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‘I should never have spoken to you like that,’ she muttered apologetically, pushing out of bed and hurriedly pulling on underwear. The helicopter blades grew louder.
‘You were right,’ he said. ‘And what is the matter? You’re acting as though you’ve been caught with your hand in the cookie jar.’
Her fingers trembled a little as she slid into the dress he’d enjoyed removing hours earlier.
‘She’s my client.’ Lucinda pulled a face.
‘Technically, that’s me.’
‘Well, yes,technically,’ Lucinda agreed, rolling her eyes. ‘But really, it’s Evie I want to impress.’
‘Because I’m already impressed enough?’
She laughed. ‘You’re incorrigible.’ She was fully dressed, but it didn’t change the fact that she still looked as though she’d been being ravished for hours. A conclusion she evidently came to herself when her eyes landed on their reflection in the mirror. ‘Oh, gawd,’ she squawked, bending down and grabbing his jeans then tossing them across the room at him. ‘Get dressed.’ When he didn’t move, she pushed her hands together. ‘Ple-e-e-ease.’
His laugh surprised them both. It was a natural, deep rumble, true mirth in its tone. ‘Relax.’ He shook his head. ‘She doesn’t bite.’
‘I just don’t want her to think this is how I got the job.’
‘I’ll happily tell her that you broke in and refused to leave until I’d acquiesced.’
‘Thi-ir-io-o-o-o...’ she moaned, finger-combing blonde hair over her shoulder with one hand, while the other licked her thumb then wiped clean the smudges of make-up around her eyes. ‘Please don’t.’
‘Relax,’ he repeated. ‘It’s going to be fine.’
‘Easy for you to say,’ she said with a shake of her head. ‘Your whole future isn’t riding on the next fifteen minutes of your life.’
‘And neither is yours. You’ll get paid no matter what my sister thinks of you.’
Lucinda’s eyes widened, and hurt showed in their stunning amber depths. ‘This isn’t about money,’ she said stiffly. He frowned, because, actually, it was. She needed money to buy her father’s business back, and money was no issue for Thirio. In fact, he was tempted to give it to her now so she could get the ball rolling.
‘Then what is it about?’ he asked, gently, not wanting to scare her off.
‘This is my first proper commission. I’ve done the hard yards on a lot of events in my time, but this is the first job I’ve landed on my own, the first job I’m solely responsible for. Your sister’s happiness is a huge part of the success criteria. I want her to be happy—no, thrilled—with what I’ve arranged. It’s important to me.’
Then it was important to him too. He didn’t say the words. They felt wrong, and as if they might give her a misleading impression about their relationship, and yet he felt them, deep in his bones.
‘Okay, okay,’ he said instead, shaking his head ruefully. ‘But you’d better go and choose a different dress if you don’t want her to know how we’ve been spending our time.’
Lucinda frowned then turned to the mirror, her fingers lifting to her neck where the edge of a love bite was just visible. ‘Thirio!’ she squawked again. ‘You are...’
‘Incorrigible. You’ve already said that. But by my estimate, you’ve got five minutes before Evie walks in the door, at most.’
‘Argh!’ She turned and ran towards the door, in such a hurry that she jammed her hip into the bedpost as she passed it. She pressed her fingers to the spot.
‘I’ll kiss it better later,’ he called, half laughing, to her retreating back.
At the door, she turned to face him. ‘You’d better,’ she muttered, smiling. And then, ‘Thank you for everything. That—’ her eyes fell to the bed ‘—was wonderful.’
Evie arrived alone, which, given her status, was very rare these days. ‘I gave my guard the slip,’ she said with an innocent blink of turquoise eyes. ‘They fuss even more than you do.’ At just over five feet tall, Evie had to stand on her tiptoes to kiss her older brother’s cheek. ‘How are you, darling?’
He didn’t dare answer honestly. In that moment, he felt as if he were on top of the goddamned world. But if Evie knew the reason for his unusual ebullience, she’d obsess over keeping Lucinda in his life, and that wasn’t possible. Thirio was already breaking the pledge he’d made to himself. But at least it was temporary. In a matter of days, or weeks at most, things would return to normal, and for the rest of his life he would be alone, grieving his parents, paying penance for his role in their deaths. And that penance would be even more meaningful if it meant denying himself Lucinda.
‘I’m fine,’ he responded, his tone suitably glowering as the recollection of his guilt brought a storm cloud over his newly cheery mood.
‘You look well.’ She nodded her approval. ‘Shall we sit on the terrace?’
‘Why are you here?’
