to.’ Sally grimaced her disappointment, taking another sip of her champagne. ‘Unobtainable.’
‘You mean he’s married,’ Lilli said knowingly.
Sally arched her brows. ‘I’m sorry to say that hasn’t always been a deterrent in the past.’ She shook her head. ‘No, he belongs to Gerry,’ she explained disappointedly. ‘As far as I’m aware, no woman has ever taken one of our hostess’s men and lived to tell the tale. And I’m too young to die!’
Lilli laughed huskily at her friend’s woebegone expression. Sally was exaggerating, of course, although Geraldine’s succession of lovers was legendary. In fact, Lilli doubted there were too many men in this room the beautiful Geraldine Simms hadn’t been involved with at some time or other during the last few years. But at least she seemed to stay good friends with them, which had to say something about the bubbling effervescence of their hostess!
Sally glanced across the room again. ‘But he is so gorgeous...’ she said longingly.
Lilli gave a shake of her head. ‘Okay, I give up; where is he?’ She turned to look for the man who was so attractive that Sally seemed to be about to throw caution to the wind and challenge Gerry for him, on the other woman’s home ground, no less!
‘Over there.’ Sally nodded to the far side of the elegantly furnished room. ‘Standing next to Gerry near the window.’
Sally continued to give an exact description of the gorgeous man but Lilli was no longer listening to her, having already located the intimately engrossed couple, feeling the blood drain from her cheeks as she easily spotted the man standing so arrogantly self-assured at Geraldine’s side.
No!
Not him. Not here. Not with her!
Oh, God...! How could he? How dared he?
‘Isn’t he just—? I say, Lilli, you’ve gone very pale all of a sudden.’ Sally looked at her concernedly.
Pale? She was surprised she hadn’t gone grey, shocked she was still standing on legs that seemed to be shaking so badly her knees were knocking together, surprised she wasn’t screaming, accusing. What was he doing here? And so obviously with Geraldine Simms, a woman with the reputation of a man-eater.
‘Are you feeling okay?’ Sally touched her arm worriedly.
She wasn’t feeling at all, seemed to have gone completely numb. It wasn’t an emotion she was unfamiliar with, but she had never thought he would be the one to deal her such a blow.
Oh, God, she had to get out of here, away from the noise, away from them!
‘I’m fine, Sally,’ she told her friend stiltedly, the smile she forced not quite managing to curve her lips. ‘I—I think I’ve had enough for one night. It’s my first time out for months,’ she babbled. ‘I’m obviously out of practice. I—I’ll call you.’ She put her champagne glass down on the nearest available table. ‘We’ll have lunch.’
Sally looked totally bewildered by Lilli’s sudden urgency to be gone. ‘But it’s only eleven-thirty!’
And the party would go on until almost morning. In the past Lilli would probably have been among the last to leave. But not tonight. She had to get out of here now. She had to!
‘I’ll call you, Sally,’ she promised distantly, turning to stumble across the room, muttering her apologies as she bumped into people on the way, blind to where she was going, just needing to escape.
She had a jacket somewhere, she remembered. It was in a room at the back of the house. And she didn’t want to leave without it, didn’t want to have to come back to this house again to collect it. She didn’t want to ever have to see Geraldine Simms again. Not ever!
Where had they stored the coats? Every room she looked in appeared to be empty. One of them turned out not to be as empty as it at first appeared, a young couple in there taking advantage of the sofa to make love. But there were no coats.
She would just abandon her damn coat in a minute, would send someone over tomorrow for it, would just have to hope that it was still here.
She thrust open another door, deciding that if this room proved as fruitless as the others she would quietly leave and find herself a taxi.
‘Oh!’ She gasped as she realised she had walked into what must be the main kitchen of the house. It wasn’t empty. Not that there were any chefs rushing around preparing the food for the numerous guests. No, all the food, put out so deliciously on plates in the dining-room, had been provided by caterers.
A man sat at a long oak table in the middle of the room, his dark evening suit and snowy white shirt, with red bow-tie, tagging him as part of the elegant gathering in the main part of the house. Yet he sat alone in the kitchen, strong hands nursing what looked to be a glass of red wine, the open bottle on the table beside him, the only light in the room a single spotlight over the Aga.
But Lilli could see the man well enough, his dark, overlong hair with distinguished strands of grey at the temples, grey, enigmatic eyes in a face that might have been carved from granite, all sharp angles and hard-hewn features. From the way his long legs stretched out beneath the table, he was a very tall man, well over six feet, if Lilli had to guess. She would put his age in the late thirties.
She also knew, from that very first glance, that she had never seen him before!
She really was very much out of touch with the party scene! Once upon a time she would have known all the other guests at any occasion she went to, which was ultimately the reason they had become so boring to attend. But tonight there were at least two men present that she hadn’t encountered at one of these parties before—one she didn’t know at all, the other she most certainly did!
Her mouth tightened at her thoughts. ‘I’m sorry to have disturbed you,’ she told the man distractedly, turning to leave.
‘Not at all,’ the man drawled in a weary voice. ‘It’s quite pleasant to meet another refugee from that free-for-all out there!’
Lilli turned slowly back to him, dark brows raised. ‘You aren’t enjoying the party?’
His mouth quirked into a humourless smile, and he took a swallow of the wine before answering. ‘Not particularly,’ he dismissed disgustedly. ‘If I had known—!’ He picked up the bottle and refilled his glass, turning back to Lilli and raising the bottle in her direction. ‘Can I offer you some wine? It’s from Gerry’s private stock,’ he explained temptingly. ‘Much preferable to that champagne being served out there.’ He waved the bottle in the direction of the front of the house.
Gerry... Only Geraldine’s really close friends shortened her name in that way. He also knew where Geraldine kept her cellar of wine.
Lilli looked at the man with new interest. He obviously was—or had been—a close friend of Geraldine Simms. And, while Geraldine might remain on good terms with her ex-lovers, she certainly didn’t give them up to another woman easily...
Lilli entered the kitchen fully, aware of the man’s gaze on her as she moved across the dimly lit room, able to tell by the cool assessment in those pale grey eyes that he liked what he saw. ‘I would love some wine,’ she accepted as she sat down at the table, not opposite him but next to him, pushing a long swathe of her dark
