of her astonishing hair caught up inside it. She had full cheeks pink from the cold and her hazel eyes he’d already established were bright, but it was her lush pink mouth that drew the eye.
‘Actually, about that...you probably do want to talk to me.’
Nik had it on the tip of his tongue to tell her while she looked like a Christmas angel he wouldn’t be changing his mind.
Instead he gave her a moment to clarify.
‘I work here.’
She was staff? Why in hell hadn’t she said so?
‘I’m Sybella,’ she said. ‘Sybella Parminter.’
Nik took a moment to reconcile the girl standing in front of him with the woman with the wellington boots and the face like a shovel. He’d underestimated his grandfather. The old man had rigged a honey trap.
Nik crossed the floor to her in a few strides and, before she could react, reached behind her head and yanked off the ski mask.
Her hair tumbled out.
‘What are you doing?’ she demanded, lifting her bemittened hands to her head in a protective gesture, as if he might start pulling at her hair again.
It was exactly as it had looked in the snow, heavy and flaxen blonde almost all the way down to her waist. The electric light made it shimmer, or maybe he was just tired and even ordinary women were beginning to look like goddesses.
That fast a picture took shape of a golden angel ministering to his grandfather and putting ideas in his head about English heritage and great-grandchildren while she eyed the title deeds to the house.
‘You can’t just manhandle me,’ she said, pushing back her hair self-consciously and eyeing him as if he were a wolf about to leap at her. He also saw the feminine awareness kindling in her eyes and knew exactly how he was going to handle this.
‘Call me Nik.’
‘Nik,’ she said warily, taking a big step back. ‘Well, I would like the opportunity to explain. If I could come back tomorrow?’
‘I think you will stay where you are.’
‘But you just told me to go.’
‘Glad you’re keeping up.’
She blinked.
‘What were you doing outside?’
Sybella didn’t know whether to run for her life or stand her ground. His pulling and pushing, not to mention the way he’d looked at her hair as if it were some kind of man snare, had left her unnerved. But she had people relying on her. She couldn’t let them down.
‘The Heritage Trust meet here on Thursday nights. I’m secretary. Assistant secretary.’ She took a breath. Honesty was the best policy. ‘I’m the only one who can do shorthand. We don’t use a recording device.’
‘You don’t run it?’
‘Well, no.’
He was shrugging out of his coat, looking around the entrance hall as if expecting minions to appear and help him. ‘So you don’t run it, you’re the secretary. How long has this been going on?’ he asked.
‘A little under a year. Mr Voronov was kind enough—’
‘For you to take advantage.’
‘No, that’s not—’
Sybella promptly lost her train of thought as the tailored wool slid down his arms and she discovered what had felt so solid outside when she’d been holding onto him. An expensive-looking charcoal sweater clung to broad shoulders and a long, hard, lean waist, apparently packed with bricks. Narrow muscled hips and long powerful legs filled out his dark jeans. By the time she reached his big, got-to-be-size-fifteen hand-tooled boots the tour had effectively rendered Sybella slightly dazzled and a whole lot mute.
She realised she’d just checked him out.
It was either her silence or the raptness of her regard that had him look up from shaking out his coat and give her that once-over thing men did, the subtle up and down assessment as to whether or not he’d consider sleeping with her...and Sybella had the humiliating thought he’d caught her staring and assumed she was doing the same thing.
Which she was. Unintentionally. Not because she was considering sleeping with him. Goodness, no. She hadn’t meant to ogle him. It had just happened. But he didn’t know that.
What made it worse was the Climb and Ski gear had currently turned her perfectly nice woman’s body into a flotation device and the likelihood of him finding anything attractive about her was zilch.
‘Care to tell me what you were really doing jumping out at me in the dark?’ His eyes held a new awareness now that she’d pretty much flagged she found him attractive. Sybella could feel her cheeks hot as coals. He made her feel like a teenage girl with a boy she liked. It was ridiculous at her advanced age of twenty-eight.
‘I didn’t jump out at you. You threw luggage at me!’ He had moved across to the open boot-room door to hang up his coat. Sybella followed him, a tiny tug boat to his tanker.
‘I expected to be greeted by staff,’ he said.
She guessed that put her in her place. Sybella surreptitiously admired his rear, which like the rest of him appeared to be pure muscle, which was when he just tossed the grenade in.
‘I also thought you were a man.’
And there went what was left of her self-image tonight.
‘Wh-what?’ she bleated, like a stupid lamb for slaughter.
‘I mean, obviously you’re not,’ he said, frowning at her as if he’d just noticed her stricken expression and was assessing what it meant.
‘No,’ she choked, ‘not a man. Thanks.’
‘It was dark and you’re wearing unisex clothing.’ He was hanging up his coat, drawing attention to the flex of muscles along his back.
‘This isn’t unisex.’ Sybella looked down at her considerable padded bulk. ‘It’s oyster-pink.’
His expression told her he didn’t make the connection.
‘Pink is traditionally a female colour,’ she spelt out.
He continued to look doubtful.
She huffed out a breath. ‘Look, this parka was clearly marked “Women Size L” on the rack,’ she insisted. Then stopped.
Had she just informed him she was size large?
Yes—yes, she had.
‘It was dark,’ he repeated, and the frown was back.
He closed the door behind him, crowding her back out into the corridor.
When she picked up her bruised and bloodied self-esteem from the floor, Sybella would remind herself she was tall, wearing layers and a ski mask, and he was right—it was dark. Her throat felt tight, because it wasn’t that dark.
Sybella only felt worse when he took the main stairs with an effortless stride that left her labouring as best she could in his wake, because by now she was not only wet through, the all-weather gear was making it difficult to move freely.
It begged the question how people climbed mountains in these things when she was finding a staircase hard going.
She was a little out of breath at the top.
‘You need to get a bit more exercise,’ he said, stopping to look down at her. ‘You’re out of shape.’
Really? That was what he had to say to her? The only time she ever got to sit down was on a quiet afternoon at the records office where she worked.
‘Shouldn’t you be on your way up to see your grandfather?’ she said instead, no longer