Bittersweet Love - Cathy Williams [17]
‘First time,’ Natalie answered briefly. ‘It’s only just recently opened,’ she added, when he made no comment.
‘So it has,’ he agreed. ‘It was recommended to me by the Maison Française. It’s their sister restaurant.’
‘Is it?’ she said politely.
‘What surprised me even more, though, was that you would invite a third party on your dinner date out.’
She looked up to meet his eyes, which were amused and curious. He had always got a kick out of quizzing her on her personal life, knowing that it irritated her when he did it. She had a feeling that trying to imagine her with her hair down, dancing till dawn, had appealed to his sense of humour. Probably because it would have been so vastly different from how she appeared to him when she was at work.
Now something had shifted slightly. The image would not have been so very different from what he saw during working hours, and having caught her in a restaurant had clearly whetted his appetite to find out more about her private life. He was playing games with her and she didn’t see why she should respond. She ignored him and meticulously concentrated on finishing her starter.
‘Delicious,’ she said.
‘Delicious,’ he agreed, with a mocking edge in his voice.
‘You’re very lucky, having O’Leary to cook for you. Most single men either end up eating out all of the time or else living off take-away food.’
‘By most single men, I take it to mean that you’re talking about the riveting Eric?’
There was something insolent lurking under the politeness and it sparked an angry reaction in her. He was so conceited! Eric might not set the world on fire, but he was safe. There was a lot to be said for safety.
O’Leary came in to clear away their dishes, and then busied himself with the main course, a simple affair of lamb steaks with mustard sauce and new potatoes. And, Natalie was relieved to note, his temporary invasion into her private life was dropped. He began discussing work, and she immediately relaxed. This was familiar territory and she asked a string of questions about her new role, quizzing him on the accounts she would be handling. She already knew a great deal about them anyway, and Kane methodically filled her in on things which were not necessarily in the file. He knew all the directors of the companies personally, and he made her giggle with his stories about them.
This, she thought suddenly, was the essence of his charm, this extraordinary ability to make a woman feel as though she was at the centre of his universe, even when she meant nothing more to him than an insignificant working companion.
Poor Anna. No wonder she was so desperate to hang on to him. Couldn’t she see for herself that, however witty and sexy and clever he might be, he was not about to be tamed? Presumably he would get married one day, but only when it suited him, and probably to someone who could bring with her more significant assets than a good body and an undemanding intellect.
Still, when did love ever listen to logic? She, Natalie, of all people should know that no amount of careful reasoning could control that wild patter of her heart whenever he was around. Anna did not give the impression that serious thought and an ability to reason were strong points with her, but who could tell?
They had a dessert of crème brûlée, and Natalie said without thinking, ‘I could go to bed right now.’
Her eyes met his, recognised the unspoken speculative question in them, and looked away in confusion.
‘Shall we have coffee in the lounge?’ he asked, amused to have addled her. ‘Might as well cover the rest of the ground on these accounts, then you can take your sweet self off to bed.’ He shot her a half-wicked, half-innocent look which Natalie pretended not to notice.
They had shared a bottle of wine over dinner, and what with the vodka and orange beforehand Natalie felt her eyelids drooping as she surveyed the files in the lounge. She was quite unused to alcohol. One glass of wine made her feel heady. Right now she could fall asleep without any problem whatsoever. She summoned up her energy