trembling stopped as she looked up into Reece Harrington’s face. This wasn’t Giles, the man she was going to marry. ‘You’re wrong,’ she pushed away from him. ‘I don’t want you.’
He released her slowly, the gold in his eyes just as slowly changing back to a dark brooding brown. ‘Are you sure about that?’ he asked huskily. ‘Maybe you should think again before committing yourself to an engagement.’
Her mouth twisted, fully in control of her emotions now. ‘I don’t need to think about anything, Giles is the man I intend to marry.’
‘Do you love him?’
‘I don’t have to——’
‘How can you love him and yet still kiss another man the way you did me?’ he derided hardly.
‘You kissed me,’ she corrected abruptly. ‘And one kiss from another man, expert as it may have been, doesn’t change the fact that Giles is the right man for me.’ In every way. Giles was handsome, charming, in love with her, and best of all, not interested in becoming a father.
Reece gave a terse inclination of his head. ‘I’ll see you tonight at your engagement party, then. And I won’t bother to tell Amanda she only got an invitation to stop there being any gossip about family rifts,’ he added contemptuously.
‘Tell her whatever you please,’ Laurel invited dismissively. ‘I’ve never held back from telling her the truth in the past.’
‘Then I think maybe a few of those times you should have done!’
She looked at him scornfully. ‘The way that you protect my mother is touching. Perhaps if you had been the first to meet her it might have been you that she married!’ she added challengingly.
He gave her a quelling look of disgust before turning and leaving, the tinkle of the bell over the door preceding its slam. Laurel sat down shakily, the scene much more traumatic than she would ever have let Reece Harrington guess, not the least of it being the unexpectedness of the kiss he had given her.
It had been because of her and Reece that their parents had met at all. Driving home from a friend’s one evening last winter her car had skidded on the wet road and she had smashed into the back of the car in front of her. Reece Harrington had been the driver of that car.
Reece had been uninjured but her legs and arms had been cut by the glass from the broken windscreen, and Reece had insisted on accompanying her to the hospital in the ambulance. None of her cuts were too serious, but the doctors decided to keep her in hospital for a couple of days in case of concussion or delayed shock. Reece had been marvellous, going to her flat to pick up some of her nightclothes and toiletries, telephoning her mother to let her know what had happened once he had established she was her nearest relative.
When he came to see her the next day he had missed meeting her mother by only a few minutes, and knowing Amanda as well as she did she had been glad of that. Once her mother got her claws into a man he didn’t usually escape until she wanted him to.
Reece had telephoned the next morning, explaining he wouldn’t be able to get in to see her that afternoon because of a business meeting, but he had asked his father to come instead and would come himself that evening. She had protested against the need for his father to visit her when he was probably as busy a man as Reece himself was. But Reece had been adamant. The gentleness and warm charm she had associated with Reece had revealed a will of iron at that moment.
Robert Harrington was an older, just as charming, and just as steely, version of his son. She had known by the expression on her mother’s face when he entered the hospital room that his days as a single man were numbered. They were married within the month, and Reece Harrington had become her stepbrother. Laurel had avoided all of them during the following year whenever she could.
The small band played in one corner of the room, the delicious buffet was arranged in another; the private reception room at this leading hotel filled with friends of Laurel and Giles. To be truthful most of them were Laurel’s friends, the people Giles had invited only acquaintances from the firm he worked for. He had only been in London for about eighteen months and so had not made a lot of friends of his own. But he got on with most of Laurel’s friends, and had made them his own.
He was late. One of the people he worked with had told her they thought he might still be working, that he had been when she left. Laurel had tried calling, but as most of the building had already closed down for the night the switchboard was also closed down. Still, she wasn’t too concerned just yet; the party wasn’t really due to start until eight o’clock, although almost everyone seemed to have arrived already.
The management of the hotel had made a nice job of decorating the room, and a lovely iced cake stood in the middle of the buffet table, ‘Happy Engagement’ written on it stop. She even had the ring in her handbag, having picked it up from the jewellers on her way to work this morning, it having needed to be made smaller. It was Giles’ grandmother’s ring, a ruby surrounded by large diamonds, and although Laurel found the setting a little old-fashioned she had been honoured when Giles told her it had belonged to his grandmother.
But where was he? It was getting dangerously close to eight o’clock, and he still hadn’t arrived.
‘You look lovely, darling.’
She turned in time to be enveloped in the heady perfume her mother wore, receiving a brief hug. If she looked lovely, then her mother looked radiantly beautiful! Amanda was as petite as she, her golden hair slightly longer and softer in style, the make-up perfect on her beautiful face, the black dress she wore clinging to her slightly fuller curves. They could have been mistaken for sisters, with Amanda only the slightly older, much more glamorously beautiful one.
‘You do look lovely, Laurel.’ A hint of spicy cologne pervaded her nostrils as Reece, his black evening suit tailored to him perfectly, bent to lightly brush her lips with his. ‘Where is your elusive fiancé?’ he drawled, brows arched.
Her mouth still tingled from the contact with his, her cheeks flushed, a feverish glitter to her eyes. ‘I hope you enjoy the party,’ she murmured politely. ‘Please go and get yourself a drink.’ She vaguely pointed in the direction of the bar behind them.
Broodingly dark eyes studied her for long timeless minutes before Reece calmly interrupted Amanda’s light chatter. ‘Martini?’ He took her arm and led her over to the bar, both quickly swallowed up in the crowd, although Reece stood slightly taller than most of the men in the room.
Laurel was getting irritated now. Where was Giles? Surely he didn’t have to work this late, tonight, of all nights? The announcement of their engagement was due to be made at eight-fifteen; if Giles didn’t arrive soon she was going to have to delay it.
‘Miss Matthews?’
She turned sharply to the waiter that hovered at her elbow. ‘Yes?’ she invited worriedly.
‘This note has just been delivered for you.’ He thrust the small envelope into her hand before hastily making his exit.
Laurel frowned as she slit open the envelope. She and Giles had received many cards of congratulations since she had told people of their forthcoming engagement; but this didn’t look like one of them.
All colour drained from her cheeks as she read the short message written inside, her hands shaking so badly that she didn’t have the strength to protest when the note was taken out of her
