Carole Mortimer Romance Collection

Wolf’s mouth tightened ominously. ‘And you’re having dinner with him tonight.’

Her chin rose in an instinctively defensive movement. ‘Yes,’ she abruptly acknowledged the statement.

He shook his head, his mouth turned back scornfully. ‘You asked me a short time ago what happened to me,’ he bit out derisively. ‘I can tell you in one word what happened to me, Cyn,’ he rasped harshly. ‘You happened to me! You with your silver hair, violet-blue eyes, and such an expression of innocence I was totally fooled seven years ago. But not again, Cyn.’ He marched purposefully over to the door and wrenched it open. ‘Never again!’ He slammed the door so forcefully after his exit that the whole room seemed to vibrate in reaction.

Cyn finally gave in to the weakness in her legs and sat down heavily in her chair behind the desk.

‘Never again’, Wolf had said. And yet his kisses such a short time ago, in this very room, made a lie of that claim. In fact, if Wolf could kiss her with such passion then he had no right marrying Rebecca Harcourt at all!

CHAPTER THREE (#ulink_f956415c-7808-5d49-b66e-4e5e9e416bd5)

IN THE ordinary course of events, she and Wolf would never have met at all. In fact, it might have been better for everyone concerned if they never had!

Cyn had been working as one of the evening receptionists at Thornton’s, the exclusive hotel the family owned in the centre of London—the same hotel Rebecca and Wolf were due to hold their wedding reception at in August, which was why they knew there would be no problem with that particular booking!

There had been a lot of day as well as night-time staff on duty that particular evening; Alex Thornton and his wife were hosting a sixtieth birthday party for his mother, Claudia, in the main function-room. Despite the fact that this was posted up on the notice-board as the guests entered the hotel, Cyn had spent the majority of the beginning of the evening directing people to the appropriate room. Not that she had seen any of the family themselves; they had been escorted into the party by the manager himself. By ten-fifteen, Cyn had been sure all the guests had to be present by now, and settled down at her computer console to complete some of the paperwork that seemed to go along with the job and which she hadn’t had time to deal with earlier, while several of the other girls on duty took a well-earned break; they had all been working extremely hard today to make sure everything ran smoothly for the Thornton party. Cyn had been quite happy to wait for her own break. Besides, she knew she wasn’t going to be too popular if the couple in Room 217 weren’t even officially registered, let alone their preference for morning newspapers logged in!

‘What did that computer ever do to you?’ queried a deeply amused voice.

Cyn looked up from her frowning concentration on the VDU, her eyes widening as she took in the appearance of the man leaning so casually over the top of the desk as he watched her struggling to squash a lengthy home address of one of the guests into the totally inadequate space given for this very purpose by the supposedly foolproof computer program; obviously they hadn’t considered people coming from Russia when they devised the program. But one look at this man and she didn’t care whether the address was legible enough, after her pruning, for the guest to be billed for any extras discovered after his departure or not. This man was gorgeous!

Tall—he had to be, to be able to lean this far over the top of the reception-desk!—with over-long blond hair that persisted in falling forward over his high intelligent forehead, eyes the colour of warm amber looking at Cyn with deepening amusement as she continued to stare at him, his features striking rather than what could strictly be called handsome, everything slightly larger than life, his cheekbones high, his nose slightly bent, as if it might have been broken at some time, his mouth— Oh, God, that mouth...!

Cyn stood up slowly, crossing to stand on the other side of the desk from him. ‘Machines and I don’t get on,’ she dismissed with a rueful shrug. ‘Can I help you?’ she offered politely, although from the look of his black evening suit and snowy white shirt, his black bow-tie spoiling the immaculate effect slightly, being not quite straight, as if he had tied it in a hurry, he was yet another guest for the Thornton party. She couldn’t help wondering if one of the other girls would know who this particular guest was. There was a list, of course, for security reasons, but that seemed to have been put to one side earlier as they were swamped with queries about the party. Cyn gave it a sideways glance as it lay on the desk by her hand, but there were so many names not crossed off that it would be impossible to know who this man was. Unless she asked him. And she couldn’t do that—much as she longed to!

‘I hope so,’ he grimaced. ‘I’m afraid I’m a little late, you see, and—’

‘The Thornton party,’ she nodded understandingly. ‘Well, I shouldn’t worry too much about being late, if I were you; there are so many people crushed into that room that I doubt if anyone has noticed your absence!’ Although if she had asked this man to a party, even if there were three hundred other guests invited, she would still have noticed his absence.

His grimace deepened. ‘I wouldn’t be too sure of that if I were you!’ He shook his head.

Ah, she thought, there was obviously a woman involved, a woman who, like her, would be well aware of his absence. A woman he obviously didn’t want to hurt, otherwise he wouldn’t have been here at all, Cyn would hazard a guess. For some reason that knowledge made her feel slightly depressed.

‘I’d forgotten it was tonight at all, you see,’ the man frowned, completely unaware of Cyn’s disappointed thoughts. ‘Until about half an hour ago. I must have made the quickest change in history, and— What is it?’ He frowned as he saw she was slowly nodding at his words.

Her cheeks felt slightly warm as she blushed slightly. ‘I was—well, I was just thinking that that accounts for it,’ she admitted awkwardly.

Dark blond brows rose. ‘Accounts for what?’ he said slowly.

It was hardly her place to tell one of the hotel guests he was less than immaculately dressed! ‘I— Well— You see—’

He frowned down at his own appearance as he realised this was what seemed to be causing her embarrassment. ‘Hell, I haven’t put odd socks on again, have I?—no, that can’t be it,’ he ruefully answered his own suggestion. ‘You can’t see as far down as my feet. All right,’ he sighed, ‘what is it? Blood on my shirt collar? Shaving foam in my ears? Blood on my shirt collar and shaving foam in my ears?’ he groaned desperately.

Cyn was laughing by this time; she couldn’t help it. Because from his self-derisive attitude to the suggestion that he might have done any one—or all three!—of those things, she had a feeling that he had been guilty of all three of them on at least one occasion! ‘None of those things,’ she assured him, still smiling. ‘Although your bow-tie is less than perfect,’ she told him with a rueful grimace.

He put up a self-conscious hand to the offending item, a long, sensitive-looking hand, the fingers long and tapered. ‘I never was any good with the damned things,’ he muttered, looking up. ‘I don’t suppose you...?’

Cyn frowned her puzzlement. ‘I what?’

‘You can’t be any worse at tying bow-ties than I am,’ he decided firmly, leaning forward over the desk once again. ‘Have a go,’ he suggested, thrusting his chin forward to allow her better access to the tie at his throat.

She stared at him in dismay for several seconds. She couldn’t just go around rearranging guests’ dress! There was sure to be a rule about it somewhere in the contract she had signed to work here at all, and as she had only been here a matter of weeks—

‘Well?’ He muttered with his jaw clenched, obviously tiring of the unnatural pose. ‘I could get a stiff neck if I have to hold my chin up much longer, and end up walking about like this all evening. Then I’ll really be popular!’

With the woman at the Thorntons’ party who was waiting for his arrival. But what was she worrying about? Cyn derided herself; she was never likely to see this man again, so what difference did it make to her who was waiting for him in that function-room!

‘OK,’ she sighed heavily, leaning forward to untie the bow so that she could start from scratch. From the look of the crushed material the rather sad-looking bow she had just undone had been far from his own first attempt this evening!

His proximity, necessarily so if she were to arrange the bow-tie at all, was more than a little unnerving! So much so that she made a complete mess of the bow herself the first time she tried. But the man was so close to her she could see the pores of his skin, the black flecks in those strange amber-coloured eyes, feel the warmth of his breath against her cheeks. How could she possibly be expected to concentrate?

‘Not so easy, is it?’ he said with satisfaction as she started again, luckily seeming to have no idea it was he himself who was making this so difficult for her.

‘Mmm,’ Cyn acknowledged as she frowned her attention on the bow-tie, her tongue sticking out between her teeth preventing her from making further conversation as she tried her best to concentrate on tying the bow rather than on the sensual magnetism of the man she was tying it on.

He gave a sudden throaty chuckle. ‘Anyone finding us like this could be forgiven for completely misinterpreting the situation— I was only joking!’ he protested as she moved sharply away, thrusting her hands behind her back as if they had been stung. ‘You can’t leave me half dressed like this!’ he groaned as he put a hand up and found the bow was still incomplete.

He was hardly ‘half dressed’, Cyn protested silently—although the suggestion did bring some rather vivid imaginings to mind, predominantly a situation where he actually could be ‘half dressed’!

‘Come here,’ she instructed impatiently, pulling him forward by the bow, her fingers moving deftly now, irritated with herself for indulging in such daydreams; this man might be slightly disorganised, but he was still someone important enough to be a guest at the Thornton party, and, as such, completely out of her league. ‘There!’ she patted the newly tied bow-tie with satisfaction. ‘You—’

‘Wolf, what on earth are you doing?’ demanded an incredulous voice.

Cyn reacted with dismay to the sound of that intrusive voice, sure she was going to be in trouble now over the incident with the man she had now learnt was called Wolf—Wolf...! What sort of a name was that, for goodness’ sake? He didn’t look in the least perturbed by the interruption, giving her a rueful grimace before turning to face the woman who had called out to him.

‘Enquiring where the party is, of course, Barbara,’ he drawled easily. ‘How’s it all going?’ He strolled across the reception area to join her.

Cyn looked closely at the other woman. She was one of the guests Cyn must have missed arriving earlier, because she didn’t remember seeing her before. Beautiful—of course she would have to be!—her features smooth and even, dominated by enormous green eyes surrounded by thick sooty lashes, her mouth a pout of red, with a golden tan to her skin that she hadn’t acquired in this country, not in the last few months, anyway. And with a cascade of ebony hair that tumbled down on to her shoulders in a style that was arranged to look completely casual but actually wasn’t—Cyn did not doubt for a moment that it had taken an accomplished hairdresser several hours to achieve the effect. And she was tall, at least five feet eight even without the high-heeled shoes she wore with the figure-hugging black dress that showed a long expanse of her silken legs below its above-knee length.

Everything that Cyn herself wasn’t, in fact, with her own almost waist-length hair secured in a single braid down her spine, and her pale elfin features that could never be called beautiful. And it had always been the bane of her life that she was only five feet tall in her stockinged feet; she had always longed to be tall and elegantly graceful. Like the woman Wolf was now kissing warmly on the cheek as he reached her side.

‘Alex is getting more and more polite as the evening goes on,’ the woman called Barbara tightly answered Wolf’s light query, their conversation more than audible to Cyn as she stood at the reception-desk a short distance away, although she looked down awkwardly at some papers on top of the desk as flashing green eyes shot her a furious glare. ‘A sure sign that he’s absolutely furious!’ the woman added with a frown.

Wolf sighed. ‘When is he anything else these days?’ He shook his head. ‘He’s going to give himself a heart attack if he carries on like this, Barbara. You know he—’

‘He’s furious with you, Wolf,’ Barbara cut in impatiently. ‘You know you should have been here with the rest of the family to greet our guests as they arrived!’

Alex? The rest of the family? Our guests? It suddenly dawned on Cyn, as she stood riveted to the spot, her stomach doing somersaults, that Wolf had to be a member of the Thornton family too, that Alex had to be Alex Thornton, the head of Thornton Industries; in effect, her own employer!

Oh, my God, she thought, and she had told Wolf no one would even notice he was missing from the party in the crush! And she had faulted his appearance before attempting to rearrange his bow-tie for him! Just who was he?

Dark blond brows rose mockingly over those amber eyes. ‘As I received a formal invitation I thought I was included in the guest list, not the family,’ he drawled derisively.

Barbara gave him a reproving frown, spoiling the beauty of her face as the frown gave her an almost primly disapproving look. ‘You know you were sent the invitation so that it served as a reminder for you to come at all. Obviously we wasted our time even trying to do that!’ She shook her head disgustedly. ‘Oh, well, better late than never, I suppose.’ She put her arm through the crook of his as she turned him purposefully in the direction of the room where the party was being held. ‘Maybe when he sees you’re here after all, Alex will start to calm down.’

‘I wouldn’t count on it,’ Wolf murmured unconcernedly. ‘Seeing me has never been known to have that effect on my too-serious brother before!’

Brother...! It was worse than she had even imagined, Cyn realised. Wolf wasn’t some obscure member of the Thornton family—which had been her fervent hope once she had realised he was related to them at all!—but was, in fact, the other son of the family, the one who had upset them all by becoming a musician or an artist, or something they considered equally unsuitable for a Thornton heir. Because that was certainly who he was—Wolf Thornton, joint heir with Alex Thornton to Thornton Industries, half-owner of this very hotel, in fact!