Tall, Dark... Collection

‘Old lovers and new friends?’ he suggested.

She gave the ghost of a smile, relieved the toast hadn’t been what she had expected—although the alternative hadn’t been much better! ‘The first I choose to forget—the second isn’t very likely,’ she told him honestly.

‘Let’s drink to us anyway,’ he encouraged huskily.

‘To ‘us’…?

‘Did you tell him about us?’ Liam asked slowly, once the toast had been drunk.

She stiffened. ‘Robert, you mean?’ she said delaying.

‘Of course I mean Robert,’ he confirmed laughingly. ‘Unless you’ve had any other husbands the last eight years? Just out of interest,’ he continued lightly, ‘how long ago did you marry him?’

‘Robert and I were married seven and a half years ago,’ she answered flatly.

‘No time for any other husbands.’ Liam answered his own question. ‘And only a few months after I left for California,’ he added pointedly.

‘Nowhere near as hasty as your own marriage,’ Laura returned harshly. ‘You had barely arrived on the tarmac at Los Angeles airport before your own engagement, and subsequent marriage took place!’

She could still remember her feelings of absolute desolation when she had seen the speculation in the newspapers concerning his relationship with Diana Porter. That desolation had been complete when the photographs of his wedding had appeared a few weeks later. If it hadn’t been for Robert—

‘It looks as if neither of us were too heartbroken at our separation,’ Liam acknowledged. ‘I suppose your beloved uncle approves of Robert too?’

Laura’s movements were deliberate and calm as she placed her champagne glass back down on the low table in front of her. They had to be; her hand was shaking so much she was in danger of spilling the bubbly wine.

Her parents had been killed in a car crash when she was only sixteen, leaving her without any close family to speak of. It had been left to her godfather, her honorary ‘uncle’ and guardian, also the executor of her parents’ will, to organise the continued payment of her boarding-school fees, so enabling her to stay on at school and sit her ‘A’ levels before going on to university.

Obviously when she’d met Liam, eight and a half a years ago she had told him about her beloved godfather in the course of their own relationship. But the two men had never met.

Obviously her godfather had expressed curiosity about this worldly-wise man in her life, and she had suggested to Liam several times that perhaps the two men should meet. It had been a suggestion he had chosen to ignore.

And the reason for his reticence had become obvious once he had gone to America and married someone else within a few months: the complication of meeting the guardian of the young student whom he had only been casually involved with for six months previously had not entered into any of his plans! That would have made everything just a little too serious—and Liam hadn’t ever had any serious intentions where Laura was concerned!

She looked at him coldly now. ‘I don’t happen to think of any of this—any part of my life now, in fact—is your business, Liam,’ she told him icily. ‘Just as I have no interest in your personal life now,’ she concluded contemptuously.

Liam looked completely unperturbed by her coldness. ‘How about my professional one?’ he teased. ‘Wouldn’t you like to know what—?’

‘No!’ she sharply cut him off before he could say something that might put her in a compromising position. Telling her that Shipley Publishing was interested in publishing his latest novel would certainly do that! ‘No, Liam, I don’t want to know anything about your professional life either.’ She spoke more calmly. ‘In fact—’ she gave a glance at her wristwatch ‘—I really should be going now.’

‘Cinderella turns into a pumpkin at the stroke of eleven?’ Liam suggested.

She smiled, shaking her head. ‘You obviously don’t know your fairy-tales very well, Liam. Cinderella turned back into a ragged drudge. But not until midnight.’

He shrugged. ‘Put my ignorance down to my deprived childhood. My mother didn’t have the time to read me fairy-tales; she was too busy going out to work to keep my three sisters and myself after my father died.’

He made the remark without any show of bitterness in his tone, and yet Laura knew that it couldn’t have been easy for the four children, nor their mother. Their father had been killed when Liam, the eldest child, was only seven. She couldn’t imagine how Mary O’Reilly had managed during those years at all. The fact that Liam had become a successful writer by the time he was in his mid-twenties had helped all his family financially. But it couldn’t take away the struggle of the children’s early years.

But she didn’t want to think about the hardships of Liam’s fatherless childhood. The last thing she wanted was to see Liam in any sort of vulnerable light!

‘Are your mother and sisters all well?’ she felt compelled to enquire politely.

He smiled at the thought of his family. ‘Very much so. Mama lives very comfortably in a lovely cottage on the west coast of Ireland, and all three of my sisters are happily married with children of their own. Fourteen between them, at the last count.’

Laura smiled. ‘Your mother must love that.’

He grimaced. ‘My mother won’t be completely happy until I’ve provided her with a male grandchild to carry on the family name.’

Laura raised dark brows. ‘Surely there must be lots of O’Reillys in Ireland?’

‘To be sure there are,’ Liam answered with a deliberate Irish lilt to his voice. ‘But there aren’t any other male members of this particular O’Reilly branch,’ he explained ruefully.

‘So that puts the onus on you?’ she responded. ‘And is a little O’Reilly, male or female, a future possibility?’

‘Not this side of the next millennium!’ he bit out harshly.

‘Your poor mother!’ Laura rebuked, standing up in preparation for leaving. ‘Thank you for the champagne, Liam; I enjoyed it.’

‘If not the company, hmm?’ He stood up too, standing only inches away from her.

Laura wished he weren’t standing quite so close. She could smell the faint elusiveness of his aftershave, feel the heat that emanated from his body. But she didn’t want to be aware of him in any way.

‘The company was fine too,’ she said firmly. ‘Enjoy the rest of your stay in London, Liam. Perhaps the two of us will meet up accidentally again one day—in another eight years or so!’ She turned to leave.

‘I’ll walk as far as the door with you.’ Liam had moved to lightly grasp her elbow as he walked confidently beside her. ‘It’s the least I can do as I can’t actually see you home,’ he elaborated at her startled glance.

Laura didn’t even qualify the remark with a reply. She just wanted to get away from there, as far away from Liam as quickly as possible. If that meant suffering a few more minutes of his company, then so be it!

‘This is farther than the door,’ she observed, looking up pointedly at the awning over their heads as they stood outside the entrance to the hotel.

‘I didn’t think you would be too happy about my doing this actually inside the hotel,’ Liam murmured, before his head bent and his mouth claimed hers.

The kiss was so unexpected that for a moment Laura was totally stunned. But as she felt the heated waves of compliance sweeping over her, felt her body remembering the physical joy of this man even if she chose not to, she knew she had to break away. Now!

She wrenched her mouth away from Liam’s, pushing at his arms as they curved about her waist. ‘That was completely uncalled-for!’ she gasped as she at last managed to escape those steely bands, her breathing erratic in her agitation, a flush to her cheeks as she glared at him.

‘But necessary,’ Liam rasped. ‘For me.’ He gave a rueful shake of his head. ‘I know you’re a married woman, and I apologise because of that. But—you can tell him from me he’s a lucky man.’

Her blue and green eyes flashed. ‘I intend forgetting any of—this, the moment I enter the taxi,’ she told him forcefully. ‘You’re even more despicable than I remember!’

He looked unconcerned. ‘Sticks and stones,’ he replied.

She would have liked to do more than break a few bones—she felt like hitting him over the head with something heavy and painful!

She hadn’t lost her temper like this in eight years. If ever! Only hours into meeting Liam again and she was a mass of seething emotions. All of which she could quite happily do without.

‘One day, Liam,’ she ground out between gritted teeth, ‘you’re going to come up against someone—a situation—you have no control over. Let me know when that day comes—I would like to sit and watch!’

He quirked dark brows. ‘You never used to be vindictive, Laura.’