43

The irritating buzz of the bedside telephone woke him. Peter quickly reached out and snatched up the receiver, not wanting Erin to be disturbed from her sleep. It had been a long night of the most sensual sex he’d ever experienced.

The desire they stirred in each other was incredibly mutual and he wanted her to stay in his bed as long as he could keep her there.

The clock-radio read one minute past eight. His mother was nattering away on the telephone line. He muffled the voice noise with his hand as he slid swiftly from Erin’s side and strode out of the bedroom, quietly closing the door behind him. He took a deep breath to quell his sharp annoyance at being called this early on a Sunday morning. If it wasn’t his mother…

He lifted the receiver to his ear and couldn’t quite keep an impatient terseness out of his voice as he demanded,” What’s up, Mum? Some emergency?”

A blank silence, then,” Haven’t you been listening, Peter?” “I’m barely awake,” he said on an exasperated sigh.

“Then yo