by Penny Jordan
He would take his own partner for the evening. A woman he could parade in front of his family, but one who knew better than to expect anything from him at the end of it!
Darci frowned across the table at Luc, wishing she could read something in his face, but only seeing herself reflected back in those enigmatic brown eyes as he kept his expression deliberately bland, easily meeting her probing gaze.
‘Don’t look so worried, Darci,’ he assured her dryly. ‘I’m really not suggesting a clandestine weekend away together!’
‘I never suggested that you were,’ she came back irritably.
‘No?’ he countered, that dark brow rising mockingly.
‘No,’ she came back firmly, under no illusions whatsoever, after his coolness to her this evening, that Luc still desired her.
But she did want to know what he was up to. Why he needed a woman to accompany him to a party in Paris this weekend.
Unfortunately only Luc could tell her that—and another glance at his closed expression told her that he had no intention of doing so.
She shook her head. ‘I’m not sure I can get the weekend off—’
‘Even someone as dedicated to their job as you must be allowed to take holidays, Darci,’ he pointed out.
Well, of course she was allowed holiday time. And she probably could get a couple of days if she asked one of her colleagues to cover for her. But she still wasn’t sure she wanted to go to Paris with Luc.
Be honest, Darci, she reproved herself, you really don’t trust yourself to go to Paris with Luc!
‘I will, of course, pay all your expenses.’ Luc cut in on her tortuous thoughts. ‘All you have to do is look beautiful and say little.’
‘Like all your other women?’ she retorted sharply.
‘Exactly like all my other women,’ he accepted.
She looked at him searchingly. What was he up to? Whatever it was, Luc’s guarded features told her he wasn’t about to share it with her, she accepted heavily.
‘I’ll need to think about it,’ she told him woodenly.
‘Think about it all you like. But I will expect your answer by the end of this evening.’
Her eyes widened indignantly. ‘That’s hardly fair, Luc—’
‘I don’t recall your actions towards me so far as being fair,’ he reminded her.
Luc had a point. More than a point, when Darci recalled how almost her every word and move had until now been motivated by feelings of vengeance towards him.
‘Come on, Darci,’ Luc cajoled, as he could see that she was weakening. ‘Most women would be only too thrilled at the idea of an expenses-paid weekend in Paris,’ he tempted.
‘I’m not “most women”!’ Darci assured him snippily.
Luc was already well aware of that.
Darci’s obvious integrity, and the fact that she was different from any other woman he had been involved with—a doctor, and so obviously not connected with the movie and acting world he inhabited—were actually obstacles, he realised.
But on the positive side was the fact that Darci, unlike any other woman he could have invited, while acting as a shield against his family’s matchmaking machinations, also knew without a doubt that there was absolutely no substance to their relationship….
CHAPTER ELEVEN
‘I SUPPOSE I should have realised we would be staying in a Gambrelli Hotel,’ Darci murmured ruefully once they were installed in the lift, with a porter carrying their bags, travelling up to the suite they would be occupying during this weekend in Paris.
Luc had been withdrawn and uncommunicative on the private jet which had flown them here, sitting in one of the six comfortable armchairs that had occupied the spacious cabin, a pair of rimless glasses perched on the end of his aristocratic nose as he went through some papers he had taken from his briefcase and laid out on the table in front of him.
Leaving Darci completely alone with her thoughts. Which had been extremely tumultuous, to say the least.
Being ushered onto the private jet, where her every need had been seen to by the male steward, had given her a glimpse into the world that Luc usually inhabited. A world that, despite her brother Grant’s rapidly increasing luxurious lifestyle, was still completely alien to her.
The deference that had been shown Luc when they’d arrived at the hotel, as a member of the family that owned the Gambrelli chain, had been a little overwhelming, too.
Luc looked up from the pile of messages that had been waiting for him on his arrival at the hotel, his frown lessening slightly as he saw the slight bewilderment in Darci’s expressive face. ‘It’s just a hotel, Darci,’ he dismissed easily.
‘To you, maybe,’ she replied tentatively, as the porter opened the door for them and ushered them inside the suite.
Luc dealt with the porter, before closing the door softly behind the other man as he left, and then strolled further into the suite to join Darci in the sitting-room.
Despite being familiar with the chain owned by his cousin, to Luc this hotel was just like every other top establishment he had ever stayed in in the world: very luxurious, but extremely impersonal.
Although not quite as impersonal as usual, with Darci standing there, her flaming red hair cascading loosely over her shoulders and down the long length of her spine, dressed in tight-fitting denims and a white T-shirt that showed off the lean length of her thighs and legs and emphasised the firm thrust of her breasts!
‘I think I would like to take a shower and freshen up,’ she announced. ‘What time are we leaving for the party?’
‘We aren’t leaving the hotel, Darci,’ Luc answered. ‘The party is taking place in one of the reception rooms downstairs,’ he elaborated at her bewildered look.
He had deliberately remained aloof from Darci after collecting her from her apartment and during the drive to the airport and their flight. But that didn’t mean that he hadn’t been completely aware of her the whole time they had been together in the back of the car and then on the plane.
Too aware of her for comfort, he acknowledged.
‘My brother, Wolf, and his wife will be joining us here for drinks at seven o’clock, before we all go downstairs at seven-forty-five to join Cesare and Robin,’ he added casually.
Darci’s eyes widened at this piece of news. Luc’s brother and his cousin and their wives were going to be at the party, too?
Maybe the black dress she had brought with her—the sexily vampish one she had modelled for Kerry last week—wasn’t the right choice for this evening, after all?
She had thought—assumed—that the guest list for the party this evening would be mainly actors and actresses, and had chosen her dress accordingly.
‘What sort of party is this, Luc?’ she prompted.
‘My mother moved to Paris after the death of my father more than ten years ago. Every year since, she has hosted her own birthday party—’
‘This is your mother’s party?’ Darci echoed disbelievingly.
The sexy black dress definitely hadn’t been the right choice!
Thank goodness she had included a black silk wrap, in case the evening was cool and they had some distance to travel to the occasion.
But this evening was a birthday party for Luc’s mother….
‘What’s this all about, Luc?’ she demanded. ‘And please don’t fob me off by telling me that it’s all in my own head,’ she warned, as he would have spoken. ‘I think, now that we’re actually here, I have a right to know what’s going on.’
Luc looked at her consideringly, weighing up the pros and cons of taking Darci into his confidence.
On the one hand she didn’t need to know his reasons for bringing her here.
But on the other Darci would probably be able to play her part as a buffer between him and the women he knew, from talking to Angel and Robin, his mother had deliberately invited for him to meet tonight more convincingly if she did know the truth.
He sighed. ‘Both Wolf and Cesare have married in the
last year.’
Darci eyed him warily. ‘Yes…?’
Luc hesitated. ‘The general consensus of my family seems to be that it’s time I joined their ranks,’ he admitted reluctantly.
Darci continued to look at him consideringly for several long seconds, and then a look of unholy glee entered those beautiful moss-green eyes. ‘You have a matchmaking mama!’ she exclaimed laughingly.
Luc gave her a look of intense irritation at such blatant humour at his expense. ‘Yes, I do.’ He grimaced. ‘And, whilst I wish I could share your humour on the subject, I most assuredly don’t! My family, and especially my mother, have presented a number of likely candidates for the role of my future wife during the last three months—to the point where I have avoided even having dinner with a woman during that time!’
Except with her, Darci realised. But perhaps she didn’t count?
‘Which was how you were so sure you and Mellie hadn’t been involved,’ she deduced.
‘Exactly!’ His grim expression deepened as he moved to the fridge and took out a half-bottle of champagne. ‘Would you like some?’ he offered, as he poured the bubbly wine into a glass.
Darci had no idea why she had been laughing minutes ago. Luc’s aversion to marriage was obviously so strong he was even willing to use emotional blackmail over her vengeance towards him in order to have her accompany him to his mother’s birthday party and act as a beard!
Because he clearly considered her to be absolutely no threat to his emotions or his bachelor state!
‘Why not?’ She accepted the glass of bubbling champagne, taking a much-needed sip. ‘I wish you had explained the situation before bringing me here, Luc. I’m really not happy about deceiving your family in this way,’ she explained, as he looked at her questioningly.
He shrugged unconcernedly. ‘All you have to do is cling to my arm all evening and look beautiful—which you undoubtedly are—and smile and say little. What’s the problem?’
The problem was he wanted a woman on his arm this evening he knew wasn’t in love with him.
And Darci was very much in love with him—was becoming more so by the minute!
Besides, she really didn’t like the idea of practising such a deception on his family. Especially if that family turned out to be more perceptive concerning Darci’s feelings for Luc than he was. If that should be the case, then this whole charade might just completely backfire in Luc’s arrogantly handsome face!
‘I don’t like it, Luc,’ she told him frankly. ‘I would never have agreed to coming here if I had known you intended deceiving your family in this way.’
Luc had realised that. He had come to know Darci much better during the last week than she gave him credit for. But with his mother’s birthday party looming nearer every day, he had known he had to take some sort of step to prevent his family’s unwanted interference in his personal life. Unfortunately for Darci the situation between the two of them had presented the ideal opportunity for him to do just that.
‘It’s just one evening of your life, Darci,’ he dismissed unconcernedly. ‘And then the two of us won’t ever need to see each other again.’
‘And what happens the next time one of your family tries to matchmake?’ she reasoned impatiently.
He smiled at her confidently. ‘Just because the two of us don’t intend seeing each other again after this weekend, it doesn’t mean my family have to be made aware of the fact. I think a relationship between the two of us—purely fictional, of course—should be good for six months or so. After which I’m hoping my matchmaking mama will be so engrossed in being a grandmother to Wolf’s son or daughter that she will lose all interest in finding me a wife!’
He had it all worked out, didn’t he? Darci thought crossly.
Except, as she knew to her cost, the best-laid plans didn’t always work the way one expected….
‘A little overwhelming, isn’t it?’ The tall and beautiful Angel Gambrelli laughed sympathetically as Darci stared at the two men who stood together across the room, preparing drinks for them all.
Luc and his brother, Wolf.
They were both tall, both blond-haired—although Luc’s overlong hair was a deeper gold than his brother’s—and their aristocratically handsome faces very similar, as were the powerfully muscled bodies beneath their black evening suits and white shirts.
Having been introduced to Luc’s brother and his wife when they’d arrived at the suite a couple of minutes ago, Darci still couldn’t get over the sensory shock of having two such forcefully attractive men as the Gambrelli brothers together in the same room!
‘Believe me, it doesn’t get any easier, either,’ Angel continued conversationally as she looked at her husband with adoring eyes, her long dark hair loose down her spine, the red dress she wore not disguising the slight swell of her pregnancy. ‘And you haven’t even met Cesare yet!’ she added knowingly. ‘A tall, dark, brooding Sicilian,’ she warned with another sympathetic smile, before turning to thank her husband as he brought their drinks over.
Darci pondered as she took her own glass of champagne from Luc. ‘I really don’t think I can do this, Luc,’ she muttered, feeling distinctly uncomfortable in her strappy black dress, with its low neckline and three-inches-above-the-knee length, when Angel Gambrelli looked so beautiful in her elegant designer label red dress.
Usually cool and calm under pressure, Darci knew that her normal self-confidence had taken a distinct knock when the other couple had arrived minutes ago, looking so suavely sophisticated.
It didn’t help that she and Luc had had a blazing row earlier, when Darci had discovered the suite only had one bedroom!
The fact that Luc had shrugged off her anger with the comment that their relationship would hardly look convincing to his family if they occupied separate bedrooms hadn’t appeased her fury in the slightest. Neither had his assurances that he had every intention of sleeping on the couch in the sitting-room.
How was she supposed to sleep tonight knowing that Luc was only feet away on the couch in the adjoining room?
Although the fact that this was the first time they had even spoken to each other since they’d had the row would probably ensure that Darci continued to say little, as Luc had requested earlier; it was the smile that might prove a little more difficult to achieve!
Luc took a much-needed sip of his champagne. Much needed because his usually unshakable self-control had taken a distinct knock the moment Darci had appeared in the sitting-room, shortly before Wolf and Angel arrived, wearing a black dress that revealed more than it covered.
Dear God, he reflected now. She looked so sexy he wanted to rip the dress away and feast himself on the body that he was pretty sure was virtually naked beneath the clinging black material!
The blackness of his mood wasn’t improved by the fact that one glance at Wolf’s amused expression told him that his brother knew exactly what line his thoughts had taken.
What every red-blooded man at the party tonight would also be thinking every time he so much as looked at Darci. And Luc had no doubt that plenty of them—that all of his male relatives—would be looking!
‘Maybe you should have worn something a little less—revealing. You might feel more comfortable,’ he observed sardonically. And instantly felt like a complete bastard as he saw the hurt in Darci’s expressive green eyes when she looked up at him reproachfully. ‘You look beautiful,’ he assured her, with soft impatience at the fact that he wanted to take off his evening jacket and wrap it concealingly around the bareness of Darci’s shoulders, the full swell of her breasts revealed above the low neckline of the dress that Luc was certain only just covered the tempting rosy tips of her succulent nipples. God, he could almost taste—
‘Don’t try and be nice to me, Luc—I know I look distinctly underdressed!’ Darci came back forcefully, her fingers gripping her champagne glass so tightly that her knuckles showed white as she took another reviving sip of the wine. ‘Goodness knows what Wolf and Angel wi
ll think of me,’ she hissed angrily.
Luc could take a pretty shrewd guess at what his brother thought of Darci, having seen the unmistakable male admiration in Wolf’s impersonal gaze as the two of them were introduced. And Angel, absolutely secure in her husband’s love, obviously thought her beautiful, too.
‘They like you,’ Luc assured her honestly. ‘Just stop fussing with it,’ he advised her brusquely, as Darci attempted to pull the low neckline of the dress higher, only succeeding in giving him a tantalising glimpse of her rosy nipples instead. ‘Don’t you have a wrap or something you could wear?’ he added harshly, annoyed at the stirring of his own arousal. The last thing he wanted was to go downstairs and present himself to his mother with his erection visibly throbbing!
‘Yes, I do have a wrap. But it would look rather silly if I wear it when we’re remaining in the hotel,’ Darci came back reasoningly.
‘I’ll tell everyone you have a cold,’ Luc retorted softly.
‘My hero!’ she came back witheringly.
‘I’ll be a lot more than that if you don’t stop fidgeting and cover yourself up,’ he warned darkly.
Darci stilled her restless movements to look searchingly up at Luc, easily seeing the heat in his gaze as it remained riveted on the creamy swell of her breasts, a nerve pulsing in his tightly clenched jaw.
Luc looked more uncomfortable than she felt!
But for a totally different reason, Darci realised, as she couldn’t help but notice the telltale signs of Luc’s arousal.
Luc wanted her!
Which meant, despite all he had said when they’d had dinner at Garstang’s, and his indifference when they’d travelled from the U.K. earlier today, that Luc wasn’t immune to her after all.
Strangely, that realisation helped her to calm down and relax. In fact, she could feel her self-confidence returning by the second—so much so that she felt almost…empowered.
Luc, for all that he might not want to feel that way, was still as attracted to her as he had been the first night they’d met, when he had described to her in detail how he would like to undress her and make love to her!