‘Marcus, what a surprise. I thought you would be far too busy to attend this sort of thing,’ she opined lightly.
‘Ah, Eloise, would I miss your opening?’ he prompted his dark eyes holding a glint of wicked humour. ‘I’m only sorry I didn’t get in touch sooner.’ His smile was disarming. ‘But pressure of work.’ He gave a shrug of his broad shoulders. ‘That’s how it goes sometimes.’
‘Yes, of course.’ Eloise couldn’t say anything else under the circumstances. She had no claim on the man. So he had taken her to bed and taken her virginity? What did that matter to a devil like Marcus?
‘I knew you would understand.’ His eyes captured hers, faintly mocking beneath hooded lids, and the breath caught in her throat.
‘Yes, well, I’m an understanding kind of girl,’ she managed in a weak attempt at humour.
‘You are also a very beautiful one.’ Marcus moved slightly, the sleeve of his jacket brushing her arm. ‘You look fantastic.’ With casual ease, he reached out and lifted the waterfall of beads at her throat, and let them trail through his long fingers. ‘Your design?’
He was much too close. The heady masculine scent of him, the touch of his fingers on her flesh, sent heat flooding through every vein in her body. She swallowed hard, and stepped back. ‘Yes.’
‘Exquisite.’ His hand fell from her throat. ‘Congratulations, Eloise. It looks like your latest venture will be a great success.’
With a bit of space between them, Eloise felt slightly more in control. ‘Thank you. We hope so,’ she responded with a baring of her teeth that she hoped would pass for a smile, and glimpsed a flash of mockery in the dark eyes that held her own.
‘Can there be a doubt? After all, Eloise, your mother was highly successful, and you obviously have her talent.’ A talent for squeezing money out of men, Marcus thought grimly. But she had other talents, he recognised, as he looked down at her. She was one gorgeous, sexy lady, as he knew only too well, but she was also a liar and a devious little thief. Yet even now if he saw just one genuine smile from her luscious lips, he would probably forgive her everything, and he despised himself for it.
‘You think so?’
‘Oh, I know so,’ he said with the arch of one perfect ebony brow. ‘But let’s cut out the niceties and get down to what really interests me.’ The gleam in his eyes, as he surveyed her slender figure from the top of her head to her toes, left her in no doubt as to what he meant.
Eloise fought down the blush that threatened and said, ‘Actually, I’m surprised to see you here. I don’t remember inviting you.’
‘You didn’t. Ted Charlton did.’
Eloise stared up at him, her green eyes puzzled. ‘I didn’t realise you knew him that well.’
A smile touched his hard mouth. ‘You’d be surprised. But let’s not talk about Ted; let’s talk about you. I suppose it’s too much to hope you are still unattached. There must be lots of men in Paris all vying for your attention.’
‘I don’t think that’s any business of yours.’ She hid a wry smile, thinking of the twenty-hour days she had worked to get the Paris shop started.
‘I thought we were friends.’ His gaze was unwaveringly direct ‘More than friends.’ His deep voice dropped seductively. ‘After this is over, let me take you out to dinner and show you.’
For sheer arrogant conceit, he took the biscuit, Eloise thought furiously. He had slept with her, dropped her like a hot potato, and casually walked back into her life, uninvited, months later, and thought he could seduce her all over again. What kind of fool did he take he for? He might be incredibly handsome, and incredibly rich, but he was also a womanising bastard, as she knew to her cost.
‘Thank you for the invite, but no, thanks. I already have a dinner date.’
One black brow lifted sardonically. ‘Shame. Perhaps some other time, as I remember the last time we dined together you seemed to enjoy my company, and I know I enjoyed you.’
Hot colour stained her cheeks. How dared he remind her of that? She wanted to knock the cynical smile off his rotten face. Her hands curled into tight fists at her sides, and she was rigid with anger… But, remembering where she was, with the greatest difficulty she controlled herself.
‘Eloise, isn’t it marvellous?’ Katy was Eloise’s salvation.
Turning her back on Marcus, her gaze flew to her friend’s face. Katy looked amused and excited, whereas she felt embarrassed. ‘Yes, great.’
‘For heaven’s sake, lighten up, Eloise. We’re a success. Enjoy it, and introduce me to this marvellous man.’
Eloise almost groaned out loud. Marcus had positioned himself at her side, and was standing there, oozing charm… The snake! But she had no choice but to make the introductions. She watched cynically as Marcus, with a few well-chosen words that flattered Katy’s beauty and business sense, charmed her friend completely.
‘You’ve met Harry, I believe,’ Eloise said as Harry joined the group.
‘Yes, the first time guarding the door in London, and I can’t say I blame you, Harry, with two such stunningly attractive woman to look after.’
‘Your chauvinism is showing,’ Katy quipped, and they all laughed.
‘Then let me apologise by taking you all to dinner.’
‘No, no.’ Ted appeared. ‘Tonight is my treat. Eloise has already agreed but, hey, why don’t you all come—and you too, Marcus? It will save time.’
‘Eloise?’ Katy deferred, and the decision was hers.
Save time for what? Eloise briefly wondered but, pinning a smile on her face, she said, ‘Yes, the more, the merrier.’ But inside she was fuming. And what did Marcus mean by ‘the first time he had met Harry’? To her knowledge he had only met Harry once. Was Marcus having a sly dig at her? Her paranoia was showing. Marcus Kouvaris was not worth thinking about.
‘Come on, then,’ Harry cried. ‘Let’s thank and say goodbye to our guests. Jeff and Julian can close up. We have already overrun half an hour, and I am not used to eating late; my stomach feels as if my throat is cut.’
General laughter followed, and an hour later saw the five of them seated at a table next to the small dance floor in a nightclub in the Latin Quarter, enjoying a jovial meal.
‘I’m stuffed,’ Katy groaned, eyeing the last remnants of a huge cream concoction. ‘And if I don’t get back to the hotel soon, our son will be screaming for his feed, and Floe will be pulling her hair out.’
‘Before you decide to leave,’ Ted cut in, ‘I have something to tell you.’
The meal had been torture for Eloise, who’d been trying to behave cool and unconcerned by Marcus’s presence. Forced to watch him win over Katy with his wit and easy charm, when she wanted to yell he was a rat… She gave an inward sigh of relief when Katy proposed leaving—her ordeal was almost over. But she was wrong. It was just beginning…
‘Katy, Eloise, I have an announcement to make,’ Ted declared.
Glancing at Ted, Eloise, saw the almost conspiratorial look he exchanged with Harry and Marcus, and Marcus’s head dipped slightly in a nod of assent. She looked from one to the other, an uneasy suspicion she was not going to like Ted’s revelation making her stiffen in her seat.
‘I have sold my share in KHE to Marcus here.’ Ted gestured expansively