‘Are you serious?’ she whispered to the woman.
‘Oh, yes. The older man suggested it.’
Ellery?
Cara swallowed, a sick feeling balled in the pit of her stomach. ‘And … and the other one agreed?’
‘Just then.’
Oh, God. Why? Why would Aidan agree? And what on earth was going on in Martin Ellery’s head for him to suggest such an inconceivable notion? What could she say to get out of it? As if in a warning an image of her father shaking his head with resigned disappointment came into her mind. If she caused a scene now he’d think she had done it deliberately. He might even think it was her idea! Her way of having fun …
Unsure of how to extricate herself from what felt like a very volatile situation, she didn’t say anything.
Which seemed to give Martin Ellery a victorious cue to crow, ‘She’ll do it!’
All eyes turned back to her expectantly. Cara froze. What could she say? And surely he was only talking about dinner. Like when she’d allowed herself to be part of a charity auction to raise money for the homeless. That had cheapened her enough in her father’s eyes. Tonight, though, Cara felt that she was damned if she did and damned if she didn’t.
‘Well … if you’re talking about my company for—’
‘Done.’ Martin Ellery thumped the table in an aggressive show of machismo. ‘Show your hand, Kelly.’
Aidan Kelly’s low growl as he sent his cards spinning across the table sent a shiver of alarm down her spine.
He wouldn’t look at her and Cara’s mouth went bone dry. He looked so hard the hairs on the nape of her neck stood on end. This was not the man who had kissed her senseless outside before, the man who had gazed at her as if she were the only woman in the world for him.
She wondered what she would do if he won. Then a worse thought hit. She wondered what she would do if Martin Ellery won.
Oh, God.
‘Mr Kelly has a straight flush,’ the croupier announced in his perfectly modulated tones. ‘Mr Ellery, your cards please.’
Cara saw Ellery blanch and he almost seemed dazed as the croupier retrieved his cards and sorted them.
She felt a buzzing in her ears as she waited. She could feel people’s curious eyes on her and she knew a dull flush had heated her cheeks.
When the croupier sorted Ellery’s cards into the line-up a groan went through the swelling crowd and Cara tried to make sense of them. Four queens … Did that mean Ellery had won or lost?
‘Mr Ellery has four of a kind.’ The croupier paused and Cara half expected to hear a drum roll. ‘Mr Kelly wins.’
Mr Kelly wins?
It took a moment for his words to sink in and when they did Cara’s head came up and her eyes locked with the man she had only hours before agreed to meet up with for a late-night assignation. His face was hard, the angles seeming to sharpen as he stared at her with retribution burning in the hot depths of his blue gaze.
His expression confused her.
He looked at her as if he knew she was a world-class stuff-up. A fraud. A person who, once you scratched the shiny surface, had no worthy place in the world.
‘Tell me, Miss Chatsfield. Do you deliver on that sex-kitten reputation of yours or are you an absolute let-down when the glamour is stripped away?’
Aidan stood up straight and tall, lording it over those around him. His eyes narrowed and he swept the table with a contemptuous glance. ‘You can have your precious company, Ellery, and your contaminated money. I don’t want any of it.’
Ellery stared at Aidan like a broken man who still stood facing the hangman’s noose. ‘You’re letting me keep … everything.’
Aidan’s lip curled. ‘Almost.’ His eyes cut to hers and Cara felt pinned by his glacier-blue gaze. ‘Everything except her.’
CHAPTER FIVE
AIDAN WAS FURIOUS. Bitterness rolling through him like a steam train. And not only bitterness, but a deep uncertainty he didn’t want to acknowledge. Why had he just thrown everything back at Ellery? Why had he just walked away without exacting his revenge?
He didn’t know, but he did know that he was shaken by the whole experience. Shaken by the woman at his side. Shaken by her kiss, her innocent expression, her lies.
And now she really would pay. Oh, not with her body. He no longer wanted that. No, he’d teach her a different lesson for taking him on.
She stumbled as they crossed the Mahogany Room in full view of the spellbound crowd and he tightened his grip on her elbow.
‘Smile, my lovely,’ he whispered down at her. ‘Everyone will think you’re not looking forward to the night ahead.’
‘Mr Kelly—’
He stopped and curled his mouth into a grim smile. ‘I think we’ve gone way past the Mr Kelly stage, don’t you? In fact, I’m wondering if we shouldn’t give everyone a peek at your performance out on the balcony. From what I saw on that music clip you’re quite the exhibitionist.’