Settling The Score

Romy shuddered and uttered a fervent prayer that she wouldn’t bump into anything which growled and bared its teeth!

She glanced down at the directions her secretary had neatly typed out for her.

First right, down the road for half a mile, then the second house past the oak tree. She looked for confirmation that she had found the right house, saw the sign saying “Brunswick House” and, although she had tried for weeks now to suppress it, familiar cold fingers of fear crept over her skin.

Don’t be crazy, she urged herself silently. It’s just a job, like any other job. A job, what’s more, that you could do in your sleep!

But it was so much more than a job to Romy—in fact, for once, most uncharacteristically, the job had taken on secondary importance. Not even her secretary knew how high the stakes were going to be at this particular interview. For Romy was going to see Dominic again, after five long years which had seemed to stretch out in front of her like an eternity.

And this time she intended to exorcise his cruel and sexy ghost once and for all.

The gates were open and Romy steered the car down a sweeping drive which seemed to go on for ever, dimly observing the beautifully laid out gardens in the middle of which glittered a formal lake, before drawing up in front of an elegant red-brick house.

She switched off the ignition and quietly took in her surroundings.

In front of the house a dark green Aston Martin was parked, its sleek lines lying so close to the ground that it looked like a lithe jungle cat, just before it pounced.

So he was home...

Waiting...

Suppressing a shiver, and picking up her slim leather briefcase, Romy swung her legs out of the car, wishing that she could shake off the persistent and rather disconcerting feeling that she was being watched.

She had raised one hand to press on the doorbell when the door was suddenly opened, and Romy stood staring up at a man whose coldly handsome features would be etched on her memory until her dying day.

Dominic Dashwood—in the living, breathing flesh.

And... Oh, my God!

Elation and despair swamped over her like a tidal wave as she discovered that time and maturity had done nothing except add to that formidable appeal of his. He had always been a dynamic-looking man, but now he exuded the quietly confident air of the seriously successful.

With the expertise born of weeks of practice, Romy somehow managed to present to him a face which was both polite and impassive, as if he were just another client she was meeting.

‘Hello,’ he said softly.

‘H-hello,’ she stammered, feeling as overcome as a sixteen-year-old in the presence of her favourite pop star. Oh, why in heaven’s name had she agreed to take the job? Had she really been stupid enough to think that she might now be immune to him? After all that had happened between them?

So what did she do next? Did she pretend she didn’t recognise him, or what? She hunted for the smallest flicker of recognition in his eyes but saw nothing other than self-possession and detachment. So either he didn‘t recognise her or he was pretending not to. Well, two could play at that game, mister!

‘Romy Salisbury,’ he stated, in a deep voice which still had the power to bring her out in goosebumps beneath the cream jacket she wore. His steely grey eyes swept over her in candid assessment.

Romy waited, but that was all he said and she carefully kept her face neutrat—determined not to show that she was itching to know why he had asked her here.

It might simply be coincidence that he had hired her, of course. She was, after all, one of the best party planners in the business. So why on earth look for hidden agendas which might simply not exist? And wouldn’t it be best for everyone if he didn’t recognise her? Five years was a long time.

But deep in her heart she knew that it was not coincidence which had brought her here this weekend. Men like Dominic Dashwood did not allow something as unpredictable as coincidence to govern their lives.

‘That’s right,’ she agreed with a smile, and decided to follow his lead—polite but distant

Very distant.

‘So, by a simple process of elimination, you must be...’ Her voice faltered slightly as she failed to block out just how spectacularly handsome he was. How could she have forgotten that? ‘Austen Holdings, I suppose?’ she finished pertly, giving the name of the company in which he had made the booking, presumably to keep his identity secret

She held her hand out to him, triumphant in the knowledge that in that at least he had failed! ‘So would you prefer me to call you Austen?’ she enquired sweetly. ‘Or Holdings?’

Dominic had to bite back a reluctant smile as he wondered if her cool indifference was feigned or genuine; his pride and his ego instinctively rebelled against the unthinkable—that she did not remember him!

But he hesitated for no more than a fraction of a second, then took her outstretched hand in his. ‘You must call me Dominic,’ he instructed softly. ‘Or Dashwood, if you prefer.’

His grey eyes blazed at her as he watched for her reaction, and this made Romy even more determined to keep her face impassive.

‘Dominic will do just fine.’ she agreed noncommittally. ‘Why on earth should I want to call you Dashwood?’

He smiled, but now Romy could detect a cold flicker of anger which lurked in the depths of his grey eyes. Had her supposed failure to recognise him provoked that? she wondered.

‘Because the new wave of women seem to rather enjoy calling men by their surnames,’ he explained, his deep voice sounding faintly steely. ‘Maybe it reminds them of their schooldays—or maybe it just gives them a feeling of power over the opposite sex,’ he concluded, his eyes glittering with an unspoken question.

But Romy couldn’t think straight enough to answer any question, unspoken or otherwise. Because his handshake assumed an air of almost shocking intimacy as she felt that first brief caress.

The sensation of having him grasp her fingers like that made her mouth fall open in an instinctive gasp, and she remembered just how intimately those hands had explored every centimetre of her body... She had to battle to stop herself from swaying.

‘Are you feeling ill?’ His eyes narrowed and he let her hand go, but he hadn’t missed the darkening of her eyes and the swift hardening of her nipples beneath the silken T-shirt, and Dominic felt a small but triumphant surge of sexual power heating his loins.

His voice sounded concerned, but Romy didn’t miss the speculative gleam in those steely grey eyes. ‘No. I’m just—hot.’ She indicated the blazing sun with a wave of her arm. ‘That’s all.’

He nodded. ‘Of course you are,’ he agreed formally. ‘Hot and bothered. It’s been the hottest July on record. So why don’t we go inside and I can fix you something cool to drink while we discuss the job?’

Romy was horribly aware that he automatically seemed to be taking control of the situation, and found herself wondering just why she was allowing it to happen.

Romy’s whole life was her job. She was a party planner, or an “entertainment expert” as she preferred to call it! She took the sting out of organising any function—from the smallest children’s birthday tea to the grandest weekend shooting party.

She spent the majority of her time working in other people’s homes, from huge and austere Scottish castles to the most opulent of London residences, and she had never suffered a single qualm about the nature of her work in the past.

So why did she now feel as though she was some poor, unsuspecting little fly being lured into the web of an evil black spider?

And why the hell didn’t he say something about what had happened between the two of them five years earlier? About the man she had gone on to marry?

Feeling weak and more than a little shaky, Romy followed him through a long, echoing hallway and into an airy sitting room which overlooked a garden bright with summer flowers. Even further into the distance shone the golden dazzle of sunlight as it glanced off the waters of the lake.

‘Please sit,’ he suggested, though he did no such thing himself, moving to stand by the elegant stone fireplace and surveying her with a cool watchfulness, an insulting and almost icy detachment in his face which Romy suddenly longed to smash into smithereens.

‘Thanks.’ She perched on the edge of a yellow damask chaise lounge before turning towards him. Taking all her courage into her hands, she drew in a very deep breath and said, ‘So just why have you invited me here today, Dominic?’

An ironic twist of the lips she remembered so well was the only outward reaction to her remark. ‘Ah! So you do recognise me?’

She gave him a bitter, brittle smile. ‘Don’t be so ridiculous! Of course I recognise you!’

‘Well, that’s a relief,’ he observed, with sardonic emphasis.