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With a bracing breath, she squared up to him the best she could, considering he was a good foot taller.
‘I’ve met men like you before,’ she started, not entirely sure where she was going. ‘You’re rich, charming and obscenely attractive in an overly obvious kind of way.’
‘I don’t think anyone’s made that sound like such a bad thing before, but I’m interested to see where this conversation is going.’ His lips quirked into a smile, but Holly didn’t react. She wasn’t going to fall for his charms now. Not that she could see straight through it.
‘And you have this annoying ability of making me feel incredibly relaxed yet giving me butterflies at the same time, and I’m not entirely sure how you do that.’
‘I give you butterflies?’ It wasn’t a small smile; it was a full-on smirk now. His eyes glinted with mischief, but Holly was determined not to fall into the trap.
‘There’s no point looking at me like that, because I’m not buying it any more.’ She paused for added emphasis. ‘I saw inside your wallet.’
Pushing her shoulders back with a newfound confidence, she waited for him to respond. She had thought that sentence would be enough to clarify her point, but instead his smile barely faltered, other than to be clouded by a hint of confusion.
‘I know you did. You had to open it to get money out.’
‘I mean, I saw inside it. I saw the photos. Photos of you and all women.’
‘Oh. Right.’
His nonchalance was enough to boil her blood.
‘I bet you thought I was an easy picking. A single mum who’s probably got a terrible track record in love. Probably desperate for a bit of attention. And you’re right; I am terrible in love. I got pregnant and I’m not with Hope’s father, but that doesn’t mean I don’t deserve respect. That I can just be used for another notch on your bedpost. I have more dignity than that.’
She waited for Evan to respond, only to notice how his former confusion had gone and was replaced with a suppressed smile. If she hadn’t been angry before, she was furious now.
‘Oh, of course you think it’s funny. It’s just a game for you. Everything is just a game to you people. Just because you’ve got money, you think you can mess around with people like me. Normal people.’
‘I can assure you, that is not what I think. But I will admit I find this situation rather amusing.’ Her back molars ground together as Evan sauntered over to the cabinet and picked up his wallet, promptly pulling out the photos that she had seen and placing them on the table.
‘I assume these are what you were talking about?’
It was even worse than she had first thought. There were six of them. Six photographs, although one of them was of Evan with an elderly woman she suspected was his mum.
Holly cleared her throat. ‘That’s right.’
‘These are my sisters.’ He stared at her, his expression unblinking, as deadpan as a person could be. Without waiting for him to say any more, she threw back her head and laughed.
‘Really? You’re really expecting me to believe that. You have five sisters.’ She scanned the images. ‘They don’t even look alike.’
‘I promise. I have five sisters. I’m the youngest of six.’
This time, Holly shook her head as she laughed. The lengths some men went to to cover their lies was ridiculous. She had already learned that from Giles, and she wasn’t going to fall for it again.
‘You don’t believe me?’
‘No, of course I don’t believe you.’
‘Fine then. I’ll prove it to you.’
Part of Holly didn’t want to bite. To play along with his ridiculous games. But this had her interest piqued. Besides, that smirk was so infuriatingly gorgeous, she would do whatever it took to wipe it off his face.
‘You’ll prove it to me? How?’
‘Easy. You can speak to my mum.’
25
If nothing else, this was a holiday of firsts. First lost luggage, first holiday accident. And first speaking to a man’s mother on a video call before they’d even been on a date.
