The Man Behind the Mask by Maggie Cox Page A

‘Thank you.’
    Watching her stand, he let his gaze hungrily scan her slender upright figure, noticing that the neck of the too large cream sweater had slid tantalisingly down over a pale smooth shoulder…a perfectly edible and bewitchingly feminine shoulder. Eduardo stared, his heart thudding. Not only did he feel aroused, but his body and mind were suddenly consumed with one passionate, compelling idea—a need and a desire he seemed to have no control over. And he was quite aware that made him vulnerable in an area where he had actively sought to protect himself— feelings and emotions.
    Marianne started to walk towards the door. ‘Ricardo is going out to the woodshed to get some kindling for the morning. I need a breath of air, and I said I’d go and help him. Excuse me.’
    â€˜Marianne?’
    â€˜Yes?’ She stopped and turned.
    â€˜You are getting on well with Ricardo, I take it?’
    â€˜Yes, I am.’
    â€˜You like him?’
    â€˜What’s not to like? He’s a very pleasant young man, and easy to get along with.’
    â€˜You talk as though you were twenty years older than him, instead of there being just a year’s difference in age between you!’
    She frowned and folded her arms, looking uncomfortable. ‘I expect I come across as older in the way I speak some times, because I’m used to taking charge of things. Habit, I suppose…’
    â€˜Did he inform you that he is going to be away for a few days from tomorrow? He is due some time off, and is meeting up with friends in London who have travelled over from Brazil.’
    â€˜He did mention it…yes.’
    â€˜And you are not uneasy at the idea of being alone with me in the house while he is gone?’
    Her eyes fixed candidly and unwaveringly on Eduardo’s face. ‘Why should I be? You’re my employer as well as—as well as a friend…I feel perfectly safe with you’
    â€˜I am gratified that you admit to owning me as a friend at last, when earlier you seemed to discount that and refer to me only as your employer!’
    â€˜We were starting to become friends before you offered to help me out with a job and a home…weren’t we?’ She visibly flushed as she said this.
    â€˜Well…’ His desire seeming in conveniently and almost pain fully to increase, Eduardo affected a dismissive shrug. ‘You had better go and find Ricardo, then, and get on with what you were doing.’
    â€˜Do you need anything before I go?’ Marianne asked innocently.
    Eduardo almost prayed out loud to the Mother of Guadeloupe for strength at the vivid pictures that came into his mind following such a question, and his voice was gruffer than he meant it to be when he answered. ‘No. I do not need anything at all. If I do…Ricardo can attend to it when he returns.’
    â€˜Okay.’
    Stepping outside into the corridor, Marianne closed the door quietly behind her…
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    Having prided herself on surviving without too much mishap, providing meals and beverages through out the day for Eduardo and herself after Ricardo had left for London, as well as attending to the rest of the housework, Marianne fixed her sights on a long hot bath and then relaxing with a good book. But she wasn’t entirely at her ease.
    Two things had unsettled her. Firstly, the realisation that for someone who seemed so interested in a photographic exhibition that he would visit it more than once Eduardo didn’t seem to have any personal photographs of his own. There were certainly none on display inthe house, and that struck her as rather odd. Maybe for some reason Eduardo was trying to lose his past? she speculated. Or at least leave it behind? Secondly, earlier on that afternoon he had had a visit from his physiotherapist. The man had seemed pleasant enough, but after he had gone Marianne had knocked on the sitting room door to offer Eduardo a cup of