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“Ah, the strong silent type.” Her eyes twinkled as she looked at Anna. “I hear talk is overrated with you young people. And he is a mighty fine-looking man to be sharing a condo with.”

Anna barked out a laugh, but she could feel her neck go hot, her cheeks flush. “I can see why Colin kept coming over to play poker with you. You’re trouble.”

She chuckled. “Oh honey, you haven’t seen anything yet.” She stood and refilled all their glasses, adding a generous measure to Luke’s even though he’d barely taken a sip. “Now, tell me, do you have a boyfriend?”

Anna’s eyes widened. “I don’t, but I think I know where this is going and no. Absolutely not.”

Pearl studied her carefully. “Why not?”

“In case you’ve not already noticed, we’re incredibly mismatched. Not that it matters, because he’s not interested. I’d know if he was.” There had been a couple of times when she’d wondered if maybe he was, a tiny bit. Like when she’d felt his hands beneath her ass the day she’d leapt into his arms after climbing the wall. Had his long fingers flexed to cop a feel? Or had he been making sure she didn’t fall? “Honestly, I think we’ll do well to escape these next few weeks as friends,” she continued. “We both want to do right by Colin’s wishes, but after that, Luke has his life to go back to, and I’ve got mine.” Bouncing around a vast condo by herself, playing poker with an eighty-year-old on Wednesdays. The occasional night out with her friends when she wasn’t feeling too emotionally beaten by grief, or too exhausted from work and her new commute.

“Umm.” Pearl’s gaze darted back down the hallway where Luke was, thankfully, still out of ear shot. “But while you’re forced together, that man looks like he could provide a hot, sweaty distraction from what you’re going through.” She waggled her eyebrows. “He may not know how to hold a conversation but he sure looks like he knows how to hold a woman. Those hands, honey. Did you notice them?” She pretended to fan herself.

Anna could not fault Pearl’s observational skills. She may also have fantasized about those big hands and what they could do, but thinking about that in the privacy of her room, in the dark, was very different from listening to her neighbor actively discuss it. And, if Anna had guessed correctly, with a view to meddling. “I think we should change the subject.”

“Oh no, this is fun.” Pearl took a healthy swig from her wine glass. “And I’m just getting warmed up.”

Desperately Anna cast her eyes round the room for something to talk about to change the subject. When she spotted a ball of fluff curled up on the rug, she almost whooped out loud. “Oh, look, you have a cat.”

“Yes, say hello to Nyx. I got her from the animal shelter last year.”

* * *

The doorbell was fine. Unfortunately it was only a loose wire that took all of a minute to resolve. And that included going back to the condo to fetch a screwdriver from Colin’s toolbox.

Luke had twiddled his thumbs for another five minutes, but even he’d come to the end of what he could consider a reasonable amount of time away from the conversation.

It was bad enough talking to Anna, and that was partly because he preferred to listen, partly because he didn’t want to say something stupid/crass/hurtful—he’d managed all three since he’d been living with her. Mostly though, he was afraid he’d say something that would give away his growing interest in her.

The thought of going back into the living room and facing questions from Pearl, a woman who’d already assumed he and Anna were boyfriend and girlfriend, felt like walking into a trap.

The moment Anna had read out what Colin had in mind for them today, Luke had been on high alert. Pearl would get the CIA to spill state secrets, his friend had once told him. Five minutes after introducing myself, she knew my salary, how many girlfriends I’d had and who I currently had my eye on.

As Pearl had already wheedled out the fact he wasn’t working, so had no salary, Luke was afraid he’d be drawn on the second. And was prepared to withstand his fingernails being pulled out before he admitted to the last.

“Ah, the Very Tall Man returns.” Pearl waved him in and, if he wasn’t mistaken, the twinkle in her eye he’d noticed earlier had turned wicked. “Is my bell sorted?”

“It was a loose wire.” Belatedly he remembered he’d been away nearly ten minutes. “But it took me a while to locate it.”

“I’m sure it did.”

He nearly tripped up over the rug when he spotted how much wine was in his glass. Sneaky. Get him to spill his secrets by plying him with alcohol.

“Anna was about to tell me what the pair of you do in the evening when there’s no activity to do.”

He felt a cold sweat prick at his back and turned to Anna for help. She looked like she was trying very hard not to laugh. “Nothing.” Christ, he had better manners than this. “I mean, we do nothing special.”

“You eat together, presumably.”

Now he understood the phrase feeling hot and cold. Heat crept up his neck. “Not usually no. I made mac and cheese once,” he added lamely.

“Why don’t you have dinner together?” Pearl looked confused. “I suspect you did when Colin was still with you.”

Anna raised her eyebrows and it didn’t take any great perception on his part to read the look she gave him. This one’s on you.

“Actually no,” he mumbled. “I ate in my room.”

“Good heavens, why?”