Read Online Operation Soulmate by Diane Hall - Free Book Online Page B

at her and discreetly put his hands together and pulled them apart again. Geraldine suddenly, subtly disengaged and turned away from Brogan, under the pretext of reaching for a biscuit. Brogan, who was in mid-sentence at the time, was about to follow her to finish what she’d been saying, when she suddenly caught sight of Ben, holding his chin with his other arm folded across his body, shaking his head slightly. She watched in amazement, as a tall, good-looking guy in a stylish navy suit approached Geraldine.
          “Hi, I’m Toby,” said a warm, velvety voice somewhere above her left ear. Geraldine turned to see where the deep and mellifluous voice was coming from.
         “Oh, hi, I’m Geraldine,” She said, shaking the offered hand. Just like the voice, the handshake was warm, reassuring and strong. Geraldine could feel her face getting warm. Toby had the look of someone from Kenya: Perfect, ridiculously smooth and even-toned, almost, magical-looking, coffee-coloured skin, eyes that shone with gentle wisdom and playful defiance. A beautiful, full, expansive and friendly mouth, filled with absurdly perfect teeth and a smile that simply took her breath away. His head was shaven, he was relaxed, well-groomed and life-affirmingly focussed. His dark, navy suit was smart, without being stuffy and its large lapels and the slightly anarchic T shirt he wore instead of a dress-shirt and tie, gave a brief wink to non-conformity, without being sloppy or making him look like an off-duty footballer. He had dignity, style, presence and smelled absolutely gorgeous. Nice one, Ben , she thought. Toby, just had to be the most beautiful-looking specimen of human being she had ever seen.
          “Nice to meet you, Geraldine. So what brought you here today?” He continued, confidently dripping honey, charisma and can-do calmness all of over her, his voice somehow reverberating dangerously through her chest. Geraldine suddenly glanced at Ben, in an unconscious, nervous gesture. Surely this guy was just too good to be true! Ben gave her a discreet thumbs-up, then quickly looked the other way, as she tentatively returned her attention to Toby.
          “Oh, I, I er... just came along with a couple of friends; they’re around here somewhere; how about you?”
          “Oh, I’m a head teacher, just looking for new ways to motivate some of the more challenged kids.” Geraldine swooned slightly. So much for her little prejudice against guys in suits.
         “That’s great, where’s your school?”
        “A little village called Stockwell.”
         “Oh, yes, I know Stockwell,” she said, ruefully. As far as teaching went, it didn’t get much more challenging than Stockwell. In fact, Geraldine was sure she’d read something, recently, about an amazing, young head who’d completely turned around a really difficult school in Stockwell, in just a couple of years, to the point where the school was now almost unrecognisable: top of the league tables, with a completely overhauled and highly motivated teaching team. Surely this couldn’t be that guy could it?
          “Oh my God,” she said without thinking, “It’s not Stockwell Green is it?”
          “That’s the one...” he said, looking slightly confused. “How on earth did you know that?”
         “Oh, just a lucky guess,” She said. “Well, no, I mean, I read about the school in TES. I wrote a feature for them recently on the connection between disaffection and decreasing spiritual direction in schools... Kind of presenting a case for meditation and mindfulness in schools. And your school was featured in the same issue. I suppose it kind of stayed in my mind. It was just so inspiring... all the great things happening in that school and, well, you just seem like the kind of guy who could have made them happen...”
    She tailed of sheepishly. She was slightly uncomfortable, now. She was fawning, blatantly, and he was looking