‘You look great,’ he said quietly, and she smiled shyly, pleased that she’d bought the red dress she’d seen on a shopping expedition a week earlier.
‘So do you.’
And he did. He was wearing a dark, well-cut suit and she saw several female heads turn towards him as they were shown to their table.
All right, so he didn’t make her knees wobble but that was a good thing surely. With Jack she actually felt physically sick every time he walked into a room, which was utterly ridiculous. She couldn’t concentrate and she couldn’t breathe. All she was aware of was him. And that wasn’t what she wanted in a stable, long-term relationship.
At least being with David didn’t make her feel sick with excitement.
They ordered their food and then David picked up his glass and raised it. ‘To an uninterrupted evening.’
She smiled and lifted her glass in response but before she could speak she gave a gasp of surprise. ‘Oh—it’s Jack!’
David’s jaw tightened and he put his glass carefully down on the table. ‘Jack?’
‘Jack Rothwell. He’s just walked in with some blonde.’
Bryony felt a flash of jealousy as she studied Jack’s companion. She was his usual type. Endless legs, silvery blonde hair and a skirt that barely covered her bottom. She wore a very low-cut top and Bryony glanced at Jack to see signs of disapproval, but he seemed perfectly relaxed, his eyes twinkling flirtatiously as he laughed at something the girl had said.
By contrast, David was glowering, his earlier good humour seemingly gone as he reached for his wine.
‘Well…’ Bryony made a determined effort not to look at Jack and not to mind that he didn’t appear to have noticed her anyway. ‘That’s a coincidence.’
‘Is it?’ David’s eyes glittered ominously and he sat back in his chair as the waiter poured more wine into his glass. ‘Aren’t you beginning to wonder why it is that Jack Rothwell would want to sabotage every date we have?’
‘Sabotage?’ Bryony looked at him in astonishment and gave a puzzled laugh. ‘Jack has nothing to do with the fact that our last two dates haven’t worked out that well.’
‘No?’
‘Well, he’s certainly not sabotaging tonight,’ Bryony said reasonably. ‘I mean, he hasn’t even noticed we’re here. He’s with a woman himself.’
She glanced across the restaurant again and immediately wished she hadn’t. Jack was leaning forward, his attention totally focused on his beautiful companion.
Bryony looked away quickly, trying not to mind. Knowing that she had no right to mind.
And, anyway, she was with David.
But he was looking at her with an odd expression on his face. ‘He knows you’re here,’ he said quietly, ‘and no man could fail to notice you, Bryony.’
She blushed at the compliment. ‘Well, that’s very kind of you, but I can assure you that Jack certainly doesn’t notice me in the way you’re suggesting.’
In fact, he didn’t seem to notice her as a woman at all. Until she wore something that he disapproved of, she thought gloomily. Goodness knew how he would have reacted had she been the one dressed like his date. He probably would have had her locked up. But evidently the girl staring into his eyes at that precise moment was allowed to dress however she pleased.
Realising that she was staring again, Bryony turned her attention back to David but the atmosphere had changed. She made a valiant attempt to keep up lively conversation but it seemed like hard work.
In the end they ate their starter in virtual silence and Bryony’s gaze flickered surreptitiously to Jack yet again.
Immediately their eyes locked and she swallowed hard, aware that he must have been looking at her.
His eyes held hers and everything and everyone else in the room gradually faded into the background. For Bryony there was just Jack and he seemed as reluctant to break the contact as she was.
Her heart banged against her ribs with rhythmic force and the sick feeling started in her stomach.
And still Jack’s eyes held hers.
They might have stared at each other for ever if the waiter hadn’t chosen that moment to deliver their next course, walking across their line of vision.
Staring down at her plate, Bryony realised that suddenly she wasn’t hungry any more. Her insides felt totally jumbled up.