I rang Leo as I was walking from the station to the office. ‘I hope you’re calling to tell me that we should meet at lunchtime to make up for last night,’ he purred. ‘Don’t bother wearing knickers.’

Just the sound of his deep, husky voice made my legs go weak. The thought of a lunchtime session at his flat was desperately appealing. ‘Sadly not. I’ve got a little, uh, problem at home … we might need to stop meeting for a while.’

There was a long, ominous pause. ‘I’m sure it’s nothing you can’t charm your way out of.’

‘Not easily. He saw your messages on my phone last night.’

There was another pause. ‘Ah, I see. So what did you do?’

‘I told him the truth. There wasn’t much else I could do, seeing as I was caught, quite literally, with my pants down.’

Leo gave a mirthless laugh. ‘No, I suppose not. But there’s no need for us to stop seeing each other. We’ll just be more careful to make sure he doesn’t find out next time and even if he does, what’s he going to do? Kick you out? Leaving him with the baby that isn’t even his?’

I stopped walking, aware of tuts from other commuters, as they had to swerve to avoid me. A shudder of alarm passed through me. I had told Leo the truth about Elodie’s paternity one drunken evening when we were in bed together. Alcohol had loosened my tongue and when Leo asked how I’d ended up with Ben, when he clearly bored me rigid, I replied without thinking that I only got together with him to punish Peter for dumping me when I was pregnant with his child. He didn’t seem to register it at the time and hadn’t mentioned it since, so I’d hoped he’d forgotten, but clearly not.

‘I just think I need to be on my best behaviour for a few weeks, until it all blows over.’ I tried to keep the quaver out of my voice and sound more in control than I felt.

‘I don’t think you need to do any such thing. I think we should carry on exactly as we are.’

I didn’t like Leo’s tone. There was a hint of menace about it. ‘Not a good idea, Leo. At the moment, anyway. I’ll give you a call in a couple of weeks when everything has settled down.’

‘What makes you think I’m prepared to sit around waiting for you?’

Now there was more of a note of amusement in his voice and I breathed a sigh of relief. ‘I’ll just have to take my chances.’

I arrived in my office to find Marcus waiting for me, perched on my desk. I really needed to tell him to stop doing that. I wasn’t his bloody PA anymore. ‘Morning.’ I dropped my bag and sat down, eyeing him warily. ‘What’s up?’

Marcus examined his fingernails. ‘I just had a called from Leo Fox.’