attractions? Could his personal ‘skills’ make her cry out for more?
‘Perhaps it’s time we were going,’ he said heavily.
She turned to him and her expression was as efficiently cheerful as a mask.
‘Tell me something first,’ she said briskly. ‘Are they expecting you at the Alton?’
‘No, I think I’ll see more if I take them by surprise.’
‘You’ll see more if you take a room incognito. But I expect they’d recognise you, so it probably wouldn’t work.’
‘I doubt if anyone would know me. Are you serious?’
‘You said you wanted to take them by surprise. There’s no better way than this.’
‘I suppose not,’ he said slowly. ‘I wonder—’
‘Leave it to me.’ She went to the phone and dialled the Alton’s number.
‘Hello, do you have a room free today? You do? Excellent. What kind of price? All prices? Really. Run them past me, single rooms and suites.’
As they were given to her, she recited them aloud, watching Marcel’s expression of wry understanding. The Alton wasn’t doing fantastic business.
‘I’ll take the best available suite,’ he said quietly.
‘What name?’
‘My real name. I won’t have anyone saying I deceived them.’
‘Mr Marcel Falcon,’ she said into the phone. ‘He’ll be there today.’ She hung up.
He gave her a glance of grim appreciation. ‘You’re a wicked woman, Mrs Henshaw—I’m glad to say.’
‘It has its uses,’ she observed lightly.
‘So I’ll return to the Gloriana to check out. You’d better come with me, then we’ll go on to the Alton. I’ll wait for you downstairs.’
Once down in the street he glanced up at her window but there was no sign of her. He knew exactly what she was doing—calling Dave now that they could talk privately.
Whoever Dave was!
In this he was wrong. Cassie didn’t return Dave’s call immediately because there was no need. She knew what he wanted. Instead she went online, gave some instructions, shut the computer down and sent him a text saying, All taken care of.
Then she pushed Dave aside. Only Marcel occupied her thoughts now.
Against all reason, she was certain that he recognised her, but only against his will. And he refused to admit it to her.
But he could never deny it to himself. Instinct told her that. Try as he might, Marcel was fighting with Marcel, and it would be a losing battle on both sides.
That told her all she needed to know.
‘Right,’ she said to Mrs Henshaw in the mirror. ‘Let’s see if we can give him a run for his money.’ She smiled. ‘And maybe—just maybe—he’ll give me a run for mine. That could be—interesting.’
She could almost have sworn Mrs Henshaw nodded.
The Alton Hotel had a disconsolate air.
‘It used to be the London home of a duke,’ she observed as they drew up in the car park, ‘which is why it was built on such grand lines, but he had to sell it off, and the developers who bought it couldn’t afford to complete their plans.’
Checking in went without a hitch. Nobody recognised Marcel and they were able to proceed upstairs to a luxurious suite of four rooms, one of which was dominated by a huge double bed.
Cassie ignored it and went to look out of the window, saying eagerly, ‘Just the view I was hoping for. Look at that building next door. It’s the one you need to buy to expand this place.’
‘Let me see.’ He came to stand beside her. ‘Yes, it’s ideal. I can connect the two and this side will be—’
He talked for a few more minutes but she barely heard him. Her whole body seemed to be hypnotised by the sensation of standing close to him so that the air between them seemed to sing. His extra height loomed over her in a way she’d once loved, and when he casually laid a hand on her shoulder she had to fight not to jump.
‘Why don’t we go and take a look?’ she said.
‘I can see all I want from here. I’m going to tear it down, and that’s it.’
‘I can put you in touch with three excellent building contractors—’
‘Can’t we just hire the best?’
‘With three you can play them off against each other,’ she pointed out.
‘Splendid. I see you believe in reading your employer’s mind and following his instructions exactly.’ ‘What else am I here for?’
‘Then here’s another instruction for you. I’ll have no grim and forbidding ladies working for me.’
‘Are you firing me?’ she asked lightly.
‘No, I’m telling you to make yourself less severe.’
‘Flaunt myself, you mean?’ she demanded in a voice that managed to sound shocked. ‘Mr Falcon, I hope I’ve misunderstood you.’
‘Only because you’re determined to,’ he replied with a smile that nearly destroyed her composure. ‘I’m going to need you with me a lot of the time—’
‘And you think I’m so ugly I’ll frighten the horses?’ she managed to say lightly.
‘You’re not ugly. But for some reason you’re determined to pretend you are. Now that is frightening.’
‘Why would any woman want to pretend that?’ she murmured.
‘A good question. We might talk about it later. Ah, I hear someone at the door. It must be the waiter with my order.’
He moved away and she clutched the windowsill to stop herself swaying. She was trembling from the feel of his hand on her shoulder, and also from the sensation that he too had been trembling.
It took several hours to walk slowly through the building, making notes, trying to be inconspicuous. They ended up back in his suite, thankfully drinking coffee.
‘I’ll just check my mail,’ he said, opening his laptop, which he’d already connected to the hotel’s Internet.
He didn’t take long, sending a few messages and making a gesture of dismissal.
‘Time to think of having some dinner,’ he said. ‘There’s a place upstairs—’
Her phone rang. Marcel watched her face as she answered, saw her
