The Marriage Replay by Maggie Cox Page A

tinge of colour she’d had all day. Her fingers fiddled with one of the pale blue buttons on her jacket. It was extraordinary to her that she could still feel so vulnerable in front of this man, but his undoubted masculine beauty, his strength and sheer animal magnetism, could sometimes simply stop her in her tracks.
    â€˜I went for a walk and did a little shopping.’
    â€˜Oh?’ Moving himself up into a sitting position, Reece drew his legs up to his chest and linked his arms round them. ‘I hope you didn’t overdo things. You know you’ve still got to take things easy for a while.’
    â€˜I know. How did your lunch go?’
    She was just making conversation, Sorrel told herself. Not fishing for information about what he and Angelina had talked about. It was already a sore subject, and she really didn’t want to bring it up again and make things worse.
    â€˜It went just fine.’
    His surprisingly relaxed gaze swept casually up and down Sorrel’s appearance with an intimate interest he didn’t bother to disguise.
    She’d taken extra care with her clothes today becauseshe’d been going to meet with her agent. Instead of more casual garb, she wore a pretty blue and white long cotton skirt, a white broderie anglaise blouse, and a sky-blue fitted jacket. With her long blond hair tumbling free and lapis lazuli earrings at each earlobe, she knew she was looking better than she had in days—even if Jenny had professed that she looked peaky and had clearly lost weight.
    â€˜You look like summer,’ Reece commented, smiling. ‘Was there a reason you got all dressed up?’
    Feeling helplessly guilty that she’d gone to see her agent without mentioning it to him, Sorrel carefully avoided his probing glance. ‘I just wanted to cheer myself up…that’s all.’
    â€˜It was a good idea. Want to come over here and talk for a while?’ he invited, patting the space on the bed beside him.
    Overwhelmed by his soft-voiced invitation, Sorrel panicked and reached for the bookshop carrier bag she’d left on the floor instead. ‘I bought you something,’ she said quickly, the heat in her cheeks deepening.
    Taking the bag from her, Reece put it to one side and grabbed her hand before she could move away. ‘I’ll look at it later,’ he promised, and tugged a little on her hand, giving Sorrel no choice but to capitulate to his suggestion and join him on the bed.
    â€˜What do you—what do you want to talk about?’ she asked nervously, tucking a honey-blond curl around her ear.
    Reece was thinking that he would willingly forego talking simply to just sit here a while and gaze at her. He truly believed she had the most amazing skin and eyes that he had ever seen. He hadn’t been lying whenhe’d told her that she looked like summer—and what better way for a man to wake from sleep than to find such a vision of loveliness before him?
    â€˜Anything…everything,’ he said idly, stroking his fingers around her delicate jaw.
    â€˜Are you going away again soon, Reece?’ she ventured, her glance a little strained.
    â€˜What do you mean?’
    â€˜You had lunch with Angelina. You must have discussed business? Are you going to promote her next tour?’
    The truth was Reece hadn’t committed to any such thing. Not yet anyway. He’d told a surprised Angelina that he would think about it and let her know. When the singer had pressed him for a reason for his apparent reticence he’d finally relented and indicated to her reluctantly that he was having some personal problems at home. After that the fiery Spaniard had been all sweetness and light, her dark eyes warm and understanding as she’d advised him to take all the time he needed to sort things out—if anyone was going to promote her tour then it would be Reece and no one else.
    â€˜Nothing’s settled as yet, so in answer to