‘You’ll bear my advice in mind, right?’ he derided with a shake of his head. ‘But it’s more than advice, Miss Whoever-you-are,’ he added with serious intent, his eyes narrowed. ‘If you marry Paul with your relationship the way it is, then the marriage—or you—is doomed for disaster, depending which breaks down first.’
Eve felt a shiver of apprehension down her spine, and then instantly dismissed it. She had known and loved Paul most of her life; what could this man, who didn’t know Paul at all, possibly know of that love? He certainly had no right to pass an opinion on it on such short acquaintance!
‘Paul and I will be very happy together,’ she told the man at her side stiffly.
His mouth twisted. ‘Is that what he told you?’ he countered.
She drew in an indignant breath. ‘You really are the most arrogant——’ She broke off, stunned at her own vehemence, her cheeks fiery red. ‘What I meant to say was——’
‘You were doing just fine before,’ he mocked her distress. ‘Talk to your Paul a few times like that, and I doubt he would order you to stay put for too much longer.’
‘He didn’t—— Oh, really, Adam, I don’t think there’s any point in continuing this conversation.’ She shook off his hand impatiently, slightly disturbed when she could still feel the warm imprint of it against her skin. ‘You simply don’t understand my relationship with Paul.’ And you never will, her tone implied.
How could he possibly understand a love like the one she had for Paul, and Paul had for her? Adam himself seemed to be free of such emotion, and probably always had been.
‘I understand love,’ he told her softly. ‘I’ve witnessed the genuine article between my own parents for the last thirty-eight years.’ And what you have with Paul isn’t it, his tone seemed to imply.
‘You——’
‘Sorry to have left you so long, darling,’ interrupted a dearly familiar voice, Paul’s arm moving lightly about her waist as he came to stand beside her. ‘But you seem to have been kept amused.’ He looked enquiringly at the other man.
Eve turned to him gladly, feeling her heart skip its usual beat as she gazed up into his handsome face.
A little under six feet in height, Paul was possessed of a natural male elegance, had naturally wavy dark hair that was styled just long enough for that natural wave to be apparent, dark lashes surrounding eyes that were that curious colour that was neither blue nor grey, but could be both, or somewhere in between.
At thirty, just four years older than Eve herself, Paul was nevertheless able to meet the older man’s assessing gaze with equal confidence. And why shouldn’t he? No matter who this man Adam turned out to be—and he had to be someone for Sophy to have bothered with him!—Paul was a successful man in his own right.
‘I hope she has,’ the man called Adam replied. ‘You really shouldn’t leave this lovely lady alone for too long.’
Eve could feel the resentment in Paul at the casually made remark as he stiffened at her side. And with just cause!
She shot the man called Adam a quelling glance, frowning her impatience as he blandly returned her gaze with feigned innocence.
‘Eve is perfectly able to—— What on earth!’ Paul said in an astounded voice as the other man began to chuckle at his remark.
Eve understood Adam’s humour only too well, giving a pained wince as the chuckle became a full-throated laugh, causing more than a few people to look their way. Adam’s eyes were full of merriment as he chokingly excused himself when he couldn’t contain the humour, crossing the room to enter the garden through the open patio doors. The sound of his laughter could still be heard coming from outside, causing even more curious looks to be directed at Eve and Paul.
Eve’s face was bright red with embarrassment as Paul looked down at her with angry eyes; he hated having any unnecessary attention drawn to him.
But she couldn’t be held responsible for Adam’s spontaneous humour—at least, not through any deliberate intent on her part. And she very much doubted that Paul would appreciate the ‘Adam and Eve’ significance that had been the cause of the other man’s uncontrollable laughter.
‘What was all that about?’ Paul demanded through gritted teeth, the forced smile to his lips trying to claim that he saw nothing unusual in someone going off into peals of laughter after being spoken to!
She shook her head. ‘I think he must have had a little too much to drink.’ She tried to shrug off the embarrassing episode.
Paul gazed after the other man, his frown lightening slightly. ‘Perhaps,’ he murmured thoughtfully. ‘Yes, you’re probably right,’ he decided with brisk dismissal, turning back to her. ‘Who was he, anyway?’ he said irritably.
She shrugged, keeping her tone light. ‘I have no idea.’
The heavy frown returned. ‘You weren’t introduced?’
‘No,’ she admitted tightly, reluctantly. ‘And he didn’t chose to introduce himself either,’ she dismissed.
The name Adam couldn’t really be classed as an introduction, and the little else she did know about him—that Sophy O’Donnell had brought him here to meet a ‘legend’—wasn’t guaranteed to endear him to Paul. In fact, the opposite was true. Sophy was one of the least popular people with Paul at the moment.
‘Damned cheek of the man.’ He glared at the open french doors with narrowed eyes. ‘What did he want?’ His gaze returned assessingly to Eve.
Mainly to dissuade her from marrying Paul! And that conversation was laughable now; now that she was with Paul, that brief shiver of apprehension she had felt earlier was completely forgotten. ‘Nothing, really,’ she dismissed brightly, a glowing smile on her lips as she looked lovingly into Paul’s face. ‘I think he was just at a loose end, having come with a married couple.’ She deliberately omitted to mention which married couple it had been. ‘I can’t even remember what we talked about now,’ she assured.
Paul still looked stern. ‘You really shouldn’t engage in conversation with complete strangers, Eve.’ He shook his head reprovingly. ‘I’ve told you before, you’re too trusting.’
‘Darling,’ she placated tenderly, her hand resting lightly on his arm, ‘it was only small talk. And he did realise I was here with you,’ she reminded teasingly, pushing firmly from her mind the other man’s disparaging remarks. ‘Now, why don’t we start to enjoy this party?’
Together. The word popped into her mind without volition, and she frowned her irritation at letting the man Adam’s comments affect her enough to allow even one detrimental thought about Paul to disturb her in this way. Paul had his career to think about and, although she wasn’t really into parties herself, she respected the fact that functions like this were important to him. The man Adam just didn’t understand that, didn’t understand the nature of their relationship.
Paul dismissed the other man with effort, and they did begin to circulate together among the other guests.
But two of the people she and Paul did avoid during the next hour, as they moved among the chattering groups about the room, were Sophy and Patrick O’Donnell. If Paul saw the two couples were about to meet, then he neatly avoided it without being too obvious. And that suited Eve too, mainly because the man Adam was with the other couple for the majority of the evening, a fact Paul didn’t seem to have realised. Thank goodness!
But Sophy wasn’t about to take that sort of treatment all evening; she was much more forcefully direct than her amiably friendly husband, and Eve wasn’t at all surprised