Hot and bothered

A little over 9000 words so far - I got 3000 done today and will probably have to stick at this cracking pace to manage 50,000 by the deadline. Phew!
Sicco (as Karen so eloquently named him) has started feeling a little better. In my mind, he is looks a lot like Harrison Ford (left, a few years ago). So he's throwing her a lot of lopsided grins (just like that one). Which are having the same sort of effect on her as The Aubergine did when she was out in the sweet chestnut forest with Big Massimo.
Unfortunately, Big Massimo came back to the house triumphantly bearing a basket of veg (including the Aubergine) and discovered our heroine had a man in her bed, and he's - of course - got hold of completely the wrong end of the stick. So he's walked quietly back to The Big House for a manly sulk.
Meanwhile, Sicco has showered and cleaned his teeth (thank the lord) and, in spite of shaky pins, dehydration and not having eaten anything for 36 hours, is waltzing around the house wearing only a bath towel (heroine has washed the clothes he was wearing and left his suitcase out in the Fiat).
She stared at The Aubergine that had given her 'such a turn', acknowledging that she was overcome with l-u-s-t for Big Massimo, and has decided the best thing to do with it is get rid of it, so she's popped it into a moussaka (what else does anyone do with eggplant?).
So she's having a bit of a cook-up and thinking about how very, very sexy Massimo is in an earthy, musky sort of way, and how very very handsome Sicco is, in a very pale and interesting sort of way.
She's going to find herself hot and bothered and in a spot of real bother real soon - she hopes!