Somebody to Love: Sigh With Contentment, Scream With Frustration. At Time You Will Weep. by Sheryl Browne Page B

stray to Alicia, who’d turn heads dressed in a sack. They didn’t. He kept looking at Donna.
    ‘Well, this is nice,’ Alicia said brightly, several silent seconds later. Donna could almost feel her curious gaze flicking back and forth between them. ‘I’m Alicia, Donna’s sister. And you must be?’
    Donna’s gaze was locked firmly on Mark’s, which was locked on hers, mischief tempered with something pulse-racingly deeper therein.
    ‘Right,’ Alicia said, shifting from one peep-toe to the other. ‘I’ll get off then. Nice to meet you, um…’
    ‘Oh, hell. Sorry.’ Mark snapped his gaze away from Donna’s. ‘Mark,’ he said, turning to Alicia and extending his hand over Jack’s pushchair. ‘Donna’s, er…’ He trailed off, obviously not sure who he was in relation to Donna.
    ‘… dream come true, I imagine,’ Alicia finished, with a knowing smirk. She nodded a greeting in the absence of usable hands. ‘Lovely to meet you, Mark.’
    ‘Likewise. And this is?’ Mark looked down at the pushchair.
    ‘Jack,’ Alicia introduced her son. ‘But whatever you do, don’t disturb him. He never normally sleeps unless he’s in the car. If you come across a demented mother on the motorway at midnight, that’ll be me.’
    ‘I’ll give you an escort.’ Mark smiled at Alicia, then his gaze… complete with China blue eyes so twinkly Donna felt sparks fly all over again… slid right back to hers.
    ‘You’d better take him in, before you both get arrested for indecent glances.’ Alicia smiled indulgently. ‘See you soon, honey.’ She presented her cheek to Donna’s. ‘I like him,’ she whispered.
    ‘I’ll ring you later,’ Donna promised.
    ‘You’d better,’ Alicia assured her. ‘Now, take him in and do unspeakable things to him, before he implodes. And, trust me, I want details.’ She turned back to Mark. ‘Bye, Mark. Be gentle with her.’
    Mark glanced at her, then down, embarrassed. ‘I will,’ he said, glancing back to Donna. ‘I’d never be anything but.’
    ‘Besotted.’ Alicia sighed audibly as she clacked off. ‘Utterly besotted.’

Chapter Six
    ‘Made for sharing,’ Mark mumbled, his indecent blue eyes lasering into hers, his lips — most definitely made for kissing — sucking sexily on the other end of her noodle.
    Donna smiled, tempted to reel him in and slurp him, which might not go down terribly well with their neighbours, at Wagamamas noodle bar.
    ‘Sorry about Benedicto’s being fully booked,’ he said, fishing around in their shared bowl for a prawn. ‘Maybe next time?’
    Donna smiled. ‘Maybe,’ she said, doing likewise.
    ‘Is that maybe Benedicto’s , or maybe a next time?’ Mark asked, his gaze now fixed on his chopsticks.
    ‘Maybe Benedicto’s ,’ Donna confirmed, her smile widening as she watched him. He was nervous. She couldn’t quite believe it. Nervous that she, plain, ordinary Donna O’Connor might say no? Did he not realise how delicious he was, even when not dressed in his bite-the-buttons-off uniform, which he’d changed at her house and left hanging in her bedroom — where Donna fancied it looked quite at home.
    ‘Thank God.’ He glanced up, mischief now dancing in his eyes. ‘My chopsticks would be devastated if this turned out to be a one-night stand.’
    Donna followed his gaze back down, to where her chopsticks had been getting seriously entangled with his. ‘Oh.’ She laughed, looking back at him, amazed at how easy it was to be with him.
    Mark smiled a warm, sunny smile, which Donna would be quite happy to bask in the glow of forever. ‘And I’d be devastated, if I ever did anything that made you not want to do that,’ he said, reaching across the table to take her hand.
    ‘Do what?’ Donna asked, her scalp prickling pleasantly as his fingers made contact with hers.
    ‘Laugh,’ he said, caressing the back of her hand softly with his thumb. ‘You do it beautifully.’
    Oh, Lord. Donna gulped, in danger of bursting