Girl Behind the Scandalous Reputation

‘Is he famous?’

‘No.’

She had to step closer to Tristan to allow two women to walk past, but quickly stepped back again.

‘Married?’

‘No!’

‘Do I know him?’

Lily let out a breath. She couldn’t understand why he was pushing this. He was starting to sound like a jealous beau. But that was ridiculous. He didn’t even like her, did he?

‘I don’t see that it’s any of your business,’ she said again with icy politeness, folding her hands across her chest.

‘Unfortunately for you everything about you right now is very much my busine

ss.’

Lily shook her head. ‘I don’t see how. You’re not my lawyer, and the question is irrele—’

She broke off with a squeak as Tristan grabbed her elbow again, to avoid more diners heading to the bathroom and marched her around a short corner, stopping in front of a closed door.

They were close enough now that Lily could feel heat—and anger—emanating from his muscular frame.

‘If you brought those drugs into the country for someone else,’ he began scathingly, ‘and you get approached by the moron while you’re in my custody I could be implicated. Not only could my reputation and legal practice go down the drain but, depending on how it played out, I could be charged along with you.’ His voice never lost its tenor, and the message was clear. ‘So, whether you think my questions are relevant or not is completely irrelevant to me.’

Lily’s heart beat heavily in her chest. So that was what was behind his earlier probing. She had been right. He wasn’t interested in her as a person. She hated the fact that for a brief moment she had toyed with the idea that he might actually like her. Talk about living in a dream world.

She swallowed, not wanting to dwell on the way that made her feel—because she couldn’t—wouldn’t—continue to be disappointed by his low opinion of her.

She looked furtively around the small space and realised she was trapped between some sort of cupboard and Tristan and would need to push past him to return to the dining room.

For a minute she considered ignoring him, but she knew how well that would go down. And nobody had ever benefited from pulling a tiger’s tail that she knew of…

‘I wasn’t anyone’s drug mule and I don’t know who the drugs belong to or how they ended up in my bag. And, contrary to popular belief, I don’t have a lover right now. Sorry to disappoint you on that score.’

His brooding gaze held hers, and Lily resisted the urge to slick her tongue across her lips. He looked annoyed and intimidating, and a lot like he had when he’d thrown her out of his family home six years ago.

‘What happened in my father’s study six years ago?’ he asked suddenly, and Lily wondered if maybe he really was a mind reader!

‘You threw me out of your home and told me not to contact Jo again,’ she said immediately.

‘Which you ignored.’

Her eyes widened. ‘Did you really expect me to cut myself off from her?’

His lips curved up slightly, as if he found the question amusing, but his eyes remained hard. ‘Of course I expected it. But there’s nothing I can do about that now. And that’s not what I was asking about and you know it.’

If he was asking about the private party he had interrupted at Jo’s eighteenth that was his problem. If Jordana hadn’t already told him that she had instigated the party then Lily wouldn’t do it either. It wouldn’t serve any purpose but to make him think poorly of Jo, and Lily had no intention of ruining relations between them so close to the wedding by being some sort of tattle-tale after the event.

‘I see no point in rehashing the past,’ she said.

‘Well, that’s too bad, because I do.’

Lily unconsciously squared her shoulders. ‘Actually, it’s too bad for you, because I don’t.’

Tristan’s eyes narrowed dangerously. ‘You were keen enough to talk earlier.’