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Winced. At the prospect of spending the night with him.
Daisy’s eyes grew wider than ever and Ben decided it might be better for his reputation—and ego—if they moved this conversation elsewhere.
‘Before you get entirely the wrong idea about my intentions,’ he said, angling an arm behind Luce to guide her towards the bar, ‘I should point out that I’m the owner of this hotel rather than an opportunistic guest. Ben Hampton, by the way.’ A slow blink from Luce. Recognition? Ben pressed on anyway. ‘And you should also know that the King James Suite has two very finely appointed bedrooms.’
Luce pursed her lips and eyed him speculatively before giving a sharp nod. ‘Buy me a gin and tonic and you can explain exactly what you did mean by propositioning me in that manner while I try and find somewhere else to stay tonight.’
It wasn’t entirely what he’d intended, but it would do. It would give her time to remember him, or for him to introduce himself all over again. And getting her even more tightly wound than usual would only make it more glorious when she fell apart under his touch.
CHAPTER TWO
LUCE SMIRKED AT Ben Hampton’s retreating back and wondered what on earth had possessed the owner of a luxury hotel like the Royal Court to offer to share his suite with a complete stranger. Unless, of course, he remembered her, too. In which case, why hadn’t he just said so? She was pretty sure Ben Hampton had never suffered from the sort of crippling embarrassment that sometimes held her back even now. He certainly hadn’t when he was twenty.
Ben Hampton. Of course it was. She remembered that same scarred eyebrow raised at her over the breakfast table—a subtle mocking of the fact that while he and Mandy had been out having fun she’d been in studying. Again. They’d never been friends, never had any real meaningful conversations. Not even that last night, at another of his dad’s swanky hotels for Ben’s twenty-first birthday. She hadn’t known him and she’d never cared to. The little she’d observed of him had told her his entire personality, and from what she’d seen today he hadn’t changed. He still expected the world to bend to him and women to fall at his feet, just as he always had. And she still refused to do either. They were worlds apart—maybe even more so now than they had been at university.
So why offer her his room? For old times’ sake?
Not that she’d be taking him up on the offer, of course. Especially if he didn’t know who she was. Still, she had no reservations about acquiring a free drink from the exchange, while she worked on finding alternative accommodation.
Pulling out her phone again, Luce saw she had another message. Great. She dialled her voicemail and prepared to decipher her mother’s rambling.
‘Lucinda? Are you there, darling? No? Are you sure?’
A pause while Tabitha Myles waited to see if her eldest daughter was simply pretending to be an answering machine. Listening, Luce closed her eyes and shook her head a little.
‘Well, in that case, I suppose I should...maybe I should call back later? Except Tom did ask... You see, the thing is, darling, Tom’s decided he should spend Christmas Day with his new girlfriend. Vanessa. Did he tell you about her? She sounds delightful. She has two children, I understand, and you know how Tom loves children... Anyway, since he won’t be with us on Christmas Day we thought it might be nice to have a family dinner at the house on Christmas Eve so we can all meet Vanessa! Won’t that be lovely? I think this could be a real step forward for him...after everything. And you always say the house still belongs to all of us, really. Dolly says she’ll come too, as long as you’re making your special chocolate puddings. I told her of course you would. And you can invite that lovely man of yours along. Been ages since we saw Dennis. Anyway, so that’s that sorted. Friday evening, yes? See you then, darling. Lovely to talk to you. Bye!’
Fantastic. It was Monday afternoon and she was stuck in Chester at the conference until Thursday morning, assuming she found somewhere to stay. What the hell was she supposed to cook that was worthy of Tom’s tentative first steps out of depression and into the world of love and went with chocolate pots for Dolly? Maybe she could amend her supermarket order if she could get online. Which just left getting the house in a state Tabitha could tolerate, explaining once again that Dennis was not her boyfriend and writing her conference report. Not to mention the completed draft she’d promised her publisher of her first book. The university did like its lecturers to publish.
