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‘Then I go home a very successful man.’
He couldn’t have said what had changed in her expression but he noticed it. Just as he noticed the way she began absently pulling at a loose thread on her clutch.
‘That’s got to be an obscene amount of money.’
Tak balked at the edge in her voice. His tone when he answered was harsher than he had intended. ‘When was the last time you and Nell went abroad?’
‘Nell’s going skiing in a few weeks.’
He didn’t miss the dark shadows dulling her blue eyes, for a moment turning them almost grey.
‘And you?’
‘Does it matter?’
‘Humour me.’
‘No.’
‘Have you ever been abroad?’ He had no idea what made him ask the question. It wasn’t as though he knew the first thing about this relative stranger.
She chewed on her lip, her discomfort undeniable.
‘I was a junior doctor and a single mother with a young kid.’
His voice softened of its own volition. ‘I’ll take that as a no.’
She glowered at him, but still said nothing. And, as with all the little nuggets he’d been pretending he hadn’t been filing away all evening, he slotted that new piece of information into his mental picture of Dr Effie Robinson.
The real Effie. Not the one she presented to the world.
‘Listen, it’s no big deal. It’s just for charity.’
‘Yes...still—’ She stopped abruptly.
The slight tic in her jaw betrayed how tightly her teeth were clenched. As though the more he dismissed it as nothing, the more it riled her.
‘Just forget it, Tak.’
And he might have forgotten it. Or he might have defused the situation with his usual ease. But instead Tak found himself focussing on the hostility of her tone. More than that, welcoming it.
Because if she was being judgemental then here, finally, was something which knocked her off the virtual
pedestal upon which he couldn’t even remember putting her. He could shake off this inexplicable attraction which snaked constantly between them.
Tonight was about making other people wonder about him and Effie and if they were in a relationship. It wasn’t about making himself wonder what it would be like to be in a relationship with the woman. It made no sense.
He barely contained a harrumph of displeasure. Even if a part of him was attracted to her, there was still no way he was going to go there. She had a daughter. Responsibilities. Something told him that she wasn’t the kind of woman to be interested in a one-night stand. By contrast, he’d lost his entire childhood by taking responsibility for his siblings and it had put him off marriage and children for life. So the last thing he needed was to get involved with a woman who came complete with a ready-made family.
Which begged the question as to why he was intrigued by the woman standing so straight-backed in front of him at this instant. He used it to prod Effie and rile her all the more. ‘You resent me doing it because the more obscene the amount of money I spend, the more it draws attention to us.’
‘No, it isn’t... Well, it doesn’t...’ She drew in a deep breath. ‘Like I said, forget it.’
‘Isn’t that why you agreed to this charade? Because you knew dating...?’
‘Fake dating,’ she interjected.
Her teeth were gritted so tightly he was sure her jaw had to be in pain. So what made him flash his most wolfish smile?
