The Ultimate Surrender

‘The extras could include such things as seats for the top shows, special guided tours of galleries, buying trips for art works and antiques, with the advice of an expert, the services of personal shoppers, along with the provision of chauffeurs and minders if required.’

‘Mmm, sounds impressive,’ Polly told him.

‘It will be,’ Phil replied unabashed.

‘Very impressive and very expensive,’ Polly reinforced ruefully.

‘There’s a lot of money out there,’ Phil pointed out, then suddenly frowned as he muttered, ‘What the hell are they doing here?’

Automatically Polly turned her head to see who had caused him to look so grimly displeased, her whole body tensing as there, not three tables away from them, Marcus and Suzi were being seated by the head waiter.

As yet they hadn’t seen them, and as the waiter handed them their menus and left Polly’s stomach dropped on seeing Suzi leaning across the table to cover Marcus’s hand with her own.

‘Very cosy,’ she heard Phil snapping acerbically.

‘You obviously didn’t realise they would be dining here too,’ Polly offered, trying to muster a casual lack of concern she didn’t feel. Suzi looked so intimately at ease with Marcus. Briony would be pleased.

Polly discovered that she had suddenly lost her appetite.

‘I didn’t realise—’ Phil began sharply, and then stopped. ‘I have a suite here.’ He gave a small shrug. ‘As my assistant, Suzi knows she is free to use the empty bedroom—I’m using this place as a base whilst the deal goes through so it makes sense to be here on hand to iron out the inevitable last-minute snags, but if Suzi thinks…’ He stopped again and then frowned as he saw the way Polly was pushing her food around her plate.

‘Is something wrong?’ he asked her in concern. ‘If you’d prefer something else…’ As he started to look round for a waiter, Polly shook her head.

‘No. No, it’s…it’s fine. I’m just not very hungry.’ She gave him a smile and then bit her lip in vexation as he obviously guessed what the real cause of her loss of appetite was and commented brusquely, ‘Yes, I know what you mean. Look, we can always eat in my suite if you’d prefer, or go somewhere else.’

‘No. No…there’s no need for that,’ she assured him quickly.

‘Hell,’ she heard him curse. ‘They’ve seen us.’ And then he was pushing back his chair and getting up. As Polly turned her head she could see Suzi advancing towards them.

‘Phil…and Mrs Fraser.’ She gave Polly a thin smile whilst Polly acknowledged her greeting with cool politeness. There was no mistaking the challenging way the other woman had said her name. That Mrs Fraser was quite plainly intended to put Polly where Suzi obviously thought she belonged—in a much older generation.

‘When you told me you had a business meeting this evening I didn’t realise it was with Mrs Fraser,’ Suzi told Phil. She was standing between them, her back very firmly towards Polly. The dress she was wearing was long, sheer and cut so low at the back it was immediately obvious that it would be impossible for her to wear any underwear beneath it.

As Polly recoiled a little at that knowledge she chided herself for being absurdly old-fashioned. If a modern woman chose not to wear underwear then was that really so very shocking? Perhaps not, Polly acknowledged, but in her book Suzi’s deliberate advertisement of it by the way she leaned her weight first on one leg and then the other so that every male within eyesight was watching her with various degrees of discretion—or in some cases an open lack of it—was in Polly’s book certainly a little ill-bred.

‘When you said you were seeing a friend I had no idea you meant Mr Fraser,’ Phil was retaliating, with a venom in his voice that made Polly look at them both a little uncomfortably—a working relationship?

‘My friends are my own concern,’ Suzi told Phil sharply, adding outrageously, at least in Polly’s opinion, ‘But your business associates should, since I am your assistant, be mine.’

Swinging round on her heel, she gave Polly a hard, assessing look before telling her sweetly, ‘I don’t know about you, Mrs Fraser, but I always feel rather sorry for older women who make the mistake of falling for younger men. They make themselves look so ridiculous, don’t you think?’

‘Human beings can make themselves look ridiculous in a wide variety of ways and for a wide variety of reasons,’ Polly countered quietly. ‘Perhaps I’m old-fashioned but it’s always been my credo to judge others as compassionately as I would like to have them judge me.’ And then, ignoring Suzi, she leaned across the table and told Phil calmly, ‘From what I’ve seen of the hotel, Phil, I’m sure it will make an excellent addition to your existing business, but now, if you’ll excuse me, I am feeling rather tired and I think it’s time I left.’