Of course not, Liv thought. What was she t
hinking? The stone man had found a heart? No. All the errors in the heart department were solely down to her. ‘So won’t you dance with me?’ she prompted, gazing up at Cade’s stern face. For one horrible moment she thought he was going to refuse, but then he gave her a look.
‘Isn’t your dance card full?’
‘I’ll scratch someone out for you.’ She held her breath.
And now she couldn’t hold it any longer. ‘Okay, so I’ll tear my dance card up for you.’
‘Dance cards were your idea, weren’t they?’
‘That’s right. I thought they were cute.’
‘Cute? Or something old-fashioned that your granny might be more familiar with,’ Cade suggested dryly.
Liv glanced at her corsage. ‘Okay, so now we’re quits…but how about that dance? We should at least look as if we’re together.’
‘Are you asking me or telling me?’
‘Asking politely,’ she said, eyes widening as she teased him. ‘I have to stay on the right side of my prospective boss.’
‘Don’t get too cocky, young lady,’ Cade warned her. ‘You haven’t got the job yet.’
But I will, Liv thought as Cade drew her close. I just have to. ‘I’ll make sure you can’t live without me,’ she told him.
And that would be all too easy, Cade realised, feeling Liv’s warmth through his uniform. Dancing with her was yet another opportunity to contrast his hard, unyielding self with something tender and vulnerable, and he wasn’t sure he liked the way it made him feel. Did they have to play a slow tune now? When he closed his eyes the scent of wildflowers invaded his senses and he could feel every part of Liv pressing against him. She might as well have been naked—
His eyes snapped open again. This was not a good time to lose himself in sensuality, and it was all too easy to take that route with Liv in his arms.
Moving with Cade to the slow, sultry beat of the music, while his hands held her safe, made Liv feel tiny and contented. She rested her head against his chest, and when people smiled at her in approval it was almost possible to believe they really were a couple.
‘I didn’t know you could dance so well,’ he murmured, making her tingle with the brush of his warm, minty breath.
‘And I didn’t know it was possible to move so nimbly in boots with spikes attached,’ she fired back at him as the beat picked up.
‘Spikes?’ he queried. ‘Don’t you mean spurs?’
‘You say ee-ther, and I say eye-ther…’ And as easily as that she was flirting with him. The ambience was just right for it…glittering chandeliers, champagne, an orchestra, beautiful clothes and jewels and orders…men in uniform, partnering lovely women in flattering gowns; everyone swaying back and forth as they swirled around the dance floor. Who wouldn’t want to flirt on a night like this?
Cade timed the music perfectly and soon they were part of the glittering throng dancing to the music of a Viennese waltz. She might have known his sense of rhythm would be effortless. Did he also have to feel so perfect too? It hadn’t taken her too long to pick up the awe Lieutenant Colonel Cade Grant inspired. However little he thought of himself Cade was everyone’s idol. Even the grizzled old generals had softened towards her the moment they had realised she was at Cade’s side. If they’d known the truth, that she was a shameless hussy who had lured their hero into bed, they wouldn’t have given her a moment’s consideration.
Yes, everything she knew about Cade was a reminder not to confuse fantasy with reality, Liv told herself sensibly. He’d kept his part of their bargain and now she had to make sure this evening was a success for him.
Everyone congratulated him on his wonderful companion—a charming girl, a star in her own right; that was how the generals had described Liv. She was the uncontested hit of the night. But she had massively failed the housekeeper test. He couldn’t possibly employ someone who felt so good in his arms, or looked so good in pink. Pink was such a frivolous colour. The only good thing about it was there were so many varieties of pink: salmon pink, fuchsia pink, shocking pink, cerise, Schiaparelli pink, peach, rosy, flesh—
‘Cade? Why are you groaning? Don’t you feel too well?’
‘I’m fine.’ Or at least he would be when he’d silently spelled out all those colours backwards, and everything settled down again. Holding Liv close like this for—what was it—their third dance?—made it impossible for him to keep any of his former good resolutions. When she stared into his eyes he didn’t want to look anywhere else. He didn’t want to be anywhere else. And when she broke away to go about some mission—targeting curmudgeonly generals so she could link arms with them and tell them how important it was that they support him—he couldn’t take his eyes off her.
It hardly seemed possible, but Liv was even more of a success during the meal than she was on the dance floor. Where did she find all those things to talk about? And then he realised as he eavesdropped on her conversations that she had a genuine interest in people and was asking questions, prompting even the most stiff-lipped officer to unbend and share some of his stories with her. After that she made her sales pitch for his scheme, and as far as he could tell was met with unfailing enthusiasm. She was careful about what she drank, confining herself mostly to water, and so she was able to go on selling his cause without flagging until they started passing the port. But when the speeches were finished she sprang her final surprise.
At first he thought she’d left his side for the usual reasons, and he nearly had a fit when he saw her walking confidently up to the microphone on the stage. He was halfway out of the seat when the elderly general who’d been sitting next to Liv put a restraining hand on his arm.
When Liv tapped the microphone to draw everyone’s attention he thought, Dentist be damned! And ground both his jaw and his teeth. Forget the general, he was going to put a stop to this—
He’d almost made it too, when his dinner companion on the other side, an elderly princess of the blood royal, turned to him and complimented him on his choice of young lady, forcing him to sit there in seething silence as first the princess sang Liv’s praises, and then Liv sang his. He sat grim-faced as she gave a fulsome account of his supposed virtues and the importance of his plan for rehabilitation centres for returning soldiers. And as if that weren’t bad enough she finished up by drawing everyone’s attention to the sheets of paper being handed round.
‘Some sort of petition,’ the princess informed him, staring at him over the rim of her reading glasses. ‘Your young lady has asked us to read it through and then sign it if we agree with her.’
He unclenched his fists and picked up his own copy. It was a petition in support of his scheme, copies of which would be delivered both to ten Downing Street and Her Majesty the Queen. He couldn’t fault Liv for aiming high. Having read and signed hers with a flourish, the princess announced that everyone at her table had better sign or they would be answerable to her. He glanced round. Everyone was signing.
‘You worked a miracle, my dear,’ the princess told Liv when she returned to the table.
‘Oh, no…Cade did that,’ she said, sitting quietly down again.
She wouldn’t look at him and he didn’t know what to say. For once he was overwhelmed. ‘I don’t know how to—’
‘Don’t,’ she murmured discreetly, holding his gaze. ‘Don’t…say a word.’
The reminder of another very different occasion when those words had been spoken and of everything they had been to each other flooded back into his consciousness, and he was relieved when she turned away so he could restore some sort of normality to his mood.
Liv refused to read a thing into Cade monopolising her attention after dinner. The mood had lightened; the dancing too. The days of confusing fantasy with reality were over for her. They were fulfilling the terms of their contract, and nothing more.
‘Shall we walk outside?’ he suggested when she fanned herself.
She glanced across the room to where some of the couples had gone outside to cool down.
Glazed doors led onto the veranda overlooking the garden and it did look tempting. Plus she was safe—no chance of weakening and falling for Cade’s unbounded charms when there were so many other people around. ‘Yes, I’d like that.’
Who was she trying to kid? Liv thought as the moonlight struck Cade’s face. She loved this man. He was such a mix of maverick and insightful soul. He was a sensualist, and yet his medals proclaimed him to be a hardened fighter. She longed to reach out to him, and to touch more than just his stern face. If only touch could subdue the warring thoughts inside him.
‘You know you really are a miracle worker. What you’ve done here tonight—’
‘Was inspired by you.’ She refused to take any credit for it. ‘I still can’t believe everyone signed the petition—’
‘Everyone will have signed,’ Cade reassured her. ‘Once you’d won the support of the major general and the princess there was a veritable landslide of signatures. No one wanted to be left out of such an elite group when they knew your petition was going to come before the Prime Minister and the Queen. There’s absolutely no doubt that thanks to you my scheme will go through now—’
‘I’m so happy for you, Cade.’ Liv killed the impulse to make any sort of physical contact with him, knowing how easily it could take flight in her imagination, to Cade catching hold of her hand, Cade staring into her eyes, Cade pressing her palm to his lips—along with all the other things she loved. She’d done with fantasy. She would work for Cade—if he’d have her—because she believed in his cause; she believed in Cade and the good he could do. And that was enough for her. It had to be enough.
‘Are you warm enough?’ he said as the wind ruffled her hair.
She answered his question with a shiver, but it had nothing to do with the temperature, and everything to do with the fact that Cade’s hand had just brushed her naked shoulder as he adjusted her shawl.
‘I don’t think you are warm enough.’ He turned for the door.