Authors: Fiona Brand
Murmuring something short and soft beneath his breath, he fumbled at the fastening then shifted his hands around to cup her breasts.
The distinctive sound of the front door opening cut through the dizzying haze. Elena, dressed in a shimmering, ankle-length black dress and looking like a sleek wel -fed raven in spectacles, appeared in the doorway to Zane’s room.
Zane muttered something short beneath his breath and rol ed over in an attempt to shield Lilah from his assistant’s view.
Cheeks flushed, Lilah dragged her camisole back into place.
Elena dragged her fascinated gaze from Zane’s chest and seemed to remember herself. She checked the dainty watch on her wrist and addressed Zane in rapid Medinian.
Zane rose to his feet and pul ed on a shirt that was draped over a nearby chair. “English, please, Elena.”
“The car is ready. Gemma, your, uh,
date—
” she directed an apologetic glance at Lilah “—is waiting. Providing we reach the museum in the next twenty minutes, we won’t be late.”
Gemma
. Lilah jackknifed. She was Zane’s previous personal assistant and the pretty redhead he had escorted to almost every function the charity had held over the last two years.
Hurt shimmered through her. Above al the gorgeous girls Zane had dated, Gemma reigned supreme. Zane always went back to her. If Lilah had been tempted to fantasize about any kind of a future with Zane, this was exactly the wake-up cal she needed.
A second salient fact registered. The museum. And an auction of a private art col ection that had been donated to the charity.
Somehow in the craziness of the past few days, she had forgotten she was supposed to attend. Frantical y, she checked her wristwatch.
She should have been dressed by now and cal ing a taxi.
Another thought occurred to her. “Howard.”
Zane’s head snapped around as he shrugged into a shirt. He gave her a questioning look.
“My date.” She scrambled off the bed. She was supposed to be meeting Howard outside the museum in fifteen minutes.
She dashed into her room, snatched an uncrushable cream dress off its hanger, dressed and fixed her hair. She slipped into cream heels and applied a quick dash of mascara and lip-gloss, a spray of her favorite perfume and she was ready.
Picking up her clutch, she joined Zane and Elena. The venue wasn’t far away, but there was no way she would make her rendezvous with Howard in time. To compound matters, this was a first date recommended by the online dating agency she had started using just weeks ago. She had never physical y met Howard. Al she knew was that he had ticked al the boxes in terms of her requirements in a husband.
Now that Lucas was history, Howard was number one on her list of eligible bachelors and her most likely prospect for marriage.
She dragged her gaze from the riveting sight of Zane in a black tuxedo, and tried to gloss over the fact that she had just climbed out of his bed and was now going to meet a prospective husband. “I need a lift to the museum.”
Lilah was five minutes late.
Howard White was waiting in the appointed place in the museum foyer, although at first she had difficulty picking him out because he was older than the photograph he had supplied. Mid-forties, she guessed, rather than the age of thirty-two, which he had given.
Flustered and ashamed at herself for her loss of control with Zane, and for forgetting she was even meeting Howard, Lilah resolved to overlook his dishonesty.
Howard smiled pleasantly as they shook hands. “I feel like I know you already.”
Guilt burned through her as Howard continued to study her in a way that was just a little too familiar for comfort.
Her picture
had
been splashed across the tabloids. Her only hope now was that he wouldn’t put two and two together when he saw Zane. She would have to do her best to make sure that they were not seen together.
As he released her hand, she couldn’t help but notice that he had a pale strip across the third finger of his left hand, which seemed to indicate that Howard had been recently married.
The evening progressed at a snail’s pace.
Burningly aware of Zane just a short distance away with Gemma clinging on his arm, Lilah found it hard to focus on Howard and his accounting business.
Howard placed his empty mineral water on a nearby side table and beckoned a passing waiter. “Are you sure you wouldn’t like some champagne?”
“No. Thank you.” Lilah was beginning to get a little annoyed at the pressure Howard was applying with regard to alcohol, especial y when he had not touched anything alcoholic himself.
“Very sensible.” He put his wal et away.
She tried to think of something else to say, but the conversation had staggered to a halt.
Howard jerked at his col ar as if it was too tight. “My—uh, mother doesn’t agree with alcohol, especial y not for women.”
Lilah dragged her gaze from Zane’s profile. She had barely paid Howard any attention, but al of her Cole instincts were on high alert. She had received the strong impression that Howard had been about to say “wife.” “Your
mother
?”
Howard’s gaze shifted to the auctioneer, who was just setting up. He dragged at his tie as if he was having trouble breathing. “I live with my, uh, mother. She’s a fine woman.”
Feeling suddenly wary of Howard, Lilah excused herself on the grounds that she needed some fresh air before the auction started.
She stepped outside onto a smal paved terrace dotted with modern sculpture. A footfal sounded behind her. Zane.
Light slanted across his cheekbones, making him look even tougher and edgier.
She had been aware that he had been keeping an eye on her the entire time and had hoped he would fol ow her.
He jerked his head in the direction of the crowded room.
“When did you meet him?”
“Tonight.”
His expression was incredulous. “A blind date?”
She stared at the soaring, shadowy shape of a concrete obelisk, as if the outline was riveting. “More or less.”
It was none of Zane’s business that Howard had contacted her through her online dating service. His application was very recent. It had appeared in her in-box just before she had gone to Medinos. She had felt raw enough on her return that she had agreed to her first actual date.
“I don’t like him, and you’re not leaving with him.” There was a vibrating pause. “He’s old enough to be your father.”
There was an oddly accusing note to Zane’s voice. Lilah stared hard at a tortured arrangement of pipes at the center of the smal courtyard, a piece of art that, according to a plaque, had something to do with the inner-city “vibe.” “He is older than I thought.”
She rubbed her bare arms against the coolness of the night, suddenly desperate to change the subject. “Where’s Gemma?”
“Gemma won’t miss me for a few minutes. Is that why you dated Lucas, because he was older?”
Her gaze connected with Zane’s. She didn’t know why he was so stuck on the issue of age. “I don’t see what this has to do with anything.”
“I’ve read your personnel file. I know how old you are, I also know that you seem to date older men. Is that a requirement for your future husband?“
Despite the chil y air it was suddenly way too hot. She tried to whip up some outrage that Zane had accessed her personal information, but the implications of his prying were riveting. She couldn’t think of any reason for Zane to focus on the age of her dates unless it affected him personal y.
The thought that Zane was comparing himself with her dates and that he was actual y worried that he was too young, was dizzying. “No.”
Something like relief flickered in his gaze. “Good.”
His fingers linked with hers, drew her close.
Lilah swal owed against the sudden dryness in her mouth. After the disaster on Medinos fol owed by the deadening effect of Howard’s company, Zane’s interest in her was fatal y seductive. “This is a bad idea. You’re with someone else.”
In theory so was she, but Howard, with his sneaky lies and deceptions, had ceased to count.
“Gemma works for The Atraeus Group. She just helps me out on occasion.”
Zane’s head dipped, his breath wafted over her cheek, and suddenly, irresistibly, they were back where they’d been less than two hours ago—on the verge of…
something.
His lips touched hers. Heat shivered through her, she lifted up on her toes. Her palms automatical y slid over his shoulders, fingers digging into pliant muscle. His hands closed on her waist.
The sound of the auctioneer taking bids flowed out into the night, but even that faded as she stepped closer, angled her chin and leaned into the kiss.
Something shifted in the shadows, flashed. Zane’s head jerked up.
A second shadow flickered. A night security officer with a flashlight in one hand nodded as he walked past.
Confused, Lilah stepped back from Zane. For a moment she was certain someone had used a camera flash. She couldn’t stop the gossip and the sensationalized stories, but that didn’t mean she had to like the sneakiness of the reporters. “I’d better go back inside. Howard wil be missing me.”
Zane was stil watching the shadowy figure of the security officer as he stepped into a concealed side entrance. “Are you serious about him?”
“Not anymore.” Feeling a wrenching regret at leaving the courtyard, Lilah made her way back into the crowded room.
Howard was stil engrossed in conversation with a knot of older men. He didn’t bother to look her way. Lilah decided that Zane was right; he looked depressingly paternal.
Zane fel into step beside her. His fingers closed on hers.
Pleasure and guilty heat shooting through her, Lilah jerked her fingers free. Zane’s teasing grin made her heart pound. She resisted the almost overpowering urge to smile back. “What do you think you’re doing?”
The wicked grin faded. “Something I should have done before, checking out your date. I want to make sure Howard doesn’t have an agenda.”
“He does. I realized tonight that he’s married.”
Zane’s expression went from irritated to remote as he slid his cel out of his pocket and spoke briefly into it.
He snapped the phone closed. “Go to the car with Gemma and Elena. Spiros has just pul ed up to the curb outside. I’l deal with Howard. Your boyfriend was also out in the courtyard with a phone camera.”
Lilah stared at Howard who she noticed, was now knocking back something that looked extremely alcoholic.
She remembered the shuffling sound, the extra flash.
Zane inserted himself into the jovial male group with the confidence and ease that came from being a supreme predator in the business world. She saw the moment Howard realized he had been made, the automatic reach for his pocket as if he wanted to shield his cel phone.
Howard’s wild gaze connected briefly with hers. With calm deliberation, Lilah turned her back on Howard and walked through to the museum lobby. She noted that she didn’t feel in the least shocked or depressed by the betrayal. On the contrary, there had been something highly satisfying in watching Zane go into battle for her.
Unfortunately, along with her new ruthless streak, she seemed to have also gotten used to leading a life of notoriety.
Gemma and Elena strol ed out directly behind her.
Spiros held the door for them while they climbed into the limousine. Elena chatted with Spiros in Medinian, leaving Lilah with a clearly unhappy Gemma.
Seconds later Zane joined them. Gemma beamed and patted the vacant space beside her. Instead of climbing in, Zane glanced across at a group of boys Lilah had noticed loitering a smal distance away from the limo.
He glanced at Lilah. “I won’t be long.”
Gemma, looking distinctly irritable as Zane walked over to the boys, extracted a cel from her clutch and within seconds was deep in conversation about her new job and a move overseas. Elena retrieved a romance novel from her clutch, attached an efficient looking little LED light to the back pages, and was promptly engrossed.
Lilah decided she clearly hadn’t lived, because she hadn’t thought to bring an activity with her that was suitable for downtime in a limousine. Absently, she noted Howard slinking off to his car, which turned out to be a sleek little hatchback with a personalized licence plate that read
“HERS.”
Zane terminated a cel phone conversation as he walked back to the car. “I can’t come back to the hotel with you right now. I have to take care of these kids. They saw the posters for the charity auction—that’s why they came.”
Lilah stared across at the lean wraiths clustered around a park bench as if that smal landmark was al they had.
“What can you do?”
“Get them in a house for the night with state foster care.
That doesn’t guarantee they’l stay, but at least it’s a start. I’l see you later.”
Lilah watched as Zane walked back to the kids, seeing the instant brightening of their faces. She hadn’t realized how personal y involved he was, or how much kids liked him.
She felt like she was seeing him for the first time, not the quintessential bad boy or the exciting, elusive lover the media liked to publicize, but a committed, protective man who would make an excel ent father.
With the rest of the night in Zane’s hotel suite looming, it was not a good time to discover that Zane had somehow managed to transcend the list of attributes she was searching for in a husband and had made her requirements seem petty and flawed.
Eight
Lilah’s cel phone rang as she stepped in the door of the suite. It was Zane. She remembered that she had given him her number earlier.
“Stay in my room. I won’t be late.”
She stiffened at the invitation, as if Zane was already so sure of her he assumed she would be sleeping with him.
“No.”
There was a hol ow pause. “Why not?”
“For a start, you already have a girlfriend.”
“Gemma is not my girlfriend. Like I said, she’s a company employee and she fil s in as my escort on occasion. Tonight’s date was organized a few weeks ago. I would have canceled if I’d had time.”
Lilah’s fingers tightened on the phone. “I know this might sound sil y to you, but I made a certain…vow. I might have forgotten it for a few minutes this afternoon, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s important to me.”