Page 88 of How to Get Even

He checked himself in the mirror of the elevator that took him to the third floor of the spectacular Pulham Hotel, tugging at the suffocating black tie around his neck, feeling awkward and wanting the whole thing over as soon as humanly possible.

The elevator arrived and he scanned door numbers to find the suite Bella was in. What a monumental waste of money – to rent rooms as part of the dinner ticket. The majority of people attending had apartments in the city, and if not, certainly enough money to arrange to return to wherever they’d come from. And for the life of him, he couldn’t understand why Bella had even wanted to use the room to get ready in. A dress. Some make-up. Surely it wasn’t that hard?

He found the room and knocked, impatient and irritated already.

‘Hold on!’ Bella called through the door.

And he waited nearly thirty seconds before she opened the door saying, ‘Sorry, I was doing my…’

Her words trailed off as she took him in from head to toe. And he honestly couldn’t hold it against her because he was utterly speechless.

18

On hemmed-in ground, resort to stratagem. On desperate ground, fight.

THE ART OF WAR, SUN TZU

Bella ran the mascara wand over her eyelashes in the hotel bathroom mirror, careful not to disturb her eye make-up. She must have got ready for nearly one hundred gala dinners before, but none of them had made her feel likethis.

Butterflies swept in circles around her stomach, and little shivers danced across her skin, fluctuating her body temperature from high to low with every breath.

She blinked and a spattering of black freckles appeared across her eyelid.

Biting back a curse, she reached for the cotton bud she’d dipped into remover and went to work fixing her mistake.Thiswas why she’d agreed to use the hotel room provided, because it had to be perfect.Shehad to be perfect. This was the way she would help redeem her mistaken revenge against Chase. It was imperative that by the end of the night, she had undone the damage to his – and the gallery’s – reputation. And Bella clung to the lie she told herself: that she was nervous because of what was at stake andnotbecause of Chase himself.

Bella’s phone vibrated with a message from the girls and as she read the ‘good luck’ from Paige who had come back to the group messages after they’d spoken last week.

Paige

What are you wearing?

Bella had sent them a picture.

Sienna

OHHHHHHH!

Astrid

I want your stylist. I want the dress, but I also want the name of your stylist.

Sienna

You’re going to look amazing in that.

Paige

Really amazing.

Just like a blonde Audrey Hepburn!

Bella laughed, swirling the beautiful black satin skirts around her mid-calves and smoothing her hands down the fitted bodice. She hadn’t ever used a stylist. She’d watched and learned from her mother for what clothes to wear, how to wear them, what event suited what style. She’d already checked, and thankfully her parents weren’t coming tonight. She didn’t think she could be the Bella she needed to be. Not in front of them. Not when so much was on the line.

Which was why she absolutely had to ignore this silly… crush… that would make her heart lurch and her stomach fizzy and her pulse jump and her skin flush just at the sight of him. Because it didn’t matter. Because he wasn’t what she wanted. He couldn’t be.

The man was moody, irascible, short-tempered, slightly arrogant and made her uncomfortable in ways no one else ever had. Surely that was a bad thing, right?

Marriage is not for me. Not again.

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