would have thought what? Marcus opened his mouth to say it out loud when he heard Juliet make a strangled sound beside him. He glanced down at her with a frown. ‘What’s wrong?’
Her brown eyes had never looked bigger. Wider. The pupils like dark pools of rippling panic. He even heard her take a gulp. ‘I told Harriet...erm...that I...that we...erm...’
‘Told Harriet what?’
‘That you’re engaged,’ Harriet said.
Marcus blinked. Engaged? Juliet was pretending she was engaged...to him? What was she thinking? What was going on? Why would she do such a thing? He’d been sick with worry that she’d been seduced by some creep, only to find it was all a game of charades. He didn’t have time for such nonsense, damn it. What a waste of angst. He was supposed to be here on business. He wasn’t here to play silly schoolgirl games. His professional reputation was under the spotlight. Not his personal life. Not that he had one right now.
He looked down at her again. Her expression was a mixture of contrition and hope. Hope he wouldn’t blow her cover? Publicly embarrass her by denying it? Was she doing this to get social cache with her so-called friends? Surely she’d known he would find out one way or the other. No one could do or say anything these days without someone tweeting or texting about it. There was no such thing as local gossip these days. The whole planet found out in a matter of seconds.
But if he contradicted her, it would make her look foolish in front of her friends. It might draw even more attention to him than he wanted right now. It wasn’t such a leap to think they might be an item. He’d been a part of her family for years.
Besides, he didn’t care for the narrow-eyed look on Harriet Penhallon’s face.
‘Yes...that’s right, so we are.’ He put an arm around Juliet and brought her close to his body. She felt soft and warm and feminine and smelt of summer flowers—sweet peas with a hint of orange blossom. Exotic and yet old fashioned and touchingly familiar. ‘We were going to keep it a secret for a little while longer, weren’t we, sweetie?’
Juliet looked up at him with a faltering smile. ‘I’m sorry...’
Not as much as you’re going to be, he thought. What the hell was she playing at? Engaged? Hell’s bells. What was Ben going to make of this? ‘It’s fine, darling.’ He mentally ground his teeth. ‘It had to come out sooner or later.’
Harriet put a hand over her mouth in a theatrical manner. ‘Oops. I didn’t realise you hadn’t officially announced it. I just tweeted it to all Kendra’s followers.’ She dropped her hand and smiled broadly. ‘All five hundred and fifty thousand of them.’
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