‘Dumont for me,’ added Lizzie.
Both she and Sandy had been glad to kiss goodbye to their father’s name when they’d married. She’d thought of reverting to her maiden name when she’d divorced Philippe but had decided against it for Amy’s sake. It had been disruptive enough for her without Mummy having a different name. Morgan was a nice name.
She refused to let the thought go further. Anyway, that would be weird. Two sisters marrying a pair of brothers? Never going to happen.
THE STAR OF the fund-raiser for Dolphin Bay Dogs, the shelter Jesse’s mother Maura was involved with, was the cast of dogs, ranging from cute puppies to venerable senior citizens with grey around their muzzles.
They sat in a row along the raised platform that acted as a stage for the ballroom of the Hotel Harbourside. The volunteer carers who kept the dogs in check were busy either soothing the nervous ones or calming the excitable ones who just wanted to be part of the action.
It was clever marketing on his mother’s part, Jesse thought. He was sure people would be more inclined to open their wallets when they saw those pleading canine eyes.
But, appealing as the puppies were, Jesse’s eyes were only for Lizzie. They’d agreed she’d arrive with Sandy and Ben so as not to draw attention to the way their ‘friendship’ had escalated into something so much more.
And now she was here. As she made her way across the room to him he was literally lost for words. His heart thudded into overdrive and his mouth went dry.
Last time he’d seen her she’d been wearing her chef’s jacket and black pants, her hair pulled tightly back from her face and her cheeks all flushed from the heat of the kitchen. He’d thought she’d looked lovely then. But the transformation from chef to seductress was nothing short of sensational.
Her dress clung to her slender shape and left her shoulders bare, with a tantalising suggestion of cleavage, and its colour was a tint of aqua that glistened like the underside of a wave on Silver Gull beach. Her hair puzzled him for a moment until he realised it looked so different because her wild curls had been tamed into a style that was straight and sleek and falling around her face. She looked sophisticated. Elegant. And sexy as all get-out.
‘Lizzie,’ he said in the most casual just-friends voice he could muster, ‘you’re looking very lovely.’
‘Thank you,’ she said in the tone she used to accept a compliment about the food from a customer, but lit by a mischievous sparkle in her eyes. ‘So glad you approve.’
‘I approve, all right,’ he said, his voice more the hoarse whisper of a lover than the light tone of a pal, no matter how he tried to keep it casual.
The silver high heeled shoes that strapped around her ankles brought her to easy kissing height. She kissed him lightly, first on one cheek and then the other. ‘Just friends, remember,’ she murmured into his ear.
It was an effort not to clamp her possessively to his side. To beat away anyone who came near her. She aroused caveman instincts he hadn’t known he possessed.
‘You look so beautiful,’ he murmured back. ‘No man would want to stop at just being friends.’
She laughed as she pulled away from him to normal conversation level. He had better try and mask the hunger in his eyes.
‘I bought this dress in Paris years ago. It’s so long since I dressed up I could hardly remember how. I thought it was going to be a big fail.’
‘Count it as a first class honours pass,’ he said.
She wore make-up too, dark stuff around her eyes that brought out a purple ring around her iris. And deep pink lipstick on her sweet, seductive mouth. It only made him want to kiss it off.
‘This is the same room where Sandy and Ben’s wedding reception was held, isn’t it?’ Lizzie asked in a low murmur. ‘Do you get a feeling of déjà vu?’
‘In a way,’ he said. ‘You’re the loveliest woman in the room again.’
‘I bet you say that to all the girls,’ she said in mock flirtation, but he saw a touch of wariness in her eyes.
‘No, I don’t, and that’s the truth,’ he said. He bent to whisper in her ear. ‘You have to learn to trust me, Lizzie.’ As he had to trust her.
She nodded. ‘I know.’
He wanted to kiss her to reassure her, but of course he couldn’t. Not with the eyes of a sizable number of his family and friends upon them.
‘One thing is for sure,’ she said, as if she’d read his mind. ‘Nothing could take me out onto that balcony again.’
He didn’t want to share her. Wanted her all to himself somewhere very private. But she was right—that place wasn’t the balcony. No matter how beautiful the view of the full moon over the bay.
He was about to tell her that when Ben came up beside them. He slapped his brother on the shoulder in greeting. ‘It’s not you I’ve come to talk to,’ Ben said. ‘It’s Lizzie.’
‘Okay,’ said Lizzie. Did she feel as annoyed as he did at being interrupted?
‘Mum wants to show you something special,’ Ben said to Lizzie. ‘She’s over there near the stage. Please don’t be surprised if it’s a dog.’
Lizzie laughed. ‘I don’t mind at all if it’s a dog. Isn’t that what we’re here for?’
She casually brushed her hand against Jesse’s arm as she left—he got the message she would rather stay with him and it pleased him.
‘I actually do want to talk to you,’ said Ben. He went from smiling to serious, as he did when money and investment was concerned.
Jesse’s interest was sparked. When he was younger, he’d trusted Ben with financial advice that had paid off very handsomely. A generous inheritance plus business savvy and wise investment meant that at his age he was very well off. Well off enough to be able to take the weight right off Lizzie’s feet if that was what she wanted; maybe into a job that wasn’t so physically demanding. It concerned him to see her so exhausted and in pain at the end of a long day in the kitchen.
‘I want to talk to you about a business proposition,’ Ben said.
‘If you want to hire me as a full-time barista, forget it,’ Jesse said with a grin.
‘Sandy would sign you up in a moment,’ Ben said. ‘But that’s not the money-making proposal I have for you.’
* * *
As Lizzie walked away from Jesse, she was surprised to realise how much she was enjoying herself. She couldn’t help but contrast the last time she’d been in this room for Sandy’s wedding.
Then she’d been the bride’s sister who didn’t know anyone. Now, even after only a few weeks in Dolphin
