Read Online Recipe for Love by Katie Fforde - Free Book Online

Fenella, laughing. ‘I’ve got a team of decorators about to hit your bedroom any minute. We have to have that bridal suite ready double quick!’
    He frowned. ‘Oh. I hope my staying doesn’t hold you up.’
    ‘Not at all,’ said Fenella. ‘They can work round you. If you don’t mind of course.’
    ‘Fine by me.’ Gideon smiled. Fenella and Rupert were doing him a favour after all.
    Fenella turned to Zoe. ‘Now finish your coffee and then go. And bring me back a leg of pork. I’ll phone and tell them what we want. Oh, and some bacon …’

Chapter Six
     

    ZOE GOT INTO Gideon’s car feeling a mixture of excitement and nervousness. She felt she’d got to know him a bit while they were drinking cocoa but being suddenly so close to him was somehow a shock. She knew she was attracted to him – fancied him even – but she hadn’t realised quite how much till his arm was only inches away from hers. She really hoped she’d be able to concentrate. She didn’t often find people attractive like this and it was making her feel a bit light-headed.
    ‘Have you got the directions?’ Gideon asked.
    She gave herself a mental shake and engaged her brain. ‘Yes. It looks quite straightforward.’ Rupert had scrawled a map that Zoe now examined. ‘Which one shall we go to first? Pigs or dairy?’ She was determined to sound completely professional and efficient. Which she was. Usually.
    ‘Which do we come to first?’
    ‘The dairy, but we don’t want stuff going off in the car while we look at pigs. Maybe pigs?’
    He nodded, having thought this over. ‘OK, I’m in your hands but don’t get us lost.’
    As she began to relax a little and enjoy his company she felt she could tease him. ‘Excuse me! You were the one who went down the wrong lane and got the car stuck turning round!’
    She saw him raise his eyes to heaven in the driving mirror. ‘I knew you’d never let me forget that.’
    Zoe smiled. Something in the way he said that connected them, as if they were a team – or a couple out on an adventure together. She found she liked the idea quite a lot, but then chided herself. They weren’t a team, he was a judge of a competition that was going – with luck – to be watched by millions and she was a contestant.
    And anyway, she was mad to fancy Gideon. He would never look at her except possibly as a minor diversion when there was no one else around. He had the sort of looks – not exactly handsome but undeniably sexy – that implied he could get any woman he decided he wanted. Even if she wanted him – and if she were honest, she did – she’d be mad to give in to her feelings. She had to keep a grip on herself. She couldn’t jeopardise her chances in the competition. She was a modern young woman, with aspirations she didn’t want to sacrifice by getting distracted by a man, tempting though he was.
    ‘I think it’s here,’ she said as they approached a turning, half hidden by overgrown hedges. The countryside was ablaze with that fresh greenness one only got in May. Zoe was really enjoying herself. ‘Rupert said the sign is pretty hidden but it’s by the blasted oak.’
    ‘I didn’t think they really existed but I see what you mean.’ He changed down and turned where she indicated. With a throaty roar they headed down a less-than-smooth half-dirt track. ‘But if you’ve taken us down a long cul-de-sac I expect you to get us out.’
    ‘Don’t I always?’ She sent him a challenging look.
    His answering glance suggested to her that he was not used to being challenged. She decided to do it as often as possible – for his own good, of course. She also realised how much she loved flirting.
    The lane was bordered by orchards with black pigs snuffling underneath the trees – an idyllic picture that made Zoe sigh for a more rural life. The town where she had lived up until the competition and where her parents still lived wasn’t exactly a metropolis but there was something wonderfully