One Night in the Orient Read Free

but he’d accepted her handling of it. “He was fine.” She hoped her voice didn’t sound as defensive as she felt.
    Apart from a subtle narrowing of those coolly watchful eyes Nick’s expression didn’t change. “A rather muted response, surely?”
    For him it would have been; even as an adolescent he’d been protective towards two small girls.
    But Adrian was nothing like Nick. Adrian wouldnever make love to her as though she was the only woman in the world, then leave the next morning without a word of explanation beyond a few curt phrases of apology for getting carried away.
    Adrian wouldn’t break her heart.
    “Not everyone has your killer instinct,” she told Nick with a taut smile. “Adrian knows I can deal with my own problems.”
    Nick leaned back in his chair and let his gaze rest a moment on her ring finger. Siena had to repress a weird instinct to hide it protectively under the table.
    Relentlessly he demanded, “So you walked out of a situation you should never have had to face, with nothing more than your wages, then decided to hop on a plane and meet your parents in London?”
    She said cheerfully, “You must be a mind-reader.”
    His smile was sharp, its humour almost mocking. “No, I happen to remember a wilful, determined child with a big heart. What do you intend to do once you get back home?”
    “Find another job, of course.”
    “Just like that?”
    “Give me credit for some intelligence,” she said coolly. “I have extremely good references, both from my previous employer and the rat who propositioned me. And while I worked there I learnt a lot about landscaping as well.”
    Nick nodded. “Your mother told me you’d planned the makeover of their garden. You did a good job—it looks superb.”
    Hiding her pleasure at this, she said, “Gardening’s always been fashionable in New Zealand, and Auckland is a great place for it. Almost everything grows there.
    As well, the recession has produced a huge surge of interest in being as self-sufficient as possible. Think vegetable gardens and home orchards. I’ll find a new position—a better one.”
    “Still the same confident little thing,” he said in a tone tinged with irony. “Tiny and bossy and infuriatingly persistent.”
    His summing up of her character stung. Producing her sunniest smile, she said, “Remind me to get a reference from you—it can only help.”
    “Any time,” he said laconically. “So, having walked out of your job and on a point of principle donated money you should have put in the bank to a charity, it was an entirely logical decision for you to come to England?”
    “It’s Mum and Dad’s thirtieth anniversary,” she explained.
    He looked surprised. “They didn’t mention it when we had dinner together.”
    “You know my parents.”
    His arrogant features softened a little. “Yes. They wouldn’t have wanted any fuss.”
    “We were going to have a party at home—just a small one—and then they planned just to fly over for their dream cruise, but they got a really good deal from one of the big travel firms, with a tour of the UK thrown in first. They weren’t going to take it, but Gemma wouldn’t have been able to make the party—she’s in Australia doing a big promotion for a fashion week there—so I persuaded them to go. And then I decided to come across for the actual day.”
    He nodded. “And how did your fiancé feel about that?”
    “Adrian?” She glanced across, met his burnished green gaze and felt a twinge of sensation in the pit of her stomach. Swiftly she said, “He thought it was a brilliant idea.”
    “Clearly a very accommodating man.” Nick’s voice was sardonic.
    Siena returned crisply, “Adrian comes from a big family in the South Island. He understands family dynamics.”
    Too late, she remembered that Nick came from a dysfunctional marriage, and flushed, furious with herself. She was so foolishly conscious of him she couldn’t even organise her thoughts.
    Nick