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But all of them faded into the background the moment that she caught sight of the tall, dark figure in the far corner of the room, bending slightly as if to hear what the beautiful woman he was talking to was saying.
She had found the Spanish Duke, but felt as if she were the one in the trap—not him.
She couldn’t pull her eyes away. It was as if she’d been set alight and was painfully conscious of everything—the feel of silk against her skin, the gentle hum of voices around her, the way that the light glinted on the large red jewel on the necklace of the woman he was talking to. But, aware as she was of all those things, nothing was more prominent than him.
His profile was powerful. The faint trace of stubble marked a proud jawline, framing his features, and matched the thick waves of burnt umber coloured hair on his head, making her hands twitch reflexively. Even in the shadowed lighting of the corner where he and his companion stood, she could see the almost honeyed colour of his skin, rich and tempting. The exquisite cut of his clearly expensive suit outlined broad shoulders, a flat stomach and firm thighs. And, for the first time in what felt like for ever, she itched for a sketchpad. She wanted to trace the outline of his features, copy them, fill the page with the impression of...
She saw him still. It was an almost imperceptible absence of movement probably unnoticeable to anyone, but she had been so focused on him it blared at her like an alarm.
Unerringly, Sebastian Rohan de Luen, lifted his head and gazed directly into her eyes. Her heart missed its next beat, her breath caught in her throat and she nearly cursed when she saw the same ghost of a smile she recognised from the security footage from Bonnaire’s.
He might be the most handsome man she’d ever seen, he might own a dozen four-star hotels around the world, he might be titled, but he was also the man who had singlehandedly destroyed her career and her future.
And she wasn’t going to let him get away with it.
CHAPTER TWO
INTERVIEWER ONE: And you say that he approached you?
MS KEATING: Is that so hard to believe?
INTERVIEWER TWO: If you could just answer the question.
MS KEATING: He approached me.
SEBASTIAN ROHAN DE LUEN, raised the cut-crystal glass of whisky into the air, clinking it against the champagne flute, and relished the feeling of pure unadulterated pleasure running through his veins.
‘To a dish best served cold,’ he proclaimed, before taking a very welcome mouthful of ice-cold peaty alcohol. ‘I couldn’t have done it without you, so thank you.’
He looked into a pair of dark eyes outlined with thick kohl and most likely devastatingly attractive to anyone other than him. But he’d known Aliah for far too long and for that entire time they’d been united by one goal to the exclusion of all else. And that had clearly altered the usual dynamic he engaged in with women. Objectively, she was incredibly beautiful, but...
No. Nothing.
‘And I wouldn’t be here without you, so thank you,’ Aliah replied sincerely.
‘Dare I ask what you’re going to do with your new-found freedom?’ Sebastian asked before taking another sip of his drink.
‘I have some business to attend to.’
‘How suitably cryptic,’ he observed wryly, genuinely uninterested. They had both played their part. Now it was time to...
‘And you?’ Aliah’s melodic voice slid into his thoughts. ‘Back to Siena? Or will you be visiting Maria while you’re in town?’
Sebastian couldn’t help the way his lips curved into a smile at the thought of his younger sister. Even if she had recently done the last thing he’d ever expected and run off with a Swiss billionaire on the eve of his best friend’s engagement party.
‘Maria has found herself a husband and is presently living on the edge of Lake Lucerne,’ he managed to say without betraying his distrust of Matthieu Montcour, his very new brother-in-law.
‘Oh. That’s lucky.’
‘Is it?’
‘Some might say. Is she well?’ Aliah asked, her genuine interest for his sister lessening his anger for the moment.
‘She’s nearly eight months pregnant, so I’m guessing that she is.’
‘That’s wonderful,’ she said, and Sebastian didn’t miss the note of longing, or the slight sheen that dusted the edges of her dark eyes. ‘Uncle Sebastian, now that is a sight I’d like to see.’ Aliah’s smile was both mocking and envious, the shadows hinting at the unhealed wounds from the recent separation from her own family. ‘Indulge them and appreciate them,’ she commanded.
‘I do,’ Sebastian replied honestly. ‘That is why it had to happen now,’ he said, his grip momentarily tightening on the thick glass. ‘Before Maria’s child is born. A fresh start and the past behind us.’
