He's My Husband! - Lindsay Armstrong [46]
‘I see you’re not taking Chris’s advice tonight,’ he murmured at last.
‘No.’
‘On the other hand, he didn’t get it quite right. You look lovely, if a little severe.’
‘That could be because I feel a little severe. Shall we get this over and done with?’ She turned to go in.
‘Nicola.’
She set her lips and turned back. In a black dinner suit, with a snow-white starched shirt-front and black tie, Brett Harcourt was a commanding figure, enough to make her heart jolt, but she refused to allow her expression to change.
He smiled unexpectedly. ‘I wasn’t being critical.’
She shrugged, then blinked as lightning lit the sky and a faint rumble of thunder made itself heard.
‘We might need an umbrella,’ he added, after a moment, and raised a hand to fiddle with the shoulder strap of her gown.
She looked away and didn’t see the frown in his eyes as they rested on her. She was too conscious of the suddenly electric tension the feel of his fingers on her skin was producing in her, so that her heart started to beat oddly and her pulses raced. But she forced herself to breathe deeply, and when she raised her eyes to his, they were noncommittal.
His lips twisted. ‘Well, it will do the garden good.’
‘Yes.’
He took his hand away and bowed for her to precede him with a faintly sardonic gleam in his eye. She walked through the house to the garage to find that the BMW already had its hood up, and she got in, handling her skirt carefully. It was a completely silent drive into town and the new Convention Centre.
‘Hello, Tara,’ she said about an hour later, when they’d sat down to dinner. Tara was at their table. She was with another lawyer from Hinton, Harcourt, but it was obvious the pairing was only to make the numbers even. Tara glowed in a filmy, layered chartreuse gown.
‘How’s Chris?’ she asked immediately.
‘A little disturbed about how he’s going to do anything with that horrible thing on his leg.’ Nicola smiled ruefully and sipped champagne.
‘I’m surprised you came tonight,’ Tara said. ‘I thought you might have had your hands full.’
Nicola considered that and discovered she was suddenly impervious to this woman’s needling—or whatever it was. ‘Thanks for your concern, but Marietta’s taken over,’ she said easily. ‘I love your gown, by the way. Did you get it in Cairns?’
Tara looked vaguely taken aback by the genuineness of Nicola’s tone, and Brett, who had sat silent through this exchange, flicked his wife a sudden glance.
‘No, Brisbane,’ Tara said. ‘I was going to say the same of yours,’ she added somewhat lamely.
‘Thanks.’ Nicola took another sip of champagne and turned to Brett as the band started to play. ‘Shall we dance, darling?’
‘If...you want to be the first on the floor,’ he responded with a narrow little look.
‘Why not? Oh, and it’s a samba! We do that rather well together, don’t we?’
He hesitated for a moment, then pushed back his chair.
They did it so well together they were the cynosure of all eyes as her dress shimmered under the lights and her natural sense of rhythm gave her fluency and grace. The band was obviously delighted, so they prolonged the number.
‘What are you doing, Nicola?’ Brett said as they came together—and parted.
‘What you wanted me to do,’ she answered as they came together—and parted.
‘As in making a spectacle of us?’
‘Not at all.’ But she glanced up at him over her shoulder, as he put his hands round her waist from behind her, to see that he was looking down at her enigmatically.
She returned his look with a mysterious little one of her own. Then she spun away with the music and said whimsically when they came together again, ‘Don’t worry, I won’t attack you and kiss you! I’m just allaying all talk and speculation, and any embarrassment for you. Besides,’ she added honestly, ‘I just love to samba—and you were the one who taught me, Brett!’
He said no more, and they finally left the floor to a storm of applause.
‘My dear Nicola.’ It was Rod Mason, who took her hand, then enveloped her in a bear hug. ‘You are a thing of joy and beauty to watch!’ He released her and turned to