ADONI PETRAKIS SURVEYED the crowd filling the ballroom of his flagship London hotel. Initially the guests had been on their best behaviour for the wedding ceremony, partly from finding themselves in such a prestigious venue. There had been open-mouthed stares at the soaring antique glass domed ceiling, the recently refurbished hand-blown chandeliers and the other elegant furnishings.
Now the mood bordered on raucous. His school friend Leo’s new English in-laws were letting down their hair with abandon.
Adoni’s gaze cut to Leo and his bride, now changed out of their church clothes, surrounded by a phalanx of groomsmen playing a drinking game. There was a flurry of bridesmaids in ostentatiously frilled dresses that ranged from pale lemon to a particularly bilious shade of mustard. A braying laugh from one of them scraped like fingernails across a blackboard and Adoni shuddered.
Now the formalities were over, the cake cut, photos taken and speeches delivered, there was nothing keeping him. He’d done his bit, offering Leo the premises for the event and attending in person, even dancing with the bride.
He lifted one shoulder, easing the old stiffness in his collarbone. It had been a long week. A long month for that matter, and while he wasn’t ready for bed, nor was he inclined to stay for an increasingly rowdy party. This group had little in common with a man whose life was devoted to business.
If there’d been a woman here he found attractive he might have invited her up to his suite for a private celebration. There wasn’t. The only really pretty women were either attached or looked at him with dollar signs in their eyes.
He’d learned his lesson long ago with that breed.
Instead he crossed the room, wished the happy couple all the best, kissed the flushed bride on both cheeks then left. A nod to the hotel events coordinator who was keeping an eye on the evening, then Adoni was in the blessed peace of the atrium.
Since he didn’t have company for the night, he’d look over that new contract. Or maybe use the gym.
He was restless, his thoughts on the couple who’d just pledged their lives to each other. And, inevitably, on his own hastily cancelled wedding years ago. His mouth firmed.
He sure as hell didn’t carry a torch for Chryssa. Yet it was strange how, all evening, his mind had backtracked to that half-forgotten past, when life had seemed straightforward and he’d believed in love.
A lifetime ago.
He keyed in the code for his private lift to the owner’s suite. The doors slid open and he stepped inside. Seconds later a figure catapulted into the small space, slamming against him in a slither of satin and a cloud of pungent hairspray.
Adoni’s nostrils pinched and a sneeze escaped.
‘I’m sorry. Did I hurt you?’ a husky voice whispered near his chin. ‘But please, don’t give me away.’ Instead of moving back the girl pressed closer, hip to his thigh, hand clawing his sleeve.
‘Give you away?’
‘Please. He’ll hear.’ She reached out a pale hand and jabbed the button to make the door close. As soon as it did she released her grip and sank back into the corner.
‘Are you okay?’ Adoni’s voice sharpened. Her head was downcast but the tension in her shoulders and the frenetic pulse at the base of her throat spoke of fear. ‘Has someone hurt you?’
‘Hurt me?’ She shook her head and straightened away from the wall, swaying a little. ‘No, though I’m sure he’d like to strangle me if he could. He hates me and he’s a vicious little toad.’
With a gasp she clapped a hand over her mouth and looked up. Unfocused eyes of slate blue met his. Eyes that might have been pretty if it weren’t for the huge swathe of too-bright azure eye shadow and the most enormous pair of false eyelashes weighting her lids. She looked like a startled trollop.
‘I didn’t mean to say that out loud.’ She frowned up at him suspiciously as if he’d coaxed the words from her.
‘He sounds like a man to avoid.’
‘Oh, he is.’ The girl nodded so emphatically another acrid wave of hairspray assaulted him. She was a girl. Eighteen maybe, twenty max, and trying to look older with that brash make-up. ‘If I’d known he was going to be here I’d never have said yes to Emily. Discretion is the better part of valour, after all.’
‘Emily?’ Adoni crossed his arms and settled his shoulders against the wall, intrigued. Why this unprepossessing female caught his curiosity, he couldn’t say. But he was in no hurry. There was nothing waiting in his suite except work and a good brandy.
‘The bride.’ The frown became a scowl. ‘Weren’t you at the wedding? I thought I saw you on the other side of the room looking all dark and brooding.’ She leaned closer, her gaze intent, and beneath the sharp hairspray smell he caught a hint of something delicate.
She swayed back again. ‘I’m sure it was you. The silly sisters were tittering with excitement, egging each other on to ask you to dance.’
‘Silly sisters?’
‘The other bridesmaids.’
‘Ah.’ No wonder she looked vaguely familiar. This was the bridesmaid who’d sat on the end of the long table, her dress of dark yellow tinged with green making her look slightly nauseous. Or maybe she was nauseous.
‘Are you sick?’
‘Only of the company in there.’ Again those eyes grew huge and her hand hovered over her mouth.
Adoni watched, fascinated despite himself, as she blinked and stood straighter, the top of her head reaching the level of his mouth.
‘It must be the champagne,’ she murmured, her hand dropping. ‘Who’d have thought it? I only had two glasses. Would that do it?’ She tilted her head, surveying him owlishly.
‘Do what?’ Adoni repressed a smile.
‘Make me so loqua...’ Her brows knotted in concentration. ‘Talkative. Normally I think before I speak. Always.’
He folded his arms over his chest. ‘It depends how much you usually drink.’
‘I don’t. Tonight was my first taste of champagne.’
‘Then yes, it probably is.’ Diverted as he was, her friends would be looking for her. ‘Isn’t it time you went back?’
She shuddered and clutched his sleeve. ‘No! Not till he’s gone.’ She looked at the controls. ‘Why aren’t we moving?’ She slammed her hand onto the up button. ‘I’m sorry. I hope you want to go up. I’ll go anywhere so long as it’s away from him.’
‘The toad?’
‘Yes! How did you know?’ Her face broke
