satin mini-dress, joined the party, she gave her rival a small, tight smile and then a wide berth.
Which suited Bel just fine.
Wearing a white dress with shoestring straps and a full skirt, her flawless skin a pale gold, her ash-blonde hair in a shining coil on top of her head, Bel looked lovely—cool and elegant and poised.
Her fiancé, debonair in evening dress, showed her off to his friends and members of the family she hadn’t yet met with undisguised pride.
A serve-yourself bar and buffet had been set up in the large conservatory and, the evening being fine and warm, there was dancing on the lantern-lit terrace.
Bel was busy enjoying the evening, and with the party atmosphere drinking more champagne than she was used to, when she felt an uncomfortable prickle of awareness, and sensed that someone was watching her.
Lifting her gleaming head, she glanced around.
A short distance away, his back to the light, a tall, well-built man in immaculate evening dress was standing, his eyes fixed on her.
She saw his hair was crisp and dark, but his face was in shadow. Even so, she was sure there was something about him…something oddly familiar…
As the thought crossed her mind his white teeth flashed in a smile. ‘How nice to see you again so soon.’ His voice was low and intimate, slightly husky. ‘Come and dance with me.’
Before Bel could gather her scattered wits, he had drawn her into the throng of dancers.
He was a good six inches taller than she was, Bel noted abstractedly, with shoulders wide as a barn door and narrow hips.
‘I really don’t…’ The protest died on her lips as they moved into the light and she saw his handsome, strongboned face, with its chiselled mouth, well-marked brows and thickly-lashed eyes.
Eyes that, ever since they’d looked into hers that lunchtime, had haunted her.
Though she felt as if she’d fallen down a lift shaft, somehow her legs kept moving to the rhythm of the slow foxtrot. In a strangled voice, she exclaimed, ‘You! What are you doing here?’
He looked sardonically amused. ‘I was invited.’
‘Your being here is too much of a coincidence.’ Gazing into that lean, compellingly attractive face, she spoke her confused thoughts aloud.
‘Not at all,’ he corrected calmly. ‘Our meeting in the restaurant was a coincidence. This one was carefully planned.’
‘I really don’t know what you mean…’ What had been intended as a cool put-down somehow sounded merely petulant. Taking a deep breath, she went on more hardily, ‘But I do know you have no right to kiss me like—’
He bent and covered her mouth with his, stopping the indignant flow of words and sending her head spinning. ‘Like that?’
His kiss, though brief, had been shattering, and even when her lips were free again, her head continued to spin for a moment.
As it cleared she caught a glimpse of Suzy’s startled gaze fixed on her, before the redhead and her partner were lost amongst the other dancers.
Scared, both of this man’s arrogant demonstration of possessiveness and her own helpless reaction to it, Bel stopped dancing and made an effort to pull herself free.
He merely tightened his hold.
‘Let me go,’ she said in a fierce undertone.
‘I want to talk to you. But first we’ll get away from this crowd.’
Clasping her right wrist, he led her down the terrace steps and across the smooth expanse of gently sloping lawn to a wooden bench beyond the range of the lanterns.
She should have resisted, even if it meant making a scene, but, knocked completely off balance, her common sense swamped by too much champagne, she found herself going without further protest.
It was a glorious evening—the sky a clear dark blue pricked with stars, a pale, shining disc of moon hanging like an angel’s cradle just above the treetops. The air was warm, soft as velvet, perfumed with honeysuckle and gillyflowers and the sharper, lemony scent of geraniums.
But, finding it difficult to breathe, all Bel was conscious of was the man who was holding her so lightly but inexorably.
Sitting on the bench, he drew her down beside him.
In spite of the background of lights and music, she felt curiously alone, isolated, as if no one else existed.
His handsome eyes silver in the moonlight, her captor studied her face with an unnerving scrutiny.
His long fingers still held her wrist and, knowing he must be aware of her racing pulse, she strove for calm. But her usual self-possession had deserted her entirely.
As though he knew exactly how he affected her, and was pleased, he smiled and said softly, ‘Without that air of cool composure you’re even more bewitching.’
Ignoring the compliment, she demanded, ‘Who are you?’ and was annoyed to find she sounded as agitated as she felt. ‘Are you a friend of Roderick’s?’
‘A business acquaintance…Andrew Storm.’
‘Andrew Storm,’ she repeated slowly. ‘Somehow it suits you.’ Once again she spoke her thoughts aloud.
‘And your name suits you, ma belle.’
Wondering how he knew her name, presuming Roderick must have mentioned it, she shook her head. ‘I was christened Annabel, but it was always shortened to Bel.’
His free hand came up to touch her cheek. Flinching away from that caressing touch, and trying desperately to find some stable ground, she said jerkily, ‘I’m Roderick’s fiancée. We’re getting married in October.’
‘Really?’ He sounded as if he doubted it.
To add weight to the declaration, she lifted her left hand and displayed her engagement ring.
‘Why did you choose a diamond?’
‘I didn’t. Roderick chose it.’
With a shake of his head, Andrew Storm dismissed the solitaire. ‘A diamond is too cold. You need the warmth of a topaz, or the green fire of an emerald. Beneath that air of cool reserve there’s a passionate woman…’
Startled by his assertion, striving to sound amused, derisive, she queried, ‘Do you think so?’
His arm went around her. ‘Would you like me to prove it, Bel?’
‘No!’
‘Scared?’
Terrified. ‘No, I’m not scared. But I am Roderick’s fiancée.’
He shrugged, discounting the fact as coolly as he’d discounted the ring.
