the damned things,’ he muttered, looking up. ‘I don’t suppose you...?’
Cyn frowned her puzzlement. ‘I what?’
‘You can’t be any worse at tying bow-ties than I am,’ he decided firmly, leaning forward over the desk once again. ‘Have a go,’ he suggested, thrusting his chin forward to allow her better access to the tie at his throat.
She stared at him in dismay for several seconds. She couldn’t just go around rearranging guests’ dress! There was sure to be a rule about it somewhere in the contract she had signed to work here at all, and as she had only been here a matter of weeks—
‘Well?’ He muttered with his jaw clenched, obviously tiring of the unnatural pose. ‘I could get a stiff neck if I have to hold my chin up much longer, and end up walking about like this all evening. Then I’ll really be popular!’
With the woman at the Thorntons’ party who was waiting for his arrival. But what was she worrying about? Cyn derided herself; she was never likely to see this man again, so what difference did it make to her who was waiting for him in that function-room!
‘OK,’ she sighed heavily, leaning forward to untie the bow so that she could start from scratch. From the look of the crushed material the rather sad-looking bow she had just undone had been far from his own first attempt this evening!
His proximity, necessarily so if she were to arrange the bow-tie at all, was more than a little unnerving! So much so that she made a complete mess of the bow herself the first time she tried. But the man was so close to her she could see the pores of his skin, the black flecks in those strange amber-coloured eyes, feel the warmth of his breath against her cheeks. How could she possibly be expected to concentrate?
‘Not so easy, is it?’ he said with satisfaction as she started again, luckily seeming to have no idea it was he himself who was making this so difficult for her.
‘Mmm,’ Cyn acknowledged as she frowned her attention on the bow-tie, her tongue sticking out between her teeth preventing her from making further conversation as she tried her best to concentrate on tying the bow rather than on the sensual magnetism of the man she was tying it on.
He gave a sudden throaty chuckle. ‘Anyone finding us like this could be forgiven for completely misinterpreting the situation— I was only joking!’ he protested as she moved sharply away, thrusting her hands behind her back as if they had been stung. ‘You can’t leave me half dressed like this!’ he groaned as he put a hand up and found the bow was still incomplete.
He was hardly ‘half dressed’, Cyn protested silently—although the suggestion did bring some rather vivid imaginings to mind, predominantly a situation where he actually could be ‘half dressed’!
‘Come here,’ she instructed impatiently, pulling him forward by the bow, her fingers moving deftly now, irritated with herself for indulging in such daydreams; this man might be slightly disorganised, but he was still someone important enough to be a guest at the Thornton party, and, as such, completely out of her league. ‘There!’ she patted the newly tied bow-tie with satisfaction. ‘You—’
‘Wolf, what on earth are you doing?’ demanded an incredulous voice.
Cyn reacted with dismay to the sound of that intrusive voice, sure she was going to be in trouble now over the incident with the man she had now learnt was called Wolf—Wolf...! What sort of a name was that, for goodness’ sake? He didn’t look in the least perturbed by the interruption, giving her a rueful grimace before turning to face the woman who had called out to him.
‘Enquiring where the party is, of course, Barbara,’ he drawled easily. ‘How’s it all going?’ He strolled across the reception area to join her.
Cyn looked closely at the other woman. She was one of the guests Cyn must have missed arriving earlier, because she didn’t remember seeing her before. Beautiful—of course she would have to be!—her features smooth and even, dominated by enormous green eyes surrounded by thick sooty lashes, her mouth a pout of red, with a golden tan to her skin that she hadn’t acquired in this country, not in the last few months, anyway. And with a cascade of ebony hair that tumbled down on to her shoulders in a style that was arranged to look completely casual but actually wasn’t—Cyn did not doubt for a moment that it had taken an accomplished hairdresser several hours to achieve the effect. And she was tall, at least five feet eight even without the high-heeled shoes she wore with the figure-hugging black dress that showed a long expanse of her silken legs below its above-knee length.
Everything that Cyn herself wasn’t, in fact, with her own almost waist-length hair secured in a single braid down her spine, and her pale elfin features that could never be called beautiful. And it had always been the bane of her life that she was only five feet tall in her stockinged feet; she had always longed to be tall and elegantly graceful. Like the woman Wolf was now kissing warmly on the cheek as he reached her side.
‘Alex is getting more and more polite as the evening goes on,’ the woman called Barbara tightly answered Wolf’s light query, their conversation more than audible to Cyn as she stood at the reception-desk a short distance away, although she looked down awkwardly at some papers on top of the desk as flashing green eyes shot her a furious glare. ‘A sure sign that he’s absolutely furious!’ the woman added with a frown.
Wolf sighed. ‘When is he anything else these days?’ He shook his head. ‘He’s going to give himself a heart attack if he carries on like this, Barbara. You know he—’
‘He’s furious with you, Wolf,’ Barbara cut in impatiently. ‘You know you should have been here with the rest of the family to greet our guests as they arrived!’
Alex? The rest of the family? Our guests? It suddenly dawned on Cyn, as she stood riveted to the spot, her stomach doing somersaults, that Wolf had to be a member of the Thornton family too, that Alex had to be Alex Thornton, the head of Thornton Industries; in effect, her own employer!
Oh, my God, she thought, and she had told Wolf no one would even notice he was missing from the party in the crush! And she had faulted his appearance before attempting to rearrange his bow-tie for him! Just who was he?
Dark blond brows rose mockingly over those amber eyes. ‘As I received a formal invitation I thought I was included in the guest list, not the family,’ he drawled derisively.
Barbara gave him a reproving frown, spoiling the beauty of her face as the frown gave her an almost primly disapproving look. ‘You know you were sent the invitation so that it served as a reminder for you to come at all. Obviously we wasted our time even trying to do that!’ She shook her head disgustedly. ‘Oh, well, better late than never, I suppose.’ She put her arm through the crook of his as she turned him purposefully in the direction of the room where the party was being held. ‘Maybe when he sees you’re here after all, Alex will start to calm down.’
‘I wouldn’t count on it,’ Wolf murmured unconcernedly. ‘Seeing me has never been known to have that effect on my too-serious brother before!’
Brother...! It was worse than she had even imagined, Cyn realised. Wolf wasn’t some obscure member of the Thornton family—which had been her fervent hope once she had realised he was related to them at all!—but was, in fact, the other son of the family, the one who had upset them all by becoming a musician or an artist, or something they considered equally unsuitable for a Thornton heir. Because that was certainly who he was—Wolf Thornton, joint heir with Alex Thornton to Thornton Industries, half-owner of this very hotel, in fact!
‘No,’
