‘Not all the finer points?’ he queried. ‘You hadn’t thought everything through?’ He shook his head. ‘That doesn’t seem like you, Darcie. You’re a details person. But in this it seems you were just going to wing it.’
And he was teasing her for that by going full out with everything she’d basically forgotten. Or chosen not to consider. A brief kiss at the altar. An engagement ring. Things she hadn’t been going to have at all. But that now she discovered that she wanted. Desperately.
But not a wedding night.
‘Isn’t it fortunate you always have jewellery on hand,’ she said tartly.
‘I’ve never needed an engagement ring before.’ That smile in his eyes deepened. ‘I had to go to a jeweller first thing this morning and choose it myself with only you in mind.’
She gritted her teeth.
‘So there’s no need to be jealous, Darcie,’ he added lightly. ‘You’re my wife, and as such you’re theonlywoman I’ll give jewels to henceforth.’
‘I’m not—’
‘Hard as you might find it to believe,’ he continued, smoothly ignoring her strangled outburst. ‘While it’s some time since I last dated anyone, I’ve no intention of breaking the vows I made yesterday.’
Something hard lodged in her stomach. He met her gaze steadily, yet that unspoken emotion swirled and still she couldn’t decipher it.
‘I’m sure I can cope,’ he added.
Darcie, poor fool that she was, would have told him he didn’t have to ‘cope’ at all. He could haveheras a lover here and now. But it turned out her supposedly philandering ex-boss had developed a chivalrous streak.
‘What about you, Darcie?’ He leaned back. ‘How long since you last went on a date?’
She stared at him wordlessly. There was literally nothing she could say to that.
‘You’ve an insight into my life, yet I’ve none into yours,’ he added. ‘You’re quite the closed book.’
‘Not at all. You know my life is spent working for you. All the hours.’
‘Not the very small ones in the middle of the night,’ he countered.
‘It’s not going to be a problem,’ she mumbled.
‘You’re going to be able to cope?’ His voice was light but there was an intensity she didn’t understand in his gaze.
‘Of course.’ She wasn’t going to miss something she’d never had.
Except she was starting tocravethat very thing and it made her butterfingered and clumsy. She ached for his touch. She was thinking about it all the time, worse she was reading interest—intimacy—into details she knew he didn’t even mean: his occasional hesitation, that teasing smile, the way he watched her...like the way he was watching hernow.
His smile suddenly deepened, turning him even more impossibly handsome. And he knew it, didn’t he? Darcie glared at him. Was heprovokingher?
Well, maybe she’d do the last thingheexpected ofher. Maybe she’d confound him. Maybe shewouldspend his money today.
‘It seems you’re all over everything today,’ she said. ‘I’m going to go make my preparations for tonight,’ she said huskily. ‘I’ll be sure to charge it to your account.’
And she was going to enjoy every second of it.
Elias showered and dressed in a fresh shirt and suit. The meetings had been interminable but successful and more pleasingly, he’d had significant success in his plans for their return to London. Darcie wanted to put forward the best application for Lily and he would ensure that happened.
Now all he had to do was get through the damned dinner party he’d agreed to celebrate with Vince and his wife. But Darcie hadn’t been in the suite when he’d got back. For a moment he wondered if she’d left. But then the concierge had phoned to tell him she’d been slightly delayed.
She’d never been delayed before.
He walked to the window, not really seeing the city skyline at sunset. He’d barely slept—firstly he’d made all those arrangements, then his mind had been too busy replaying the day’s events, incredulous at the decisions he’d made and the action he’d taken. Yet he didn’t regret it. More astoundingly he’d scarcely been able to wait for her to wake to see how she’d handle him today.
‘I’m sorry I’m late,’ she called from behind him. ‘I didn’t appreciate how long a full beauty treatment takes.’