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found her parents had died, the moment her uncle had said he couldn’t take her, the moment her mother’s best friend said she couldn’t take her, the moment Frank had sent her to boarding school because she didn’t want to appear on his TV show any more, and the moment six years ago when Tristan had sent her away.
But none of that had felt anywhere near as painful as hearing Tristan say he didn’t love her, and it was only Jordana calling her name from the other room that prevented her from sliding to the floor and dissolving into a puddle of misery.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
WHERE the hell was she?
Tristan scowled as he leaned against one of the ornate oak sideboards in the main drawing room, sipping an aperitif and talking with one of Oliver’s cousins while awaiting the remaining guests for the rehearsal dinner.
A waiter discreetly circulated amongst those already present, and Tristan glanced through the open double doors to where a lavish dining setting, resplendent with antique crystalware, awaited twenty-four of Jordana and Oliver’s close friends and family for the rehearsal dinner.
From what he could tell the room was empty of everyone other than waiting staff. Which meant that Lily wasn’t down yet.
Tristan knew he should have been in a better mood, given that his baby sister was marrying one of his oldest friends the following day, but he wasn’t. After his run in with Jordana this morning his day had gone from bad to worse.
He’d been off his game during polo from the start, and then Oliver had informed him that Jordana’s ‘surprise’ for Lily was to set her up with all three of his single cousins!
Tristan had left the field immediately after that and discreetly cornered Jordana, telling her in no uncertain terms to rearrange the evening’s place settings so that Lily sat beside him. Only she’d floored him by telling him that Lily had already asked that the place settings remain as they were.
Then she’d apologised for her earlier behaviour. ‘Lily set me straight this morning,’ she’d said. ‘She told me she was just taking my advice and “cutting loose” by having a harmless fling with you, and that it was now well and truly finished.’ Which had been news to him. ‘I was just a bit carried away by the excitement of my wedding. I’m truly sorry to have teased you the way I did.’
Tristan had reassured her it was fine, but really he hadn’t heard much after ‘harmless fling’ and ‘cutting loose’. His memories of last night certainly did not fit under either one of those banners! And as for things being finished…
Did that mean Lily actually wanted to be set up with one of Oliver’s cousins? This mountain of a man he was currently attempting to converse with, perhaps? Tristan hoped not, because objectively speaking he was an attractive devil. If Lily went for brawny males—and she had certainly been admiring his own muscles last night—then Hamish Blackstone would be right up her alley.
He scoured the room again for Lily and tried to clear the scowl off his face. Where was she? Avoiding him?
He’d deliberately stayed away from her all day to give her a chance to do girlie stuff with Jordana, convincing himself that the last thing either woman wanted was a male hanging around. But really, if he was honest, he’d been upset to find Lily constantly in his thoughts, and after their unbelievable lovemaking last night he’d needed time to think.
And what he’d thought was that there was no way she was getting it on with one of Oliver’s cousins this weekend. Or the next, for that matter, and…Where on earth was she?
He was just about to go in search of her when the hair stood up on the back of his neck and he knew she’d arrived.
He turned to see her poised to enter the room from the single side door leading in from the south corridor and his heart stopped. For maybe a minute.
Not enough time to kill him, but long enough that it had to beat triple time to oxygenate his brain again.
George Bernard Shaw was meant to have said, ‘Beauty is all very well at first sight; but who ever looks at it when it has been in the house three days?’ Tristan could safely answer that he did! If anything, as he looked at her standing in the doorway wearing a powder-blue Grecian-style gown that left her arms and décolletage bare, with her glorious hair upswept, he didn’t think he’d ever seen a more divine creature. And by the intake of breath of his drinking companion he hadn’t either.
‘That’s Lily Wild,’ Hamish Blackstone announced under his breath.
Tristan grunted and waited for Lily to make eye contact with him. But she didn’t. Instead she stepped straight up to a group of women that included the bridesmaids and Oliver’s mother, looking relaxed and composed and every inch the movie star that she was.
‘She’s taken,’ he found himself telling Hamish.
‘You’re joshing me?’ the Scot spluttered. ‘Jordana said she was single. Who’s the lucky guy? I’ll deck him.’
Tristan looked him up and down and thought he just might with those tree trunk arms. ‘Excuse me. I need to mingle.’
He needed to talk to her, that was what he needed to do, and he didn’t care who knew it. She couldn’t just ignore him after last night.
‘Cutting loose’ be damned!
Lily smiled politely and answered questions about acting and America and everything else in between.
When she had first walked into the drawing room she’d sensed Tristan’s presence and deliberately hadn’t looked for him. She didn’t want to see him. She had her pride, and she’d decided earlier that she wasn’t going to collapse as she had wanted to do in the shower. That had been shock, and she’d had all day to steel herself against seeing him again.
Maybe it wouldn’t be so hard.
