down to her toes. Pity that it was a sensation she liked more than she would ever be willing to confess to a man like Sean. He would enjoy that far too much.
‘I was giving a presentation to our new group of trainee hotel managers this morning and after thirty minutes in the all-white holding cell, as you described it so delightfully, I began to understand what you meant by an airless, windowless room. So do you know what I did?’
‘You went to the park and sat on benches and fed the ducks.’ Dee smiled. ‘The wannabe managers had to train the ducks to race for the food and the trainee with the fastest duck got the best job in the hotel chain. Was that how it worked?’
‘Ah. Duck training and Pooh sticks are only used in the advanced management courses. These were first-year students. If it had not been raining, I might have given them a treasure map to follow around London, but that option was out. So I decided to take your advice instead and I moved the whole group to the conservatory room at the Riverside, opened every door to the lawns and turned the presentation into a discussion about hotel design and meeting customer expectations. It was fascinating. And useful. Every one of those trainees seemed to come to life in the conservatory. They were transformed from sitting in total silence to being open and chatty and much more relaxed. You should have seen their faces when I told them why we had moved.’
Dee sucked in a breath. ‘Did you mention my name so that they could pin it to a dart board for target practice?’
‘Not specifically.’ He laughed. ‘You were a valued event planner who gave me feedback on the repressive feeling of the breakout rooms. But they totally got it, in a way that I couldn’t have predicted. Instead of telling them about the impact of room design, they described how they felt in the two spaces and worked it out for themselves. It was brilliant. Thanks.’
‘Ah. So that is the real reason for this call. It’s confession time. What you really want to say is that you listened to my whining about how intelligent people shouldn’t be packed into closed box rooms and then pretended that you had come up with the idea all by yourself. Is that right?’
‘Drat, you have seen through my evil plans,’ Sean replied in a low, hoarse voice which sent shivers down her back. She imagined him sitting in his office in the minimalist hotel surrounded by all-white marble and smooth, plastic surfaces, and instinctively pulled the silky cover over her legs.
‘Are you still at work?’ she asked, daring to take the first move.
‘I just got back to the penthouse at Richmond Square. The view from up here is fantastic. Pity you aren’t here to share it with me. Floor-to-ceiling windows. Breathtaking skyline. I have a feeling you might enjoy it.’
Dee closed her eyes to visualize how that might look and took a couple of breaths before replying. ‘Sorry to disappoint you, but I would hate to be one of those girls who only suck up to you because they want to share the view from the penthouse over breakfast.’
The second the words were out of her lips, she winced in embarrassment. What was it about this man that caused apparently random sounds to emerge from her mouth which bypassed the brain?
‘You could never disappoint me. And, as it happens, I know how to make breakfast without needing to call for room service.’
I bet you do.
‘I told you that you were cheeky.’ Dee smiled and nibbled at one corner of her little fingernail. ‘But I may have been mistaken about that.’
‘So you do make mistakes?’ Sean hit right back across the net. ‘And just when I thought that you had all of the answers.’
‘Cheeky does not come close. Brazen might be a better description. Does this wonderful breakfast include tea?’
‘Dee,’ he replied in his rich, deep, sensual tone that reached down the phone and caressed her neck, ‘for you, it would include anything you like. Anything at all.’
Suddenly she was glad that she was lying down because her legs seemed to turn to jelly and her throat went dry.
Closing her eyes should have helped but all she could hear was his lazy, slow breathing in her ear which did nothing at all to calm her frazzled brain.
A handsome man who she liked far more than she ought to was holding something out to her on a velvet cushion, gift-wrapped and sumptuous, and she already knew that it would be astonishing.
And terrifying. She was going to have to face him in less than twenty-four hours and somehow she had to get a hold on this out-of-control attraction before it spiralled away into something more elemental which could only ever be a short-term fling.
So she did what she always did when someone came too close. She put a smile in her voice and hit him right back between the eyes.
‘Would that be part of the Beresford five-star service or the VIP special?’
His open and carefree laughter was still ringing in her ear when she said, ‘Goodnight, Sean. See you tomorrow.’ And she pressed the red button then turned the phone off.
Goodnight, Sean. Sleep tight.
Tea, glorious tea. A celebration of teas from around the world.
Finding the perfect tea to drink with your meal is just as tricky as matching food and wine. One tip: green tea flavoured with jasmine is wonderful with Chinese food but serve it weak and in small cups, and add more hot water to the pot as you drink. And no hangover!
From Flynn’s Phantasmagoria of Tea
Friday
It was almost six on the Friday evening before Dee was finally satisfied that all of the leaf-tea canisters were full, the tea pots were all washed and ready for the Saturday rush and that everything the tea rooms needed for an eight a.m. start was in place.
But she still insisted on helping Lottie load the dishwashers, then cleaned the floor and generally got in the way of the last-minute customers, until Lottie had to physically grab her shoulders and plop her into a chair with a steaming cup of chamomile until the closed sign was up on the door.
Whipping away her apron, Lottie poured a cup of Assam and collapsed down opposite Dee with a low, long sigh before stretching out her legs.
Her fingers wrapped around the china cup and Lottie inhaled the aroma before taking a sip. Her shoulders instantly dropped several inches.
‘Oh, I am so ready for this. When did Fridays get so mad?’
‘When you decided to have a two-for-one offer on afternoon cream teas, that’s when. I have never served so much Indian tea in one session. How many batches of scones did you end up making?’
Lottie snorted. ‘Six. And four extra coffee-and-walnut cakes, and three chocolate. And I gave up counting the sandwiches. But the good news is...it worked. The till is full of loot which I will be taking to the bank before the lovely Sean picks up his princess to take her to the ball.’
‘The ball? I’m not so sure that I would call a management dinner a “ball”. But the food should be good and apparently all the Beresford clan will be there en masse to toast the staff. So there’s a fair chance
