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‘I’m sorry.’ She turned away, unable to listen any longer; she’d heard enough. Did Mr Impossible care about nothing but himself and the impression he made? ‘It may surprise you to know that this wedding isn’t actually about you.’
‘Maybe not, but everyone will assume that I am paying. The press will have a field day, claiming that Daniel Caruana spends less on his sister’s wedding than on his latest mistress.’
She closed her eyes, trying not to think too hard about what it would be like to be Daniel Caruana’s mistress—and not because of the money he must throw at them. He would be an uncompromising lover, she imagined, hard, demanding and as ruthless in the bedroom as in the boardroom. What would it be like to be that close to him, to be the one to rake her nails across that broad, sculpted chest?
Not that she cared.
Liar.
If she didn’t care, a menacing voice inside her questioned, then why had she even thought of it? Unless she was still remembering that whisper of a kiss and how it had made her tremble all the way to her toes…
‘I wouldn’t have thought,’ she said, battling a mouth that suddenly felt too dry to extract the words she needed, ‘that you were the type of man who worried about what anyone said, let alone the press.’
‘There are some things,’ he started, leaning towards her, his dark eyes like a promise and his voice like a glove that stroked velvet down her spine, ‘that are so private they have no place in the press.’
Under an indigo sky and a sun so warm that her skin felt kissed by the very air, still she shivered with the force of his words. Or was it their content? Whatever it was, it was threatening to scramble her brain.
‘Let me show you an alternative,’ he suggested. ‘A mere ten minute flight away,’ he said, jerking her back to the present, reminding her of what they were doing here. ‘No more.’
‘Look, Mr Caruana.’ She shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts, wishing she could rid herself of this infernal instability that seemed to beleaguer her while he was anywhere near, ‘I told you, we have a booking. I hardly see the point.’
‘Indulge me.’ His voice performed that velvet glove stroke down her spine again. She fought against a melting spine and glanced at her watch, because she had to look somewhere and if she looked into his eyes and saw that he’d meant his words to have that reaction, she would be lost. She didn’t want to think about indulging Daniel Caruana in any way, shape or form.
‘The longer you argue,’ he pressed, ‘the longer it will be before you get back to the airport for your return flight. You do want to make that return flight, don’t you?’
She snapped her head up. ‘I don’t have to come with you.’
He appeared totally nonplussed by her outburst. ‘I can assure you, when you do come, your time won’t be wasted. On the way you can fill me in on all the details I didn’t give you a chance to tell me in our earlier meeting.’
She looked at her watch before realising she’d just done that and taken no notice of the time, before looking back up at the man she suspected of playing games with her without bothering to fill her in on the rules. But she had come to Cairns to try to reconcile him to the notion of Monica and Jake’s marrying; if he was even now contemplating that the wedding might happen, then maybe he wasn’t entirely a lost cause. And maybe her day hadn’t been a complete waste of effort.
If she left now without getting his agreement to walk his sister down the aisle, what would she tell Jake and Monica when they called later tonight—that she had failed them because she was scared of Monica’s brother?
She had no choice when it all came down to it. There were still a couple of hours before she had to be back at the airport for her scheduled flight. What did it matter if she didn’t get an earlier one when Monica and Jake were relying on her to make this wedding happen? She couldn’t let them down.
She kicked up her chin. ‘And maybe I might even get my phone back?’
‘But of course,’ he said, handing it over with a smile that spoke of victory and made her wonder if whatever she was conceding was worth much more than the price of a mere mobile phone. ‘You only had to ask.’
CHAPTER FIVE
SOPHIE wasted no time calling the airline to confirm her flight time, ensuring Daniel was within earshot when she repeated the time by which she had to check in so he could not pretend later that he hadn’t known. There was no way she intended to miss her flight, especially when she wasn’t at all convinced at the necessity for this side trip.
