Jake was pretending to watch television when Neve came back into the room. She opened the fridge, rummaging around for food. He’d deliberately not gone shopping just to spite her, and that was never a good sign in a relationship, was it? Lyssa had always maintained that for a relationship to work you had to be more concerned about the other person’s happiness than your own. He could see the wisdom in her words now. And how little notice he’d taken of them.

As a conciliatory move, Jake clicked off the television and walked over to the sleek marble slab that formed the kitchen counter. He perched on a bar stool and watched Neve as she prepared a rather wilted-looking salad for herself with some dried-up remnants of blue cheese. She was studiously ignoring him.

‘So,’ he said. ‘How was Milan?’

Neve stopped trying to find some lettuce leaves that hadn’t gone brown at the edges and looked at him. ‘Fine,’ she said. ‘Milan was fine.’

‘They liked your work on the Blow account?’

‘Yes,’ Neve replied tightly. ‘They were very impressed with my work.’

Jake felt his guts twist. ‘And Alec? Was he impressed with your work?’

Neve hesitated momentarily.

‘Why didn’t you tell me Alec was going with you?’

‘Because I knew you’d react in exactly this way.’

‘Didn’t you think I’d put two and two together when I found out he wasn’t in the office?’

Neve’s mouth set in a sulky pout.

‘Was he in your room when I called?’

Another hesitation. ‘Yes.’

‘And what was he doing there?’

Neve pulled open the fridge again and took out a half-empty bottle of white wine. She waved it at Jake to offer him some. He shook his head, even though the lure of strong drink was tempting.

‘You haven’t answered my question.’

Neve slugged back her wine. ‘That’s none of your business, Jake.’

‘Oh, I think it is,’ he said. ‘What was it, a late-night meeting? Was he going through your briefs for you?’

‘You can stop that right now,’ Neve warned. ‘You have no right to interrogate me.’

‘I’m not interrogating you,’ Jake said, trying to sound as reasonable as possible. Which was difficult because he didn’t feel like being reasonable at all. ‘I simply want to know if you’re sleeping with someone else.’

‘That’s got nothing to do with you.’

‘Neve,’ Jake pointed out, ‘you have just been away with another man for several days. I think I have a right to know.’

Neve’s head snapped up. ‘I didn’t think this was an exclusive relationship.’

‘And I didn’t think you were shagging the boss.’

‘Well, now you know,’ she said softly.

Jake struggled to find his breath. ‘How long has it been going on?’

‘Does it matter, Jake?’ Neve wanted to know. ‘Does it really matter?’