A Whirlwind Engagement

by Jessica Hart

  Kate hesitated. 'It will be difficult for Josh, too. He must be feeling pretty raw about Aisling and it's going to be awful for him having to see her with this other guy so soon. You can't expect even someone as level-headed as Josh to be thinking clearly under those circumstances.'

  'What are you trying to say, Kate?'

  'Just…be careful,' she said slowly. 'I know you and Josh are old friends, but you're going to be thrown into a very intimate situation and things won't be the same. It's easy to imagine how you might end up turning to each other.'

  'I thought you and Phoebe wanted us to end up together?' said Bella, trying to make a joke of it, but Kate took her seriously.

  'Only if it's for the right reasons. Josh deserves better than getting together because you feel restless and unsettled, and you deserve more than being second-best to Aisling.'

  Bella was still thinking of this conversation when she met Josh for lunch later that day so that he could report that he had been able to change Aisling's ticket into Bella's name, and Bella that after much grumbling her boss had agreed to her having the whole week off.

  Kate was right, she knew that, and she would be careful, Bella vowed, but her spirits had risen in spite of herself at the prospect of the week ahead.

  She felt better today, less edgy and aware. It was like old times, meeting Josh for lunch on a Saturday, and they were both more relaxed, talking and laughing as if the tension of the night before had never happened.

  So much so, in fact, that Bella had to keep reminding herself about Aisling. Josh seemed to be fine, but then, he would. The phrase 'keeping a stiff upper lip' might have been coined especially for him.

  Josh hadn't forgotten about Aisling though. 'I rang her this morning,' he told Bella.

  'What was that like?' she asked with a grimace, imagining what a tense conversation it must have been. 'Was it awful?'

  'No, it was fine.' Josh had been surprised himself at how normal it had all seemed. 'I told her that you were going in her place and she and Bryn have promised not to let on to anyone else that you and I aren't really a couple.'

  Big of her, thought Bella with a mental sniff.

  'If they don't say anything, it shouldn't be a problem to convince the others,' Josh went on. 'All you need is a ring to flash around and no one will think to question whether you're a real fiancée or not.'

  Bella looked down at her fingers. She had a silver ring on her right hand but it wasn't the kind of thing you could really pass off as an engagement ring. What she needed was a rock. Glass would do, she thought. She could never tell the difference between real gems and glass, and she bet none of the others would be able to either.

  Mentally she reviewed her jewellery. She had plenty of fun earrings and necklaces but very few rings. 'I'm not sure I've got anything suitable,' she said doubtfully.

  'I'll buy you one,' said Josh. Glancing at his watch, he drained his glass and pushed back his chair. 'Come on, let's go and do it now.'

  'You can't buy me a ring!'

  'Why not?'

  'Well…it doesn't seem right,' said Bella, getting to her feet more slowly and shrugging on her coat. 'Anyway, there's no need surely,' she added, thinking about the knuckleduster Aisling had been flaunting at the engagement dinner. 'What about the ring you bought Aisling?'

  'I said she could keep it.'

  'And she did?' asked Bella indignantly.

  Josh was in one of his infuriatingly reasonable moods. 'What was I going to do with it?' he pointed out.

  'You could have taken it back to the shop!'

  He held open the door of the bar for her. 'I think that would have been a bit petty, don't you?'

  'No, I don't!' Bella shivered as they emerged into the raw November afternoon. Suddenly the Seychelles seemed very, very appealing. 'I can't believe Aisling could coolly walk off with that ring after the way she treated you! It must have cost you a fortune. Really, you're too much of a gentleman for your own good sometimes, Josh!' she told him, turning up her collar against the wind.

  'I think having the ring flung back in my face would have been worse,' said Josh. 'Besides, Aisling loved that ring. If she wanted to keep something from me, I didn't mind.'

  She must shut up about Aisling, Bella caught herself up guiltily, remembering what Kate had said. Just because Josh was putting on a good face didn't mean he wasn't hurting inside, and the ring would be a sensitive issue. He could be hoping that Aisling would decide to come back when she realised that generous men who let you kick them in the teeth and walk away with a ring worth thousands of pounds were few and far between.

  'It just seems a waste of money to buy another ring for me,' she said in an attempt to steer the subject away from Aisling.

  'We're not paying for anything else during this week,' Josh pointed out. 'C.B.C. are even covering the bar bills, so I can look on it as a justifiable expense. If it makes a difference to winning that contract, it might even be tax deductible! Look, that's where we bought Aisling's ring,' he said suddenly, dragging a still reluctant Bella over the road.

  'We can't go in there,' she protested, eying the discreet display of jewellery in the window. There were no prices on view, always a bad sign. The whole place looked very classy.

  And very expensive.

  Josh didn't appear to be at all intimidated. 'Why not?'

  'They might remember you buying that ring for Aisling, for a start.'

  'Nonsense,' he said briskly, propelling her towards the door. 'Come on, Bella. They must have loads of customers and it's over a month since Aisling and I were here. There's no way they're going to remember me.'

  'Good afternoon, sir,' said the urbane man behind the counter. 'How nice to see you again. What can we do for you today?'

  'See!' hissed Bella, turning back towards the door, but Josh had her arm in a firm grip and was forcing her on. He didn't even have the grace to look embarrassed, (a) at being recognised, and (b) at being proved so comprehensively wrong!

  'We'd like to look at your engagement rings, please,' he said coolly.

  The jeweller took his request without a blink. 'Certainly, sir. Did you have anything in particular in mind? Diamonds, perhaps? Or emeralds?'

  'Not emeralds,' said Josh, appreciating the sly reference to the ring he had bought Aisling. 'We had emeralds last time.' He smiled blandly, not at all discomfited by any other subtle digs the jeweller might have up his sleeve.

  'This lady is very different,' he said, drawing forward a fierily blushing Bella. 'Have you got any nice sapphires?'

  'He must be wondering what on earth you're up to,' she whispered as the jeweller went in search of sapphires and kept his inevitable reflections to himself.

  'Let him wonder,' said Josh. 'It's not his business how many rings I buy or who I buy them for. If he thinks I'll be coming back on a regular basis, he might even offer me a discount for regular custom!'

  When the tray was laid reverently before her, Bella was dazzled by the array of beautiful rings. She wished there were prices on so that she could at least choose the cheapest.

  'Don't pick out the smallest,' said Josh, reading her mind. 'It'll just make me look mean. Choose one you really like.'

  'I don't know…' Bella dithered over the tray until he selected an exquisite sapphire with diamonds clustered around it.

  'Here, try this one,' he said and held out his hand in a way that made it impossible for Bella to do anything other than put hers into it.

  Excruciatingly aware of the warmth and strength of his fingers, and paralysed by a new and sudden shyness, Bella stared fixedly at the ring.

  'Do you like it?' asked Josh, who seemed to have forgotten that he was still holding her hand.

  'It's lovely.' She swallowed and drew her hand free. 'I'm sure all these are far too expensive, though,' she whispered.

  'Look, Bella, will you stop worrying about the expense,' said Josh, exasperated. If he had noticed her not-so-subtle attempt to free her hand, he gave no sign of it. 'You can give
it back at the end of week and I'll sell it back if that makes you feel any better.'

  It wouldn't, but she could hardly say so. 'I suppose so,' said Bella instead.

  'Right. Now, relax and enjoy it.' He picked out another ring. 'What about this one?'

  Eventually they chose a very simple band of square-cut sapphires and diamonds which fitted her finger perfectly. Bella admired it glinting on her hand. She had never worn anything like it before. It was going to make the rest of her jewellery look cheap and tatty, but now that she had it on her finger she wasn't sure how she was ever going to be able to bear taking it off.

  She would worry about that later, Bella decided, her earlier doubts and hesitations dissolved in the pleasure of the sparkling stones. Nothing had changed. It was still too early to let Josh know how she felt, and much too soon to assume that he was over Aisling, no matter how together he seemed, but at least he was free now. At least she could hope. For now she had Josh beside her and a whole week with him to look forward to.

  And his ring on her finger.

  Bella's spirits soared and she smiled as Josh came back from a discreet exchange with the jeweller. 'It's beautiful,' she told him. She had no idea how much he had paid, but it certainly hadn't been cheap, 'I'll look after it,' she promised before he had a chance to tell her not to lose it.

  'Please do,' he said with a crooked smile.

  Ah, definitely not cheap then.

  Over his shoulder, Bella could see the jeweller watching them with a speculative expression. What was he thinking? Had he guessed that Aisling had dumped Josh, and that she was a mere substitute?

  They couldn't have that, thought Bella. If he had to think anything, it was that Josh was the kind of man who had women queuing up to marry him, and preferably the sort of cad who could string two, and possibly more, along at the same time.

  Bella glanced at Josh, so obviously decent and straightforward and reliable. Still, the jeweller wasn't to know that his restrained appearance didn't disguise a bounder of the first order, was he? It would be fun to make him believe that here was a case of still waters running deep!

  'Thank you, darling,' she said and to Josh's evident surprise, fortunately concealed from the jeweller, she put her arms around his neck and smiled seductively at him. 'I'll thank you properly when we get home,' she said throatily, 'so this is just to be going on with…'

  To the extent that Bella had a "plan", it was to kiss Josh on the corner of his mouth, but now that she actually had her arms around his neck and an excuse, however frivolous, that did seem a waste of an opportunity. If she wanted the jeweller to secretly admire and envy Josh, a peck on the cheek simply wasn't enough.

  In any case, it seemed as if her lips had a plan of their own. They skimmed the crease of his cheek, drawn by some irresistible force to his mouth where they settled as if they had found the one place they were meant to be, and the next thing Bella knew she was kissing Josh in a way she had never kissed him before and it didn't feel particularly daring or strange at all. It felt utterly and completely right.

  She felt Josh's arm encircle her waist and draw her closer. After the first stunned moment, he had evidently decided to go with the flow and ask questions later. The trouble was that having started the kiss, Bella didn't know how to end it.

  Worse, she didn't want to.

  With a superhuman effort, she managed to withdraw her lips for a fraction of a second before succumbing to the desire for just one kiss more, and the next time she tried, it was Josh who followed her mouth with his and refused to let her break contact.

  It was as if their kisses had taken on a will of their own, as the initial sweetness and rightness gathered and hardened into something much more dangerous, something almost scary that clutched at the base of Bella's spine. Josh must have felt the same frisson, for he was the one who succeeded at last in lifting his head.

  They stared at each other for a long, shaken moment before Josh swallowed hard and collected himself with an effort. 'I think we'd better go,' he said.

  He turned to thank the jeweller who was studiously rearranging the rings on the tray, a suspicion of a smile hovering about his mouth, while Bella struggled to get herself under control. She had always thought the phrase 'weak at the knees' a complete cliché, but suddenly she knew exactly what it meant. It wasn't just her knees, either. Her whole body felt disjointed and she wondered how she was going to get out of the door without support.

  She had visions of herself groping her way around the counters, but in the end Josh simply took her arm and propelled her through the door. Once safely outside though, he let her go abruptly.

  CHAPTER SIX

  'Do you want to tell me what that was all about?' he asked, and Bella noted with some resentment that he had his breathing well under control once more.

  Which was more than could be said for her.

  'I was just trying to bolster your image,' she said, but her voice came out all thin and funny and breathy at all the wrong points.

  She told Josh her plan to impress the jeweller, but it sounded even stupider when punctuated by odd gasps for breath, and when she finally stumbled to the end she wasn't surprised to see Josh shake his head in exasperated disbelief.

  'I don't want you to think I don't appreciate the thought,' he said dryly, 'but I'd already told him the truth.'

  Nothing could have been guaranteed to cure Bella's breathing problems more quickly. 'You did what?' she demanded. 'Why?'

  'I could tell he was wondering what was going on, and I didn't want him thinking that I was taking advantage of you.'

  It was Bella's turn to be exasperated. 'That's absolutely typical of you, Josh! I go to all that effort to improve your image with people and you just throw the opportunity away!' She scowled, remembering the jeweller's smile as he opened the door for her. 'He must have thought I was a complete idiot kissing you like that!'

  Josh started to grin. 'I must be his favourite customer now. Not only do I buy extremely expensive rings from him, but he gets free entertainment thrown in!'

  How humiliating! Bella tried to be offended, but after a moment she gave in and laughed too. Perhaps it was just as well to treat the whole incident as a joke. It felt so good to be laughing with Josh again, relaxing the tension between them after that shattering kiss.

  She would have to be careful, Bella decided as Josh spotted the bus they wanted, and they ran for the stop. She had probably revealed far more of herself in that kiss than she had intended.

  The last thing she wanted was for Josh to think that she was trying to worm her way into Aisling's place. That would make her seem like an emotional ambulance-chaser, one of those girls who cruised around looking for relationships in trouble before homing in on the newly single man.

  Bella had known several girls who complained that the lack of men meant that unless they moved quickly, they would never get a man at all, but she didn't want Josh thinking that she was like them. She didn't want him turning to her for comfort, or falling into bed with her just because she was there and available and it would be easy.

  No, thought Bella, that wouldn't be enough. She wanted to be the beat of his heart. She wanted him to love her and want her and need her, to feel that she was the only one who could make his life complete. To recognise, as she had done, that what he had been looking for had been right in front of him all along.

  But Josh needed to realise that for himself. In the meantime, she would have to be very patient.

  And, yes, careful, just as Kate had warned.

  'You do realise that we're only going for a week?' said Josh when he saw the size of Bella's suitcase on Monday morning.

  Bella looked at the neat cabin bag at his feet. 'Do you realise that we're going for more than five minutes?'

  'Now, now, children, don't quarrel,' said Phoebe, banging the door of the boot closed. She had offered to drop them off at the airport on her way down to Devon to interview a woman who claimed that cats had a language which she could u
nderstand.

  'Which should be fun,' Phoebe had said, 'but not as much fun as a week in the Seychelles!'

  She kissed Josh and gave Bella an extra tight hug. 'Have a lovely time, both of you,' she said. 'We're all hoping that you two are going to follow tradition and that your mock engagement will turn into a real one as well. Then we can give you a party when you come home!'

  'No fear of that,' said Josh lightly. He nodded at his neat little bag sitting next to Bella's huge case. 'You only need to look at how much we think is essential for a week away to see that we're totally incompatible!'

  'There's more to love than luggage, Josh,' said Phoebe with a wink at Bella, who was looking daggers at her over her heavy hints.

  Ignoring her friend's pointed glare, Phoebe blew them a kiss, got into the car and drove off smartly, leaving Josh and Bella with their mismatching baggage standing in front of the terminal.

  'I suppose we're going to get a lot of that,' said Josh carefully.

  'I'm afraid so,' Bella sighed. 'I should never have told Kate and Phoebe that I was going with you instead of Aisling. Now they're determined that we're going to end up married the way they did.'

  A raw November wind was blowing her hair about her face, and she held it back with her hand as she glanced at him. 'It's ridiculous, of course, and I've told them there's no question of it, but you know what they're like. That's why I'm glad you said what you did about being incompatible,' she added casually.

  'It didn't seem to have much effect on Phoebe,' Josh pointed out with a wry look.

  'No, well, they'll realise what a stupid idea it is when we come home in a week's time and go right back to the way we were before.'

  'Right,' said Josh.

  The only trouble was, he couldn't remember how things had been before Bella had kissed him on Saturday. How was he going to remember what they were like after a week sleeping next to her?

  The thought of it made something twist deep inside Josh. He wished Bella hadn't kissed him.

  He hadn't been prepared for that jolt of response when her lips touched his, and although he knew he should be taking it lightly, still he had found himself holding her against him, tightening his arm, refusing to let her break the kiss. Josh could still feel how warm and pliant she had been. He couldn't get her softness or the sweetness of her lips or the deep, dark thrill that had uncoiled so unexpectedly out of his mind.