The Bridal Bargain (10 page)

Tony’s
adrenaline was running high as he strode around the jeep to help Hannah out. She was wearing high-heels. Very sexy high-heels. Red, which looked great against her honey-tanned bare skin, with just thin little straps around her ankles and across her toes holding them onto her feet. She definitely needed help getting out and feeling steady in those shoes.

He opened the passenger door. Hannah swung her legs towards him. The filmy fabric of her dress slewed slightly, opening up the thigh-high side slit, semi-disguised by the soft ruffle that ran around the hem of the skirt. Very provocative, that ruffle. There was one around the V-neckline, too, forming filmy little sleeves over her shoulders and accentuating the soft swell of her cleavage. Fabulous dress, with big splashes of pink-red floppy poppies running down in a diagonal against a creamy background that was the exact same colour of some of the strands in her hair.

He loved her hair, rippling way out over her shoulders, a rioting mass of crinkly waves in an incredible array of blonde shades from cream to honey, all intermingled and looking great. It flowed towards him as she bent forward to stretch her legs down to the street. Shiny and soft from being freshly washed, it smelled of lemons, and he instantly thought how much he would enjoy burying his face in it later tonight.

She linked her arm around his, hugging it as she set her feet on the ground and straightened up. “Thanks, Tony.” A slightly rueful smile was flashed at him. “I think I’ll have to hang on to you. I haven’t worn these shoes for a while.”

He laughed, brimming over with pleasure in her as he clamped his other hand over the one resting on his arm. “When a man has a woman as beautiful as you are, hanging on his arm, he’s not about to let her slip away. I want everyone to know you’re mine, Hannah O’Neill.”

Her lovely green eyes danced pleasure right back at him. “Well, I’m very happy to claim you as mine, too, Tony King.”

“Just keep holding that thought,” he advised.

She laughed, not realising he was deadly serious.

As they set off on the walk to the restaurant, Tony had a few moments’ trepidation about what he was leading her into. She was happy with him. Right now all the vibrations between them were positive. Should he take her elsewhere and build on that happiness, making it a platform that would seal off the past for her? Was that possible?

Even if it was, could he live with not knowing what her choice would have been if Flynn Lovett made himself available to her?

Winning by avoidance...

No. The choice to run was wrong. It might have been right for Hannah two years ago, but not now. Not with him. He had to know...and she had to know...just how much being with him counted. Talk meant nothing. Action and reaction showed the truth.

The Lovetts were staying in Port Douglas for another three days. They’d told him so. Better to force the connection between them and Hannah tonight and break it, once and for all. Bury it so it never raised its head again.

They reached the gate to the private path up to the restaurant. He paused, knowing once they were past this gate there’d be no turning back. Should he tell Hannah what she was about to face? His grandmother’s voice echoed through his mind.
Ask her if this is what she wants.
But if she chose to run again...

No!

He couldn’t bear for either Flynn or Jodie Lovett to have that much power over her.

She was his. She wanted to be with him. She was hanging on to his arm and no one was going to come between them.

He opened the gate.

Hannah took a deep breath as Tony closed the gate behind them. Her whole body was buzzing with excitement. It was such a beautiful evening...the balmy atmosphere of this lovely laid-back tropical town making any sense of turmoil absurd, plus being with Tony, who not only made her
feel
beautiful, but was so beautiful himself, incredibly sexy and wanting to keep their pleasure in each other going, insisting she dine with him at this top-line restaurant.

It was lucky she had held on to this dress and the shoes that went with it so she had something decent to wear. More than decent. She’d thought it wonderfully feminine and glamorous when she’d seen it modelled during the last fashion week she’d done, and it had been a gift of appreciation from its designer for her work on the show—a reminder of her other life, but she’d never worn it for Flynn. He’d never even seen it. She’d been keeping it to...

She shook her head free of the memory. Tony was turning back to her, taking her arm again, and she was glad she still had the dress to wear for him, to mark this evening as very special, because it was.
He
was special. Amazingly so. And stunningly handsome in his red sports shirt and fawn chinos. Even the colours they were wearing more or less matched. It seemed to reinforce the sense of being a couple, boosting her spirits even higher.

She happily hugged his arm as they started up a path that revealed how very special the Nautilis restaurant was, too. They were instantly plunged into a mini-rainforest which completely shut out the town behind them. Ahead and above them, seemingly just hanging there amongst the trees and ferns and beneath a canopy of towering palms, were open wooden decks where people were seated in high-backed cane chairs, dining under the light of candles set in huge black wrought-iron candelabras.

“Oh, this is wonderful!” Hannah breathed, thinking it was the epitome of tropical romance, placing an oasis of sophistication in the heart of a primeval setting.

“They do a great dish with mud crab, too,” Tony dryly informed her.

She laughed, her eyes mischievously teasing as she asked, “You think I should pick up some pointers from the cuisine? Is this why you brought me here?”

“No.” There was a touch of wryness in his smile. “This has nothing to do with your culinary expertise.”

Her stomach contracted as memories of their physical intimacy flooded through her. “Well, I’d have to admit I’ve never cooked mud crabs so maybe I can learn something,” she rattled out, wondering if he meant to spend all night with her and admitting to herself she wanted him to.

“They are a specialty of far North Queensland.”

“Then I
will
have to learn. I love this part of Australia.”

“Enough to live here?”

Her heart skipped as she looked into eyes that seemed to be seriously questioning. Could he mean he wanted her to? That perhaps they might make a future together?

Surely it was far too soon for such questions.

“I don’t know yet,” she answered lightly, shying from the inner tension of putting too much on the line.

The path had led them to a flight of steps that zigzagged up to the reception deck above the two dining levels. Tony gestured for her to go ahead of him. “Better hold the banister as you go up,” he advised, releasing her arm so she could.

Feeling extremely conscious of Tony following her and needing to lessen her physical awareness of him, not wanting her legs to suddenly turn to jelly when she was wearing such precarious shoes, Hannah rushed into more speech as she mounted the steps.

“You know, I had two marvellous weeks at Cape Tribulation before coming on down to Port Douglas. Was the tea plantation I saw there the one your grandmother said you manage?”

“Yes, though I manage two,” he answered matter-of-factly. “The biggest one is near Innisfail.”

“Plus the Kingtripper Company.” No wonder he flew a helicopter to keep in touch with all his business interests.

“The Kingtripper line is my personal baby. The tea plantations are part of the family holdings,” he explained.

Born and bred to responsibility, she thought, and probably thrived on the challenge of taking on more. He certainly shouldered it with an ease attained by very few people. “Your family must carry a lot of weight in these parts, Tony,” she remarked. “A long history here. Property...”

“What about your own family, Hannah?” he inserted quietly.

“Oh, on the whole we’re a productive lot. My father is an inventor. My mother is a writer. My brothers and sisters are all high achievers in one field or another.” She slanted him a self-mocking little smile as they finally reached the top landing and he stepped up beside her. “I’m the only drop-out.”

His eyebrows tilted. “Any regrets?”

She shook her head. “None.”

It was true. She didn’t want to go back to the frantic pace of a life that was driven by the demands of tight deadlines. Too many pressures had contributed to her ignoring things she should never have ignored, and neglecting her own needs in favour of getting the job done. She would never let work dominate her life again, not to that extent anyway.

Feeling very content just to be here at this marvellous place, she smiled at the woman who came forward to greet them.

“Tony, lovely to see you here.”

“Glad you could fit us in,” he answered warmly.

“And this is...?”

“Hannah.” Tony took her arm again, smiling an appeal at the other woman as he added, “Hannah O’Neill, wanting to sample your mud crab. Not all gone, I hope.”

“You are late-comers,” the woman warned. “I’ll have a word in the kitchen after I see you to your table. Or would you like a drink at the bar first?” She gave Tony a look of knowing sympathy and nodded towards the dining deck just below them. “The other party is settled.”

What other party? Hannah wondered.

“We’ll order drinks from the table,” Tony decided.

“Fine! Let’s go then.”

She led off to the steps which took them down to the first dining level. As they followed, Hannah was still wondering about
the other party.
Tony hadn’t mentioned meeting someone else here but there must have been talk of it when he’d made the booking. A little disappointed that he had some secondary motive for bringing her to this place, not just a special night out for the two of them, she glanced around the seated diners to see if anyone was signalling their presence to Tony.

Her heart stopped dead.

So did her feet.

Flynn!

Flynn staring at her, rising from his chair.

“Hannah?” Tony’s voice, his hand clamping over hers, demanding her attention. “Just watch the steps,” he instructed. “I won’t let you fall.”

The steps.

She wrenched her gaze from the man she would have married and looked down, made her feet move forward. Tony was holding her. He would guard her from any approach from Flynn. He’d done so this afternoon and he would do it again now. She had to concentrate on not letting her legs wobble from the shock of seeing him here, seeing him looking at her as he used to, eating her up with his eyes as though...

No! She wasn’t going to remember that. Too late. Too long gone. Too wrong. He’d made his bed with Jodie.

“I booked a table on the next deck down,” Tony said, telling her they were not staying on the same dining level as Flynn.

Relief.

Moving on.

No one calling out her name.

Nor Tony’s.

Another set of steps.

Then to a table for two in the far corner of the lower deck, as far away as it was possible to get from Flynn’s table, although he could undoubtedly see her from where he was, watch her if he wanted to. But he couldn’t see much because Tony settled her in the chair that faced away from Flynn and the solidly woven cane of the high back rest gave her a large measure of privacy. Since he wasn’t in her line of sight at all, she could pretend he wasn’t here, except she knew he was. And Jodie had to be with him. The two of them together.

She dimly heard Tony order some recommended cocktails and a bottle of wine. They were handed menus. On some automatic level Hannah smiled and nodded at whatever was said. She couldn’t concentrate her mind on the printed menu. When suggestions were made, it was easier to agree to them. Food was no longer of any interest to her.

They were left alone.

She took a deep breath, trying to put Flynn and Jodie behind her in every sense, and looked directly at Tony, needing him to keep her distracted from the couple she didn’t want to think about. Her heart contracted as the watchful intensity in his eyes sent another shock wave through her system.

He knew what she was feeling.

He knew Flynn and Jodie were here.

He had known all along.

They were
the other party!

“Why?” she blurted out.

He didn’t try to pretend ignorance. His eyes blazed with determined purpose, and she felt the steel will behind them, ready to undercut any protest she might make. His reply was as direct as her demand.

“Because I don’t like what’s going on between you and the Lovetts and it’s time it stopped.”

Her hands fluttered an agitated appeal. “You don’t understand...”

“Then try making me understand, Hannah.”

It wasn’t a request. It was a command. A flat-out challenge that he was not about to let her back away from. He leaned forward, reached across the table and took her hand, transmitting the warmth and strength of his touch, forcefully reminding her of how much they had shared of themselves with each other.