He watched her talk, her face growing more and more animated as she shared the details, and words like ‘table plan’, ‘soaking of the oasis’—which would have baffled him even if his brain had been running at one hundred per cent—and ‘setting up’ danced around him, barely filtering into his head because if he wanted to know more he could presumably appropriate the folder and, besides, he was enjoying listening to her far too much to concentrate on the actual details.
‘As a decoy,’ he heard her say through the fog in his head and his focus sharpened a fraction because he’d actually been wondering about this, ‘I thought, seeing as how your parents are such opera buffs, you could invite them to a black-tie recital at Barton Hall. A charity thing. Jake would bring them, and then, ta-da, surprise.’
‘Good plan,’ he murmured before zoning out again as she moved on to timings and speeches and the design for the firework display.
‘And then I thought,’ she said, tilting her head and narrowing those incredible blue eyes a little, ‘how about flying a dozen camels over from Dubai and holding races down the drive, with jockeys and betting and everything? Your parents could present the trophies.’
‘Sounds great,’ he murmured, vaguely wondering how unusual the combination of her hair and eye colour was because he didn’t think he’d ever come across it before.
‘Leo.’
At the sharpness of her voice he blinked and gave himself a quick shake. ‘What?’
‘Have you been listening to a word I’ve been saying?’
‘Of course I have.’
‘What’s the plan for the decoy?’
‘An opera recital.’
‘Timings for the drinks?’
‘I’ll take a look at the folder.’
‘And the camels?’
‘Camels?’ he asked with a frown as he thought, damn, how on earth did camels fit in? and thereby totally gave himself away.
‘I thought not,’ she said, shaking her head in disappointment, her smile gone. ‘Look, if you don’t care about any of this, if you’re not particularly interested, all you have to do is say.’
He did care and he was interested. In the party, a lot. In her, even more.
And frankly he’d had enough. Of the confusion, the lack of concentration, the constant tension inside him. Of everything about her that had turned his life upside down since the moment they’d met, in fact.
So to hell with business. And to hell with what she thought about him. He couldn’t contain it any longer, because if he did he feared he might actually go mad.
Hadn’t she said it was better to put the facts ‘out there’? That second-guessing was a waste of time? Well, for once he was going to put how he felt ‘out there’, and she could do what she liked with it.
‘Want to know why I was distracted?’ he asked, he thought coolly enough but his voice must have held an edge because she went very still.
‘I’m not sure,’ she said, her breath catching and her gaze fixed on his. ‘Do I?’
‘I’ll tell you anyway.’
‘OK.’
‘Your mouth moves and all I can think of are the amazingly clever things you can do with it. I look at your hands and all I can remember is how they felt on me. I listen to your vo
ice and all I can hear is you telling me to go harder, deeper, faster. The memory of us together won’t go away, Abby, and it’s undoing me.’
For the longest time she didn’t say anything. But the pulse at the base of her neck was hammering like crazy, her breathing was rapid and shallow and her cheeks flushed deep.
‘I thought what happened wasn’t going to be a problem,’ she said and her voice was husky.
‘So did I.’
‘Yet it clearly is.’