Then he paused, meeting her uncertain gaze. ‘This is probably the exact wrong time but I want to apologise for the way I handled things when you suggested we should get together.’ He watched a new crimson tide flood the face that had been so pale for the last few hours. He pressed on. ‘I wasn’t making excuses as to why I didn’t want to. I did want to! Hugely. It was Good Isaac making a last-ditch attempt to make his voice heard by Bad Isaac and I was going over the edge of control so I said it aloud. You must have thought I was an idiot, kissing you and then saying all that. It has been a rule I’ve followed slavishly but … well, I don’t want to follow it any more. Not now. Not with you.’

He’d been trying manfully not to let his eyes skim over her body, clad only in skimpy white underwear, but now his gaze sank down over her naked shoulders, the roundness of her breasts in silky white cups, the dip of her waist and curve of her hips. ‘This isn’t the way I’d fantasised about undressing you but don’t think I don’t want to, Lily, because I do.’

‘Oh!’ She blinked, blushing more furiously than ever.

He laughed softly and lifted her good hand to his lips, not moving closer, letting her know that he knew the time wasn’t now. ‘Let me help you to bed and then I’ll go. Where are your night things? You’re shivering.’

‘Oh, I need … I’ll put them on in the bathroom.’ After pulling something chequered white and blue from the nearby chest of drawers she hurried towards the bathroom.

‘Can you manage your—’

‘Yes!’ she threw back firmly, leaving him reflecting that her back view was every bit as good as the front. Restless and hyper aware of being in her bedroom he paced, trying not to look at the double bed with its fresh-looking white cover, wondering whether he’d gone some way to mending bridges. She hadn’t said much in reply to his apology but she hadn’t told him to forget it.

When she returned the blue and white fabric had resolved itself into pyjamas, which she was wearing, clutching the jacket closed across her chest. ‘Luckily my toothbrush is electric so I could manage it with my right hand. But the buttons …’ She glanced down at herself. ‘I can leave them open but they told me to sleep in the sling for now so I kind of need help with that.’ Her cheeks were on fire.

He swallowed. ‘I can do the buttons. I’m exercising iron control.’