Modern Romance August 2018 Books 1-4 Collection. Tara Pammi

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ slow down as he followed her along the wet pavement but he caught her up easily enough, his long strides easily outperforming her small, rapid steps. ‘We need to talk,’ he said, as he caught up with her.

      She stopped then. Lifted up her chin to glare at him and the raindrops glistened like diamonds on her freckled skin as she stood beneath the golden flare of the streetlamp.

      ‘But that’s where you’re wrong!’ she contradicted fervently. ‘We don’t need to do anything. Why would we when there’s nothing between us? Didn’t you make it plain that’s what you wanted when you slipped out of bed that morning, taking great care not to wake me?’

      ‘Why?’ he parried softly. ‘Did you want there to be something between us?’

      ‘In your dreams!’ she declared. ‘Even if I did want to get involved with a man—which I don’t—you’re the last person on the planet I’d ever choose! I already told you that.’

      A low sigh of relief escaped from his lips and some of the tension left him. ‘That’s probably the best news I’ve heard all week,’ he said. ‘And yet another reason why we need to have a conversation.’

      Tamsyn steeled herself against the sexy dip in his voice, brushing the rain away from her cheeks with an impatient fist. ‘You just don’t get it, do you?’ she hissed. ‘I’m not interested in what you’ve got to say, Xan. I’ve just been sacked and it’s all your fault.’

      His eyebrows shot up. ‘My fault?’

      ‘Yes! If you hadn’t come into the cafe—swaggering around the place as if you owned it and demanding I take a break I wasn’t entitled to—then I’d still have a job. Your attitude made me so angry so that I answered you back, giving that witch of a manageress the ideal opportunity to tell me not to bother coming back tomorrow.’

      ‘So that’s the only reason you were fired?’ he questioned slowly.

      Tamsyn told herself she didn’t have to answer. That she owed him nothing—and certainly not an explanation. Yet it was difficult to withstand the perceptive gleam in his eyes or not to be affected by the sudden understanding that since Hannah had gone away to live in the desert, she really was on her own. That once again she was jobless, with nobody to turn to—with outstanding rent to pay on her overpriced bedsit. Giving a suddenly deflated sigh, she shrugged, all the energy needed to maintain the fiction of her life suddenly draining away. ‘Not the only reason, no,’ she agreed reluctantly. ‘I guess I’m fundamentally unsuited to being a waitress.’

      Beneath the streetlight, his eyes gleamed. ‘All the more reason for you to have dinner with me, since I have a proposition to put to you which you might find interesting.’

      The suggestion was so unexpected that Tamsyn blinked. ‘What sort of proposition?’

      Tiny droplets of rain flew like diamonds from the tangle of his ebony hair as he shook his head. ‘This isn’t a conversation to have in the rain. Let’s find a restaurant where we can talk.’

      Her stomach chose that moment to make an angry little rumble and Tamsyn realised she hadn’t eaten since breakfast. She told herself it was hunger which made her consider his suggestion—it definitely wasn’t because she was reluctant to see him walk out of her life for a second time. But then she looked at her damp jeans and realised what a mess she looked. ‘I can’t possibly go out looking like this.’

      ‘You could go home first and get changed.’ He gave a small inclination of his head. ‘I have a car here.’

      Tamsyn stiffened as a black limousine began to drive slowly towards them. Was he out of his mind? Did he really think she’d let someone like him within a mile of her scrubby little bedsit? She could just imagine the shock on his over-privileged face if he caught sight of the damp walls and the electric kettle which was covered in lime-scale. ‘I live miles away.’

      ‘Then let’s just go to the Granchester.’

      Tamsyn nearly choked as he casually mentioned the exclusive hotel where her sister used to work before being fired for sleeping with one of the guests. ‘The Granchester is just about the most expensive hotel in London,’ she objected. ‘We’ll never be able to get a table at this short notice, and even if we could there’s no way I could go somewhere like that for dinner, wearing this.’

      ‘Oh, we’ll a get a table,’ he said smoothly, as the limousine drew up beside them. ‘And my cousin’s wife Emma is staying there at the moment. You look about the same size as her. She’ll lend you something to wear.’

      Tamsyn shook her head. ‘Don’t be so ridiculous. I can’t possibly borrow a dress from a complete stranger!’

      ‘Of course you can.’ He spoke with the confidence of someone unused to being thwarted, as he opened the door of the car and gently pushed her inside. ‘Don’t worry. I’ll fix it.’

      Afterwards Tamsyn would put her uncharacteristic compliance down to his distracting presence, or maybe it was just his sheer certainty. She’d never experienced the sensation of a man taking control of a situation in such an unflappable way. She wasn’t used to someone offering to fix things. She was used to drama and chaos. She wondered if there was some biological chink in her armour which made her yield to his superior strength, or whether she’d just had the stuffing knocked out of her by the loss of yet another job? Either way, she found herself climbing into the back of the taxi with Xan sliding next to her as they began to drive at speed through the rain, towards the Granchester.

      The rain-blurred lights of the city passed in a streak while Xan made a phone call. She heard him say her name as he began speaking in rapid Greek, before laughing at something the person on the end of the line must have said. And it was the laugh which made Tamsyn’s heart clench with unexpected wistfulness. Imagine living the kind of life where you could just jump into the back of a limousine without worrying about the cost, and laugh so uninhibitedly as you chatted on the phone—as if you didn’t have a care in the world.

      Like a glittering citadel, the Granchester Hotel rose up before them and as the car slid to a halt, a doorman sprang forward to greet Xan like an old friend. The flower-filled foyer was busy as expensively dressed guests milled around, looking as if they had somewhere important to go. A woman was walking purposefully towards them, one of the most beautiful women Tamsyn had ever seen. Slim and smiling, her hair was as pale as moonlight and she was wearing a short blue dress which hugged her hips and a tiny cardigan just a shade darker.

      ‘Xan!’ she said fondly, rising up on the toes of her ballet pumps to kiss the Greek tycoon on both cheeks, before turning to Tamsyn with a wide smile. ‘And you must be Tamsyn,’ she said. ‘I’m Emma and I’m married to Xan’s cousin. I gather you need something to wear for dinner tonight and time is tight—so why don’t you come with me and I can sort you something out?’

      It was weird—maybe because Emma was so polite and so...gracious—that Tamsyn didn’t find herself frozen by her usual air of suspicion. Instead, she smiled back and the three of them walked over to an elevator which nobody else seemed to be using. And of course, the presence of Emma in the enclosed space meant that Tamsyn’s conversation with Xan was temporarily interrupted, although she couldn’t help but be acutely aware of his presence and the mocking light in his eyes. What on earth have I got myself into? she wondered as the elevator slid to a silent halt and they stepped directly into an enormous room whose wall to ceiling windows gave a stunning view over the glittering skyscrapers of London.

      ‘Xan, СКАЧАТЬ