Hotbed of Scandal: Mistress: At What Price? / Red Wine and Her Sexy Ex / Bedded by Blackmail. Kate HardyЧитать онлайн книгу.
colleagues in IT to contacts that might be useful to her in the fashion business. Everywhere he escorted her he made some sort of physical contact. A brush of his knuckles against her cheek, a finger-to-finger caress, a meaningful glance, a whispered word.
She couldn’t say when the contact became more intimate. The glances hotter, the caresses more meaningful. Later, when he excused himself to talk business, she was aware that she knew where he was at any given moment. She’d look up and somehow there he’d be. And more often than not his gaze would meet hers. How long could you continue to play a game when the rules threatened to change?
During coffee he made an inspiring speech about the social, economic and technological disadvantages faced by people living in remote areas of the country, and how OzRemote was helping to address these issues.
Mariel couldn’t take her eyes off him—along with every other woman there, she suspected. He was by far the most charismatic man in the room. He spoke with knowledge, passion and eloquence. She could understand why he wanted to shrug off the Babe’s Bachelor of the Year association; his respected business reputation didn’t deserve it. He’d only participated in the contest to help raise funds for his charity.
‘How long have you known Dane?’ she asked Cass as they wandered back from the ladies’ room later.
‘Five years. I met him around the same time I met Justin. They were just getting their business off the ground.’
Cass stopped, took a seat on a sofa, and Mariel joined her.
‘I’ve never seen him look at any of his other dates the way he does you,’ Cass said.
Mariel couldn’t allow herself to think about that. She dismissed it with a half-laugh. ‘That’s because we’ve known each other for years. I’m not his usual type.’
‘No. You’re not a blondie, for a start. And he can’t seem to leave you alone. This is the first time I’ve ever seen him look remotely serious about anyone since Sandy. But that crashed in a big way.’
Instantly curious, Mariel shifted closer. ‘Who’s Sandy?’
Cass lowered her voice and said, ‘You didn’t hear this from me, but Sandy was a woman Dane was dating a couple of years back. We all thought it might have been serious but then, as Justin tells it, Sandy tried to hurry things along by getting pregnant.’
Her words ricocheted through Mariel’s body like a volley of bullets and lodged deep in her own womb. ‘Dane has a child?’
Cass shook her head. ‘Turned out she wasn’t pregnant—just out to snare herself a rich husband. But he wasn’t the happy father-to-be she expected. She changed her story quick, but it was too late.’
‘She never understood him, then.’
Mariel understood. His childhood experiences were preventing him from taking the risk of making a family life of his own, and that, in her opinion, was incredibly sad.
The band struck up a lively nineties party tune as they returned to their table, and couples took to the dance floor. Dane leaned close and said, ‘My father’s here. He’s leaving in a moment, so we’ll go say hello together. For appearances’ sake.’
‘Oh, Dane, he’s supporting you here tonight? That’s fantastic. Isn’t it?’ She looked up at him, but his face was a blank wall. At least his father had made an effort, she thought as he escorted her through the crowd.
‘Mr Huntington.’ She shook his hand, leaned in and dropped a quick kiss on his whiskered cheek. ‘Lovely to see you again.’
‘Mariel. And for God’s sake call me Daniel.’ His handshake was firm, the skin paper-thin. He smiled, and the heavy lines around his mouth deepened. ‘Haven’t seen you in years. This is Barbara.’ He turned to the woman beside him, who was dressed in a low-necked frilly blouse and a long black skirt.
‘Barbara. How do you do?’ Mariel extended her hand and estimated ‘Silicone Barbie’ to be in her mid-forties.
Barbie’s botoxed lips curved. ‘It’s nice to meet you.’ Then her gaze rolled up to the stiff-necked man beside Mariel. ‘Hello, Dane.’
He inclined his head. ‘Barbara.’
‘Oh, this is one of my favourite songs, and Daniel’s not up to dancing tonight—just one dance, Dane?’ she said, blinking her false eyelashes at him.
Dane could have refused, but he had a few things to say to his father’s live-in lover. Now seemed as good a time as any. He turned to Mariel, let his lips linger on the sweet curve of her cheek. ‘Excuse me, Queen Bee. This won’t take long.’
‘It’s fine.’ She waved him away. ‘I’ll keep your dad company.’
‘I’m glad I’ve got you alone,’ Barbara said the moment Daniel and Mariel were out of earshot. ‘I wanted to explain about that night. The man you saw me with was my financial adviser.’
‘Yeah.’ Dane laughed without humour and leaned close so only she could hear. ‘Since when did financial advice extend to a candle-lit rendezvous? A very intimate rendezvous, from where I was sitting.’
‘I—’
‘I’m glad you have a financial adviser, Barbara, because you’re going to need one.’ Not wanting to attract the nearby dancers’ attention, he kept his voice low. ‘You’ve wasted eight years of your life waiting for Dad to depart this world, because he’s not going to leave you a cent. You’re not going to get your greedy, cheating hands on the Huntington fortune.’
Her nostrils flared, her eyes widened and she tried to pull away, but Dane tightened his hold. ‘He hasn’t told you he lost everything he owned in the share market crash, has he? I bought the family property from him, to get him out of financial ruin. The home you’re living in is mine. In fact, the dinner you just enjoyed was at my expense.’
The skin around her pumped-up lips turned white. ‘You’re lying.’
‘Ask him.’Watching shock bleach the colour from her face was one of his life’s more satisfying moments, and his smile was genuine as he escorted her back to her table. ‘Thanks for the dance and the chance to talk, Barbara.’
Instantly she was forgotten as he turned to his partner for the evening. ‘May I have the pleasure of this dance?’
Without waiting for an answer, he took Mariel’s hand and led her to the dance floor. The band switched to a slow, romantic number and he came to a halt in the middle of the room, drew her close. So close that he could see tiny flecks of navy amongst the emerald in her amazing eyes.
He’d never noticed that before. He was discovering a lot of things about Mariel that he’d never noticed before. The tiny mole at the outer corner of her right eye. The way her eyes turned dark—midnight in a deep forest—when she was aroused.
They were dark now.
She stepped in closer, so he could no longer see her face, but her fingers stole up his shirt, the sides of his neck, then beneath his hair, where she stroked lightly with her fingernails.
The music throbbed in time with his heartbeat as his hands drifted over her bare back, absorbing the silken warmth of her skin, the fine hairs at the nape of her neck. She smelled like a fantasy of fresh flowers rather than of her black rose trademark perfume, and he nuzzled beneath her ear to inhale deeper.
‘Dane…’
He thought she whispered his name. Like a sigh. But he couldn’t be sure over the sound of the music. Did she make that soft sensuous sound when she made love? he wondered.
He could find out tonight.
Her cheek against his felt cool and soft, and his lips tingled as he turned his head slightly to taste.
He couldn’t resist—he traced the graceful curve of her spine, down to where