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‘I’d love coffee,’ she said.
He gave the order over the phone and sat back.
‘I can’t remember the last time I went swimming,’ she said, pulling her own towel a little closer around her.
‘You don’t belong to a gym?’
That meant he did, presumably. Who was she kidding, of course he did. You didn’t get abs like that from sitting around watching TV. He clearly put in a lot of work.
She shook her head.
‘My working hours are long,’ she said. ‘Sometimes I’m so tired by the time I get home the last thing I’d want to do is more exercise.’
‘I thought your job was more about potting plants,’ he said, a grin touching his lips. ‘I didn’t realise it could be so physically demanding.’
She raised an eyebrow.
‘It’s not standing with a basket picking flowers,’ she said. ‘There’s a lot of heavy work involved. You have to be prepared to get your hands dirty.’
He reached across suddenly and paused, hand outstretched.
‘May I?’
She stared. What exactly was he playing at?
She watched in surprise as he took one of her hands in his, no impulse kicked in to pull it away despite the sudden hot feeling in her stomach. He uncurled her fingers to see the palm and turned her hand to see her fingernails.
‘This doesn’t look like the hand of a heavyweight gardener,’ he said.
She took her hand away and held both of them up.
‘Yeah well, it’s amazing what a bit of hand cream can do. Sometimes at the end of a working day they look like shovels.’
‘So gym, spa treatments and swimming is a welcome break then. Is this something you do often?’
Because she really looked like a gym bunny. Not.
‘Not often. I’m treating myself.’
‘And you prefer to do that alone?’
Her self-consciousness about staying here alone resurfaced and she squashed it back down.
‘It wasn’t supposed to be a solitary thing,’ she said.
‘No?’
For a moment she considered fobbing him off, but she was used to being the subject of gossip now. Why bother making up some story for someone she didn’t know and didn’t care about?
‘I booked the room for a romantic night away with my boyfriend.’ She looked him boldly in the eye. Nothing to be embarrassed about. ‘This hotel offers themed breaks – dinner, spa, breakfast, one price and it’s all included. Ex-boyfriend now,’ she added, pasting on an I-couldn’t-care-less smile, to prove she was absolutely fine with that.
‘You came alone on your own romantic night away?’ He sounded amused. ‘You didn’t cancel?’
She couldn’t blame him. It did sound a bit insane spoken out loud. She squared her shoulders.
‘It seemed a shame to waste it,’ she said. ‘It was a non-refundable payment. So I figured I’d turn it into a Reinvention Break instead.’
She mumbled the last part and he leaned in close enough for her to see the tiny droplets of water that still clung to his skin and hair. A light frown touched his eyebrows.
‘Reinvention? Of what?’
She looked straight at him. He was a total stranger, what the hell did she care what he thought?
‘Of me,’ she said.
Oliver leaned back in his lounger as their coffee arrived, watching her, all obstinate bravado protesting that she didn’t care.
‘Odd choice of word, ‘reinvention’’, he said, when the waiter had gone. ‘Implies that you need to change. Which in turn implies that you’re somehow responsible for whatever went wrong.’
‘I’m not!’ she snapped.
He looked at her over his coffee cup.
‘Call it something else then. Not reinvention. I haven’t seen anything about you yet that I’d change.’
As he heard her light intake of breath and saw a touch of blush rise high on her cheekbones, he wondered when she’d last received a compliment. Long-term complacent relationship? A breeding ground for lack of appreciation. All he had to do was take advantage of that.
There was something very appealing about her at close quarters. Put aside for a moment the fact that she was pretty, albeit in a dishevelled outdoorsy sort of way. There was an air of defiance about her that he liked. Whatever the ex-boyfriend had done, she wasn’t sitting at home crying into her pillow was she? She’d kicked him into touch and had turned her romantic break into a treat. He couldn’t help but admire that fighting spirit.
‘How about I call it my Freedom Break instead then,’ she said. ‘Shopping and spa relaxation. Just what I need.’
‘Perfect,’ he said. ‘And tonight?’
He held her gaze intently with his own. She didn’t drop her eyes. Encouraging.
‘A luxury meal in the restaurant,’ she said.
‘Alone?’
‘I’m quite happy with my own company.’
‘Understandable.’ He paused, then added in another compliment. ‘I like it too.’ He paused to gauge the effect and when she smiled softly he zoomed in.
‘How about having dinner with me? The place is full of couples. We can keep each other company.’
There was a sudden loud clatter as she dropped her cup into the saucer from a height and then tried to cover up her mistake by fiddling with the spoon. He watched, enjoying putting her on edge.
‘Don’t you have some kind of other plans?’ she said, not looking up, furiously stirring the remains of her coffee.
He leaned back against the lounger and took a sip of his own drink.
‘Nope. Dinner alone for me too. And I’d much prefer your company to my own.’ He waited and then added in extra encouragement . ‘It would be my treat of course.’ He paused. ‘Unless you want some time alone to – you know – get over things.’
That finally seemed to galvanise her into action. The implication that she was here to lick her wounds, that she might spend the evening crying into her pillow and enjoying the martyrdom of sitting alone in the sumptuous restaurant among the loved-up couples.
She put her coffee cup down on the table, no clatter this time, and sat back taking in the surroundings. A pause this long was not a good sign. Win some, lose some. Not that he ever lost out on a dinner date, or more, when he put his mind to it. For some reason the thought of missing out on this one brought a disappointed stab in his chest. Must be the thought of being stuck here overnight with no entertainment when he should be settling into his newly-finished luxury pad.
Then she looked at him, a tiny smile playing about her full lips, and his heart turned over softly.
‘Dinner is thrown into my booking,’ she said. ‘It’s a package deal. Spa treatments, dinner, bed and breakfast. So maybe you’d like to have dinner with me?’
He stared at her, momentarily wrong-footed. Had she really just counter-offered him on dinner? There was a hint of challenge in her eyes that made his mouth leech of moisture, as if he’d sunk his teeth into one of the hotel’s fluffy towels.
‘Sod the thrown-in dinner,’ he said. ‘You’ll get the package-deal dinner menu, nothing worth having. Have dinner with me and choose what you like.’
****
Izzy pawed through the contents of her overnight bag and laid out the only possibility on the bed.
If she’d known she’d be having dinner with male model material, she would have packed something a bit more alluring than the maxi skirt, top and cardigan. She’d planned on eating early to avoid any pitying stares, followed by a likely return to the spa with a stack of magazines. At least she’d packed matching underwear instead of any greying old cotton.
Not that her underwear should matter. Because this was just dinner – right?
She looked at her reflection in the scroll-edged upright mirror. Her hair had behaved itself for once, the unruly waves lying softly over one shoulder.
Did she really think a man like him, on his own for the night in a luxury hotel, would ask a girl he didn’t know to dinner with nothing more in mind than eating a meal? Her stomach gave a slow and delicious flip at the thought and she pressed her hands hard against it to make it stop. Rubbish. Why the hell was she reading any more into it than just dinner? And wasn’t it irrelevant anyway? What mattered was the alternative – sitting alone in the restaurant at a table for two surrounded by couples playing footsie.
Whether he expected something in return or not, she didn’t have to give it. She could have dinner with him, enjoy an evening of flirting and then walk away with her self-esteem happily boosted.
Unless she wanted more.
Item nine on her GET-OVER-THE-BASTARD LIST pranced through her mind. Don’t get even, get even better…
She sat down hard on the bed. Where had that come from? By the time they reached the end of compiling the list, she and Shauna had been pretty drunk. A one-night-stand had been added as more of a laugh than anything, because of course they both knew that Izzy Shaw didn’t do that kind of thing.
She shook her head lightly to clear it. Dinner didn’t have to lead anywhere. She was safe, dependable play-by-the-rules Izzy. Impetuous flings with strangers were not part of that remit.
Because of course that remit had really worked for her in the past. Not.
The fluttering in her stomach was back with a vengeance.
****
A tiny heart-shaped chocolate made up the centrepiece of each place setting in the candlelit dining room, soft piano played in the background and the set menu was a special romance-themed selection.
Oliver stared at the pink embossed menu, eyebrows raised.
‘Romantic Getaway Three Course Menu For Two…’ he read.
Her cheeks felt a little too warm and she didn’t look up. Instead she picked up her heart-shaped chocolate and dropped it into her purse. After a pause, she added his chocolate too. With no need to diet ever again, she could scoff them at leisure.
‘Like I said, it’s a package deal break. Dinner, bed and breakfast for one all-in price.’
Oliver beckoned the waiter and issued swift orders for a bottle of champagne and the standard menu while she tried to control the mad squiggling in her stomach.
‘Like I said, sod the knocked-down package break.’ The waiter returned and handed her the full restaurant menu. ‘Choose whatever you like.’
****
Oliver watched her as she tucked into the main course of roasted sea bass with celeriac and truffle with obvious enjoyment. She’d finished every bite of the starter, too. He liked her uninhibited delight in the food. And he liked her relaxed outfit. She wore her hair loose, and just a touch of makeup highlighted the grey-green eyes and long eyelashes. Her lips looked peachily softer than ever with a touch of gloss. He was used to high maintenance – glossy, manicured women who picked at their food and obsessed about their appearance. So used to it in fact that it had become the norm. Being with her was like eating a sharp sorbet after a very cloying main meal.
‘You said this place is convenient for work,’ she said, between mouthfuls. ‘What is it that you do?’
‘I’m a lawyer,’ he said. ‘I travel a lot, but I’m based in London. This hotel is close to my office.’
She frowned.
‘Why the need for a hotel then, if you live in the city? Don’t you keep a house here?’
He thought of his beautiful new house, supposed to be finished a week ago to a stunningly high spec. His irritation at the delay seemed to have dissipated a little in her company.
‘I have a house, bought it a few months ago, in Highgate.’
He didn’t miss the brief widening of her eyes. Highgate was one of the most exclusive and beautiful suburbs of the city.
‘Lucky you,’ she said.
‘I would be, if I could move into the damn place,’ he said.
‘What do you mean?’
‘It’s been gutted and refurbished from scratch,’ he said. ‘The whole thing needed stripping back. So redecorating, floors laid, kitchen and bathroom installation, everything. I’ve been away because of work so I’ve missed the worst of the disruption. It was meant to be finished a week ago. That’s why I’m staying here, because my building team have overrun.’
‘Do you have a project manager?’
He shook his head.
‘I’m in control of it myself.’
‘That’s why it’s overrun then,’ she said. ‘It would be like me handing over the plans for a garden and just letting the project cruise along rudderless. Things just don’t get done sometimes if you’re not there to kick butt.’
The implication that the delay was down to him irked a little and he made himself ignore it. To be fair, she had a point. He might have total focused control over his work but leaving things to chance in any other area of his life was clearly also a bad move.
‘It should be finished in a day or two,’ he said. ‘And it’ll be great to have somewhere to stay that feels like home,’ he said. ‘When I’m in London at least.’
‘So you stay in hotels a lot then. For work?’
He thought he picked up a slight edge to her tone, but her face hadn’t changed.
He nodded.
‘I’m pretty good at living out of a suitcase. After a while it becomes second nature, luggage gets pared down, you start to use the same places in the same cities. It gets to be a way of life.’
‘Doesn’t it get lonely, being away like that?’
Something in that sentence touched him, and he paused for a moment to sip his drink and rationalise it. Loneliness was just a word. It meant focus and drive. It was a positive not a negative if you wanted success. And he could always find company if he wanted it, a non-committal brief encounter was easy to come by on the international hotel circuit.
‘It helps if you like your own company,’ he said. ‘Sometimes you come across the same work contacts. It varies. Sometimes you meet new people. It doesn’t have to be isolated if you don’t want it to be.’
She sat back a little in her seat, her gaze holding his, a hint of knowing in the grey-green eyes that he couldn’t fathom.
‘Like tonight, you mean. Like me.’
He nodded.
‘Yes. Room service or dinner with you. No contest.’
Her posture stiffened almost imperceptibly, as if some thought had occurred to her. The gaze didn’t waver and she tilted her chin as she looked at him, an almost judgemental look in her eyes. Then she looked down at her champagne flute and the moment was gone.
Izzy took a sip of her champagne. Serial hotel guest… lots of travel for work…doesn’t have to be isolated if you don’t want it to be.
She pushed her plate to one side.
Don’t get even. Get even better…
Curiosity needled at her. Hotels, girls, one-night-stands. Was this the way Joe had behaved when he was away supposedly working towards their future? Did he single out the best prospect and ask her to dinner? Was that how it had started? Was she seeing that dark mirror image of her own life?
She wanted, needed to see more. This had nothing to do with revenge, this was about understanding. For the first time she had a flash of the type of woman who inhabited Joe’s alternative fun life, that foil to herself – the type of woman who held things together at home. An image of her mother flashed unbidden into her mind, the person she’d vowed never to become. Fifties cupcake housewife living in the wrong decade. Izzy might have bucked that trend with her traditionally male-dominated work, but she’d fallen right into the same trap in her relationship.
This was her chance. Her opportunity to flout the rules and be the other woman for once instead of the homemaker. Exactly what was the fun she was missing out on? Her heart picked up speed in anticipation of where this thought process might lead.
‘It must be difficult to keep a relationship going when you’re travelling a lot,’ she said, keeping her voice carefully neutral.
Oliver finished his main course and pushed the plate to one side.
‘I imagine it would be,’ he said. ‘I don’t do them.’
She stared at him.
‘Not at all?’
‘Not in the long-term sense.’ He took a sip of his drink. ‘My work comes first, it always has. I need that focus and I can never predict the hours I’ll be working or where I’ll need to be. It wouldn’t be fair to drag another person along on that ride.’
Nothing detracted from the need for irreversible success, that aim which never quite felt within reach. Allowing a relationship to distract him from work would be unheard of, would go against every instinct he’d learned growing up.
‘Relationships are not all they are cracked up to be,’ he said.
She gave a rueful laugh.
‘I’ll drink to that.’ She raised her drink and he nodded and picked his own glass up in response.
‘Relationships, relationships,’ he said. ‘All that grief, all that input.’
‘It’s not a one-way street,’ she said. ‘You’re meant to get something back.’
‘Doesn’t sound like you did,’ he countered, but she didn’t reply, just met his gaze with her grey-green eyes.
‘Relationships sap the energy from what can be a perfect meeting of the physical,’ he said.
He watched carefully for her response to that and noticed her shift almost imperceptibly in her seat.
‘You mean a fling.’
He shrugged.
‘If you want to call it that. It’s perfectly simple. You’ve obviously been messed around by some idiot who’s treated you badly. Doesn’t sound remotely like fun to me. The way I play it, things never get beyond the fun stage. You never discover the loathsome habits. You never even make it to your first argument. I don’t have time to deal with any of that.’
‘You don’t even date?’ she clarified.
He shook his head.
‘Why let things get that far?’
A tiny smile touched the corner of her mouth and his pulse began to climb.
‘That’s very interesting,’ she said.
‘Is it?’
She toyed with her glass. As he watched the slender fingers slowly and rhythmically turning the stem of it, heat began to tingle low in his abdomen.
‘I’d be lying if I said I haven’t been feeling a bit low,’ she said. ‘The break up came out of the blue, smacked me between the eyes.’ She looked up. ‘It’s all fine though, I have a planned strategy.’ She gave him another smile.
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