Mistress of Deception

Ebony would not be pleased, however, if she found out who Alan's 'business' dinner was with. But there was no reason why she should find out. This place was out of the way and not popular with celebrities or people from the fashion world. He glanced around again to make sure. Nope. No one he knew. Darn it, where was that woman?

She breezed in a couple of minutes later, looking as elegant and coolly

beautiful as only Adrianna could look at six months pregnant.

'Am I terribly late?' she exclaimed, a cloud of flowery perfume assailing his nostrils as she leant forward to kiss him on the cheek. She hoisted herself on to the stool next to him, her cleverly layered outfit in cream wool hiding her pregnancy completely.

'A Perrier, please,' she told the barman before turning towards Alan. 'The gynecologist was running late and then my taxi got stuck in some traffic and in the end I jumped out and walked. Am I forgiven?' She pushed back her curtain of sleek blonde hair and flashed him a winning smile.

He smiled back. Just. Oh, Adrianna, he thought. If only I could have fallen in love with you all those years ago, things would have been much simpler.

She gave him a sharp look. 'That's not much of a smile. And you're looking terribly tired. Are you working too hard?'

'Probably.'

'Alan, you bad man. You need someone to take you in hand.'

'I couldn't agree more,' he said blackly.

Her lovely grey eyes widened slightly. She picked up the glass of mineral water and took a sip. 'That doesn't sound like you,' she said. 'The Alan Carstairs I used to know and love was always in control of his own life.'

'You never loved me, Adrianna, more's the pity.'

Her hand covered his where it was resting on the bar. 'That's not true, Alan. I did love you. You were a good friend, and a damned good lover. I still love you. But I'm in love with Bryce. There's a difference.'

'Mmm.'

Her laughter was light and teasing. 'Now what does "mmm" mean?'

'Nothing.' He looked over at her, schooling his face into a less troubled expression. The woman was too damned intuitive. 'So tell me, Adrianna, what did you want to see me about?'

'Shall we go to our table first? I could take this with me and you could order yourself a nice bottle of red. A full-blooded claret might cheer you up.'

'No more hedging, Adrianna,' he began again once they were settled at a table in the corner. 'What's up?'

'Nothing, really. I've been thinking a lot about you lately and I had to come to Sydney anyway to have an ultrasound, so I decided to kill two birds with one stone.' She drew in then exhaled a deep breath. 'You'll probably think I'm prying, but I wanted to find out what happened between you and Ebony. Four years ago when you came to my wedding I could have sworn she was as much in love with you as you were with her. No, don't deny it again, Alan. I won't ever believe it was only lust you felt for the girl, despite her tender age. You're just not the type. I've been half expecting to get an invitation to your wedding all this time, but it never came...'

Alan clenched his teeth hard in his jaw. He didn't want to play true confessions with Adrianna about Ebony. He wasn't in the mood for a lecture. And Adrianna would give him one if she knew what had been going on this past year. God, yes, she'd really give him a tongue-lashing.

Adrianna was not forgiving when it came to any form of chauvinistic treatment of women. A staunchly independent career woman, she had made some astonishing compromises to marry Bryce McLean. But one could only admire both the woman and her cattle-station-owner husband for the depth of their feelings for each other. It was the type of love that could move mountains.

'Ebony and I did fall out with each other for a few years,' he admitted, thinking what an understatement that was! 'But we go out together oc- casionally now.'

'And?' Adrianna probed.

Alan shrugged. 'She had a lot of growing up to do, Adrianna. I didn't want to rush her.'

'Well, she's certainly all grown-up now, and so beautiful it's just criminal. Would you believe I saw her tonight?'

Alan tried very hard to look nonchalant, but every nerve in his body had snapped tight. 'You saw her? Where?'

'She was going into one of the hotel lifts as I was coming out. I went to call out to her, but the doors shut and she was gone. I don't think she saw me.'