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He’d had no qualms about using that friendship to engineer this meeting. But Michael had understood.
‘Is that really why you’re here, Jack?’ Elisabeth’s hands went to her hips as if she didn’t trust him. ‘Just to support your new best friend?’
‘Naturally. What other reason could I have?’
She wants you to have come here for her.
Satisfaction bloomed.
She shook her head, her eyes never leaving his. ‘The Jack Reilly I know never acts out of sentiment. There’s always some advantage to be had, a deal to be done or important person to meet.’
Her words bit deep. It was crazy. He made no apologies for being achievement orientated. That was why he was so incredibly successful. Yet she made that sound morally questionable.
‘Bess! Let me introduce you to the others.’ Freya looped her hand through Elisabeth’s arm, shooting Jack a sharp look.
Typical. He’d done nothing but greet his wife. It had been Elisabeth who’d tried to needle him. But naturally Freya took her side.
Jack turned to join the group who eyed them with interest but who were too polite to ask about the status of their relationship. Even though Bess’s sudden absence from the marriage had been the stuff of breathless public speculation.
He accepted a cold beer and let the conversation wash over him, taking part occasionally but not singling out Elisabeth. Time enough for that when they were alone.
He and his wife had unfinished business.
Rogue emotions, unfamiliar since boyhood, tightened his gut.
When she’d walked out on him Jack hadn’t believed it. Still recuperating after severe flu, his foggy brain had been unable to take it in. Especially since she’d spent the previous five days nursing him when he’d been too ill to lift his head off the pillow. Her devotion had reminded him of the one person who’d ever loved him, his grandmother, the single stable point in his childhood.
For Elisabeth to look after him like that then run away made no sense.
Their marriage had been a stellar success. He hadn’t been able to comprehend that she didn’t feel the same. And when disbelief finally died it had been replaced by anger.
That she hadn’t stayed to talk it through and give him a chance to persuade her into staying.
That she’d left him in the lurch to deal with the fascinated interest of his peers and the press. To deal with sympathetic looks and commiserations.
Jack wasn’t used to failure.
Or to being made a laughing stock.
The party broke up around midnight. The ceremony was the next morning and Freya insisted she wanted everyone bright-eyed.
People were heading down separate paths to their villas when Jack approached Elisabeth. ‘I’ll walk you to your door.’
She stiffened. ‘No need. I’ll find my own way.’
Freya looked across, frowning. ‘Bess, did you want—?’
‘Nothing, Freya. I’m fine. You need some beauty sleep ready for tomorrow.’
Michael put his arm around his bride-to-be, pulling her close when she’d have gone to her cousin, and Jack inclined his head the tiniest fraction in thanks. He was impatient to be alone with his wife. The last few hours had tested his patience to the limit.
‘She’s very protective of you,’ Jack murmured as the others moved away.
‘I can look after myself.’ She nodded in dismissal and turned down a path the others hadn’t taken. Tiny solar lights in the gardens lit the way.
Jack waited a few seconds then fell into step behind her.
She spun around, that invitation of a dress flaring around her legs.
