‘And Natalie Blake? What’s the story there?’
‘There isn’t one really.’ Not any more, she thought, her heart turning over with relief that that obstacle was no longer in the way.
Lizzie grinned and tucked her arm through hers. ‘Well, why don’t we get a drink and you can tell me anyway? Dan looks as if he’s going to be tied up for a bit and I do so love a juicy romance.’
* * *
Dan finally managed to pry Zoe away from his sister at around midnight.
‘For someone who claims not to like social occasions you certainly seemed to enjoy yourself this evening,’ he said, smiling at her as he wrapped an arm round her shoulder and felt her lean on him a little as he led her upstairs.
She laughed softly and clung on all the way down the corridor to their room. ‘Yes, well, in all honesty I can’t quite see what I’ve been making such a fuss about all these years, because that was best fun I’ve had in ages.’
‘It was, wasn’t it?’ He stopped at the door and Zoe bumped into him.
‘Sorry,’ she said, with an adorably silly smile, her eyes sparkling and her cheeks flushed. ‘I think I might have had a bit too much champagne. I’m better with gin.’
‘The hard stuff,’ he said, unlocking the door and opening it.
She moved past him into the room, her hand brushing against the front of his trousers and she threw him a saucy smile. ‘Not yet, but I’ll have to see what I can do.’
‘Minx.’ Dan followed her in, hung the ‘do not disturb’ sign on the handle and closed the door.
‘I know,’ she said. ‘Who’d have thought?’
She dropped her handbag on the armchair that sat in the corner of the room and then started fumbling awkwardly for the pins that were keeping her hat in place. ‘You know, one of the reasons I came to find you the night of your award ceremony was because I had the feeling you’d unleash the real me, and I was right.’
Dan tossed the key onto the console table and glanced up at her. ‘If saucy minx is the real you then I’m all in favour.’
Pausing what she was doing, she shot him a smile. ‘Oh, you are so good for me.’
And she was good for him, he thought as he walked over to her, brushed her hands aside and took over the pin pulling with the dexterity and efficiency of someone who was stone cold sober and could actually see what they were doing. Very good. ‘I’m delighted to have been of assistance.’
‘Thank you for inviting me.’
‘Thank you for coming.’
‘I don’t think I’ll ever forget it. Especially the swans escaping their pen and invading the dance floor. That was quite the highlight of the night, I think.’
‘That was the highlight for you?’ he murmured. His highlights, of which there’d been a few, were far more mind-blowing, although he had to admit the swans had been amusing.
‘Apart from all the lovely romance of it all, of course,’ she said, sighing and leaning back against his chest. ‘And meeting your sister. She’s great. She invited me to her New Year’s Eve party, which I thought was nice of her.’
‘She liked you. So did my mother, as she kept telling me.’
She shivered. ‘Oh dear. Will you ever hear the end of it?’
‘I doubt it.’ And actually he couldn’t care less.
‘What was the highlight for you?’
Where could he even begin to start? Was it the heady feeling of being free from Natalie after all these years? The pride and admiration he felt every time he looked at Zoe this evening? The warmth that filled him whenever he was near her? The dawning realisation that perhaps he more than just liked her?
Not sure he was quite ready to share any of that, he eventually lifted the hat off her head, dropped it and the pins onto an armchair and then put his hands on her shoulders and slowly turned her round. ‘I suspect the highlight of my evening is yet to come,’ he said softly as he drew her into his arms.
Her eyes darkened and her breathing hitched in her throat. ‘Really?’
‘Oh, yes,’ he said, his heart thundering and his body hardening. ‘Assuming you play your part, that is.’