Cathy Kelly 6-Book Collection: Someone Like You, What She Wants, Just Between Us, Best of Friends, Always and Forever, Past Secrets

‘She’s not!’ He looked up in horror.

Hannah couldn’t resist laughing. ‘I’m sorry, David, she does have a bit of a penchant for you.’

Not wishing to reveal too much, she clammed up.

‘You’re kidding, right?’ he asked.

‘Yes,’ Hannah lied. ‘Only kidding. I better go and do some work, David.’

She left the office, inwardly amused at how someone as observant as David could totally fail to see that Gillian was obsessed with him. For a brilliant man capable of detecting the slightest nuance in a business conversation, he was clueless when it came to people. Gillian looked at her fiercely when Hannah sat back at her tidy desk. Nobody resented David and Hannah’s coffee-fuelled meetings more than Gillian.

It was just before closing time when David rang Hannah from his car phone. ‘I’ve got a client coming in to see me but I’m running twenty minutes late. Tell him that and give him a cup of coffee, will you, Hannah? I hope you don’t mind staying late, but it’s important. He’s an old friend. His name’s Felix Andretti.’

How exotic, she thought, writing the name down. At six, the staff who weren’t showing houses or meeting clients packed up and left the office.

‘Staying late?’ asked Donna, passing the reception desk with Janice, one of the two new agents.

‘Not really,’ Hannah replied. ‘I’m just doing something for David.’

‘Would you like to go for a drink in McCormack’s afterwards? Myself and Janice have just decided we need a pick-me-up drink. I never normally have the time, but I can stay out a bit tonight.’

‘I’d love to but I can’t,’ Hannah said with regret. ‘I’m already going out.’

‘Never mind. Next time, OK?’

Tonight was the Egypt reunion. She, Leonie and Emma were going to Sachs Hotel for a drink, then out for dinner, and Leonie kept insisting that they were going to a nightclub afterwards.

‘I never get the chance of going clubbing,’ Leonie had said wistfully on the phone.

Hannah had grinned at the thought of the three of them dancing around their handbags but hadn’t made any promises. However, she’d brought her sexy amethyst slip dress to change into, just in case.

By half six, she had let her hair down, put on more make-up, including the glossy pink lipstick that went well with the dress, and had sprayed herself liberally with Coco. She had to leave in the next few minutes if she was to be in time to meet the girls in Sachs Hotel and she still hadn’t changed.

Damn David and his bloody client. When another five minutes had passed and there was still no sign of either of them, she grabbed her dress, stood behind the big filing cabinet so she could still see the door without being seen herself, and undressed. Luckily, she was just wrenching the dress down over her hips when she heard the big solid glass door open slowly.

Struggling to pull the dress down properly, she was about to move forward when she realized that a sexy, tight evening dress wasn’t quite the outfit in which to greet the boss’s favoured friend, so she dragged her navy nylon raincoat on and was attempting to button it when she first caught sight of Felix Andretti.

It was lucky that it was after-hours, she thought blindly, because she wasn’t sure she’d have been able to give anyone else her complete attention and stare at the vision in front of her at the same time. He was breathtaking: not dark, as his Italian name suggested, but all pale golds, like autumn leaves.

His skin was a honey shade, his hair the colour of corn, a mane of silky strands that fell over his dazzling brown eyes and that face…Handsome wasn’t the word. Wide jaw, long aristocratic nose and cheekbones you could hang your hat on. He’d have given a young Robert Redford a run for his money anytime, she thought in shock. Leonie would have died if she’d seen him. In his cream linen suit, he was as lean and rangy as any cowboy. Hannah could only stare.

‘Nice outfit,’ he said in a treacly voice, the liquid brown eyes roaming over her opened raincoat, short, short skirt and legs encased in shiny ten-deniers which miraculously hadn’t snagged during the day.

For once, Hannah’s sang-froid deserted her. She laughed nervously. ‘I’m going out and had to change. David’s late and he asked me to stay behind for you.’

‘I don’t know how to thank him,’ growled Felix.

She couldn’t quite place his accent. It wasn’t Irish or British, was it? He sounded posh, as her mother would have said. After years cleaning up after wealthy guests in the Dromartin Castle Hotel, Mrs Campbell was very anti posh people.

‘Can I get you a coffee?’ Hannah suggested, keen to get the conversation back on an even keel. This man was a friend of David’s – flirting with him was not an option.

‘Can I have something else?’ he asked, arching one golden eyebrow wickedly.

‘Er…yes, of course.’

‘I’ll have you, then.’

She blinked at him. ‘I’m not on the menu,’ she quipped, enjoying the repartee.

‘You mean, you were offering me tea?’ he asked, eyes glinting.

She glinted back. ‘Sadly, only tea. We’re out of orange juice.’

He sat on the edge of the reception desk and looked up at her with obvious interest. ‘Did David say how long he’d be?’ he asked. ‘Only…it’d suit me if he didn’t turn up at all.’

When Hannah threw back her head and laughed her deep, husky laugh, it surprised her most of all.

She, Miss Cold-as-Ice Campbell, the woman who could quell Viking invaders with one sharp glance, flirting like a lunatic with this gorgeous guy! It was unbelievable. But enjoyable.

Maybe the hunky gym manager from the hotel had opened the floodgates and let her trust the opposite sex again, Hannah thought with a rush of excitement. And why not? She’d been on her own for long enough. She deserved a man in her life.

‘I suppose it says “professional charmer” on your business card?’ Hannah smiled at him and let her cloak of buttoned-up iciness melt away. As she did so, it was as if she had physically changed. Her face relaxed, the tension left her body and her pose became her natural one, an undulating, instinctively sexy one.

‘As a matter of fact, it says “actor”,’ he replied.

‘Oh.’

‘Disappointed?’

She shook her head, letting her hair ripple gently around her shoulders. It looked good when she did that; she wanted him to notice. ‘I’ve never met an actor before. Not properly,’ she amended.

‘You mean, you met them improperly?’ He grinned.

She waved a reproving finger at him. ‘Being smart won’t get you anywhere in life.’

‘I dunno,’ he said, leaning a fraction closer to where she was standing behind the desk, ‘it’s got me pretty far up to now. Although things have definitely improved since I met you.’

‘We haven’t met,’ she said. ‘That’s what I meant about meeting actors properly. You and I haven’t been introduced, so we haven’t met properly. The others I met were never introduced either.’

‘They must have been blind not to want to be introduced to you,’ he said fervently and held out his hand in a formal manner. ‘Delighted to meet you, madam. Felix Andretti, at your service.’

She took his hand, revelling in the feel of his warm skin against hers and the excitement she felt in the pit of her stomach at his touch. ‘Hannah Campbell, delighted to meet you too.’

‘Now that we’ve got the proper bit over, can we move on to the improper bit?’ he said, dark eyes dancing. ‘So what did you mean about meeting friends? Can’t you cancel and go out with me instead?’

‘No,’ she said, smiling at him. ‘I can’t. This is special, they’re good friends and I can’t let them down.’

‘Male or female?’ he asked.