The Surprise De Angelis Baby

Personally, he had never been a big fan of having to work on his imagination when it came to women. He liked to see what he was getting, and he’d never had any trouble in finding beautiful women keen to oblige. Small, tight clothes showing off curves in all the right places... Girls who were in it for fun, no-strings-attached relationships. True, the occasional woman might get a little too wrapped up in planning for a future that wasn’t going to happen, but that was fine. He just ditched her. And not once had he ever felt a qualm of guilt or unease about doing that because he was straight with every single one of them upfront.

He wasn’t ready for marriage. He wasn’t even in it for anything approaching long term. He didn’t want a partner to meet his family and close friends and start getting ideas. He didn’t do home-cooked meals or watching telly or anything remotely domesticated.

He thought of Kelly Close and his lips thinned. Oh, no, he didn’t do any of that stuff...

As far as Daniel De Angelis was concerned, at this point in his life work was way more important than women, and when and if he decided to tie the knot—which was nowhere in the near future, especially as Theo was now happily planning a big wedding himself, thereby paving the way for Daniel to take his time getting there—he intended to marry someone who didn’t just see the benefits of his bank balance.

He’d had his brush with a scheming gold-digger and once was plenty enough. Kelly Close—an angelic vision with the corrupt heart of a born opportunist. He slammed the door on pointless introspection. Enough that she had been a valuable learning curve. Now he had fun. Uncomplicated fun with sexy little things, like the blonde who would be waiting for him when he jumped ship.

Delilah Scott was showing him around the room, encouraging him to look at what the aspiring artists had already accomplished while they had been on the cruise.

‘Fascinating,’ he murmured. Then he turned to her before she could conclude the tour. ‘So—lunch. Where shall we meet and what time?’

‘Sorry?’ Delilah asked in confusion.

‘You said you wanted to give me the lowdown on the course. Over lunch sounds good. When and where? I’m guessing there’s only one restaurant on the liner?’

Delilah felt a rush of heat swamp her and sharply brought herself back down to earth. ‘Did I say that? I didn’t think I had. You’re more than welcome to just turn up tomorrow morning for the class, or you could join in right now if you like... There’s lots of paper...pencils...’

Those amazing green eyes, the opaque colour of burnished glass, made her want to stare and keep on staring.

‘I intend to spend the morning considering my options,’ Daniel inserted smoothly. ‘Checking out what the other courses are...whether they’re more up my street... I’ll meet you for lunch at twelve-thirty in the restaurant. You can tell me all about your course and see whether it fits the bill or not...’

Not his type, but eye-catching all the same. Skin as smooth as satin, sherry-coloured eyes, and she was pale gold after time spent in the sun. And her mouth... Its full lips parted now as she looked at him.

‘I don’t think there’s any need for me to explain the course over lunch...’

‘You’re in the service industry... Surely that implies that you have to serve the customer? I’m just after some information...’

‘I know that, but...’

But Michael had left her wary of men like this one. Good-looking men who were a little offbeat, a little off the beaten track...

Eight months ago Michael Connor had sauntered into her life—all long, dark hair and navy blue eyes and a sexy, sexy smile that had blown her away. At twenty-seven, he already had a fledgling career in photography, and he had charmed her with the amazing photos he had taken over the years. He had wined and dined her and talked about taking her to the Amazon, so that she could paint and he could take pictures.

He had swept her away from all her miserable, niggling worries about money and held out a shimmering vision of adventure and excitement. Two free spirits travelling the world. She had fallen in love with him and with those thrilling possibilities. She had dared to think that she had found a soul mate—someone with whom she could spend the rest of her life. They had kissed, but he hadn’t pressed her into bed, and now she wondered how long he would have bided his time until deciding that kissing and cuddling wasn’t what he was in it for.

Not much longer—because he’d already had a girlfriend. Someone in one of those countries he had visited. She’d chanced upon the fact only because she had happened to see a text message flash up on his screen. When she had confronted him, he’d laughed and shrugged. So he wasn’t the settling down type...? He had an open relationship with his girlfriend so what was the big deal...? He had lots of women...he was single, wasn’t he? And he’d hung around with her, hadn’t he? She hadn’t really thought that they were going to get married and have two point two kids and a dog, had she?

She had misread him utterly. She’d been taken in by a charming facade and by her own longing for a little adventure.

She’d been a fool.

Her sister had always sung the praises of stability and a good old-fashioned guy who could provide, whose feet were firmly planted on the ground. She’d seen no virtue in their parents’ chaotic lives, which had left them with debt and financial worries.

She should have paid more attention to those sermons.

‘I won’t occupy a lot of your time,’ Daniel murmured, intrigued by this woman who didn’t jump at the offer of having a meal with him.

Delilah blinked, ready to shake her head in instant refusal.

‘There’s a bar... We can have something light and you can tell me all about your course. You can sell it to me.’ He flung his hands wide in a gesture that was both exotic and self-deprecating at the same time. ‘I’m caught on the horns of a dilemma...’ Again, he found it weirdly invigorating to actually be in the position of trying to persuade a woman to join him for a meal ‘You wouldn’t want to drive a man into the arms of learning palmistry, would you?’

Delilah swallowed down a responding smile. ‘I suppose if you really think it’s that important...’

‘Great. I’ll see you in the bar at twelve-thirty. You can hone your pitch before we meet...’

Delilah watched as he strolled out of the room. She felt as though she had been tossed into a tumble drier with the speed turned to high and she didn’t like it. But she’d agreed to meet him and she would keep their meeting brief and businesslike.

She could barely focus on her class for the next three hours. Her mind was zooming ahead to meeting Daniel in the bar. And sure enough when, at a little after twelve-thirty, she hesitantly walked into the small saloon bar, which was already filling up with passengers whose courses had likewise ended for the morning, there he was. Seated at a small table, nursing a drink in front of him.

He was eye-catching—and not just because he was noticeably younger than everyone else. He would have been eye-catching in any crowd. She threaded her way through to him, pausing to chat to some of the other passengers.

Daniel watched her with lazy, deceptive indolence. He hadn’t boarded this third-rate liner for adventure. He had boarded it for information.

He looked at her narrowly, thoughts idly playing through his head. She seemed to know everyone and she was popular. He could tell from the way the older passengers laughed in her company, totally at ease. He was sure that she would be equally popular amongst the staff.

Who was worth keeping on? Who would get the sack immediately? He wouldn’t need any of the teachers on board, but the crew would be familiar with the liner, would probably have proved themselves over a number of years and might be an asset to him. It would certainly save him having to recruit from scratch and then face the prospect of some of them not being up to the task. When it came to pleasing the wealthy there could be no room for error.

Would she be able to help him with the information he needed? Naturally he wouldn’t be able to tell her why...

Not for a second did Daniel see this as any form of deception. As far as he was concerned he would merely be making the most of a possible opportunity, no harm done.

He rose as she finally approached him.

‘You came,’ he said with a slashing smile, indicating the chair next to him. ‘I wasn’t sure whether you would. You seemed a little reluctant to take me up on my offer.’

‘I don’t normally fraternise with the passengers,’ Delilah said stiffly as she sat down.

‘You seemed familiar enough with them just then...’

‘Yes, but...’

‘What can I get you to drink?’

His eyes roved over her colt-like frame. He watched the way her fingers nervously played with the tip of her ponytail and the way her eyes dipped to avoid his. If he had had the slightest suspicion that she knew who he was he might have wondered whether her shyness was some kind of act to stir his interest—because women, in his company, were usually anything but coy.

‘Just some juice, please.’ Delilah was flustered by the way he looked at her—as though he could see straight into her head.

Juice in hand, and with a refill of whisky for him, he returned to settle into the chair and looked at her.

‘So, you wanted to know about the course...’

Delilah launched into chatter. She found that she was drawn to look at him, even though she didn’t want to. It wasn’t just that he was a passenger—something about him sent disturbing little chills racing up and down her spine and sent her alarm bells into overdrive.

‘I’ve brought some brochures for you to have a look at...’

She rummaged in her capacious bag and extracted a few photocopied bits of paper, which she self-consciously thrust at him. Several had samples of her work printed inside, and these he inspected, glancing between her face and the paintings she had done at college.