and we can go out to get something to eat, all right?” Jackie seemed not to have heard him. “All right?” he repeated.

She looked up at him and nodded.

Closing the door behind him, Stephen thrust his hands deep into his pockets. Dammit, maybe he had pushed it too far at the end. There was no way of knowing whether her silence was out of contempt for his forthrightness, or whether she was already considering what he had said. He felt a momentary frisson of guilt, knowing that he had been playing an uncompromising game with her own deep vulnerability. He let out a sigh and started off along the corridor towards the lift. He pressed the button and watched as the lift lumbered its way down towards him. As it pinged to a halt, he heard a door open at the end of the corridor.

“Stephen?”

Jackie stood in the open doorway, her arms still crossed, and he felt the butterflies rise once more in his stomach when he noticed that it enhanced the deep cleft of her breasts into which he had played the reflected light of his cufflink days before.

“Yes?”

She did not reply immediately, but raked back her blond hair with her fingers.

“You don’t need to go yet.”

She turned and walked back into her room, leaving the door open and ready for him.

11