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‘Lizzie, what’s wrong? Surely you don’t believe . . .’ She heard him exhale sharply. ‘I’m not seeing her again, if that’s what you’re thinking. We’re both in the office. Working.’
Slowly she let out the breath she’d been holding. Okay, now he’d explained, maybe she did sound paranoid. But it was easy to be paranoid when you were thousands of miles away from the man you loved. ‘So I don’t need to get on a plane and challenge her to a duel at dawn?’
A soft huff. ‘You don’t need to get on a plane for that reason, no.’ Before she could ask him if he wanted her to get on a plane for a different reason — to see him — he was talking again. ‘You seem to have forgotten I’m a workaholic accountant. You, on the other hand, have been draping yourself over hot male models. I’ve far more grounds to be jealous than you.’
Her heart thumped. ‘And are you?’
‘What, of those handsome male models? Of course I am.’
For the first time since she’d answered the phone, the hand holding it relaxed. ‘Good, then we’re even.’
* * *
Not by a long way, he thought grimly. Still, the fact that she’d been jealous at the thought of him going back to Sally was a welcome massage to his ego. Even if it was well off the mark. Sally had been interested enough, but there was no way he could go back to the hollow relationship he had with her. Not after getting a taste of what a real relationship would feel like. One with the woman he loved totally. Absolutely. Hopelessly. ‘Back to my original question. How’s the world of modelling?’
‘There have been some good days. I’ve just come back from a shoot in Mauritius.’
He whistled. ‘I’m starting to regret asking you now.’
‘It wasn’t a patch on our few days in Sardinia.’
‘That’s more like it.’
He heard a soft sigh. ‘I hate to sound like a broken record, but when are you coming to see me?’
Time for his stock response. ‘Well, I’ve got quite a lot on at the moment.’
‘So you keep telling me. I’m beginning to think you don’t want to see me.’
How wrong could she be? At the airport he’d barely managed to stop himself from blurting out yes to her plea to stay with him. Only the knowledge that the quiet pace of life with him would soon become a noose around her neck, slowly strangling the sparkle and vitality from her, had made him see sense. She was like a stunning, rare butterfly. He could enjoy her when she fluttered into his life occasionally, but there was no way he could keep her caged.
‘Nick? Are you still there?’
He shook himself. ‘Yes, I’m here. Sorry, I’m a bit distracted at the moment. I really do have a lot of work lined up, which is why I’m still at the office at nine o’clock at night.’ Though if he’d thought for one moment there was a chance for them, he’d have dumped the work on a junior colleague weeks ago and dashed across to see her.
‘Okay, I hear how busy you are. Message received, loud and clear.’
The hurt in her voice was unmistakable, even across thousands of miles. ‘Lizzie, if it helps any, I miss you. A lot.’
‘Good. I miss you, too.’
Her voice sounded so fragile, as if she was trying not to cry. God he hated this. Being so far from her was agony. Where once he’d been strong, keeping his feelings hidden, keeping his distance, now he was so flipping weak, it was pitiful. ‘How about in a week’s time?’ he blurted. ‘I can probably take a few days.’
‘Oh, yes, please. Stay as long as you can.’
His dumb heart lifted at her words. It didn’t care that she was a supermodel, living in the glitz of LA and he was an English accountant who fled to the quiet of the countryside at weekends. No, his heart figured while she still wanted to see him, it still had a chance with her. ‘Well, I’d better go back to putting together my spreadsheet on accelerated depreciation. I guess you’d better go back to wrapping yourself around those male models.’
‘See you soon,’ she whispered softly.
* * *
A few evenings later, feeling better than she had done in weeks now she had the promise of seeing Nick, Lizzie put on her best public face and attended the launch party of the new fragrance she was promoting. Innocence. The irony of the name, after what she’d been through, wasn’t lost on the thousands of people who flocked to see the launch. Nor was it lost on Hank, the broodingly handsome, annoyingly temperamental, model who’d been chosen as the face of Astella’s latest fragrance for men. Sin. It was an essence that oozed from him as he swaggered up to her.
‘At last, Elizabeth has come out to play.’ With a proprietary air, he tugged at a lock of her hair.
‘I’ve come out to do my job,’ she corrected stiffly. ‘Not to play.’ On the previous occasions they’d met he’d left her in no doubt she was on his list of potential targets. Women he’d zero in on, capture and spit out when he’d had enough. Several months ago there had been a moment, a wild scary moment, when she’d nearly let herself be caught. Instead she’d started dating Charles. Out of the frying pan . . . into a raging inferno.
‘Come on, don’t disappoint me. I’ve seen how good you are at playing,’ he murmured silkily. ‘Thanks to those recent photographs we all have.’
