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me.’ he said. ‘A few failings add humanity.’ He signaled to the waitress and ordered the coffee, while Briony sat beside him in silence, her thoughts whirling. Once the coffee was drunk, then this al too brief lunch would be over, and how was she ever going to see him again? She couldn’t hang about outside the U.P.G. offices every day on the offchance of meeting him. And this meal hadn’t gone quite as she’d hoped. Last night he had made no secret of her attraction for him, Today he had teased her a little, but his manner had generaly been wary, even a little aloof at times.

    There had been moments when his mouth had looked almost grim, and it was difficult to remember how it had felt when it had touched
    hers. Al that she knew was that she longed for him to remind her what it had been like.

    She moistened her lips with the tip of her tongue.

    ‘Where did you work before you joined the Courier?’

    ‘I was on a provincial daily in the North, doing mostly investigative work. But I’d always wanted to work abroad and when I heard there was a vacancy on the Courier’s foreign news department, I applied for it.’ He lifted an eyebrow. ‘Does that satisfy your curiosity, or do you want the story of my life? It isn’t very interesting.’

    ‘Wel, it can’t possibly be as dul as mine,’ she said rather ruefuly. ‘And of course it interests me. I’d hardly .. .’ She paused.

    ‘You’d hardly be here with me now, if you weren’t interested.’ he finished for her.

    She hunched a shoulder. ‘If you don’t want to tel me—’ she began, but he cut across her impatiently.

    ‘It isn’t that, Briony. I’l tel you anything you want to know, but I must admit you puzzle me.’

    ‘Do I?’ She sent him a dazzling smile. ‘Wel, that’s a good start.’

    ‘I wasn’t aware that we were starting anything!’ He paused to pay the waitress as she brought their coffee and the bil. When she had gone, he said quietly, ‘Now let’s have the truth just why are you here―and please don’t feed me any more nonsense about having heard rave reports of the food.’

    She said blandly, ‘I saw you coming in here, and I didn’t want to have lunch alone. Satisfied?’

    ‘Not entirely. I could name at random at least half a dozen young executives that you met last night who would give a large proportion of their handsome salaries to take you somewhere fashionable to eat for a couple of hours. Why me?’

    She shrugged. ‘Perhaps none of them forced them selves on my attention in quite the same way, Mr. Adair.’

    ‘So you decided to employ the same tactics? ’That reflective, considering look was back.

    ‘Why not? Last night I got the impression you found me attractive. If I’m wrong, you can always claim this lunch back off your expenses.’

    ‘Attractive isn’t quite the appropriate word.’ he said slowly. ‘I find you both desirable and exasperating-not always in equal or even the same proportions.’ ‘How very odd.’ Briony said sweetly. ‘I find you exactly the same. But you were going to tel me about your early life.’

    ‘Yes, I was, wasn’t I?’ he said pleasantly. ‘It’s perfectly simple. I’m thirty-four. Unmarried and my parents are both dead. I was educated at a grammar school, and from there I went on to Oxford where I read politics. philosophy and economics. I came into journalism as a graduate entrant. which isn’t a bad way to start. In my time. I’ve covered every type of story from funerals and flower shows to murder hunts and corruption. Is that what you wanted to know?’

    ‘You know it wasn’t.’ she said in a low voice, and for a moment there was silence between them. When she looked up at him again she
    was smiling, and her eyes under the deep sweep of lashes were deliberately provocative, ‘Your past wasn’t very productive,’ she
    murmured.

    ‘Perhaps I’l have better luck with your future.’ She reached out and took his hand, turning it palm