The Trouble with Valentine's

‘Think of yourself as a cross between a personal assistant and a German Shepherd,’ he said. ‘Supportive, loyal, and when necessary, extremely protective.’

A German Shepherd? Ugh. This new approach worked fast. ‘Anything else?’

‘Are you sure you couldn’t manage a simper?’

‘Positive.’

Nick sighed. ‘Just be yourself then. That’ll work too.’

‘Oh.’ And after a moment’s reflection, ‘That was a nice thing to say.’

‘You realize that was almost a simper?’

‘It was not.’

Nick’s answering smile was suspiciously gleeful as he flicked on his overhead light, reached for the in-flight paper and snapped it open, effectively ending the discussion.

Hallie glared at the back page of the paper. It was shaking ever so slightly. He was laughing at her, dammit. ‘That was not a simper.’

‘If you say so, dearest.’

A fiery marriage, she decided. A constant battle of words and of wits and it was a damn good thing this marriage was only going to last a week.

Any longer and she’d probably kill him.

Twelve hours and several time zones later, they touched down at Chek Lap Kok International Airport, collected their luggage, and met up with the Teys’ driver, who went by the name of Kai. They followed the silent Jet Li lookalike through the streamlined arrivals terminal, out through the huge automatic opening glass doors, and they were in Hong Kong.

‘Phew.’ Wide-eyed at the sleek steel-and-glass building they’d just emerged from, Hallie paused to gather her composure. ‘It’s cooler than I thought it would be.’

‘It’s winter,’ countered Nick. ‘If you want hot and humid, we’ll have to come back in September.’

‘Ah.’

They followed the Teys’ driver towards an illegally parked Mercedes and Hallie began to watch their guide with increasing interest. Maybe it was the easy, graceful way he moved or the way he seemed to know what was happening around them without ever seeming to notice. Maybe it was the way he loaded their suitcases into the trunk as if they were empty, which was definitely not the case. Maybe it was simply that he was gorgeous, with a quiet intensity about him that drew the eye, but … no. That wasn’t it either. He reminded her of someone.

He reminded her of Tris.

‘This is the Teys’ driver?’ she whispered to Nick ‘I’m guessing that’s not all he is.’

‘No,’ agreed Kai in a soft, cultured voice as he shut the trunk and opened the car door for her. ‘I also cook.’

‘Nice.’ Hallie smiled at the man. ‘But you can’t fool me. You’re security.’ High-end protection with supernatural hearing and a penchant for kitchen knives. Lucky for Nick she’d had years of experience when it came to outwitting suspicious, eagle-eyed men whose mission in life was to serve and protect. At least this one wasn’t related to her. ‘Pleased to meet you.’

‘And you, Mrs Cooper.’

Mrs Cooper. Oh, hell. This was it.

For the next five days she was Mrs Nicholas Cooper.

The drive to the Tey residence was a silent one. The driver drove, Nick brooded, and Hallie grew wide-eyed again as they entered the neon-lit tunnel that would take them beneath Victoria Harbour and across to Hong Kong Island. Awe at the tunnel added to her anxiety about meeting the Teys and set her stomach to churning. Funny, but she’d never actually thought posing as Nick’s wife was going to be hard.

Until now.

Finally, they shot out of the tunnel into real light again, skirted Hong Kong Island’s central business district, and started weaving their way up a long, steep slope; towering apartment blocks giving way to luxury villas that grew bigger and grander the higher they climbed.

‘How do I look?’ she asked as the Mercedes pulled into a paved driveway and swept through no nonsense wrought iron security gates that closed behind them.

‘Beautiful.’ Nick took her hand in his and, with a reassuring smile, brushed her knuckles with his lips. ‘You look beautiful.’

‘Not helping,’ she warned, rapidly withdrawing her fingers from his grasp.

‘Beddable,’ he said next, which earned him a glare.

They were as ready as they were going to get.

Nineteen-year-old Jasmine Tey stood at her bedroom window and waited for her father’s guests to arrive with a mixture of anticipation and terror. Nicholas and his wife would arrive within the hour, their room was ready, refreshments were ready and Kai had gone to collect them from the airport. Everything was as it should be except for the butterflies in her stomach that would not be still and the suffocating fear that within this next hour Kai and her father were going to find out about her late night visit to Nicholas’s room, and once that information came out …

If that information got out …

Because Jasmine’s current mission in life was to prevent that information from coming to light. She had to get Nick off somewhere by himself and apologise and beg his pardon for her earlier behaviour. Somehow, she had to swear him to silence on the matter and she had to do it fast.

Because Kai and her father; they could never know.

Jasmine turned away from the window at the sound of her father’s footsteps, slid damp palms down the front of her pretty silk sundress and offered up a smile.

‘Everything ready for our guests’ arrival?’ he asked from the doorway.

‘Yes, Father.’

Her father’s eyes were smiling and wise. They’d always been wise. They’d always looked on her with love and delight and Jasmine never wanted that to change.

‘I wonder what his wife will be like,’ he said.

‘Me too.’

‘He didn’t mention her last time he was here,’ her father said next.

Jasmine offered up a composed smile – a smile that pretended indifference when it came to Nicholas and his rarely mentioned wife. No secret shame here, nothing to worry about at all. ‘He did to me.’

Nicholas’s wife was a vibrant, bright-eyed woman not that much older than Jasmine. She had a wide warm smile, golden-brown eyes and the most amazing dark red hair … Jasmine tried not to stare at her hair and did a poor job of it as her father moved in to welcome Nick and they shook hands and clasped shoulders and then Nick turned to his wife and put a gentle hand to the small of her back.

‘I’d like you to meet my wife, Hallie Bennett-Cooper,’ said Nick and Jasmine stood back, making herself as small as possible, and let the introductions continue until her father beckoned her forward.

‘My daughter, Jasmine,’ said her father and she put on her best social smile for Nick and Hallie Bennett-Cooper both. Nick’s eyes were still smiley; he was still very handsome.

Best of all, he didn’t look angry or wary and when he opened his mouth the words that came out were, ‘Lovely to see you again, Jasmine’ and not ‘don’t enter my room uninvited this time.’

Not that he would have said that. Not in front of people, surely. Nicholas Cooper was an English gentleman. Wasn’t he?