A No Risk Affair

CHAPTER TWO

‘PLEASE, come in,’ she huskily invited the still silent Sinclair Thornton, relieved when he did so, taking him into her small but comfortable lounge. The twins stared back at him, as wide-eyed as he was, and she put a protective hand on either of their shoulders as she looked at Sinclair Thornton with challenging eyes. ‘I don't think we introduced ourselves properly this morning,’ she told him softly. ‘I am Robyn Warner, and these are my two children, Kim and Andy.’

Considering how shocked he had been seconds earlier he was recovering well, the gleam back in his blue eyes as he began to smile. ‘I'm sure it was just an oversight on your part,’ he drawled mockingly. ‘And in that case, these are for you.’ He held out the tulips for her. ‘I'm afraid I forgot the cup, Mrs Warner,’ he added pointedly.

‘My friends call me Robyn,’ she returned much as he had done this morning.

‘Can I?’ he teased.

‘Please,’ she nodded, relieved that he had taken her deception so well.

‘Well, Kim and Andy, you just have to be twins,’ he spoke to them in a pleasantly interested voice, and not down to them as so many adults tended to do. ‘And both as cute as your mother,’ he teased.

Andy giggled at this description being given to his mother. ‘Mummy isn't cute,’ he scorned. ‘She's beautiful.’

Appreciative blue eyes swept over her blushing face. ‘So she is,’ Sinclair Thornton said slowly.

‘I'll just go and put these in water,’ Robyn said awkwardly, instantly annoyed with herself for appearing so gauche. No doubt Caroline would have accepted the compliment with much more aplomb! But then, the younger girl was used to the meaningless charm, she wasn't. ‘Perhaps the children would like to show you some of their toys while I'm gone,’ she added briskly.

It took her only a few minutes to put the tulips in water and check that the dinner was ready, stopping in the lounge doorway when she got back. She should have known Sinclair Thornton was one of those men who found children's toys as fascinating as they did! He was down on the floor with Kim and Andy, with little regard for his clothes, seemingly fascinated by the workings of the dolls’ house and fort the two of them had received recently for their fifth birthdays.

He looked up sheepishly as he sensed Robyn watching him. ‘I never can resist these things.’ He put one of the soldiers up on the battlements.

She smiled, sure that all men were still children at heart. ‘Do you have children of your own, Mr Thornton?’

‘Not at the moment, no,’ he shook his head. ‘And it's Sin,’ he reminded.

She knew what his name was, she just felt uncomfortable saying it, the name Sin making her feel wicked too! And what did ‘not at the moment’ mean? Was he, like Brad, a part-time father who chose to forget about his children when he wasn't actually with them, or did he mean he was contemplating fatherhood? Maybe what she should have asked him was whether or not he was married.

‘Sin was once a reporter like Daddy,’ Kim put in eagerly, obviously considering that anyone who was remotely like her father was okay by her.

‘I know,’ she replied stiffly, amazed that had been revealed in the short time she had been in the kitchen. ‘Can you put some of those things away while I serve dinner?’ They had managed to get out an awful lot of toys during her absence too!

‘Did you lose your husband very long ago?’

Robyn almost dropped the vegetable bowl she had carefully been pouring peas into at the sound of that husky voice just behind her, having been unaware of the fact that Sinclair Thornton had followed her.

‘Careful.’ Sin took the bowl out of her hands. ‘The twins have gone to wash their hands for dinner so I thought I would join you. I didn't mean to startle you.’

‘You didn't,’ she assured him stiltedly.

‘Then my question did,’ he said shrewdly, watching her with narrowed eyes. ‘Which means it must have been recently. I'm sorry, I——’

‘I wouldn't call four years ago recently, Mr Thornton,’ she dismissed briskly. ‘Now shall we go in to dinner before everything gets cold?’

She was slightly ashamed of her waspish behaviour as he did everything he could through the meal to be interesting and interested in her children, effectively covering up any prolonged silence on her part. He had caught her offguard with his question about Brad; having lived in Colton for so long she wasn't used to having to explain her single-parent state to anyone, every-one already knew! But of course this man couldn't be expected to know anything about her past life, and after the trick she had played on him this morning he was entitled to be curious.

He didn't even attempt to interfere in her nightly ritual of putting the twins to bed, as some other over-eager adults had done in the past, and because he didn't Kim and Andy made the request for him to go up to their bedroom and say good night to them, an honour few were granted.

‘You're very good with children,’ Robyn turned to smile at him as they returned to the lounge.

He shrugged his broad shoulders. ‘I try to be.’

That was the whole point, he didn't ‘try’ at all, and the children loved him for it. ‘Coffee?’ she offered.

‘Let me make it.’ He followed her through to the kitchen, the four of them having already done the washing-up, a hilarious affair, with Sin pretending to drop things. ‘You sit down and rest for a few minutes, you must have had a long day.’

Robyn sat as he deftly prepared the coffee. It was nice to be waited on for a change.

‘That was a stupid thing for me to have said,’ Sin realised as he poured their coffee. ‘Every day must be a long one for you.’

‘A six-thirty start can be a bit tiring,’ she admitted. ‘But it has its compensations.’

He nodded. ‘I'm sure it does. I'm sorry about earlier,’ he added gently. ‘I didn't mean to pry.’

‘You didn't,’ she shrugged, carrying the tray through to the lounge. ‘It was just natural curiosity.’

‘Hm,’ he grimaced acknowledgment. ‘And I seem to have rather a lot of that.’

'Surely that's only natural in your profession?’ She sat across the room from him.

‘Some people don't like it.’ He leant back in his chair, totally relaxed, having eaten the casserole with relish, and having had two helpings of apple pie, much to the twins’ delight. ‘It's a bit like being a doctor or a psychiatrist, people don't altogether trust your motives for talking to them, think you're analysing them, in my case for a character in one of my books,’ he revealed dryly.

She smiled. ‘And don't you?’

He grinned, the devilish twinkle back in his deep blue eyes. ‘I suppose I do, sometimes. But it isn't done consciously,’ he defended.

‘I'm sure most people consider it a compliment to recognise themselves in one of your books.’

‘That's the problem,’ his humour deepened. ‘Most people don't see themselves in the character I create for them, see themselves entirely different to the way I do. Several of them have threatened to sue in the past.’

‘Oh dear,’ she laughed. ‘Then let's hope the Colonel isn't one of them!’

‘You know my reason for being here?’ he seemed surprised.

‘I'm the Colonel's secretary,’ she explained.

‘You're RDW,’ he realised in amazement, referring to her initials that always appeared at the top of the letters he had received from the Colonel during their negotiations for him to come here and interview the older man.

‘It's a small place,’ she shrugged.

‘I know,’ he nodded. ‘I took a look around this afternoon, talked to a few of the locals. The Colonel seems to be a well-liked man.’

‘I'm sure he is,’ she replied noncommittally, unwilling to discuss anything concerning her employer.

‘What happened to your husband?’ Sin suddenly asked in the silence of the room.

Robyn blinked her surprise. ‘Are you always this—forthright?’

‘My reporter's instincts,’ he apologised.

‘Of course,’ she realised dryly. ‘For a moment I forgot …’ She sighed. ‘Nothing “happened” to my husband.’

‘You mean he just died?’

‘Died?’ she repeated incredulously.

‘Well he obviously isn't here now, and the Colonel told me you live here alone with your children …’

‘I see,’ she frowned. ‘He isn't dead either. Brad is still very much alive.’

‘Brad?’ Sin repeated slowly. ‘Are you saying Brad Warner is your husband?’

She flushed at his incredulity, knowing herself now what an unlikely combination they must seem. ‘Ex-husband,’ she confirmed abruptly. ‘We're divorced.’

‘I didn't even know he was married,’ Sin seemed stunned by the revelation. ‘Let alone that he had two children too.’

Her mouth twisted. ‘It isn't something he likes to broadcast,’ she drawled.

Sin looked disconcerted by what she had just told him. ‘You must have been very young when you and he got married.’

She shrugged. ‘Age can be used as an excuse for many mistakes. And no, the twins were not conceived until after the wedding,’ she added dryly, knowing that was the next question that would occur to most people.

'But surely——’

‘I don't like to talk about my marriage—Sin,’ she at last managed to say his name, wondering if other women felt as she did when they said it, a thrill of wicked delight shivering down her spine. ‘It was all in the past, and life has to go on.’

‘Even that seems too cynical coming from such a young and beautiful woman,’ he frowned.

He wasn't flirting with her, she could tell that, he genuinely found it disconcerting that she should have found such cynicism in her life at such a young age. ‘Do I seem bitter to you?’ she cajoled.

‘No,’ he acknowledged.

‘And you find that surprising,’ she realised.

‘A little,’ he nodded. ‘I've known Brad on a casual basis for over ten years, and he never spoke of a wife and children. We've never been bosom buddies or anything, there isn't time for that in reporting, but even so most men talk about their wife and families at some time.’

‘Brad is totally dedicated to his job,’ she dismissed without emotion.

‘So was I once, but——’

‘What made you make the change from reporting to writing novels?’ she cut in interestedly.

He looked at her for several minutes, her own gaze unflinching. ‘You want to change the subject?’ he grimaced ruefully.

‘I think it might be a good idea,’ she said without rancour. She knew his interest in her marriage was mainly caused by the fact that he was surprised at who her husband had been more than a real need to pry. It hadn't occurred to her that Sin and Brad would know each other, although she had always known that the world of the press was a pretty closed one, so much so that even the spouses lost out to it.

‘It's a small world, isn't it?’ Sin obviously echoed some of her thoughts.

‘Sometimes it would seem to be,’ she agreed softly.

‘Do you ever see him now?’

She didn't pretend to misunderstand. ‘He comes down to see the twins.’

Sin shook his head. ‘I'm prying again,’ he apologised. ‘And I've also forgotten what you asked me.’

She smiled her sympathy with his confusion. ‘Why you became a writer instead of a reporter.’

‘It seemed a natural progression from what I was doing,’ he shrugged. ‘The type of reporting I was involved in is for the young; I would have been given a permanent desk job eventually, anyway.’

‘You make it sound as if you're ancient,’ she teased.

‘Thirty-seven,’ he supplied. ‘I made the decison to get out of the rat-race five years ago.’

And it had obviously been a wise decision. She would have put him at much younger than his years, younger than Brad when he was actually three years the other man's senior. ‘It's obviously been a successful decision,’ she said noncommittally.

‘Luckily,’ he nodded. ‘I could quite easily have disappeared into obscurity along with a million other would-be-writers. I never forget to be grateful I'm one of the lucky few who made it.’

‘Surely your success is due to a lot more than just luck,’ she chided.

'Maybe you're right, if I couldn't write the public wouldn't still be buying my books. But at the same time a lot of it depends on whether your style of book is in fashion when you start out; tastes change all the time.’

‘I suppose so,’ she agreed. ‘And never having read one myself I have no idea whether you're talented or just lucky,’ she teased. But she did know, knew that he would be extremely talented, that this man, with his quiet air of confidence, would be good at whatever he chose to do.

‘Shame on you,’ he grinned, the mood of seriousness forgotten. ‘Even my mother has read one or two of them, and she isn't interested in anything but gardening!’

Robyn's mouth twisted. ‘I'm sure she's interested in her son.’

His smile deepened. ‘I'm sure she is too,’ he acknowledged ruefully. ‘And all this time I thought she actually liked my books,’ he added self-derisively.

‘Do you have any other family?’ she asked interestedly.

‘A father and an older brother,’ he nodded, the blue eyes twinkling merrily as her eyes widened at the latter. ‘Don't I come over as the baby of the family?’ he mocked.

He ‘came over’ as a man so sure of himself and his own capabilities that he had no need of the charm he had also been endowed with, although he could also use that to great advantage when he chose to. The twins had been fascinated by him, and not just because he had once done the same job as their Daddy. They had even solicited a promise from him that he would take them swimming some time. Kim and Andy loved to go to the pool at the Hall, but as the invitations to use the small indoor pool there, understandably with Caroline's aversion to them, weren't too plentiful, they had to make the trip into town to the public pool if they wanted to swim. Robyn knew that the twins’ desire to spend more time with Sin Thornton didn't come just from the fact that their own trips to the pool were governed by finances; that they genuinely liked the man.

And she wasn't so sure that was a good thing. With the lack of a permanent father figure in their life the twins were apt to find the company of any available male something to be prized above everything else. Sin Thornton could just find himself in the role of surrogate father for the time he was here.

‘Not particularly,’ she answered his question in a preoccupied voice. ‘What does your father do?’

‘Now? Nothing,’ he shook his head. ‘He's a retired newspaperman.’

‘I didn't think they did retire,’ her voice had sharpened perceptively. ‘I thought they just got old—or killed.’

‘Robyn——’ he broke off as the forlorn voice of her daughter called down to them, frowning his concern at the sound.