Tempted by Trouble by Liz Fielding Page A

spending an afternoon in close confinement with Elle. The quick tutorial he’d promised her. Or the possessive way the guy who ran the Blue Boar had touched her arm.
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    Elle skidded to a stop in the doorway. Sorrel was standing by the table reading Basil’s letter.
    â€˜Where’s Gran?’ Elle asked.
    â€˜Washing her hands. Tidying her hair. Getting ready for that “nice young man with the ice cream”,’ Sorrel added, patting her hair, mimicking her grandmother perfectly.
    â€˜There is no ice cream. At least not today.’ She had halfexpected Sean to follow her, but she was the one who’d said there was no time. ‘Sean’s gone.’
    â€˜Shame. I hoped you were getting serious attention from someone a little more appealing than Freddy,’ her sister teased.
    â€˜I’ve locked up.’
    Elle had sensed Sean’s presence a fraction of a second before he spoke. A subtle change in the light, the widening in Sorrel’s eyes, a charge in the air that had the fine hairs on her skin springing to attention…
    Sean put Rosie’s keys on the kitchen table. ‘I’ll come back later with the trailer and pick up the car.’
    â€˜Oh, yes. Of course.’ She forgotten all about his promise to take their car to the scrapyard. ‘I won’t be here, but Sorrel…’ her beautiful, elegant sister, the one in control of her hair, her figure, her life, if not her tongue ‘…will be here if you need a hand.’
    â€˜If you give me the keys, I won’t have to bother anyone,’ he said.
    â€˜Of course.’ Elle took them from the key cupboard and dropped them into his palm, taking care not to touch him. ‘I’ll leave the garage door unlocked.’
    â€˜I’m not sure how much I can get for it,’ he warned.
    â€˜Get for it? I was told I’d have to pay to have it towed to the scrapyard.’
    â€˜When you need towing you’re in a buyer’s market. I’ll take a look at what needs doing, make a few calls. It’s possible you’d do better advertising it on the Internet,’ he told her.
    â€˜I didn’t expect you to go to all that trouble,’ Elle protested.
    â€˜Who’d buy it?’ Sorrel asked at the same time.
    He looked up. ‘You’d be surprised,’ he said, answering her sister. Then, in the slightly awkward silence that followed, ‘I’ll be here at about eleven on Saturday, if that’s okay? It should give us plenty of time to run through everything before we go.’
    â€˜Thanks.’
    â€˜Tell your grandmother she can have all the ice cream she can eat then.’
    â€˜She’ll enjoy that,’ Elle said.
    He nodded and was gone.
    Elle turned on her sister, hands to her cheeks. ‘Did he hear?’
    â€˜Does it matter?’ she asked.
    â€˜â€œGetting serious attention?” Could you have made me sound more desperate?’
    â€˜Elle, you are desperate. If you’re not careful, you’ll succumb to Freddy out of sheer frustration.’
    â€˜Don’t…’ She took a deep breath. ‘Just don’t…’
    â€˜Only saying. You need to grab that one while he’s available.’
    â€˜He’s not,’ she said shortly. He might have come close to kissing her just now but he’d been firmly attached to the linen-clad blonde last night. Or she’d been firmly attached to him. Which amounted to the same thing. She should be grateful to Geli for turning up when she had.
    Give her a little time and she would be.
    â€˜But—’
    â€˜The subject is closed,’ Elle announced firmly.
    â€˜Okay. But you could have cut the tension in here just now with a knife,’ Sorrel remarked. ‘C-L-O-S-’
    â€˜Okay, okay, okay.’ Her sister held up the letter. ‘Tell me about Basil.’
    Grateful for the change of subject, Elle took the letter from her, giving her a