the other girl had admitted brightly, ‘and my evening job at the Sportsman’s Arms helps, too. Still, I’ll have to start watching it, I suppose. I did make something of a spectacle of myself last night, didn’t I?’
Essie had grinned at the frankly unabashed face in front of her and made some soothing comment—she couldn’t remember what, now. Janice was twenty years old, big, heavy, and not even her mother could have called her pretty, but there was a charm about the utterly unpretentious girl that was very endearing. And she had been comical the night before—hilarious, in fact. But suddenly it all didn’t seem so amusing.
Xavier Grey was smiling at her now, and his tone was definitely condescending when he added, ‘I understand you’re doing Theatre Studies at college, Janice? You’re hoping to go on the stage?’ His ice-blue eyes lingered on her mass of silky golden curls that would never be restrained, the huge violet-blue eyes with their thick, thick lashes and the perfect creamy skin.
Essie opened her mouth to tell him of his mistake a second before full realisation hit, turning her eyes dark purple. Xavier had clearly been informed of the antics of the night before by one of his relatives, and when he had seen herself and Janice he had automatically labelled her the giddy college student with the part-time job as a barmaid. And why? Essie stared at the strong-featured, vigorous face in front of her. Because she was the typical male perception of a blonde bimbo, that was why!
All her life she had been dogged by this particular mentality from a certain section of the opposite sex, and it grated—it grated unbearably, and never as much as now. There were some men who even seemed to take it as some sort of personal insult when they found out she was a darn sight more intelligent than them; that she had a brain and knew how to use it. She had got three straight As in her A Levels, and at veterinary college she had more than held her own with her male colleagues, in spite of weighing just nine stone and being five foot seven.
‘Go on the stage?’ She turned in her seat, the pale lemon satin of her dress and the fresh daisies threaded in the gold of her hair adding to the impression of a young girl barely out of her teens. That was another thing that always proved awkward, especially when she had been doing her veterinary training. It hadn’t been so bad at the surgery, with the domestic animals, but when she had gone out to the farms to deal with a poorly heifer or another of the large animals some of the farmers had been totally dumbstruck.
‘Or are your sights set even higher? Maybe Hollywood?’
Oh, yes, he definitely had her labelled as the hopeful little blonde starlet, Essie told herself savagely: all hair and breasts and cotton wool where her brain should have been. He’d be saying next he knew a Hollywood producer or something, and maybe she’d like to come out to the back seat of his car to discuss it. But no, not the back seat, she silently corrected herself in the next moment—nothing so tacky for Xavier Grey. It would be a full dinner and hotel room for this man.
He needed taking down a peg or two. The thought had been there from the first moment she had seen him but now crystallised into firm conviction. And, if he did but know it, he had given her the perfect opportunity to do just that, because, along with the unmistakable condescension, there was something else staring out of the dark male face and she had seen it in too many other men to doubt it. He fancied her. Physically, he fancied her very much, although it was clear he thought her mind was way, way below his notice.
‘Hollywood?’ Essie put a coo into her voice that was so hammed up that, for a moment, she thought she had overdone it. But he swallowed it, hook, line and sinker. ‘Little old me?’ She pouted slightly, allowing her full rosebud mouth to send out an invitation as old as time. ‘You’re teasing me.’
‘Not at all,’ he responded gallantly. ‘You can do anything you want in life if you’re determined enough.’
Oh, she was determined, all right—determined to teach Xavier Grey a lesson he would never forget!
‘You really think so?’ She let the full sweep of her thick dark lashes cover her eyes for a moment before raising them again to look straight into his face.
‘Of course. Look at Christine and Essie,’ Xavier said quietly, sliding into the seat Charlie’s brother had recently vacated when he had gone to sit with his wife and her parents, once the dancing had started. ‘They would have been very much the exception to the rule, even as short a time as a couple of decades ago, but more and more women are becoming veterinary surgeons now. Of course, others are more suited to less…physically demanding careers,’ he added softly, his eyes moving over her delicate loveliness again.
‘You think Essie looks the part, is that it?’ Essie asked with determined innocence, opening her eyes very wide. ‘She is quite strong.’
‘I’m sure she is.’ Xavier glanced across to where Janice was dancing an energetic foxtrot with one of the guests, her thick-set, strapping frame straining the pale lemon satin to excess. ‘And perfectly suited for her chosen profession, as you are for yours.’
Oh, you utter, absolute male chauvinist pig, you. Essie had to look down quickly before he saw the blaze of anger in her eyes.
‘Would you care to dance?’
He had clearly taken her action as a form of coquetry—she could read it in the slightly amused, resigned note hidden in the deep voice—and now she raised her eyes again, pushing back the soft curls that had fallen about her face as she said brightly, ‘That would be lovely, thank you.’
‘The pleasure will be all mine.’
The flirting was obvious but circumspect, Essie thought cynically, rising gracefully to her feet after slipping her shoes on. She had to admit that, for all his rugged hardness, he was a smooth devil when he wanted to be.
She was aware of more than one frankly envious pair of female eyes following her as she made her way to the dance floor with Xavier’s hand in the small of her back, and wondered what all those women would think if they knew what she was about. But they didn’t: and, more importantly, neither did Xavier Grey. Of course, it would only take one person to call her by name for her little ruse to be brought out into the open, but hopefully she could continue it for a little longer. It was going to be so sweet to see the look on his arrogant male face when he realised he’d been taken for a ride.
And few of the guests knew her. She hugged the thought to her as she turned and allowed him to take her into his arms. When she had met Christine at university, the two of them had become immediate best friends, their delight when they were both accepted for the same veterinary college exuberant. But she had only visited Christine’s family once or twice in the intervening years, due to the fact that she—unlike Christine—did not have well-to-do parents supporting her. She had needed to work every minute she could at weekends and in the holidays to pay the innumerable expenses involved in the training for the career she loved so passionately. So it might be a while yet before her deception was discovered by the big hard man holding her close.
Too close. She looked up past the massive width of his shoulders and the silver-blue eyes were waiting for her, their expression unfathomable.
Essie smiled, but coolly this time, easing herself from the large, lean frame as she said, ‘I’m sorry, I don’t think you told me your name?’
There was a momentary flicker of surprise in the narrowed gaze—which Essie counted as a small triumph; he had clearly assumed everyone knew who the great Xavier Grey was, she thought nastily—before he said, ‘I’m sorry. How remiss of me. I think I must have assumed your aunt and uncle would have told you the names of the new contingent added to Enoch’s family.’ His tone was
