It was the perfect opportunity to explain, and she would have done… she had the words on the tip of her tongue… but then Flynn kissed her and everything apart from him, his fabulous body, teasing fingers and growing erection, went right out of her head.

Two hours later, Flynn, dressed in casual T-shirt and jeans, had packed some of his clothes into a small holdall. ‘I’ll be able to go straight to work in the morning. When I was wearing my suit, I had to come back here to change first.’ He grinned at her. ‘If I’d turned up to the job in a suit, they’d have thought I’d lost it.’

Jodie looked around the room. ‘It really is a tiny bedroom.’ An idea appeared, fully formed in her head. Karma? Perhaps? But hadn’t she known – from the very first meeting – that there was something special between them? There didn’t seem any point in putting off the inevitable. It was crazy but it was the right thing to do. ‘Why don’t you move in with me… permanently.’ She pointed to the shelves. ‘I might have enough room for all your clothes.’

Flynn dropped the holdall and stared at her, his mouth slightly open. Then he laughed. ‘This is mad,’ he said, reaching for her, his hands cupping her face. ‘Absolutely ridiculous, but yes, that’s a bloody marvellous idea.’

With the holdall swinging from Flynn’s free hand, they walked arm in arm to the train station giggling and smiling like excited teenagers. Jodie knew she’d done the right thing. Euphoria carried her along and it wasn’t until they were crossing the concourse of the train station, swimming against the tide of travellers who’d recently arrived that she remembered she still hadn’t told Flynn the truth about her past. He needed to know – what if the packages from Victor kept coming? She’d have to explain somehow, and the longer she left it the more difficult it would be.

Victor. His face was there again in every man of a certain age. Her eyes narrowed as each approaching face in the crowd came into focus, looming towards her, only to be discounted at the last minute. Then her eyes flicked quickly to the next and the next. Not one of these men looked at her, but that didn’t make them any less unsettling. Any of them could have been Victor playing a cleverer game. She turned around abruptly, startling Flynn who looked at her with a worried expression.

‘You okay,’ he said, squeezing her hand, ‘you look like you’ve seen a ghost.’