piqued,’ Karim said.
‘You’re distracted. Otherwise you’d have given me a better game tonight.’
Karim couldn’t argue with that. Usually their Monday night squash matches were incredibly close, and tonight he’d lost badly. But he could argue with his best friend’s earlier statement. ‘Anyway, she didn’t turn me down.’
Luke raised an eyebrow. ‘I thought you just told me she was too busy to do the catering for your business meetings?’
‘Kick a man when he’s down, why don’t you? Anyway, she’ll change her mind.’ Karim had every intention of changing it for her.
‘Maybe I can help,’ Luke suggested. Karim had explained the situation to him before the match. ‘Cathy has some great ideas about revamping the café here—if you ask her nicely I’m sure she can come up with some menus for you and organise the catering. If it helps you out of a hole, she can use the kitchens here to sort out whatever you need done.’
‘You’d let me poach your staff?’ Karim asked. Luke had bought the health club three months ago and was in the process of making it reach its proper potential—a gym and spa bursting with vitality and an excellent café.
‘Borrow. Temporarily. To help you out,’ Luke corrected.
‘But you’d want advertising or something in return.’
‘I’m not that much of a shark. And I wouldn’t make an offer like that to just anyone.’ The corner of his mouth twitched. ‘But I’ve just thrashed you at squash. And you’re my best mate. So, as I’m feeling terribly sorry for you right now, you should take advantage of my good nature.’
Karim laughed. ‘Ha. You wait until next Monday. I’ll have my revenge.’
‘In your dreams,’ Luke teased back. ‘Come on. We’re both disgustingly sweaty and smelly—if we hang around here, bickering, we’ll put off all my customers.’
‘Whatever you say, boss.’
After a shower, they grabbed a cold beer in the bar.
‘You’re still brooding,’ Luke said.
Karim made light of it. ‘Just sulking about losing a match to you for the first time in a month. And by such a huge margin.’
‘Are you, hell. You don’t waste energy being competitive over something unimportant.’ Luke paused. ‘She must be really special.’
‘Who?’
‘The woman you’re brooding about. Let me guess. Five feet eight, blonde, curvy and just lurrrves parties?’
Karim laughed dryly. ‘That’s your type, not mine.’
Luke grinned back. ‘Don’t kid yourself. I go for brunettes. Preferably ones without wedding bells in their eyes.’
And just in case they developed wedding bell-itis, as Luke had dubbed it, nobody ever made it to a fourth date.
‘Actually, she’s nothing like the type I usually date,’ Karim said thoughtfully. ‘Try five feet four, mid-brown hair and very hard-working.’
Luke blinked. ‘You’re kidding.’
‘I wish I was. If she were a party girl, I’d know what made her tick. Lily…’ Karim blew out a breath. ‘She’s different.’ And maybe that was why he couldn’t get her out of his head.
‘And she’s the caterer you want to work for you?’ Luke queried.
‘She cooks for the rich and famous. Hand-picked client list.’ Karim leaned back against the leather club chair. ‘She’s the best. And I tasted her food at Felicity Browne’s do, the other night, so I know what I’m talking about.’
He’d tasted her, too…and he wanted to do it again. And again. A lot more intimately.
Luke wrinkled his nose. ‘I don’t like the sound of this. Mixing business and pleasure—it never works, Karim. It’ll end in tears. I’ve seen it happen too many times before.’
‘Maybe.’
‘Definitely.’ Luke raised an eyebrow. ‘So what’s the plan?’
‘I’m going to persuade her to change her mind.’
‘You’re going to charm her into working for you?’
Karim shrugged. ‘I offered to pay her double. She just said that you couldn’t buy people.’
‘Too right. If you can buy them, they’re not worth having around. They’ll be unreliable.’ Luke frowned. ‘And if she drops clients in favour of you, what’s to stop her dropping you if she gets a better offer?’
‘I don’t expect her to ditch long-standing arrangements in favour of me—and she told me up front she had no intention of dropping any of her clients for me. But I also happen to know there are three days a week when she doesn’t have bookings. I want her on those three days.’ Karim turned his glass of mineral water round in his hands. ‘So it’s a matter of getting to know her better. Finding out what’s important to her. And then…negotiating terms.’
‘It still sounds to me as if you’re planning to mix business and pleasure. If you’re going to be her boss, it’s practically harassment,’ Luke pointed out.
‘She’s her own boss. Technically, I’d be her client.’
‘Same difference. Let it go,’ Luke said. ‘Sure, you’re attracted to her. But there’s a lot riding on these meetings. Screw it up for the sake of—what, half a dozen dates, before you get bored or she gets too serious and you back off?—and you’ll never forgive yourself.’
‘I’m not going to screw it up.’
‘You will do, if you’re thinking with another part of your anatomy instead of with your head,’ Luke advised. He finished his drink. ‘Think about what I said. If you want me to have a word with Cathy, let me know. It’s not a problem.’
‘Thanks. I appreciate the offer.’
There was a tinge of sympathy in Luke’s eyes. ‘It’s tough, living up to a parent’s expectations.’
Not as tough as having no family at all—though Karim didn’t say so, knowing just how sensitive his best friend was about the issue. Particularly as Luke had been the one to walk away. ‘I always knew I’d have to grow up and pull my weight in the family firm some time.’ He just hadn’t expected it to be this way. He’d seen himself in a supporting role, not the limelight.
But all that had changed five years ago when his brother had died. The whole world had turned upside down. So he’d done the only thing possible: given up his PhD studies and gone home to do his duty as the new heir to the throne.
A duty he still wasn’t quite reconciled to. Not that he’d ever hurt his parents by telling them how he felt; and he would never, ever let them or his country down. But no matter how hard he worked or played, he still
