Page 18 of Wife for a Week

Two hours later, after a shower for Jasmine and a cup of tea for them both, they were once again standing in front of the two dresses that hung from the doors of Jasmine’s wardrobe.

‘Give it a year,’ said Jasmine thoughtfully.

‘Or two.’

‘I don’t think I can wait that long.’

‘I didn’t say you couldn’t see him at all,’ said Hallie. ‘And I definitely didn’t say you shouldn’t give him something to remember you by. Is he coming to the ball?’

‘I don’t know,’ said Jasmine. ‘There’s a ticket for him.’

‘I’m thinking the blue dress. The front is demure, it’s what Kai expects, but then when you turn around and he sees all that skin…bam! How were you thinking of wearing your hair?’

‘Up,’ said Jasmine.

‘Perfect. What about jewellery?’

Jasmine went over to a small wooden jewellery box and lifted out a long silver chain so fine you could hardly see the links. There was a single teardrop pearl a shade lighter than the colour of her skin dangling from it. ‘I thought this. It’s not expensive, more of a trinket really, but it was my mother’s. There’s no clasp; it slips over the head. But it’s too long.’

‘Not if you wear it backwards,’ said Hallie.

‘Oh,’ said Jasmine. ‘Now I’m thinking the blue dress. And I shall ask Kai to dance with me. It’s a ball; people do dance with one another at balls.’

Nothing wrong with the younger girl’s feminine instincts, thought Hallie, and nodded enthusiastically. ‘A slow dance,’ she said. ‘A waltz, so he has to put his arm around you and touch all that skin.’

Jasmine smiled slowly.

Hallie smiled back. Kai was toast.

Nick and John returned earlier than expected around mid-afternoon.

‘We’re almost there,’ said Nick when Hallie dragged him into the garden to get the low-down. ‘John has his lawyers working on the documents now. I’ve faxed them through to mine, but I can’t see any problems. All we have to do is sign them.’

‘And you’re happy with the deal?’ she asked him.

‘It’s a little less than I was hoping for in some respects, a little more in others. I think John feels the same way.’ Nick shot her a weary smile. ‘I have a new appreciation for haggling as an art form, but in the end we got there. It’s a fair deal. We both stand to make a lot of money.’

‘So tonight we celebrate.’ Hallie looked at him in concern. He didn’t look as if he felt like celebrating. He looked exhausted. ‘Are you going to make it through to midnight? Why don’t you go upstairs and rest for a while? Take a nap.’

‘I would, but the bed upstairs holds a few too many memories of you in it. I won’t rest if I go up there and I sure as hell won’t sleep.’

‘Are you flirting with me?’

‘Nope.’ He eyed her darkly, a man too tired and tense to bother with the niceties. He needed rest, needed to sleep, but if that wasn’t an option the next best thing he could do was take a break. From his work, from the strain of pretending to be married to her, and from the Teys, nice as they were.

‘Come into the city with me, then. I have to find a New Year’s gift for Jasmine. It’ll do you good. Do us both good.’

‘How do you figure that?’ he asked.

‘I want to relax and be myself for a while. Not Hallie Cooper, corporate wife. Not Hallie Bennett, partner in lies. I just want to be me. I want you to be you.’

‘Time Out,’ said Nick.

Exactly. Trust a man to use a sports metaphor to describe a burgeoning identity crisis, but whatever worked. ‘So what do you say?’

Twenty minutes later they were standing on a chaotic sidewalk in downtown Hong Kong, Kai having dropped them off and Nick having assured him that they’d catch a taxi back. He was tired, he was irritable, and denying his fierce sexual attraction to Hallie really wasn’t working for him, but there was no denying her suggestion they take a break was a good one. ‘Do you have anything particular in mind as a gift for Jasmine?’ he asked her.

‘I’m sure I’ll know it when I see it,’ she said blithely.

Nick groaned. This was bad. This was going to take for ever.

‘I am open to suggestions,’ she added.

There was a god.

‘Perfume,’ he said firmly, not two minutes later as they stood at a department-store perfume counter. ‘We’ll get her some perfume.’

‘Predictable,’ said Hallie with a sigh.

‘Reliable,’ he corrected, and, staring at the dazzling selection of perfumes on offer, ‘You choose.’

‘I’ll have to smell them first and find the one that fits Jasmine best. Of course, I already know what half of them smell like so it shouldn’t take too long.’

Maybe perfume hadn’t been such a fast and easy solution to the gift-buying problem after all, thought Nick gloomily as Hallie picked up a nearby tester bottle and sniffed.

‘This one’s too overpowering. Jasmine’s far more delicate than that,’ she said with a grimace, hastily returning the bottle to the counter and picking up another. ‘And this one’s too old-fashioned.’ She moved along the counter to the next cluster of little glass bottles, plucked one from the middle and handed it to him. ‘Try this one.’

He took it, sniffed it. ‘Nice.’ But Hallie rejected it.

‘It is nice, but it’s all top note, there’s no depth. It’s too chaste. Jasmine’s a woman, not a girl.’

‘Maybe she could wear it in one of her more girlish moments,’ he suggested, and stifled a sigh at Hallie’s measured, ‘No.’ This was going to take for ever.

The next one was nice too. Hell, they were all nice, but according to Hallie they just weren’t right. And then Hallie pointed towards a small vial high on a shelf and the salesgirl obligingly got it down for her. She lifted the stopper, took a deep sniff of the perfume and sighed happily. ‘This is it,’ she said. ‘This is Jasmine.’

Nick took it and smelled it. Nice. Why it was Jasmine and the others weren’t was beyond him, but if Hallie was satisfied, so was he. ‘I see what you mean,’ he said, with a nod for good measure.

‘Liar!’ Her laughter was warm and spontaneous, a reflection of the woman. ‘Tell me why I chose it.’

‘Er, whim?’ Her eyes narrowed and her chin came up. He still loved that look.

‘I’ve just given you some huge hints on how to buy perfume for a woman. Huge! You could have at least paid attention.’

‘I did pay attention.’

‘Alrighty, then.’ Her hands went to her hips. ‘Choose one for me.’

Nick stared at Hallie, stared at the perfumes, all two hundred odd bottles of the stuff, and nearly broke out in a cold sweat. ‘I could use a hint,’ he said.

Hallie moved down the counter again, to yet another cluster of bottles, her hand hovering over one particular bottle before finally picking it up. ‘Here. This is one my mother used to wear; it brings back some wonderful memories of her. It’s warm, elegant, beautiful. I love it, but I don’t wear it.’

‘You call that a hint?’

‘Big one.’ Her voice was grave, but her eyes were laughing.

Nick sighed heavily, took the perfume her mother used to wear out of her hand and sniffed. He knew that smell, loved its memories because Clea wore it too. It wasn’t Hallie; she was right. But it was close.

He attacked the problem systematically, working his way through the entire cluster of perfumes in front of him and rejecting all but three bottles. He took his time with these, undecided, before making his final choice and handing it to her. ‘This one.’

‘Are you sure?’ she teased. ‘How do you know? Because I swear your nose went on strike ten bottles ago.’

‘Smell it,’ he urged.

She took a deep sniff. It had some of the same ingredients as her mother’s perfume, the same warmth in the base, but it was different too. More exotic and youthful. More vibrant.

‘Well?’ he asked gruffly.

‘I like it.’

‘How much do you like it?’

‘A lot.’

Nick’s relieved smile was boyishly endearing and Hallie felt her heart stutter. He was a curious mixture, Nicholas Cooper. Smooth as silk one minute, as sweet as Friday’s child the next. ‘Promise me you’ll wear it for me tonight,’ he murmured.

Yep, just as smooth as silk. ‘Now I’m going to choose one for you,’ she told him.

‘Don’t!’ he said, clearly horrified by the notion. ‘Walk with me through the alleyways for half an hour. That’s all I want. Let me show you the Hong Kong I like best.’

She could do that.

She loved doing just that, because it was here that she found what had been missing in the spotless airport and glittering department stores; here she found the hawker stalls and the food carts; the scent of yesteryear and the bustle of an exotic, vibrant culture.

This was the Hong Kong Nick liked best? She should have guessed. Nick would always seek out the real, add a dash of what if and colour it magical. It was part of his charm.

What kind of woman would he choose when he finally did take a wife? Hallie wondered. Would she laugh with him and delight in the boy beneath the man? Would she be worldly and elegant? An asset to his business interests? Would he choose a real corporate wife? Hallie was so preoccupied with her thoughts she almost fell over Nick as he knelt down to examine a tiny street urchin’s meagre fake watch selection that had been lined up with military precision on a dirty scrap of towel.

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