And there was plenty of time for that tomorrow.

CHAPTER TWO

HER urge to fidget was nearing the point of compulsion. Being cooped up in the meeting room at police headquarters to review the simulated exercise of the preceding day was wearing thin. Luckily, Ned was there to provide some distraction.

She figured they had at least another hour to go before they’d be finished and right now the matter under discussion didn’t involve her. It was between the police and ambulance teams and Lucas and Angie had it covered so she was free to steal glances at Ned.

He’d been very much on her mind since yesterday. Images of a seriously attractive fireman with mischievous green eyes, a cheeky grin and a physique that was hard in all the right places and shaped just as nature intended had kept popping into her head. So much so she found it a bit unsettling now he was back in front of her again. It was impossible to ignore him.

He was lounging in his chair and even that posture seemed to work in his favour. He looked easy in his skin. And easy on the eyes. His dark blue uniform was spotless, the trousers were pressed, T-shirt tucked in and fitted to his body, leaving no unsightly creases. As usual, he’d been running his fingers through his hair, leaving it sticking up in tufts. The dishevelled look enhanced his larrikin air.

Was it any wonder she was finding it hard to focus?

Sighing over a man wouldn’t keep her where she needed to be, which was in the safe place she’d made for herself since she’d got Alistair out of her life, or rather since Alistair had ditched her unceremoniously. She’d perfected the art of self-protection when it came to men—why sigh with longing over a guy who was a threat to that security? She should be troubled to find she had diminishing control over her thoughts when it came to Ned. Losing control meant being vulnerable.

Vulnerable was a state she’d sworn never to be in again.

Alistair. The name swam into mind, her old mantra, the one that never failed to remind her why self-protection was essential and messing about with men was for fools.

Yet there was something about Ned that was making it increasingly difficult to remember any of those hard-learned lessons.

That was four times now he’d sprung her stealing glances at him. By the time the team review had finished he was almost bursting to get to her side and make the most of her apparent interest. There wouldn’t be many more meetings like this and when they were finished he’d have to be more obvious about wanting to spend time with her. Maximising his opportunities was the way to go.

‘You might have the others fooled, but I know where your mind was just now,’ he said in a quiet voice, for her alone. ‘You can’t look that serene if you’re thinking about work.’

Maybe she hadn’t been thinking about him. Maybe she’d been daydreaming and oblivious to the fact she’d simply been staring at him, but, judging by the faint bloom of pink dusting her cheeks at his comment, perhaps it wasn’t a vain hope. Perhaps she wasn’t as immune to him as she’d seemed.

She didn’t answer straight away, continuing to gather her papers, a slight smile on her lips, her perfect white teeth worrying at her full bottom lip as she snapped each rubber band and attached each bulldog clip exactly so on each bundle of papers with long fingers before sliding each highlighter pen neatly into its plastic case.

He’d never been the slightest bit interested in unravelling the mysteries of women’s apparently universal love affair with stationery. But now? Watching Sarah sort her pens in an obvious order, not just one after the other, but some at this end of that packet, another there, it occurred to him that if there was a woman in the world who could make stationery fascinating, he was looking at her.

‘If I was looking serene…’ Her tone was light and cheery without any trace of the embarrassment or confusion he’d glimpsed initially. ‘Then I must have been thinking about the shoe sale I’m ducking out to at lunch.’

‘Not buying it,’ he said good-naturedly. ‘But I am buying coffee. And since we all planned on being here for at least another hour, you can’t say you’re needed back at work.’

Sarah had finished gathering her things and he held the door open for her as they walked to the lifts.

‘I wasn’t going to,’ she said as she glanced up at him before entering the lift. ‘But at last count I’ve had three cups of coffee this morning.’

Bending his head close to hers, he said softly, ‘You’re not answering my question.’

‘I’m not?’

‘Telling me how much caffeine you’ve had doesn’t tell me whether you want more. With me.’

‘Ah.’ She smiled as the lift doors opened at the ground floor and his spirits rose anew. She glanced at a giant metal clock suspended on the rear wall of the foyer and apparently discerned the time from the bare face and the single razor-sharp hand before he’d even been sure it was a clock. ‘I have half an hour but, really, if I have any more coffee I’ll be flying back to work. As it is, I’d better walk back to get rid of some of these caffeine jitters.’