‘Have you eaten?’
‘No but...’
‘Come to dinner with me?’
‘Why?’
‘Because I’m hungry and so are you and because I hate to eat alone.’
‘You could ask any number of people at the bar to dinner and they’d go with you.’
He paused and Eleanore’s heart thumped heavily inside her chest. ‘I don’t want to go with any number of people. I want to go with you.’
The look he gave her made it impossible to say no.
* * *
Because it was late Lukas took her to a hole-in-the-wall supper club that was discreet and unpretentious but stocked vintage champagne for those who knew about it. Lukas just happened to be one of those clients and he raised his glass in a toast. ‘To a successful venture.’
Eleanore clinked her glass with his. ‘I can’t believe it’s actually over. A couple of times I didn’t think we were going to make it.’
She’d seemed to relax her guard with him over the course of the meal and opened up about her life in New York and her volunteer work at her local animal shelter.
He smiled as he recalled how at one point he’d thought she would bore him witless. Nothing could be further from the truth.
‘What are you smiling at?’ she asked, a little self-consciously.
Lukas had never been accused of being a foolish man and he wasn’t about to prove the pundits wrong by admitting the truth now. ‘The three-tiered ice chandelier?’ he said, recalling one of the brief updates she had sent him via email.
‘Please don’t mention the chandelier.’ She groaned. ‘It fell twice during construction and Mikhail only just finished it this morning. I hope it’s still hanging there tomorrow for opening night.’
‘It will be. As will the horse-drawn sleighs and husky sleds out the back. Or did you think you’d managed to slip those past me?’
Her quick grin told him that that was exactly what she’d thought. ‘It’s a good idea. Everyone thinks so.’
‘Everyone thinks the sun shines out of you. They wouldn’t dare say anything else.’
She tried to pull off an innocent look but it only made him want to laugh. ‘Are you upset?’
His eyes lowered to half-mast. ‘Do I look upset?’
Eleanore’s pulse sped up. ‘Sometimes it’s hard to tell with you.’
‘I’m not upset. Have you been on one yet?’
She shook her head. ‘I haven’t had the time.’
‘Maybe you’ll have to visit our fair city again sometime.’
‘I’d like that. It would be great to visit in the summer when the sun rises at four in the morning and sets at midnight. I can only imagine that everyone is completely exhausted the whole time.’
‘You get used to it but heavy blackout curtains help.’
She laughed. ‘New York is a little more civilised. The sun doesn’t wake us until about six in summer.’
‘You seem eager to get home.’
She hesitated, unsure how she felt about going home. ‘I guess I am. It’s been a while since I was there and it will be nice to see the city again. To spend time with my sisters.’
‘You sound close?’
‘Yes...’
‘But?’
Eleanore thought about what he’d said about her sisters being talented because they shared her genes. She felt herself blush under his weighty gaze and forced her mind to concentrate. ‘But we don’t see one another nearly enough. No matter what though, they mean the world to me. What about you? I remember you said your parents are no longer here, but do you have siblings? Brothers or sisters?’
This was why Lukas never usually probed the women he dated for personal information. They usually probed right back. ‘None that I know of.’
‘Oh.’ She tilted her head and her shiny ponytail slipped over one shoulder. ‘That doesn’t sound good.’
Lukas took a swig of his champagne and found his usual reticence to talk about these things strangely absent. What would she think if she knew the truth of his heritage? Would she be put off as he knew many other society heiresses would be? ‘I didn’t know my parents.’
‘Not at all?’
‘I was a street kid, Eleanore.’
‘You lied to me.’ She stared at him wide-eyed. ‘When I asked you, you said...’ She frowned as if she was trying to remember what he’d said.
‘I think what I said was that you had a good imagination. And you do.’