His jaw dropped. ‘That blue thing?’
Ellie choked as she tried to swallow water while snorting with laughter. How could he sound both scandalised and horn-dog desperate? She shook her head and swallowed safely that time. ‘No. Not a slip, it’s a dress that doesn’t need ironing so I can roll it up. I always have it in the bottom of my overnight bag.’
‘What about shoes?’
‘I have teeny, tiny strappy numbers. And I have make-up and glittery jewellery too. You never know when you might get that last-minute invite to a red-carpet event.’ She was spouting complete rubbish of course—she’d never been to a red carpet event. But she had learnt a trick or two from hanging around on the set of a few ultra-budget short flicks. The make-up artists could work wonders with a tube of Vaseline and an eye pencil. And after the nightmare that had been Nathan and his insulting comments about her attire, she’d gone shopping for a kill-’em-at-any-occasion dress. And okay, it hadn’t been Nathan she’d been thinking of. She’d been channelling her new-found inner seductress—basking in the conquest that had been Ruben and revelling in supreme sexual confidence for five seconds of madness in the shop’s changing room.
‘Impressive.’ Ruben’s expression went evil. ‘So you have no reason to be able to refuse me, then.’
Too late she realised she’d been trapped. Oh, he was good. There was nothing for it but straight refusal. ‘I’m not going as your date.’
‘You have to. We’ve already told the immaculate Margot we’ll be there and we can’t disappoint her now.’
‘Look.’ She sighed. ‘She’s thrilled about you going. She won’t mind my not being there. You don’t need to do the host thing, I’m happy to have a nice quiet night here on my own. I’m really tired—it’s been an exhausting day out facing the elements, you know.’
‘And yet you’re going to send me into the wolves’ den, knowing I’m every bit as exhausted.’
‘Hardly a den,’ she mocked softly. ‘They’ll welcome you with open arms.’
‘It’s a dangerous place, the charity dinner. I’m not sure you understand the threat I’m facing.’ Somehow he’d moved nearer.
‘From all the women throwing themselves at you?’
He nodded soberly. ‘It’s frightening. I need you to protect me.’
‘Oh, as if.’ Arrogant sod. ‘You need no protection. It’s the other way round and you know it. You’ll be waggling your eyebrows at all the waitresses and they’ll fawn all over you.’
‘I only waggle if they’ve got good racks. Of food.’ He caught her eye and laughed. ‘None of those women need fear me. Come with me. Please. It’s what friends do.’ He looked sly. ‘And you’re my friend now, right?’
Her eyes narrowed. ‘I’d like to think that’s possible. It remains to see whether you can manage it.’
‘Well, friends support each other, don’t they? Here’s some truth for you. I’m shy.’ He dropped his voice to a whisper. ‘I admit it. I like my privacy and I find small talk...difficult sometimes.’
‘Shy?’ she scoffed. ‘You’re the guy who was happy to stand buck naked in a hotel corridor the morning we met. You’re anything but shy. You’re outrageous.’
‘That was a special occasion.’ He stared, all big brown puppy eyes.
‘Oh, it was not. You don’t care about what people think of you.’
‘That’s true.’ He shrugged off the bashful routine.
Ellie nodded. ‘You’re stunning at schmooze. You just reduced society matriarch Margot to a blushing, tongue-tied wreck.’
‘Doesn’t mean I enjoy it. I have good managers at each of the lodges. I don’t mix with the clients all that much. I’d rather wander round—’
‘Looking like the gardener.’
‘Exactly.’ He’d edged closer still. ‘Go on, come with me.’
She nibbled the inside of her lip, steadfastly ignoring the less than subtle undertone to his invitation. There was that irresistible desire to see what he was like at one of those events—to be out in public with him at her side. To indulge in that dangerous fantasy for a few hours would be far safer than to stay here another night alone with him.
‘Okay.’ She shrugged, feigning nonchalance. ‘I’ll go with you.’
‘We have a couple of hours before—’
‘Yeah, I’m going for a lie down.’ She walked, quickly. ‘Alone.’
* * *
Two hours later she was running late, having spent too long messing around with all the luxury bathing products in the bathroom and thinking up movie-tour spiels. Wrapped in one of the luxurious robes supplied in the wardrobe, she raced to the kitchen to hunt out a snack. Munching a cracker, she caught him in the corridor on her way back to her bedroom.
She stopped, spilling crumbs as she unconsciously clenched her fist and crushed the cracker. How could any woman think ‘friends only’ when he looked as sex-in-a-suit as that?
He grinned as if he could read her thoughts. ‘You like it?’
Oh, yeah, her like was all over her face. Way too late she pulled her jaw from the floor and got her tongue back behind her teeth. ‘You’re not playing fair.’
‘I just thought it might be good to lift the challenge for you. Make you think about what you’re giving up.’
As if she needed to think about that any more than she was already.
‘You were wrong once—isn’t there the possibility you might be wrong twice?’ he asked slyly.
‘What was I wrong about?’
‘That it was fantasy sex that couldn’t be repeated. But that kiss in the spa was way better than any fantasy. Just imagine what a whole night together would be like.’
‘This is you meeting the friendship challenge, is it?’ she asked.
He shrugged negligently. ‘Oh, I can meet that challenge. But if you wanted to change your mind at any time, all you have to do is ask.’
And he’d do her? She merely smiled and went to set a challenge of her own. Twenty minutes later she walked into the lounge and waited for his response.
He stared—up and down, up and down, paused just north of her centre, and then up and down again. ‘That was really in that tiny overnight bag?’
She twirled. ‘It’s a tiny dress.’
It was and all Ruben wanted to do was peel it off her. It was black and sleek—like cobwebbing over her breasts and an equally clinging skirt. Her legs were lightly tanned and framed with a pair of barely there sandals on her feet—only a strip of black sequins across her toes and a heel that gave her a slight chance of levelly meeting his gaze.
He managed to haul a couple of words together. ‘We’d better go.’
There would have been a couple of hundred people there. The place glittered—diamonds adorned ears, necks, wrists and fingers everywhere. He glanced at Ellie’s beautiful skin; diamonds would look good on her. Or sapphires to match her eyes. Although no gem, no matter how precious, could sparkle the way her eyes were now.
She was laughing at how he’d just waylaid a waitress and hoovered too many of her canapés before she’d been able to offer them to anyone else. But honestly, he’d not eaten for ages. The two hours Ellie had had her lie-down, he’d been working.
‘You really don’t give a damn about what these people think of you, do you?’ Ellie teased.
‘Why