He's Talking Secrets - Taylor Rose Page 0,2

of surprise. By the time her shirt was in place, he was wearing his business face again. She was not at all what he had expected. For a start she wasn’t old nor dowdy. His guess would have put this woman in her late twenties. She had long blonde hair that hung down past her shoulder blades that was beautifully shiny and thick, and whilst not up to the standard of beautiful woman he was used to seeing in London this woman had an earthiness about her that would have been instantly appealing, to some men. Brandon was also having trouble with the whole shirt missing, Ladies didn’t do that……..Did they?

Sophia waited for the man to stop running an expression competition on his facial features. His thoughts were miles away, obviously. She didn’t mind, it gave her a chance to run her eye over his face without being observed. But Sophia concluded that no matter how long you looked at his face he wasn’t getting any uglier. Up close he had the sexiest eyes she had ever seen. His features were just too perfect, not even the trace of a broken nose to help diminish his faultless masculinity.

Brandon looked up and saw that the Lady Sophia was looking at him, waiting for something.

Yes, an introduction wouldn’t go astray. “I’m sorry, my name is Brandon De Lecour” he said as he held out his hand.

“I’m Sophia Birmingham.” said the still young looking Lady taking his hand for a formal handshake. For the first time Brandon really looked into her eyes and saw a level of sadness. There was something else hidden in the depths of her eyes, that he couldn’t put his finger on but it was there, as though she was carrying a huge weight. He broke away from the eye contact at the same time he let her hand go. He was feeling very strange at this moment, he couldn’t quite get his thoughts together. This Sophia had beautiful eyes and her touch was solid yet soft. Focus Brandon, he thought to himself, you’re not going for your first job interview here. You’re the CEO of an international company, man, get it together. He shook his head and then spoke.

“I understand that you are working on the Estate gardens, some sort of restoration project?” He said looking around him.

“Yes, we are. Where did you hear about it?” Sophia asked. She put her hands behind her back, cocking her head to one side looking him in the eyes. That’s not a good sign Brandon thought to himself.

“I’m staying at the Wobbly Boot and Ian, the publican, told me that you have a lot of people from the village up here helping out with a huge garden project.”

“Well…….Yes” trust Ian to tell a complete stranger all about the goings on up here she thought. “We have been working on restoring all the gardens as close as possible back to their very original condition and layout. “ Sophia told him, still wondering why he had walked up from the village. Was he expecting a tour? Maybe he was from the Taxation Department and wanted to look at her books, she was entitled to write off the improvements as an expense after all. No, no government worker looks like this, this man who has an aurora of power and control about him now that she looked at him again. She had glanced at his hands and had felt them on introductions. They certainly didn’t feel like workers hands as she thought that her own must have been rough and worn from all the months of shoveling and endless planting that had gone on. With a rueful smile to herself she thought not for the first time, these are not the hands of a Lady.

Brandon caught the smile and thought that Sophia must have had a private thought about her husband and her working in the garden, perhaps a romantic interlude having occurred somewhere. This made him glance around. Why and what was he feeling? Like he somehow was missing out on something? She keeps saying “we”. It was understandable that she would be married. While she wasn’t his type he had to admit that the shirt off told him that some guy was very lucky to have her, even if her underwear was not exactly sexy in fact it was the most functional piece of underwear he had ever seen. Where had that come from? Brandon wondered. Focus Brandon, focus.

“I was just wondering