Playing With the Playboy's Sweatheart

Chapter Five

‘Emily...’ His hand was up her skirt like two out-of-control teenagers and the spinning wheels in her head slowed as he halted. ‘Not here.’

She was going to ask him in.

Sex.

Brilliant,*** and, and...

Emily pulled back her head and denied instinct.

‘I’m going in...’

‘Sure.’ Hugh would, of course, rather she asked him in too but, well, this would be so worth the wait.

She watched his mouth move and offer dinner, a catch-up next week, though his hand between her thighs told her it would definitely end in bed and it was time to bring things to a halt.

‘Hugh.’ She let out a breath. ‘I don’t know...’ She changed tack. ‘It’s just...’ How could she deny the want that thrummed between them? For Emily there was but one thing left to do so she came up with a rapid lie. ‘I’m seeing someone.’

‘Oh.’

‘Gregory.’

‘It’s fine, I get it...’ Though he didn’t. Poor Gregory, Hugh thought as he reclaimed his hand, because five minutes from now he’d have had her knickers off.

‘He’s in Scotland, so we don’t see each other as much as—’

‘You really don’t need to explain.’

And so the phantom Gregory was born.

* * *

When her father and Donna broke up in the New Year it was to Gregory she turned, rather than Hugh, though they did touch on it once, because Hugh came into the staffroom when Emily was on the phone.

‘Donna, I get it that you have issues with my father but I don’t understand what that has to do with me. If you don’t want to see me that’s fine but can I just take the twins to the park or for an ice cream every now and then...?’ She turned in her chair and saw that Hugh had come in just as Donna told her that, no, she’d prefer Emily didn’t have extra contact with the twins—she could see them when her father bothered to.