For a split second he hesitated while swiftly weighing up the pros and cons of each option, and then he made his decision. If he left, the outcome of the evening would be out of his hands, it could well end up in the press anyway and the likelihood was that his pride would end up dented all over again. But if he stayed, well, at least he’d be able to exert some sort of control over the proceedings.
Besides, the hole he was in was entirely of his making. Zoe had tried to dissuade him from the course of action he’d decided to follow but he’d been absolutely hell-bent on it, thick-headedly bulldozing through every one of her very valid objections, so if he really had the integrity he thought he did he owed it to her to see it right through to the end, wherever and whenever that might be.
He might even find it fun in a crazy kind of way, he thought, deciding he might as well try and put a positive spin on it. He’d been heading up his own company for the best part of six years, gradually handing over more of the creative work to his colleagues so he could concentrate on the business and management side of things and he’d been missing it.
So he’d go with the flow. Listen and watch carefully and respond accordingly. He’d follow Zoe’s lead, maybe set up a few of his own. Give it the one hundred per cent dedication he gave everything he did.
Aware that everyone was, at the moment, watching him, Dan squared his shoulders, looked Samantha straight in the eye and said, ‘I suspect I am.’
Zoe squeezed his arm in a gesture he presumed was meant to be reassuring but wasn’t, although what with the way it pressed her breast against his bicep it did give him the idea of keeping her close. ‘His fame precedes him,’ she said, with a mixture of misplaced enthusiasm and pride.
‘It certainly does,’ murmured Samantha, the hard glint in her eye and the air of bitchiness enveloping her reminding him that she was the sort of woman he couldn’t stand and certainly would never trust, even if he had had the ability to do so. ‘How long did you say the two of you had been going out, Zoe?’ she asked.
‘Six months,’ said Zoe dreamily, still clinging onto him and making his head swim a little with her proximity as he slid an arm around her waist and settled his hand on her hip. ‘Six long happy months.’
Despite the heat rushing along his veins as her warmth and her scent wound their way through him Dan couldn’t help shuddering because, God, real or not, six months now sounded absolutely terminal.
‘But six months ago weren’t you dating Jasmine Thomas, Dan?’ said Samantha silkily, and he felt Zoe stiffen at his side, although whether in response to his shudder, the thought he might have been two-timing her, or the fact that presumably she hadn’t prepared for this he had no idea.
‘I was,’ he said since there was no point in denying it.
‘Who’s Jasmine Thomas?’
‘An actress,’ supplied Harriet.
Having clearly spent a lot of the evening thinking on her feet, Zoe arched an eyebrow in an excellent portrayal of an indignant girlfriend, looked up at him accusingly and said, ‘You never told me about her.’
‘No, well, it’s not something I choose to dwell on,’ Dan said, wondering if the discomfort he felt whenever he was reminded of it would ever ease.
Samantha, on the other hand, he thought, catching a tiny flare of triumph in her eyes, looked about as comfortable as it was possible to be because she was clearly in her absolute element here. ‘She sold her story about your relationship to the press, didn’t she?’
‘She did.’
‘God, how awful,’ said Zoe, pity and sympathy written all over her lovely face and shimmering in her mesmerising eyes as she gazed up at him. ‘Why did she do it?’
‘I broke up with her.’ The minute a flowery wash bag had unexpectedly appeared in his bathroom a month after they’d started seeing each other and she’d stormed out accusing him of being a cold, aloof commitment-phobe.
‘So it was a spurned lover kind of thing?’
‘I guess.’
Zoe sniffed. ‘What a cliché.’
It wasn’t just a cliché, he thought darkly. It was also a pain, and frankly he was utterly fed up with the way that what Jasmine had done continued to linger. It had been six months ago, for heaven’s sake, yet it showed no sign of being today’s fish and chip wrapping. All he wanted was to forget about it, but he wasn’t being allowed to.
‘Didn’t you know?’ asked Samantha, snapping her focus round to Zoe.
‘Oh, well, we’ve been rather wrapped up in our own little cocoon of love, haven’t we, Honeybun?’ Zoe murmured, sliding her hand to his lower back and beaming up at him soppily.
‘We have.’ He dropped a quick hard kiss on her cheek and felt her shiver.
‘You’ve certainly managed to keep it extremely quiet,’ said Harriet.
‘Are you surprised?’ said Dan.
‘And what about all those other women?’ asked Samantha.
Zoe lifted her eyebrows a millimetre or two. Other women? she mouthed.