High Society Read Free

sort of dizzy and light-headed, whilst her heart fluttered in shallow little beats. How was he managing to look every bit as arrogant and potently male as he always did? He was focusing on her with a gaze of such sensual hunger that it actually made the colour rise up under her skin.
    ‘Jules, you’re blushing!’ Lucy exclaimed, laughing.
    This was ridiculous!
    ‘We said that we were not going to go public yet—remember,’ she told Silas, forcing herself to soften her voice to an unfelt sweetness whilst returning his look with one of her own that was not so much ardent as reproachful.
    ‘I wasn’t aware that we had,’ Silas countered, causing Lucy to laugh.
    ‘Just the way you’re looking at Jules says it all, Silas. If ever a man’s gaze said I love you and I want you in bed , yours just did.’
    ‘Mmm... Well, it has been a while,’ Silas answered shamelessly, and Julia longed for the privacy to tell him exactly what she thought of his enthusiasm for his new role.
    ‘You’ll have to take some time off from that Foundation of yours and spend it with Julia instead,’ Dorland chipped in.
    Julia looked at him in triumph and waited. No way would Silas do that. He was caught neatly in his own lies, and it served him right.
    His hand had moved from her shoulder to her neck, and his fingers were stroking into her hair. She had to fight against an instinctive desire to stretch luxuriously into his touch, demanding more of it.
    ‘That’s exactly what I intend to do. In fact, that’s exactly what I am doing. From now on where Jules goes, I go.’
    ‘You can’t do that,’ Julia objected, panicking. ‘I’m working.’
    The hard fingers weren’t stroking now, but pressing warningly instead.
    ‘Of course, but not twenty-four hours a day. And when you aren’t working...’
    ‘Silas, don’t you dare take her away from me until the end of the year,’ Lucy begged. ‘We’ve got so much work on I couldn’t manage without her—especially now that Dorland has asked us to organise his big summer party.’
    ‘You’ve got her until the end of the year,’ Silas agreed. ‘But, as I’ve just said, where Jules goes, I go—and her off-duty time is mine.’
    Lucy burst out laughing. ‘Silas, you must be in love. I thought you hated parties and huge events.’
    ‘I do, but I love Julia more than I loathe them.’
    She had had enough, Julia decided—more than enough, and in spades.
    ‘Darling, I can’t possibly let you make such a sacrifice. Of course you mustn’t do any such thing. You’d be bored to tears, hanging around waiting for me. And besides, we are going to spend the rest of our lives together.’ She smiled sweetly and waited. She could see the ‘I take no prisoners’ glint in Silas’s eyes, but no way was she going to back down.
    ‘How could being with you ever be a sacrifice?’ His arm was round her waist and he had closed the distance between them, holding her against him, his free hand resting on her hip, which he was rubbing tenderly in a gesture of supposedly subtle intimacy.
    ‘No, my mind is made up. Unless Lucy objects, where you go, I go.’
    ‘Of course I don’t object,’ Lucy assured him.
    ‘You’ve got the Silverwoods’ combined silver wedding and eighteenth for their son coming up next, haven’t you, Jules? That is going to be huge, I know.’ She hesitated, and then said diffidently, ‘Nick mentioned to me that you’d hinted that you’d like him to give you some support with it, and—’
    ‘No! I mean, there’s no need for him to do that.’ She could hardly tell Lucy that she had said no such thing, and that Nick had lied to her. ‘Nick must have misunderstood what I was saying.’
    Lucy might be looking relieved and smiling, but Julia noticed that Silas certainly wasn’t mirroring Lucy’s response.
    ‘And don’t forget my end-of-summer bash,’ Dorland broke in.
    ‘Yes, you’re doing that, Jules,’ Lucy agreed. ‘And I’ll do all the smaller UK-based