Minding Amy (24 page)

Chapter Fifteen

Amy stretched and wriggled her toes, sighing. She was in that blissful state of not being quite awake, cocooned in comfort, yet so aware of the strong male presence beside her in the bed. One of Sebastian's muscular arms kept her loosely locked in position against him, the fingertips of his other hand gently stroking the surface of her right breast, as if subtly urging her to wake up and enjoy his presence some more. She was in heaven, total heaven. She smiled into the pillow and opened her eyes, squinting into the sunlight that beamed into the room between the heavy curtains.

"Hello, sleepyhead." Sebastian rose up onto one elbow to look down at her. "Oh, yes, you look much better now."

"Why thank you, Dr Armitage, for your kind attentions last night, and for ensuring my swift recovery. Your hands-on treatment really did the trick."

"I'm glad you approved. There's much more special treatment where that came from, although I'm not sure how long I can keep prescribing to someone who looks so healthy."

She noticed how bright and green his eyes were in the sunlight from the window. In dimmer lights, they looked gray-green, but full sunlight brought out their brilliance. Amy reached for him and pulled him down for a long kiss, her body turning toward his.

"Amy," he interrupted. His hair was ruffled and she reached up to play with it. "You know that I don't give a hoot about the housekeeping staff, but I've already had to turn them away twice. Perhaps we should think about getting up, then we could continue with your treatment later on?"

She sighed and pushed her head back into the pillow, pouting. A morning romp was appealing, but she supposed he was right. It must be late if the housekeeping staff had already been up twice.

"What time is it?" she enquired, glancing around for a clock. His words had begun to sink in.

Sebastian reached past her head and lifted his watch from the nightstand.

"I make it twenty five minutes to ten."

Oh no. No, no, no. Reality was fast getting a grip on her.

"You've slept round the clock," he added, smiling benevolently.

"Oh my God." She sat upright, knocking him back onto his pillow in the process. "It's Thursday." She turned to look at him, aghast. "My deadline is at ten." A vision of Fiona's face flew into her mind, and in it she wore an expression of contempt. "That's in twenty five minutes. Shit!"

Pushing back the covers she leapt out of the bed and darted across the room to where their bags were thrown haphazardly on a velvet-covered Ottoman. She pulled out the bag containing her laptop and swung round, her gaze darting across the room looking for the wifi spot. Sebastian sat up in the bed, resting on his hands while he watched her with a small frown and a half smile.

"Can I help at all?" He eyed her up and down with a lazy smile.

"Oh yes, please. I need to get my laptop hooked up to the wifi." She set the laptop bag on the dresser then turned back to her overnight bag. Naked wasn't good, not when she was trying to be professional. Rummaging in the bag she found a T-shirt and jeans and grabbed them. She hurriedly pulled the clothes on, hopping back toward the bed as she climbed into the jeans. She pushed her hair back, taking a deep breath.

Sebastian was moving. She tried to ignore the casual stretch of his strong, attractive body as he reached over to unzip her laptop bag. He was so nonchalant about it. It was almost as if he wasn't aware that he was drop-dead gorgeous.

"You could put some clothes on, you are such a distraction."

He grinned at her then sidled past her to the bags, glancing at her and winking. He was such a tease. How could she not smile? Amy shook her head and took another deep breath. She instructed herself to concentrate on the job at hand. She had her laptop, she had wifi. She'd be fine. Reporters often got their copy in at the eleventh hour, that wasn't a problem. She'd just mail them what she'd written up yesterday. She'd been hoping to spend the previous evening speaking to the duty staff at Tall Gables to give the article even more substance, but she had forgotten all about, lying in Sebastian's arms. It would have to do as it was. What she'd prepared had a solid hook, baiting the readers' curiosity for the second part of the story, that's what counted. She turned back to the bag and began to hunt for the power cable.

"You are one sexy woman when you're being all professional like this," he whispered from behind her as she plugged her cable in, arresting her hips with his hands. He pulled her back against him and kissed her cheek. Glancing back, she saw that he was dressed. That was a small mercy.

When she switched the power on, her laptop didn't respond. "Perhaps you are confusing professionalism with the onset of hysteria," she murmured, her concern levels rising rapidly.

"Is there a problem?"

She flicked the switch on and off, then reached for the light switch for the dresser. The light didn't come on either. "No power, big problem."

Sebastian checked the other lights. None of them responded.

"Let me check with the housekeeping staff." He strode to the door and into the corridor.

The rising tide of panic inside her was just about being held in check. She picked up the bag and turned it around, opening up a document pocket at the front. Reaching inside, she pulled out a stack of papers. To her great relief she found the last printout of the draft she'd done at the office the day before. Although marked up for minor changes it was there in its entirety.

Sebastian reappeared. "It's been out for an hour. No idea when it will be back up. Apparently it was out yesterday morning…for three hours."

"Damn it. I'm going to have to try to fax this copy, which means I'll have to phone and tell her it's coming via that route instead." It was a good thing she hadn't eaten, because her stomach was beginning to churn.

"The expression on your face tells me that telling "her" is not a good thing."

Amy shook her head. It was too true. "My senior on this feature is expecting me to mess up and every little error is like a bad mark against my name."

"Give her a call. We'll find out where we can send it from at reception." He gave her an encouraging squeeze and a kiss on the forehead.

"Thanks, Sebastian. I really appreciate your help."

He saluted as he walked away. He looked pleased with her remark. Well, she'd given him nothing but hassle about his role in her work and in fact he had been a total star, supportive and reliable. Not to mention the added extras. They were highly appreciated too.

He was hunting under the bed, a single shoe in one hand. She remembered him taking them off when he'd carried her to the bed. Last night. She sighed, then reminded herself she had to stay focused. She grabbed her mobile phone and scrolled to Fiona's number. It was dangerously low on power, but there was enough for the one call.

"Fiona, hi, it's Amy Norton here." She injected her voice with much more enthusiasm than she currently felt.

"Ah, Amy, I was just wondering where your copy was."

Amy shut her eyes and forced herself to smile, imagining she was standing in front of Fiona's desk and had to give the right impression. She could picture Fiona tapping her red talons on the desk expectantly, like an uptight headmistress waiting for an explanation from a deviant schoolgirl.

"I'm afraid I've hit a technical glitch, we've got a power cut at the hotel." She pushed back her shoulders. "I'm going to have to get to the nearest town and fax it to you." A gaping cavern of silence yawned open at the other end of the phone. "I'm heading out with it now." Amy paused, waiting for any sign of confirmation. Still nothing. The cavern was getting big enough to fall into. She tried to resist the urge to babble, to fill the silence with sound. A flicker of annoyance charged her body. Talk about making you feel uncomfortable. What had been a feeling of panic was fast turning into anger.

"Fiona. I'm sorry about this but–"

"You've got one hour, that's it. If it's not on my desk by eleven o' clock we run without you."

"Thanks, Fi—"

"Don't thank me, just get it done." The line went dead.

Amy turned her phone off with a jabbing digit, glaring at it. "And a good day to you too."

A modicum of politeness wouldn't have gone amiss. Did the woman have no compassion? If it had been Janine she'd have teased her and offered support, but it wasn't Janine, and that was the point. It was a whole new ball game and Amy felt as if she was playing it blindfolded. She only knew half the rules. For the first time she wished she hadn't badgered her father into giving her the feature. He'd been right. It wasn't the usual route. Her enthusiasm had got the better of her and she'd picked herself the hardest path, as usual. She threw the phone on the bed, still glaring at it.

"Amy?"

"Sorry." She found a smile for him.

He held out her shoes and her handbag.

"Oh, what a total hero you are." She winked. "Right." She snatched up her printed copy. "She's given me an extra hour. We've got until eleven. Let's find somewhere we can get this fax sent."

They raced out of the room and down the stairs.

The woman on reception was marginally friendlier than the imperious little upstart who had greeted them the evening before. She apologized for the inconvenience and she did have a suggestion.

"Head toward Thirsk. You'll see a general store on your right hand side. The owner has a generator and a fax machine. Even if his power is out you should be able to send your documents."

"Thanks. Come on, we'll have to make it quick." Sebastian urged her on.

She snatched up her bag and her printed copy and marched out alongside him. "I was hoping for a lucky break on this job, what a joke."

"We've got time, we'll get it sent."

"I wish I had your faith."

He held the Land Rover door opened for her and she climbed in. When he took the driver's seat he reached over to pull her seat belt on, which she had ignored. "You certainly are having your adventure aren't you?"

"Well, I suppose so. I hadn't thought of it like that." He was right, to some extent, but dodging Fiona's snide comments wasn't the sort of adventure she had hoped for. She glanced at him as he revved the engine and set off down the private lane toward the main road. He was the real adventure. Mr. Sebastian Armitage was every bit the adventure she'd secretly craved.

"It was what you wanted, an adventure, wasn't it?" He was teasing her again.

She threw him a dirty look, but he was smiling at the countryside ahead. He hauled the Land Rover out of the lane and onto the main road. She hoped he knew where he was going.

"Yes, I did want an adventure, but I also wanted to find facts along the way and produce a relevant report." The gauge on the speedo was rising rapidly. She glanced from it to the clock next to it, and bit her lip.

"You'll do that, and it means we've got another few days together, right? That can't be a bad thing." He flickered his eyebrows.

"Yes, Sebastian, we've got another few days." She gave him a stern, disapproving glance, but couldn't hold back her smile. She turned to her window and composed her face. "However…I haven't got any new facts yet, that's not good." All she could see ahead were hedges and green hills and she was beginning to think the world was against her. She craned her neck every time they hurtled around a bend, looking for this fabled convenience store.

"We are having fun though?"

Of course he was having fun. It wasn't his neck on the line. "Sebastian. That's beside the point. I'm not having fun with the job."

"But you are enjoying yourself?"

"Oh, I get it. You want me to tell you how much I appreciate you distracting me from my job?" She couldn't resist, if he was going to enjoy her deadline jeopardy, he was going to have to take some of the blame.

"A man likes to be appreciated."

"Bastard!" She slapped his thigh. "Concentrate on the road and stop winding me up."

They bumped along the road in silence for a while. Amy smiled out at the rolling hills, amazed by the fact he was able to distract her and make her smile, even at the most difficult of times.

"Personally, I'm having one hell of an adventure," he said.

"Sure you are. Mr. Big Shot PI and the idiot journalist's silly adventure." She felt hot, dizzy, and kind of idiotic. Then she paused to consider what he'd said. "You are?"