Page 19 of In Bed with Her Billionaire Bodyguard

Her grandfather had his own, Simon’s side of the family would be in another. Usually, she’d be here with Nate and they’d spend the evening gossiping about the board members and their snooty behaviour. But Nate was still recuperating and she would have to bear the attention alone.

As people started to peel off for their respective seats, she caught her grandfather’s eye and thought for a second that she saw understanding and compassion in his gaze. But she knew better. Smile bright and eyes glittering, she made her way along the red-carpeted staircase to the door that opened onto the private box that she remembered from her childhood. She walked in and stopped just behind the seats, cast in shadow, watching the auditorium fill with Harcourts’ staff and friends and family.

The noise rose up from below, gentle chatter, a laugh punctuating the hum. She wished the excitement was infectious enough to distract her, but it wasn’t. Directly opposite her box, on the other side of the stalls, Simon gently slapped his father on the back, whilst scanning the auditorium. He looked up and found her watching him. She clearly wasn’t as well hidden as she’d thought. He nodded in acknowledgement, the civility of it making Hope angry, until he purposely cut the connection to look at someone in the stalls below. Curious, she followed his gaze, and her fingers tightened to white as she fisted the evening’s programme.

‘What is Martin de Savoir doing here?’

The question made Hope jump and the sting of adrenaline pricked at her skin as she pressed a hand to her chest.

‘Don’t turn around,’ Luca commanded. ‘I’d rather people not know I’m here.’

Hope huffed out a bitter laugh. ‘How novel. Someone whodoesn’twant to be seen with me. What are you doing here?’ she demanded in a harsh whisper.

‘My job,’ Luca replied tightly.

He’d spent three hours that afternoon familiarising himself with the ROH layout and communicating with their security, before clearing a suspicious package sent to Hope’s office that turned out to be flowers congratulating her on the nomination. It had been a miracle that he’d made it to Hope’s apartment on time. And while he bore the lion’s share of the responsibility for her animosity towards him, dealing with their acidic interactions was something he could do without.

From the shadows at the back of the box, he peered down into the auditorium to see Hope’s ex-fiancé smack in the middle of the stalls, halfway between her and Simon Harcourt.

‘Do you know who he’s with?’ Luca asked.Heknew, he just wasn’t sure how up-to-date Hope was on her ex’s love life and what it would cost her to hear it.

He watched as Hope purposefully turned her attention away from the lower level to scan the rest of the auditorium. He imagined that she had a practically perfect smile on those incendiary red lips he’d caught sight of in the rear-view mirror of the car earlier. He was sure she’d been aiming for elegant rather than downright carnal, but anyone looking at the perfect bow of her lips painted in fire engine red would have to have been dead from the neck down not to think wicked thoughts.

‘That is Imogen Frotheram.’

‘That’s quite a mouthful,’ he observed, peering at the young blonde woman who looked remarkably like Hope.

‘Twenty-four years old, with an inheritance of nearly one million pounds, and presently engaged to Martin de Savoir,’ Hope informed him in a dispassionate tone.

Luca caught Imogen casting a look between her fiancé and up at Hope in the grand tier box, suggesting that perhaps she was only just becoming aware of what she had been drawn into.

‘De Savoir doesn’t work for Harcourts,’ he said, his tone dark with suspicion.

‘No,’ Hope replied, still looking out as the remaining guests began to take their seats. She even waved at someone in the stalls.

‘Then how did he get a ticket?’

There was barely a pause before she replied. ‘That area is reserved for Simon’s friends and family.’

Although her voice was carefully level, he could only imagine the fury that she must be feeling. To have her ex-fiancé here, with his new fiancée? The dayaftershe’d gone head-to-head with her cousin? Simon was trying to get at her, undermining her on every level he could, publicly in front of the shareholders. And doing it all without even getting his hands dirty.

Hope moved forward to take her seat, the voluminous skirt swaying with her hips in a way that made him want to bracket her waist in his palms.Graceful.It caught his attention when he should have been thinking of so much more.

‘Do you like opera, Luca?’ she asked, holding the programme in front of her mouth to disguise their conversation.

‘I do.’

She cocked her head to one side as if surprised, and he smiled.

‘It’s a national crime not to adore Puccini.’

‘And Turandot?’ she asked.

‘One of my favourites,’ he admitted begrudgingly of the opera famous, mostly, for the song Nessun Dorma.

‘Really?’ This time Hope had been unable to hide the surprise from her voice. ‘I didn’t picture you as a romantic.’

Luca clenched his jaw so hard he nearly broke a tooth in order not to ask, to demand, how she had been picturing him. The silence screamed between them and he was about to say something when the conductor tapped his baton to ready the orchestra.

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