Page 78 of Meet Me Under the Mistletoe
At this point, Dev ambled along the landing, a picture of innocence, his mobile phone held up in front of him at such an angle that it gave the impression he had simply bumped into Jenna screaming on the stairs by accident.
“Sorry to interrupt,” he said, laying the kind of potent smile on Jenna that caused women all over the world to lick the pages ofVogue. “But I’ve just noticed that the Robinwood Hotel is running Christmas special spa afternoons. So, I gave them a call and told them we had a rather notable Christmas bride in our midst, in desperate need of some R & R, and they said they could fit us in this afternoon. The full works.”
Jenna was beguiled both by the smile and the idea of a full spa.
“The full works?” she asked, smoothing her hair down.
Dev nodded. “They gave me some spiel about short notice atfirst, and then I told them who you were, and suddenly they had the whole afternoon free.”
Guy and his faults were instantly thrown over for the more pressing matter of being treated like the celebrity she was for the afternoon.
“Charles, I’m leaving shit-for-brains to you. I don’t want to see his weasel face again until at least breakfast.” Then she turned her attentions to Dev. “Quick!” she squealed delightedly. “Let’s get our things and get over there.”
Dev’s smile was artless as he allowed himself to be led down the hall by Jenna.
Ameerah was watching him from their bedroom doorway, Nory beside her.
“God, he’s good,” Ameerah whispered. “It’s like watching a demon in angel’s clothing.”
“Almost as sneaky as you at getting his own way,” said Nory.
“Almost,” agreed Ameerah. “He’d make a great barrister.”
“Would you want to go up against him in court?”
“I’d put myself up against him anywhere,” Ameerah swooned.
“Not quite what I meant, but okay. How long are you going to keep up this charade?” Nory asked her friend. “I know you like-like Dev.”
“How long have you and Isaac been swapping saliva?” Ameerah countered.
“It was a heat-of-the-moment thing.”
“And was it good?”
Nory remembered the way Isaac had swept her into his arms, the fire in his kiss, their breath coming hard... Nory shook herself, little spikes of pleasure shooting down through her stomach.
“I think it might have been the best kiss I’ve ever had,” she mused.
“It looked pretty Fifty Shades from where I was standing.”
“It came out of nowhere; I’ve never had an out-of-nowhere kiss before.”
“The unexpected snogs are always the best. What now?”
“I don’t know. We didn’t exactly have time to discuss it.”
Ameerah, Dev, Jenna, and Pippa left for Robinwood Hotel within the hour. Nory waved them off from the gravel drive. Jenna was still spitting feathers about Guy’s behavior, but already he’d been downgraded from Beelzebub totypical bloody Guy.
As much as Nory would have liked an afternoon at the spa, she equally wanted to check on Isaac and the horse, and make sure that Isaac wasn’t in any trouble with the marquis for punching a guest in the face. Guy was sleeping off his liquid brunch, while Charles and Jeremy had retired to the drawing room with the day’s papers.
The afternoon was colder even than the morning had been, the sun clearly having decided to stay home that day. The mist was hanging low over the land like a strip of gauze, smudging the lines of the trees and the fields as they dropped away down the hill, the village completely hidden from view.
Jimmy reassured her that the cob mare had calmed down quickly after a couple of apples and some fresh hay; Nory had a feeling Isaac would be less easy to placate. She went into the stables, which were soothingly warm and earthy smelling, and gave the horse a good brush, apologizing for the behavior of the stupid drunk man that morning.
As she left, a sheen of sparkling frost was beginning to formover the wet cobbles in the courtyard, and Nory was pleased she’d kept her warm clothes and boots on from this morning and not been tempted to change into something that a certain head gardener might find more enticing. Sexy came second to sensible every time. She’d had to swap her bloodstained coat for an old, padded hiking jacket she’d brought as a spare, but it was better suited to this weather so she didn’t mind too much.
“Do you happen to know where Isaac went?” she called across to Jimmy, with as much nonchalance as she could muster.
