‘I used to be a fan of your blog...is there any chance of you resurrecting it?’
Chloe snapped clear of her reverie before it reached self-pitying territory and smiled at the woman sitting across from her who’d just asked her a question. ‘Well, never say never, but at the moment I can’t see it happening.’
The woman looked disappointed. ‘You were very successful and you had so many followers, but I suppose you’ve got your hands full at the moment.’
Nik had disengaged from the conversation he was involved in and took an indulgent time out to study Chloe, watching as the fine muscles along her firm jawline quivered beneath the smooth creamy skin. Her long fingers tightened around the stem of her wine glass, and he noted the absence of rings.
‘So what is this blog I keep hearing about?’ Nik asked curiously.
He had just announced his intention of inviting her to spend the night in his bed and now he was making small-talk! Did he compartmentalise his life as neatly as he did his conversations? she wondered, envying him the ability.
‘It was a fashion blog. I started out just writing about things that caught my attention, fashion tips, current style trends, that sort of thing, and it took off after your sister—’ she glanced towards Tatiana ‘—gave me a plug.’
‘Was?’
She nodded and directed her gaze to the wine swirling around in her glass. The crystal caught the light of the chandelier that hung over the table, sending little sparks of colour through the flute. ‘I’ve moved on to other things.’
Dreams were not reality, they were an exaggerated, distorted form of it, and Nik had assumed his memory had been guilty of making some editorial cuts, smoothing out the flaws and adding a rosy tinge to the reality of the woman who had shared her body with him. Sharing hardly seemed an adequate description for the lack of barriers that had existed between them—but actually sitting beside her now, he realised that the reality was even better than his memory. And she’d been a virgin—her cagey reaction had virtually confirmed his stab in the dark—but it still didn’t seem possible.
‘I suppose a lot of people would get bored quickly if they didn’t have to worry about paying the rent, Lady Chloe.’
His efforts to needle her into a response were rewarded when she slung him an angry glare and drained her glass in one gulp.
It was not the first time that someone had added the title and her background together and come up with the totally inaccurate conclusion that she was a lady of leisure who didn’t have to work for a living.
They weren’t to know that, although her family had the aristocratic family tree and the castle that came with it, they didn’t have any money, which accounted for the holes in the roof, the ancient plumbing and the fact she and her sister had always been expected to work for their living. Of course, it didn’t make them poor by most people’s standards but the man sitting there judging her was not most people.
Even at this table, where conservative estimates of all the guests’ wealth were eye watering, he was probably worth more than them all combined.
Her indignation fizzed hot under the surface as she fixed him with a smile of dazzling insincerity and batted her lashes like the social butterfly he seemed to think she was.
‘Oh, and how I envy the little people with their simple lives... I’ve even heard that some people don’t bathe in ass’s milk or have anyone to put toothpaste on their brushes for them.’
‘Did I say something to annoy you?’ His glance slid from her blazing eyes to her tightened lips and his body stirred involuntarily as he remembered kissing them, tasting her... The need to do so again as soon as possible made his body do more than stir.
She shuddered out a breath and their gazes connected. Chloe was aware that she was breathing too fast as she fought to escape the message that seemed to vibrate with a palpable force in the air between them.
‘You breathing annoys me!’ Too much honesty, Chloe, she thought, aware she had lost her moral high ground the moment the childish admission left her lips, but at least she was no longer thinking about kissing him, which was good. Taking a deep breath, she glanced around to see if anyone had heard her comment. Greatly relieved when it seemed they hadn’t, she directed a straight look at him. ‘Look, Tatiana is a friend and I don’t want to be rude to her brother.’ Or go to bed with him.
‘Or alienate a potential donor?’
Chloe realised guiltily that the sobering reminder was necessary. She was in danger of forgetting that tonight was about getting the charity off the ground. Tatiana had done her bit, inviting people with deep pockets who were sympathetic to Chloe’s aims, but the rest was up to her.
It was a crowded market; there were so many good causes around Chloe knew that she needed to make a positive impression on these people if she was going to make a difference.
‘True, and all donations are gratefully received.’
‘You already have Ana on board, so how long have you two known one another?’
‘She took an interest in my fashion blog, but we’d never met. We actually met in person only a year ago, a few months after the—’ She stopped abruptly, her lashes lowering in a protective sweep.
‘After what?’ Against his better judgement, her sudden impersonation of a clam made him curious, and, even though he knew on one level that this should be an exercise in exorcising his demons, he found he really wanted to know what made her tick.
‘After I got bored with it,’ she countered, deliberately not analysing her reluctance to discuss the accident with him. She applied herself to her starter, trying to simulate an interest in her food, which she couldn’t even taste.
Nik, who continued to ignore his own food, propped an elbow on the table and studied her. ‘So what do you do now, besides selling raffle tickets?’
‘I’m working to raise the profile of the charity.’