know how seriously I take my work, Adam. I really don’t have time to go.’
Adam had translated her smile to mean ‘stay the hell out’, and grinned even wider. This was great. Seriously. He’d pay good money for moments like this. He slung an arm around her slender shoulders, fitting her pretty much under his expensively scented armpit, and, giving her a squeeze, continued to flirt with Louise.
‘She’s just so dedicated, isn’t she? But I think I’ll manage to persuade her to go along, don’t you?’
‘Oh, I’m sure if anyone can it would be you. I’m sure you’re very persuasive.’
Ugh! The very thought. Dana managed not to shudder.
‘Not this year. Maybe next time.’ She side-stepped out of Adam’s grip and pointed at the plans in front of Mr Lamont. ‘You’ll see we’ve kept the staircase open to allow light to flood through to the dining room.’
Mr Lamont nodded and studied the plans again.
Adam wasn’t so easily distracted. ‘When did you say this thing was, Louise?’
‘Oh, it’s this weekend. It’s not too late for Dana to go. She was so popular back in college. I think that’s why Lucy said Jim took such an interest—’ Louise’s eyes burned into the back of Dana’s head. ‘Oh, Dana, I do hope that’s not the reason why you’re not going. Is Jim going to be there? Oh, my, that could be awkward, couldn’t it?’
Adam’s eyebrows shot upwards. ‘Jim who?’
Dana’s eyes locked with Mr Lamont’s for a second before she smiled and turned back round. ‘Jim Taylor. My ex.’ She aimed the words at Adam with an icy stare. ‘And, no, that’s not the reason I’m not going, Louise,’ she lied without losing her smile. ‘I really am busy. After all, we wouldn’t want your project falling behind schedule, would we?’
Louise looked terrified at the very idea. ‘Oh goodness, no, we wouldn’t! I’ve planned to have photographers there for Christmas—haven’t I, Paul?’
Paul Lamont glanced in her direction. ‘If you say so, pet, I’m sure you have.’
‘Well, then.’ Dana nodded coolly. ‘We’d better get these final plans approved, hadn’t we?’
She shot a sidelong threatening glare at Adam as she turned. She could see plainly how he wanted to continue enjoying her discomfort, and with a spark of her eyes she warned him to drop the subject. Just try it and see what happens, bucko!
Adam took the hint and dropped it.
Until about twenty seconds after the Lamonts had left…
‘You’re not going to this reunion because your ex-husband might be there?’ He nodded with a sarcastic twist of his lips. ‘That’s mature.’
Dana folded the Lamonts’ plans carefully and placed them back inside their manila folder. ‘None of your business, is it?’
‘Possibly not, but—’
‘I think you’ll find the conversation ended with “possibly not”.’ She turned and frowned over at him. ‘Stay out of things that don’t concern you, Adam. You’ll live longer that way.’
‘What are you so worried about? Are you afraid he’ll find out you still love him or something?’ He waded on in with his size thirteens. ‘Is that it? Or maybe you don’t want him to know that you’ve stayed single all this time?’
On her way to the filing cabinet, Dana stopped dead and swung round with flashing eyes. ‘I am not still in love with him! And I’ve damn well had dates since I split with him. Not that that’s any of your bloody business either!’
Adam actually rocked back slightly. Little Miss Perfect had a temper? Since when? His mind moved more slowly than usual, distracted suddenly from simple thought by how her flashing eyes and flushed cheeks changed her usual cool exterior. She looked sexy. All she needed was to do the whole ‘remove one pin and shake her hair loose’ thing…
He recovered with, ‘You don’t have a date, do you?’
She placed a hand on her hip, cocked her head to one side and practically spat the word at him. ’What?’
‘For this reunion. You don’t have a date.’ He folded his arms across his broad chest and took a deep breath. ‘And you don’t want to see him with some sweet young thing on his arm while you’re doing the whole lonely-pint deal.’ Dana truly, truly hated him in that moment. If she hadn’t before, she did now. There was nothing more smug than an already arrogant male being proved right.
‘Whatever you think.’ She turned and marched the last couple of steps to the filing cabinet, wrenching the drawer open with too much force when she got there. Damn him. She hated losing her temper.
There was silence for a few moments, as Adam thought and Dana started counting inwardly to calm her temper.
Adam took another breath. ‘I’m right, then.’
‘Oh, gee.’ She turned and glared. ‘Aren’t you always?’
Adam recognised sarcasm. Even when it had all the grace of a hippo in high heels. Not that Dana was the teeniest bit over the recommended weight for her height. God forbid. That wouldn’t be perfect, would it? No, the woman curved where she was supposed to curve, both in and out. ‘Pretty much.’
Dana took a deep breath and moved around the office with silent grace, collecting files and errant pens and putting them back into their allotted places. ‘Now that you’ve managed to score a hit, can we drop this one?’
No chance. Adam smiled inwardly. She should know him better by now.
‘So why can’t you get a date?’
‘You tell me—you’re the one with all the answers.’
‘Have you tried—hell, I dunno—’ he shrugged and leaned back against his desk ‘—asking someone?’
She actually laughed out loud. ‘You know, I haven’t.’ With a small turn of her patent leather heel she looked him straight in the eye, folding her arms across her chest and leaning back against her own desk in an exact mirror of his stance. ‘Who would I ask, exactly?’
‘You’re bound to know someone.’
‘With my schedule?’
‘Well, you must have friends who know someone.’
She smiled mirthlessly. ‘Not someone who’d be suitable for the whole—’ she unfolded her arms to make speech marks in the air with her fingers ‘“—slap in the face, up yours, Jim” effect I’d want, no.’ She folded her arms again.
Adam’s eyes narrowed. ‘You need someone to irritate him?’ Her personality wasn’t enough? ‘What—someone to make him jealous or something?’
‘Not in the way you think.’
He continued to stare at her. ‘In what way, then?’
She
