The Engagement Deal

He ignored her ironic interjection while he silently called himself all sorts of fool for giving into the stupid juvenile impulse. ‘…to mess up as you choose.’ He held up his hands in culpability as the taxi drew up outside the hotel.

Nice touch, she thought admiringly: I’m sorry, even if you’re wrong anyway. In less fraught circumstances, she might have managed a wry smile, but right at that second she didn’t feel much like smiles, wry or otherwise!

If he hadn’t stopped when he did…I was going to open my mouth…Wasn’t!…Was!…The dizzying squabble of admission and denial was going round and round in her spinning head. The odd achy sensation deep in the pit of her stomach just wouldn’t go away, any more than the distinctive male smell of him lingering in her nostrils would.

‘It would be a good idea if you turned down the aggravation level.’

It would be a better idea if she flung herself from the moving vehicle! ‘Is that an order?’

Without waiting for him to play the gallant—a role very much against his character—she slipped out of the taxi. Fresh air, that would do the trick she decided with more optimism than conviction. She hoped she sounded the sort of cool sophisticated female who didn’t fall to pieces when an amazingly handsome male casually kissed her.

It hadn’t helped her calm levels when she’d found he had been staring, rather obviously, at the silk-covered outline of her nipples which were so painfully engorged it would have taken several layers of arctic insulation, not just a bra—which she wasn’t wearing—to disguise the shameful fact.

‘Only if that’s what you want it to be,’ his voice followed her. ‘Actually, it was a request. Just try to keep in mind we are meant to be deeply in love!’ he added sardonically, as he paid the driver and re-joined her.

Walking into an expensive restaurant beside Niall Wesley had always been one of her more pleasurable fantasies—in retrospect, her fantasies had all been rather innocent. Dream fulfilment was a major let-down, she decided, as with a slightly mocking grin he stood to one side to let her enter the plush foyer before him. Oh, yes, he had nice manners now, after he’d ripped her character to shreds, lectured her and, to cap it all, kissed her in such a manner that left her wanting more. How she loathed Niall Wesley!

‘You’re late!’ The cloud of expensive perfume reached Holly but the shapely arms didn’t—they reached Niall.

Holly watched as Tara threw her arms around her ex-husband’s neck and kissed him warmly on the lips. Her glossy blonde hair was long enough to reach the hand he had automatically placed around her impossibly slender waist. Just looking at the cleavage revealed by her low-cut black sheath dress made Holly feel hopelessly inadequate.

Holly averted her eyes. She didn’t actually want to see if this kiss stayed as chaste as the one she’d received. One thing that had struck her before she’d looked away was that Tara Steel was indisputably more lovely in the flesh than she was on the covers of glossies!

‘You’ve got lipstick on you, darling,’ Tara clucked huskily, dabbing a tissue to the corner of Niall’s mouth. He accepted her ministrations, looking at her warmly from beneath the lazy droop of his heavy-lidded eyes. ‘And it’s not mine.’ This time there was a note of teasing disappointment mingled with the gentle reproach.

‘Hello.’ She looked at Holly with keen interest and then enquiringly at Niall. ‘He’s been so secretive, he didn’t even tell me your name. In fact, I was starting to think you were a figment of his fertile imagination. I’ve never known a man quite as imaginative as Niall.’ She shot Niall an intimate knowing look that made Holly feel quite queasy.

‘And have you known many? Men that is?’ The words were out before Holly could bite them back. Maybe I should let Niall do the talking, she thought.

Tara looked startled and then surprisingly she laughed. Holly wouldn’t have blamed her if she’d stormed off in a huff or thrown something at her. ‘Not half as many as the tabloids would have you believe…’

‘Holly,’ Niall supplied belatedly, in reply to Tara’s questioning look. He bent forwards to pull out a chair for Holly. ‘Don’t worry,’ he whispered in her ear. ‘Jealous is good.’

Holly felt the mortified blush swallow up her normal interesting pallor. ‘I didn’t mean to be…rude.’

‘That’s a first,’ Niall remarked, this time in a dry voice for everyone’s ears. He took his place at the table between the two women.

‘Don’t tease, Niall. No, Holly, you were just reminding me that I’m yesterday’s news which, under the circumstances, is fair enough.’ Holly responded to the dazzling smile and candid admission with a weak smile of her own. ‘You mustn’t mind me, Holly. I’ll always have a soft spot for this man.’

A soft spot at the very least, Holly surmised, startled by the genuine rapport that seemed to exist between the estranged couple. It might have been a trick of the light, but Holly thought she actually saw tears trembling on the end of those preposterously long lashes—they couldn’t be real!

God, I’m a cow, Holly thought, appalled by her mean thought. How on earth could Niall not want Tara back? she wondered. Tara wasn’t just incredibly sexy and lovely, she was nice!

‘If I’d known about you earlier, I’d never have made such a fool of myself trying to rekindle the old flame. But you mustn’t be jealous; from what Niall has told me he’s devoted to you.’

On the receiving end of Niall’s best devoted smile, Holly made an agonised sound in her throat. Fortunately, Tara seemed to interpret her inarticulate protest as a lover-like murmur, and she smiled benignly at the couple. Holly felt nauseous—she just wasn’t equipped to deal with this sort of prolonged deception! She wanted to leap to her feet and shriek, he doesn’t love me! He didn’t even remember my name!

‘Now I’ve seen you I can see why, and he tells me you love children…But then, Niall would never marry anyone who didn’t. Thomas is the centre of his world and I’m so glad he finally has someone to share the responsibility. He’s a marvellous father—which is just as well, as I’m such an awful mother.’

‘You know that’s rubbish,’ Niall denied immediately, his dark, strongly delineated brows drawing together in a straight line of disapproval. ‘Thomas is as proud as hell of his mother and always will be, and you can direct anyone who says different to me.’

Holly had never had a man announce he’d fight the world and his brother on her behalf. She felt decidedly surplus to requirements and, for some ridiculous reason, perilously close to tears in the midst of this mutual admiration.

Where was the vitriol, where was the tension? This matiness just wasn’t normal. How could you stay friends with someone you’d once been married to? Surely the feelings of betrayal and anger couldn’t just disappear overnight? She was pretty certain she couldn’t be so civilised if she found herself in the same position, but they seemed to agree on everything. So why, she wondered, had they ever broken up?

Tara misted up prettily and she bit her quivering lip. ‘You’ve been so good after all I did,’ she said huskily. ‘I’m so happy to see you’ve finally found someone of your own. It’s positively mystical.’ Tara’s warm mellow purr dropped to a wondering whisper.

‘Mystical?’ Niall queried warily.

Holly stared. If I’d said anything with half as much mockery potential, he’d have ripped me to shreds with that nasty tongue of his, she thought, studying his tolerant expression with disbelief.

‘It’s spooky. My astrologer told me the other day that this was going to happen to one of my dearest friends—I didn’t know at the time she was talking about you two.’

‘Astrologer?’ Holly echoed. Nice but nutty, she concluded, correcting her mental profile of the beautiful woman.

‘Yes, she’s incredible. I never make any major decisions without consulting her, do I, Niall?’

‘Indeed you don’t,’ Niall confirmed drily.

‘She only takes clients by recommendation, but I could introduce you if you like, Holly. She was incredibly helpful when we were splitting up…Not that I’m suggesting you two are going to…’

‘No thanks,’ Holly responded hastily. ‘I like to think I control my own fate.’

‘Oh I can see you’re a sceptic like Niall.’ She threw her ex-husband a tolerant smile. ‘Tell me, Holly, what do you think of Thomas? Isn’t he just the greatest kid?’

‘I…I haven’t met him yet.’ Holly crossed her fingers and hoped that she wasn’t contradicting anything Niall had said.

‘Really?’

Holly wasn’t surprised by Tara’s amazement. If Niall ever did remarry it sounded to her very much like his son, closely followed by his beautiful ex-wife, would have the final say. If the child gave the thumbs-down, then it was goodbye lover! She pitied the woman who would find herself in this situation.

‘How could she?’ Niall put in smoothly. ‘You know the boy’s been staying with Chris and Jude in Maine for the past four weeks. It was you who persuaded me to let him go, remember.’

‘Well, he and little Daniel get on so well, I thought it…’ She stopped, an arrested expression drifting over her flawless features. ‘You mean you’ve only known one another for a few weeks? I had the impression…Do your parents know, Niall?’

‘Only you know, Tara, and we’d like it to stay that way.’

Holly shot him a look of alarm. It better had, the explanations could get embarrassing if this ever got out.

‘Even though I’ve known Holly since she was a kid with braces, all this is new…’ He caught one of Holly’s hands between both of his and brought the tips of her fingers up to his mouth.

He had that part right, Holly reflected grimly. ‘Very new,’ she agreed drily, tucking the hand he’d released neatly under the table.

There was warning glitter in the blue eyes that rested on her face. ‘We’ve hardly got used to the idea ourselves,’ he told Tara frankly. ‘And don’t start with any horror stories about my parents. Holly is already scared stiff at the idea of meeting them, aren’t you, darling?’ He gazed lovingly into her eyes. The rat had missed his true vocation in life. What an actor! He recovered the hand which lay protectively in her lap and covered it with his before lifting it to softly brush the inside of her wrist against his lips.

Despite the fact that all her wary barriers were firmly in place, the soft contact sent a neat electrical current zinging through her body.

‘No,’ she contradicted firmly. She might be playing a part but there were limits. If he expected her to flutter her eyelashes and cling to his strong hand, he could think again! Scared, indeed! Wasn’t it fear of another kind that was making her heart pound? She pushed aside this inconvenient thought.

‘A little natural apprehension, possibly,’ she conceded firmly, trying to inconspicuously free the hand which Niall had appropriated.

Before Holly could give her order to the hovering drinks waiter, Niall spoke up for her—she so hated it when men did that!

‘Holly will have a mineral water, won’t you, darling?’ His malicious smile dared her to contradict him.

Holly’s nostrils flared and her dark eyes were filled with contempt, but she smiled back in a suitably besotted manner. ‘Whatever you say, sweetheart.’ It would seem that Tara watching this tender interchange, couldn’t detect sarcasm—even when it was ladled on with a trowel.

When the waiter had gone, Holly soon discovered just what the overimaginative Tara had been detecting from his overbearing manner and her meek submission.

‘You’re pregnant!’ She clapped her hands. ‘I should have guessed. This is marvellous,’ she enthused.

Holly looked at her blankly. Great, not only do I have his ex-wife’s blessing to marry him, I have her approval to reproduce, too. Is this situation off the scale of weird or is it just me?

Tara smiled warmly at Holly’s stunned face. ‘She’s got a definite glow about her, hasn’t she, Niall?’

Holly didn’t know about a glow but she did feel as though she might spontaneously combust any second from pure mortification. She sent a glance of desperate appeal to Niall, who seemed to be taking this suggestion in his stride. To add insult to injury, as he looked with interest at her pink cheeks and horrified eyes, he even seemed slightly amused.

‘I think Holly’s radiance lights up any room she walks into, but I’m a trifle biased. Sorry to disappoint you, Tara, but she’s not pregnant. There are other reasons for a person to request a soft drink.’ His voice dropped a sexy octave as he continued huskily, ‘And other reasons for a person to get married, too.’ At the last moment, he turned his riveting eyes, filled with lots of reasons—all erotic—directly towards Holly, reducing her to a frozen state of open-mouthed bemusement.

She bit her lower lip in an effort to tear her glance away from that callous, calculating seduction. She didn’t doubt for a second that he expected her, like every other female, to be reduced to a gibbering idiot. He knew all right about the power his blue eyes had over the opposite sex.

‘No…’ She cleared her throat and turned her attention to Tara. ‘He thinks I’ve got a drink problem,’ she confided with a gusty sigh.

Tara obviously didn’t know whether to take Holly’s words seriously or not. Uncertainly, she looked from Holly to a frozen-faced Niall and back again.

‘You’re joking…Right?’

‘Yes Tara, she’s joking.’ Finally, she’d pierced his sardonic cool. ‘Holly has a very warped sense of humour.’

Holly heard the controlled warning in his voice and stifled a grin. ‘I thought, darling—’ she raised her eyes guilelessly to his ‘—that you loved everything about me.’

At that moment, the waiter enquired if they were ready to give their order.

‘You order for me, darling.’ Holly produced her best helpless little woman look and received a murderous glare for her troubles. ‘I’m so hopeless at that sort of thing.’

‘Don’t squabble!’ Tara pleaded. ‘I can see you two enjoy it, but I just hate it!’

Holly shot the older woman a startled glance. They were enjoying it? Where did she get that crazy idea? She looked sideways and discovered that Niall was looking at her with an expression that suggested he was just as startled as she was by this preposterous notion.

‘Tell me, Holly, what do you do?’

‘Drives me to distraction, mostly,’ Niall forestalled her reply.

Obviously, she brooded darkly, he had concluded that whatever she did for a living wouldn’t be good enough for the prospective wife of a powerful and influential figure like himself. As it happened, a junior doctor who didn’t have a minute to call her own probably was about as unsuitable as you could get.

‘Did I mention that Holly is Rowena Parish’s sister?’

‘Really, I’d never have guessed! You know, Niall,’ Tara mused thoughtfully, ‘I thought that if you ever married again it would be Rowena. Actually, Holly,’ she added in a wry aside, ‘when we were first married I was rather jealous of your sister and all their blood-brother pals act. If you know what I mean.’

Holly, who could identify completely with this comment, nodded.

‘It’s ironic, isn’t it?’ Tara laughed.

‘You never told me that!’ Niall exclaimed in a shocked voice. There was a dark band of colour across the slanting sweep of his high cheekbones.

Guilty conscience? Holly wondered uncharitably. Well, she couldn’t see a single reason why she should give Niall the benefit of the doubt.

‘Well, I wouldn’t, would I, silly.’

The loud sound of a chair being pushed over made them and every other diner in the restaurant turn around.

‘Oh, help, please, someone!’ An attractive woman was down on her knees beside the figure of a prone middle-aged man. ‘I don’t think he’s breathing!’ she wailed.

Holly wasn’t very far behind Niall as he moved towards the traumatised woman. He was feeling the man’s neck for a pulse when she dropped down on her knees.

‘Nothing,’ he said shaking his head. He started to loosen the tie around the portly man’s neck and the anxious companion began to wail in earnest, throwing herself bodily on top of the man.

‘Let me…’ Holly began.

‘Will you look after the woman?’ Niall curtly cut her off. ‘Has someone called an ambulance?’

‘I have, sir,’ the maître d’ confirmed, materialising at their side. He took the distraught woman by the arm and pulled her to one side. He looked on doubtfully as Niall struck the man sharply on the chest and tilted his head back in readiness to begin mouth-to-mouth. ‘Don’t you think, sir, we should wait until a doctor arrives?’

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