One Night in the Orient Read Free Page A

gave her a narrow smile. “And I don’t?”
    “I wasn’t referring to you.” She apologised. “I’m sorry—it was a crass comment.”
    “But entirely correct,” he drawled. Once again he glanced down at her ring. “So when is the wedding?”
    “We haven’t settled on a date yet,” she said, “but almost certainly in the spring next year.”
    He looked curious. “A long time off. Are you living together?”
    “No.” The heat in her cheeks flared up again. Her thoughtless comment had been returned with interest and cool deliberation.
    Nick looked over her shoulder and rose to his feet, his expression well under control.
    Expecting her parents, Siena was surprised by the woman who stopped at the table, but only for a second.
    As Nick got to his feet she realised this had to be his
latest lover.

CHAPTER TWO
    A SSAILED by an emotion perilously close to jealousy—no, Siena corrected hastily,
envy
—she took in the newcomer’s tall blonde beauty with something like resignation.
    “Nicholas,” the new arrival said in a modulated voice. “You see, I wasn’t away long.”
    “Portia, this is Siena Blake,” he said negligently, and introduced her.
    A pale, expert gaze appraised Siena’s blue silk. Appraised—and then dismissed it as a chain store irrelevance. A spark of rebellion lifted Siena’s chin a fraction.
    Nick finished the introductions. “You met Siena’s parents a couple of nights ago,” he told the newcomer.
    The blonde said smoothly, “I remember. Your fellow New Zealanders.” Dismissing them too, she gazed down an aristocratic nose at Siena. “So you and your sister are the—” Her brow crinkled a moment before she laughed softly and directed an arch, long-lashed glance at the man beside her. “I think the words Nicholas used were
‘the nearest things I have to sisters.’
Is that right, darling?”
    “When I was young, yes,” Nick said.
    Siena stopped herself from casting him a swift look. Although his tone was perfectly pleasant she detected an edge to it she hadn’t heard before.
    He finished, “However, it’s been some time since I thought of either Siena or her twin as sisters.”
    “And I’m sure neither of them ever thought of you as a brother.” Portia’s voice had lowered and she smiled at him.
    It wasn’t exactly a possessive smile, nor an openly desirous one, but there was a proprietorial gleam mixed with the feminine appreciation. And it cut through Siena’s composure like a sword.
    What’s happening to me?
she thought worriedly.
    Not that she blamed Nick’s lover. Several inches taller than the blonde woman, his black head gleaming in the lights, Nick radiated the cool, leashed assurance Siena always associated with him—as though he could take on the world and win.
    Which was exactly what he had done—and on his own terms.
    He looked at Siena, his eyes hooded. “Both Siena and her sister considered me an intruder.”
    Lighten up,
Siena told herself. It took an effort to produce a soft laugh. “Especially when you tried to teach us chess.”
    His grin flashed white. “I was endeavouring not to remember that.”
    “I’m sure you were an excellent teacher,” Portia said a little abruptly, as though somehow Siena had cast aspersions on his intelligence.
    “Siena beat me,” he told her.
    “Because you let me,” Siena objected.
    She recognised the smile he gave her—amused yettinged with cynicism. “For the first half of the game, yes,” he conceded. “After that I was desperately trying to regain ground.”
    Portia produced a tinkling little laugh. “And was your sister a prodigy too?”
    Nick said, “Gemma was definitely not into board games.”
    He glanced up as Siena’s parents returned, their arrival followed by a flurry of congratulations. In answer to a glance from Nick a waiter glided up to take his order for more champagne, and while that lasted they all made conversation.
    Eventually he and Portia went back to their table out of sight.