The Engagement Deal

Holly had never had a man announce he’d fight the world and his brother on her behalf. She felt decidedly surplus to requirements and, for some ridiculous reason, perilously close to tears in the midst of this mutual admiration.

Where was the vitriol, where was the tension? This matiness just wasn’t normal. How could you stay friends with someone you’d once been married to? Surely the feelings of betrayal and anger couldn’t just disappear overnight? She was pretty certain she couldn’t be so civilised if she found herself in the same position, but they seemed to agree on everything. So why, she wondered, had they ever broken up?

Tara misted up prettily and she bit her quivering lip. ‘You’ve been so good after all I did,’ she said huskily. ‘I’m so happy to see you’ve finally found someone of your own. It’s positively mystical.’ Tara’s warm mellow purr dropped to a wondering whisper.

‘Mystical?’ Niall queried warily.

Holly stared. If I’d said anything with half as much mockery potential, he’d have ripped me to shreds with that nasty tongue of his, she thought, studying his tolerant expression with disbelief.

‘It’s spooky. My astrologer told me the other day that this was going to happen to one of my dearest friends—I didn’t know at the time she was talking about you two.’

‘Astrologer?’ Holly echoed. Nice but nutty, she concluded, correcting her mental profile of the beautiful woman.

‘Yes, she’s incredible. I never make any major decisions without consulting her, do I, Niall?’

‘Indeed you don’t,’ Niall confirmed drily.

‘She only takes clients by recommendation, but I could introduce you if you like, Holly. She was incredibly helpful when we were splitting up…Not that I’m suggesting you two are going to…’

‘No thanks,’ Holly responded hastily. ‘I like to think I control my own fate.’

‘Oh I can see you’re a sceptic like Niall.’ She threw her ex-husband a tolerant smile. ‘Tell me, Holly, what do you think of Thomas? Isn’t he just the greatest kid?’

‘I…I haven’t met him yet.’ Holly crossed her fingers and hoped that she wasn’t contradicting anything Niall had said.

‘Really?’

Holly wasn’t surprised by Tara’s amazement. If Niall ever did remarry it sounded to her very much like his son, closely followed by his beautiful ex-wife, would have the final say. If the child gave the thumbs-down, then it was goodbye lover! She pitied the woman who would find herself in this situation.

‘How could she?’ Niall put in smoothly. ‘You know the boy’s been staying with Chris and Jude in Maine for the past four weeks. It was you who persuaded me to let him go, remember.’

‘Well, he and little Daniel get on so well, I thought it…’ She stopped, an arrested expression drifting over her flawless features. ‘You mean you’ve only known one another for a few weeks? I had the impression…Do your parents know, Niall?’

‘Only you know, Tara, and we’d like it to stay that way.’

Holly shot him a look of alarm. It better had, the explanations could get embarrassing if this ever got out.

‘Even though I’ve known Holly since she was a kid with braces, all this is new…’ He caught one of Holly’s hands between both of his and brought the tips of her fingers up to his mouth.

He had that part right, Holly reflected grimly. ‘Very new,’ she agreed drily, tucking the hand he’d released neatly under the table.

There was warning glitter in the blue eyes that rested on her face. ‘We’ve hardly got used to the idea ourselves,’ he told Tara frankly. ‘And don’t start with any horror stories about my parents. Holly is already scared stiff at the idea of meeting them, aren’t you, darling?’ He gazed lovingly into her eyes. The rat had missed his true vocation in life. What an actor! He recovered the hand which lay protectively in her lap and covered it with his before lifting it to softly brush the inside of her wrist against his lips.

Despite the fact that all her wary barriers were firmly in place, the soft contact sent a neat electrical current zinging through her body.

‘No,’ she contradicted firmly. She might be playing a part but there were limits. If he expected her to flutter her eyelashes and cling to his strong hand, he could think again! Scared, indeed! Wasn’t it fear of another kind that was making her heart pound? She pushed aside this inconvenient thought.

‘A little natural apprehension, possibly,’ she conceded firmly, trying to inconspicuously free the hand which Niall had appropriated.

Before Holly could give her order to the hovering drinks waiter, Niall spoke up for her—she so hated it when men did that!

‘Holly will have a mineral water, won’t you, darling?’ His malicious smile dared her to contradict him.

Holly’s nostrils flared and her dark eyes were filled with contempt, but she smiled back in a suitably besotted manner. ‘Whatever you say, sweetheart.’ It would seem that Tara watching this tender interchange, couldn’t detect sarcasm—even when it was ladled on with a trowel.

When the waiter had gone, Holly soon discovered just what the overimaginative Tara had been detecting from his overbearing manner and her meek submission.

‘You’re pregnant!’ She clapped her hands. ‘I should have guessed. This is marvellous,’ she enthused.

Holly looked at her blankly. Great, not only do I have his ex-wife’s blessing to marry him, I have her approval to reproduce, too. Is this situation off the scale of weird or is it just me?

Tara smiled warmly at Holly’s stunned face. ‘She’s got a definite glow about her, hasn’t she, Niall?’

Holly didn’t know about a glow but she did feel as though she might spontaneously combust any second from pure mortification. She sent a glance of desperate appeal to Niall, who seemed to be taking this suggestion in his stride. To add insult to injury, as he looked with interest at her pink cheeks and horrified eyes, he even seemed slightly amused.

‘I think Holly’s radiance lights up any room she walks into, but I’m a trifle biased. Sorry to disappoint you, Tara, but she’s not pregnant. There are other reasons for a person to request a soft drink.’ His voice dropped a sexy octave as he continued huskily, ‘And other reasons for a person to get married, too.’ At the last moment, he turned his riveting eyes, filled with lots of reasons—all erotic—directly towards Holly, reducing her to a frozen state of open-mouthed bemusement.

She bit her lower lip in an effort to tear her glance away from that callous, calculating seduction. She didn’t doubt for a second that he expected her, like every other female, to be reduced to a gibbering idiot. He knew all right about the power his blue eyes had over the opposite sex.

‘No…’ She cleared her throat and turned her attention to Tara. ‘He thinks I’ve got a drink problem,’ she confided with a gusty sigh.

Tara obviously didn’t know whether to take Holly’s words seriously or not. Uncertainly, she looked from Holly to a frozen-faced Niall and back again.

‘You’re joking…Right?’

‘Yes Tara, she’s joking.’ Finally, she’d pierced his sardonic cool. ‘Holly has a very warped sense of humour.’

Holly heard the controlled warning in his voice and stifled a grin. ‘I thought, darling—’ she raised her eyes guilelessly to his ‘—that you loved everything about me.’

At that moment, the waiter enquired if they were ready to give their order.

‘You order for me, darling.’ Holly produced her best helpless little woman look and received a murderous glare for her troubles. ‘I’m so hopeless at that sort of thing.’

‘Don’t squabble!’ Tara pleaded. ‘I can see you two enjoy it, but I just hate it!’

Holly shot the older woman a startled glance. They were enjoying it? Where did she get that crazy idea? She looked sideways and discovered that Niall was looking at her with an expression that suggested he was just as startled as she was by this preposterous notion.

‘Tell me, Holly, what do you do?’

‘Drives me to distraction, mostly,’ Niall forestalled her reply.

Obviously, she brooded darkly, he had concluded that whatever she did for a living wouldn’t be good enough for the prospective wife of a powerful and influential figure like himself. As it happened, a junior doctor who didn’t have a minute to call her own probably was about as unsuitable as you could get.

‘Did I mention that Holly is Rowena Parish’s sister?’

‘Really, I’d never have guessed! You know, Niall,’ Tara mused thoughtfully, ‘I thought that if you ever married again it would be Rowena. Actually, Holly,’ she added in a wry aside, ‘when we were first married I was rather jealous of your sister and all their blood-brother pals act. If you know what I mean.’

Holly, who could identify completely with this comment, nodded.