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‘Don’t worry about me,’ he went on hurriedly. ‘I’ll take a taxi back to your place after we’re finished, though that might not be for a while. Arrangements to make, et cetera. Thanks for calling. See you later. Ciao.’
Turning his mobile right off to stop any further awkward calls from Beth, he slipped it in his pocket, vowing to give her a call back as soon as he had the chance.
‘Sorry about that,’ he said brightly. ‘It was the lady whose place I’m staying at tonight. She and her husband are friends of friends of mine. I didn’t think it would be right to stay at Charlotte’s place. Not the night before the wedding, anyway.’
‘Are these people coming to the wedding tomorrow, Charlotte?’ Betty Gale asked her daughter.
‘Er—’
‘No, they’re not,’ Daniel jumped in. ‘I didn’t ask them. I didn’t realise it was going to be such a big wedding, remember?’
‘But that’s not right,’ Mr Gale said. ‘They should come. Charlotte, surely something could be arranged.’
Charlotte groaned inside. ‘I don’t think so, Dad. The numbers for the reception were finalised a couple of days ago.’ The last thing she wanted was to cost her dad more money.
‘Please don’t concern yourselves,’ Daniel said swiftly. ‘They really wouldn’t expect to come.’
‘If you say so, Gary.’
Charlotte winced. How she hated hearing them call him Gary! Daniel was a much nicer name.
Their meals arrived. Charlotte only picked at hers, her mind drifting back to names.
Daniel. Daniel Bannister. Mrs Daniel Bannister.
‘You’re not dieting, are you, darling?’ Daniel suddenly asked her.
Her sharp intake of breath reflected the shock produced by her own foolish thoughts, not by his calling her darling. She knew he was only acting. No way was she really his darling, or anything close. Yet there she was, fantasising about being married to him.
God, she was hopeless. Hadn’t this fiasco with Gary taught her anything? Talk about jumping from the frying pan into the fire. If she started imagining she was falling for Daniel, she needed her head read. OK, so he was utterly gorgeous-looking and incredibly sexy, with the kind of powerful and dynamic personality you usually only read about.
Charlotte had no doubt he would be very good in bed.
But he wasn’t good at love. Or commitment. He couldn’t have made his intentions clearer. He said he was allergic to marriage, and his own sister had called him the love ’em and leave ’em type.
Common sense demanded she not weave any romantic fantasies around him. He was not some knight in shining armour. His aim hadn’t been rescuing her damsel in distress, but seducing her.
She had to keep that fact in the forefront of her mind during the next couple of days or she’d end up crying a whole lot more than she had about Gary.
‘Charlotte never eats much when she’s nervous,’ her mother answered for her, which brought a grateful smile from Charlotte. She put down her knife and fork, picked up a chip with her fingers and nibbled on it.
‘I’m just the opposite,’ Daniel said. ‘I eat like a horse when I’m nervous.’ And he forked a large piece of steak into his mouth.
‘I can’t imagine you ever being nervous,’ Charlotte said with a dry laugh.
‘You’d be surprised,’ he returned.
Charlotte wouldn’t mind betting he’d never suffered a crisis of confidence in his entire life, whereas she’d spent most of hers not even knowing what she wanted out of life. Even when she thought she did, her life had still lurched from one disaster to the next.
‘Everyone gets nervous occasionally,’ her father joined in. ‘Caring makes any man nervous. I was nervous when I married your mother. And each time she was expecting. I dare say I’ll be nervous again when you and Gary have a little one.’
The threat of tears came out of nowhere. Charlotte knew she would not be able to explain them, so she had to get out of there. At least for a minute or two.
She dropped the rest of the chip and stood up abruptly. ‘Sorry. Have to go the ladies’. The wine.’
Bolting for the powder room did the trick. Not only did it stop the tears, but it also gave her the opportunity to call Louise.
‘Goodness knows what she’s going to say,’ Charlotte muttered as she raced into a cubicle and punched in Louise’s work number.
The owner of the hairdressing place Louise worked at didn’t like her taking personal calls, especially on a Friday, but this was an emergency. It took a while before she came on the line, during which Charlotte’s already over-active stomach did the tango.
‘Yes?’ Louise asked agitatedly.
‘Louise, it’s Charlotte. You haven’t told anyone about what happened with Gary this morning, have you?’
‘No. Why?’
‘Not even Brad?’ Brad was Louise’s boyfriend and the best man.
‘Haven’t had the opportunity. I was going to tell him tonight. We’re meeting for drinks after work.’
‘Thank heaven, because the wedding’s back on.’
‘What? How? Did Gary ditch the PA and take a later plane or something?’
Charlotte told her what had transpired in broad strokes.
‘Now, don’t say a single word,’ Charlotte warned before her friend could launch into a torrent of protest. ‘This is a done deed and nothing you say will stop me, so don’t waste your breath.’
‘Fine by me. It’s your life. Besides, this Daniel sounds a darn sight more interesting than Gary. He really came gunning for you, huh? Must be seriously smitten. I suppose he has to be reasonably good-looking, if he looks like Gary. Not that I thought Gary was all that hot in his photos.’
‘Makes Gary look lukewarm.’
‘Oho, he’s not the only one who’s smitten. I always said you didn’t love Gary. And vice versa.’
‘Yes, I know. But this isn’t love, Louise.’
‘Don’t tell you’ve finally fallen in lust with a man?’
Louise had a way of cutting to the chase about things, especially on the subject of sex. Lust was not a word Charlotte liked but lustful certainly described most of the thoughts Daniel engendered in her.
‘Possibly.’
‘About time too. Look, we’ll talk more tonight. Alvira is looking daggers at me, so I’d better go. You will be coming home some time tonight, won’t you?’
‘Yes, of course,’ Charlotte said, and meant it.
Daniel was going to have to wait till tomorrow night to have his wicked way with her. No way was she going to jump into bed with him tonight, no matter how much she might want to. A girl had to have some pride!
Her return to the table was greeted by a questioning glance from Daniel. But she could hardly tell him anything till the lunch was over and her parents had checked into their room in the hotel.
Fortunately, after lunch her mum and dad were happy enough to look after themselves for the rest of the day.
Charlotte sighed a rather weary sigh as soon as the lift doors shut on her parents.
‘You sound tired,’ Daniel said.
‘I am tired.’
‘In that case I’ll let you off dinner tonight. Far better you go home and have a good night’s rest.’
‘I never said I’d have dinner with you tonight,’ she reminded him tartly.
‘The girl who kissed me in the lobby would have come to dinner with me if I’d asked again.’
‘You kissed me!’
‘Don’t be pedantic. You liked me kissing you. A lot.’
‘Good grief, you’re impossible!’
‘And you’re irresistible.’
She laughed. ‘Not according to my last two boyfriends.’
‘They were fools. I’m not.’
‘I only have your word for that. So why are you doing this for me tomorrow, Daniel?’ she asked him, determined to have him put his cards on the table. ‘Or perhaps more to the point, why did you chase after me the way you did? The truth, please. I’ve had enough of men telling me lies.’
He shrugged. ‘Impossible to analyse some things. When I first saw you this morning, it was like being struck by a bolt of lightning. I’ve never felt that way about a woman before, especially a blonde.’
Charlotte was both flattered and taken aback. ‘You don’t like blondes?’
‘Let’s just say they usually set off bad memories for me. After my father left my mother, his subsequent wives have all been blondes.’
‘His wives! How many has he had?’
‘Five, including my mother, at last count. But what the heck? He’s only sixty-five. Plenty of time yet for a few more.’
The bitterness in Daniel’s voice brought some understanding as to why he might be allergic to marriage, whereas Charlotte had had nothing but good examples of people being married. Her parents. Her aunts and uncles. Her sisters. All happy with their partners. Divorce was unheard-of in her family.
Suddenly she wanted to know more about the man who was going to pretend to marry her tomorrow. A whole lot more.
‘How about we go for a cup of coffee somewhere?’ she suggested. ‘We really need to talk.’
He smiled that sexy smile of his. ‘We really need to do a whole lot of things. But you’re right. Talking would be a good idea for now. But somewhere very public, please. So that I can keep my hands off you. Kissing you before did dreadful things to me. If I hadn’t been able to distract myself with food I don’t know what I would have done.’
Charlotte found herself laughing again. ‘You’re a wicked man, do you know that?’
Daniel didn’t know that. He had his shortcomings but he’d never thought of himself as wicked. Still, her comment made him try to do what he’d just said couldn’t be done. Analyse his feelings for Charlotte.
Was it just sexual desire for her which had propelled and compelled his actions today? Was he going through with this pretend wedding, just to get her into bed?
Absolutely not. He could have got her into bed anyway. The way she’d responded to his kiss had told him that. He was doing what he was doing because he genuinely liked her. And genuinely liked her folks. They were the warmest, nicest family he’d ever met and he hated to think of them in distress.
But perhaps it was for the best if he didn’t tell her that. Best she think he was wicked. The thought seemed to amuse her. And turn her on. Turning her on was good. Having her fall in love with him on the rebound was not.
Daniel didn’t want to take up where Gary had left off.
That would be cruel.
Charlotte had to be extra-vulnerable right now. Still, she wasn’t some young naive girl. She was a woman, a beautiful sexy woman with needs. It had been eight months since she’d been with a man. Daniel had been without a woman in his bed too.
High time they both had some comfort.
The prospect of spending their ‘wedding night’ together tomorrow was going to keep him awake tonight, that was for sure. Thinking of their wedding night, however, brought another idea, one which he would attend to before leaving the hotel.
‘Where do you want to go for coffee?’ he asked.
‘We could walk down to one of the cafés on the quay. Then I could take you to the clothes-hire place on the way. It’s not far from here. We need to rent a tux for you.’
‘No need. I have a tux. Never go anywhere without one.’ He’d been caught short once when he’d gone to Boston to visit friends.
Charlotte frowned. ‘What kind?’
‘Black. Single-breasted. Satin lapels. A white dress shirt and a black bow-tie. Will that do?’
‘Perfect,’ she said. ‘That’s one less expense. And one less job to do. Now all I have to do is let the florist know the wedding’s back on, plus the celebrant.’
‘You can call the florist but forget the celebrant. We can’t have a real one, Charlotte. Too risky, legally. I’ll get someone to stand in and play the part. My brother-in-law will do it. The bridal suite can be real, though.’
‘The bridal suite?’ she choked out.
Their eyes locked, hers wide, his narrowed.
Daniel was momentarily thrown by the sudden panic he glimpsed there. Surely she must have realised that was where tomorrow would end.
‘You said you’d cancelled it,’ he reminded her.
‘I… I didn’t actually book one of the bridal suites,’ she said, clearly flustered. ‘They have several here in the hotel, each one decorated with a different theme. They’re all terribly expensive. I couldn’t afford any of them so I booked one of the ordinary suites.’
‘I see. Well, you don’t have to worry about the expense any more. My treat. You ring the florist whilst I go organise one of those suites. Then we’ll have that coffee. I think a walk in the fresh air would do us both good.’
Ten minutes later they were walking together down George Street towards the quay. The day had become a little hotter, but not unpleasantly so. Charlotte had had no trouble re-booking the florist, with Daniel looking similarly pleased.
She didn’t dare ask him what suite he’d booked. She didn’t want to think about tomorrow night. She would think about that tomorrow.
‘You handled the situation with your parents very well,’ Daniel complimented when they stopped at a corner for a red light. ‘No one would have known you were upset. Which you must be. I’m not that insensitive that I don’t realise today has been very difficult for you.’
