Page 22 of His Wedding Day Revenge

‘I arranged for you to be brought here. Why did you not come as arranged?’

Her chin went up. ‘Arranged?’ She shook her head, making her curls bounce then settle into soft golden coils. ‘I did not ask you to make arrangements for me, and I was not included in those decisions. I am very sorry that you have been inconvenienced,’ she said with an insincere smile. ‘But I had made my own arrangements.’

She watched as a look that on anyone else she would have called bewilderment slid across his lean features. His stabbing gesture was all frustration, before he dragged a hand across his already ruffled dark hair.

‘You rented this...’ Lips curled in contempt, he launched a vicious kick at the car wheel. ‘I do not think much of your arrangements.’

‘Do you mind? I have to pay for any damage.’

‘I’d pay to get it towed away and crushed. You thought a child would be safe in this!’

The fact that Jane had thought the same thing numerous times during the journey made her respond to his comment even more indignantly.

‘How dare you?’ she snapped, her eyes flashing green fire. ‘My parenting skills are not your business, and at least I don’t assume throwing money at a problem is all it takes to solve it!’ she huffed contemptuously. ‘You can stick your limousines up—’ Her eyes widened as she came to a breath-hitching pause. ‘I just want to say...’

What do you want to say, Jane?

‘I am not your problem and,’ she added defiantly, ‘I really don’t think I’d take advice from someone whose idea of parenting is holding your girlfriend’s lap dog while she pouts for the camera.’

His expression moved from fury to blank astonishment before melting into a grin that made it hard to stay angry, actually hard to stay on her feet.

‘The thing bit me,’ he recalled. ‘I had to have a tetanus shot.’

As the tension dissolved Jane covered her mouth with her hand to smother an almost-laugh. She was only partially successful. ‘Good!’ she growled back.

‘I am discovering that size is not a measure of combativeness,’ he observed as he studied her face and wondered how it was possible he had never seen or even guessed at this fire in her personality. ‘I was concerned.’

‘Why?’

The question was so wilfully stupid that he had to wonder if she was going out of her way to provoke him, but he would rise above it, he decided. ‘The road I am assuming that you took is not for... Before you explode once more, even locals take the longer route.’

‘It wasn’t a nice journey,’ she admitted, allowing herself to be slightly mollified. ‘But if there was a car organised this end you should have discussed it, or,’ she corrected very quickly, because she didn’t want him to think she had expected personal treatment, though this did seem pretty personal, ‘have someone discuss it with me.’ All her communications thus far had come via the office of Draco Andreas. And once the image from a sixties spoof of someone gorgeous with endless legs and red lips sitting on his knee taking dictation had got into her head, it had been impossible to banish.

It was there now as she said coldly, ‘I require options, not ultimatums. I am quite capable of organising my own life and making my own decisions.’

‘So I am seeing,’ he observed, studying the obstinate set of her round chin.

‘Look, obviously—’ she sniffed contemptuously ‘—you think I couldn’t find my way out of a paper bag. But I’m really not that helpless.’

Draco, his expression indecipherable, looked at the small finger being waved at him.

‘All right, I am sorry if I put you out, but...’ It suddenly occurred to her he had made special arrangements for her... And more troubling, if that was the case, why? Maybe he just thought she was hopeless and—

Pressing her hands together and closing her eyes briefly, she called a halt to the flow of disjointed question marks in her head and took a deep breath. ‘It’s been a long day and I understand there is an induction session early tomorrow, so if there is someone to show me to our room, Mattie—’

On cue the baby began to wail.

Draco watched as she ran around to the passenger door of the car. Something in her expression as she bent over the baby seat and spoke soothingly to the sobbing child before she picked him up in her arms made things tighten painfully in his chest.

The cries lessened to a dull roar as she walked back around the car towards him. ‘Just point me in the right direction.’

‘There has been a change in the schedule. Because not everyone was able to make it on time it was decided that tomorrow will be a free day.’

Jane tried to hide her relief behind a smile but she knew she failed. ‘Oh, that’s...good to know. Is it far to the—?’

She glanced towards the spread of buildings, their roofs at different levels hidden by the trees, able to make out lights in the gathering gloom.

‘Not far, but you are not in the annexe, though if you decide to attend the meet-and-greet supper there later tonight someone will be on hand to escort you.’

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