The Guardian's Forbidden Mistress. Miranda Lee

mouth thinned. Here we go again, she thought angrily.

      Yet there was no point in lying. Better she answer Nick’s questions now than to have him put Derek through the third degree on Christmas Day.

      ‘He knows I’m going to be rich,’ she bit out. ‘But he doesn’t know the full extent of my inheritance.’

      ‘He’ll know once he shows up tomorrow. People who live in this street have to be multimillionaires at least. It won’t take him long to put two and two together.’

      ‘Derek’s not a fortune-hunter, Nick. He’s a very decent man.’

      ‘How do you know?’

      ‘I just know.’

      ‘My God, you know nothing!’ he flung at her. ‘Your father thought he was protecting you with his will. Instead, he set you up for disaster. He should have given most of his money away, donated it to some charity, not left it in the hands of a girl such as you.’

      ‘What do you mean, a girl such as me?’

      He opened his mouth to say something but then obviously thought better of it. Instead, he picked up her bags and carried them along the hallway to her room, the stiff set of his shoulders very telling. After dumping her cases just inside the door, he retreated back out into the hallway.

      ‘We’ll continue this discussion later,’ he said in that deceptively quiet manner he always adopted on the odd occasion when he was in danger of losing his cool.

      Over the years Sarah had learned to recognise this tactic of his. Nick hated losing his temper. Hated losing control. He preferred to act like the consummate ice-man, both professionally and personally. She’d rarely heard him yell. He didn’t even swear any more, as he once had.

      But his body language could speak volumes. So could his eyes.

      Though not always. He did have the ability to make them totally unreadable. But not straight away. If you were watching him closely, you could sometimes glimpse what was going on in his head before he drew the blinds down.

      ‘We’ll have morning tea in the kitchen,’ he pronounced, ‘then we’ll adjourn to my study and talk.’

      ‘Not about Derek,’ Sarah retorted. ‘I have no intention of listening to you criticising someone you haven’t even met.’

      ‘Fair enough. But I have lots of other things to talk to you about, Sarah. Important issues connected with your inheritance. I want to have everything settled before Christmas.’

      ‘But I don’t turn twenty-five till February,’ she protested. ‘We have the rest of my summer break to settle things!’

      ‘No, we don’t. I won’t be here.’

      ‘Where will you be?’

      ‘I’m spending most of January on Happy Island.’

      Sarah’s heart sank. She knew Nick had a holiday house there. But he rarely used it at this time of year.

      ‘Flora never said anything about that when I called.’

      ‘The subject probably didn’t come up.’

      ‘There’s still the week between Christmas and New Year,’ she argued, feeling very put out with Nick’s choosing to go away for so long.

      ‘Yes. But I’m having a guest stay during that week. And you have your new boyfriend, who you freely admit you wish to spend every minute of every day with. Better we settle everything whilst we have the chance.’

      ‘But I have to decorate the tree today.’

      ‘I just want a couple of hours, Sarah. Not all day.’

      ‘What about tonight? Can’t this wait till tonight?’

      ‘I’m going present-shopping tonight.’

      Sarah sighed. Wasn’t that just like a man to go present-shopping at the last minute?

      ‘Come on,’ he said abruptly. ‘Let’s go downstairs.’

      ‘I need to go to the bathroom first,’ she said quite truthfully.

      ‘Fine,’ he replied with another offhand shrug. ‘I’ll go ahead and tell Flora to put on the kettle.’

      Sarah shook her head as she watched Nick go. Derek didn’t know what he was talking about. Dolling herself up tomorrow and sucking up to a pretend boyfriend wasn’t going to make a blind bit of difference. She was nothing to Nick but an obligation that he obviously wanted over and done with. It was clear to Sarah that he couldn’t wait for her twenty-fifth birthday to arrive.

      Suddenly, she felt the same way. She was sick and tired of letting her feelings for Nick distress her. Sick and tired of secretly pining for what would never be.

      Time to move on, girl. Time to get yourself a life. One that doesn’t include Nick!