One-Man Woman

Peter still smiled, straightening away from the desk. ‘That isn’t—or so we’re led to believe by the newspapers—what women usually have to say about him!’

‘Well, I’m not one of his usual women.’ The tartness returned to her voice, her green eyes flashing. ‘Anyway, he seems to prefer tiny blondes,’ she added scornfully.

‘Whereas I prefer tall redheads.’ Peter looked across at her appreciatively. ‘Sure I can’t tempt you with dinner tomorrow evening?’ he added wistfully, the subject of Daniel Thackery clearly forgotten.

At least, it had been forgotten by Peter. Ellie couldn’t forget about him—because she hoped she and Beth would be dining with him tomorrow evening!

‘I’ll even cook for you,’ Peter added persuasively. ‘If you come to my apartment.’

The temptation of eating a meal Peter had cooked was one not many women would resist. But Ellie had other priorities for tomorrow evening.

‘I’m really sorry, Peter,’ she refused again with a regretful smile. ‘I really am busy tomorrow night.’ She hoped!

‘I know when not to push it,’ he accepted with a dismissive shrug. ‘Another time. I had better be on my way,’ he said with a brief glimpse at his wristwatch. ‘My cat will be wondering if I’ve found myself a woman other than her!’

Ellie chuckled throatily. ‘See you in a couple of days’ time.’

He nodded. ‘Have a good time tomorrow night. Whatever it is you’re doing.’ He gave her another suggestive wink before leaving.

Ellie shook her head, smiling fondly. He really was the most outrageous man, but she liked him anyway, found his light-hearted banter refreshing. It was a pity about tomorrow evening because if it hadn’t been for this thing over Daniel Thackery she might just have accepted Peter’s invitation...

‘Could you arrange for an early-morning call tomorrow, please?’ rasped the harsh voice that was becoming so familiar to Ellie—unfortunately so!

She turned slowly to look at Daniel Thackery as he glared across the desk at her. He had only gone through to the bar a few minutes ago; what—?

‘An early-morning call,’ he repeated impatiently as she blinked up at him uncomprehendingly. ‘Do you think you could manage that?’

Colour darkened her cheeks at his sarcasm, and she bit her lip to stop herself returning an equally sarcastic reply. ‘I’m sure I can,’ she said tautly.

‘At seven-thirty,’ he nodded. ‘And coffee,’ he added tersely before he was racked by another sneeze.

Ellie automatically noted down the time of the early-morning call and the request for coffee.

‘Coffee for one,’ he corrected as he saw what she had written down on the pad in front of her, his mouth twisting with mocking amusement as Ellie looked up at him sharply. ‘My guest has departed for the evening,’ he explained drily as he saw Ellie’s instinctive glance behind him for the diminutive blonde.

Ellie could have kicked herself for being so obvious. But she had assumed—incorrectly, it now seemed—that ‘Darling’ would be spending the night with him in his suite. But she wished she hadn’t made what she had thought so obvious, hated that knowingly mocking glint in those deep blue eyes.

‘I only booked the suite for one guest,’ he told her softly. ‘Myself,’ he added, before he gave yet another sneeze.

She was regathering her scattered wits now, forcing herself to meet his derisive stare with a cool green gaze. ‘The suite is booked in its entirety, Mr Thackery,’ she told him coolly. ‘Regardless of the number of guests.’

‘Really?’ Dark brows rose. ‘In that case—’ his voice lowered huskily as he leant forward over the desk ‘—perhaps you would like to join me upstairs? For a nightcap?’ he added lightly as he saw the shocked way her eyes widened.

First the blonde. Then his fiancée. Then the blonde again. And now her. He really was having a busy evening where women were concerned, wasn’t he? Or was he...? Neither his fiancée nor the blonde was here, was she...?

Ellie smiled up at him with sweet insincerity. ‘You seem to be developing a rather nasty cold, Mr Thackery.’ She managed to keep her voice neutrally polite. ‘I would suggest it might be more beneficial—to everyone concerned—if you snuggled down in bed with a cold-remedy or a hot toddy rather than a woman!’ She met his gaze challengingly. Really, this man had an incredible nerve.

He appeared completely unruffled by her refusal. ‘Permit me to know what is “beneficial” to me,’ he dismissed arrogantly. ‘And, as I told you earlier, I do not have a cold.’ As if to prove him wrong he gave another sneeze. ‘I would suggest, however,’ he rasped once the sneeze had dispersed, ‘that if you do decide to join me in my suite for a nightcap you wash off your perfume before joining me. I happen to be allergic to Sapphire,’ he added with a grimace. ‘You see—Ellie...’ he said her name softly after looking at her name-tag attached to her blouse ‘...it makes me sneeze.’ He looked down at her unblinkingly now.

Ellie’s mouth opened. And then closed. And then opened again. But no sound came out.

He had sneezed late this afternoon when she had booked him in. And earlier in his suite—he had been sneezing then too.

Because she had been hiding in his wardrobe wearing Sapphire!

Every time he came near her he started to sneeze. As he had in his bedroom earlier tonight—and even more so as he’d stood on the other side of the wardrobe door. Had he known she was there? Did he know?

He gave a dismissive shrug as the silence stretched between them—through pure shock on Ellie’s part! ‘I won’t actually be going to bed for a while, so if you should change your mind about the nightcap... Or just feel in the mood for a chat,’ he added—tauntingly, it seemed to Ellie. ‘But don’t forget about washing off the perfume before you come up,’ he advised before strolling off in the direction of the lift.

Ellie stared after him, knowing her face was very pale. She was so stunned that she still hadn’t been able to make so much as a movement when he turned after stepping into the lift to give her a parting gesture of his hand before the doors closed in front of him.

Had he known she was in his bedroom earlier? Did he know?

CHAPTER TWO

‘IT’S a nuisance that it’s Peter’s evening off.’ Beth frowned as she battled to take the stone out of the centre of the avocado without actually damaging the fruit. ‘We could have done with his expertise in the kitchen tonight if we’re to soften Daniel Thackery up enough to get any information out of him!’ She grimaced as the stone finally popped out of the fruit only to roll across the floor.

To Ellie’s immense dismay Daniel Thackery had accepted Beth’s invitation to dinner this evening. Beth had managed to speak to him this morning before he’d left for a business appointment, and he had been only too pleased, according to Beth, to accept dinner with an old friend. But after his parting comments to Ellie the evening before she really had no desire ever to see the man again. She was certain that if he didn’t actually know for sure, then he at least suspected her presence in his suite the evening before—otherwise why would he have made those comments about her perfume and suggested a chat?

Her first instinct the night before, once she had recovered from the shock, had been to go up to his suite and brazen the situation out—at least find out what he did know. But then common sense had prevailed, and she had realised she would be playing into his hands by going anywhere near his suite again that evening; if she didn’t go near him, he couldn’t ask her any embarrassing questions.

But before she could tell Beth that she had changed her mind about inviting the man for dinner Beth had come and told her she had already asked him—and he had accepted!

‘He ate in the restaurant yesterday evening,’ Ellie told her sister distractedly. ‘He knows how good a chef Peter is.’

‘But even with the two of us making our best effort we’re nowhere near as good,’ Beth groaned, having retrieved the stone from the floor now and placed it in the bin.

Ellie shrugged, having been given the job of shelling the prawns to go with the avocado. ‘Just ply him with lots of wine—that should mellow him,’ she dismissed scathingly. ‘Anyway, I told you I have to stand in on Reception this evening, so you’re on your own with this dinner,’ she announced with satisfaction. She had never been so relieved in her life to have had two people call in sick for this evening, one of them being their evening receptionist; she did not want to spend several hours sitting with Daniel Thackery trying to be polite to him, no matter what his reason for being in the area!

She no longer cared what his reason was; he couldn’t buy their hotel if they weren’t interested in selling. And they weren’t! And Beth’s interest in James was a private thing; her sister didn’t need her presence at dinner to ask Daniel Thackery whether or not he had seen her husband recently.

‘You don’t have to go on Reception until ten o’clock,’ Beth protested. ‘Plenty of time for you to have dinner with us first.’

‘That’s true,’ Ellie accepted grudgingly. ‘But one of the bar staff is off sick too, so—’

‘Send Doris in there,’ Beth interrupted practically. ‘She’s done it before, so that shouldn’t be a problem. And the two of us can turn back the beds in the rooms. We aren’t that heavily booked, so it shouldn’t take long.’

She sometimes wished her sister weren’t so practical. Or so logically capable. But the two of them had been brought up in this hotel, had watched their parents’ management of it for years, and they had learnt how to deal with staffing and other problems. And Beth’s answer to the problem now was perfectly correct. It was just that Ellie didn’t want to be present at the dinner!

She wanted to avoid Daniel Thackery for the rest of his stay—still had the uncomfortable feeling that he knew exactly where she had been the evening before. And, if he did, there was no way he was going to let something like that pass without further comment.

‘Ellie, will you finish the prawns so that we can get on with preparing the chicken?’ Beth impatiently interrupted her wandering thoughts. ‘It’s almost seven o’clock now, and if we have the beds to turn back...’

Which meant she had lost her argument about joining Beth and Daniel Thackery for dinner. Damn. But she really couldn’t come up with another excuse not to join them—not without alerting Beth to the fact that she really didn’t want to spend any more time in the man’s company. There was just something about him, the wardrobe incident apart, that set her teeth on edge...

And, appreciative of the way her luck was going at the moment, she wasn’t in the least surprised when Beth elected to do the beds on the second floor, leaving Ellie to deal with the first floor. Daniel Thackery’s suite was on the first floor...

Taking all possible precautions against bumping into him accidentally, she rang up his suite first and received no answer. Nor did her loud knocking on the door of the suite. Good, he was still out. Although he was cutting it a bit fine if he intended joining them for dinner at eight o’clock; it was almost seven-thirty now...