A Whirlwind Engagement

thing at the best of times. That's why it was important that Aisling came with me. She can do all the chit- chat.'

'If she's still working for you, she can manage that, can't she?' said Bella tightly.

Josh sighed and drank his whisky. 'I expect she will, but it won't be the same if she's not associated with me. If I'd been able to introduce my fiancee and keep everything on a very light social level, it would have made everything much easier. As it is, I'll stick out like a sore thumb being there on my own, and it's going to be very obvious that I'm there for work-the very impression C.B.C. didn't want me to give!'

'In that case, do you really need to go at all?'

'I think I'm going to have to,' said Josh, running a hand over his head in a gesture of weariness. 'C.B.C. have been insistent that they want me to be there to make personal contact with the executives I'd be working with, and the contract is too important to the company not to make that effort. It's not just about me. There are other people who work for me and who are depending on that contract for some security over the next three or four years. I'd be letting them down if I didn't go.'

He drained his glass and put it down on the table. 'I'll just have to do what I can. I'd better contact C.B.C. first thing tomorrow and let the know I won't be taking my fiancee with me after all. It'll be very short notice, but they might be able to cancel the flight and change my room.'

'Unless you just change the name of your fiancee,' said Bella.

Josh looked puzzled. 'What do you mean?'

'Well, Bryn seems to have been able to put his poor wife's ticket into Aisling's name. Why can't you do the same?'

'What would be the point of that? Aisling's got a ticket already.'

'I wasn't thinking of Aisling,' said Bella a little tartly. 'I was thinking of me.'

CHAPTER FIVE

He stared at her. 'You?' he said carefully.

'It sounds to me as if there's a spare ticket to the Seychelles going begging,' said Bella. 'You might not like the idea of a week on a tropical beach, but I haven't had a holiday for ages.'

She was groping her way cautiously, not wanting to spook Josh, but desperate to convince him to let her go with him. She couldn't bear the thought of him facing that week on his own. He would be fine, of course-Josh could cope with anything-but it would still be very hard for him to be there, having to face Aisling and Bryn every day. He might be tough, but even the tough needed some support occasionally.

'I could come with you,' she went on casually. 'I've been so miserable recently but I can't afford to go away by myself. I just thought that if there's a chance of spending a week on a beach at someone else's expense…' she trailed off suggestively, and Josh's mouth quirked.

'You could bear it?'

'I'd be helping you out at the same time,' Bella reassured him in a mock virtuous tone so that he wouldn't guess that was what she really wanted to do. 'You said yourself that it would be easier if you had a partner with you-who's to know that I'm not actually the fiancee you said you were taking with you?'

'Aisling and Bryn, for a start,' said Josh.

'I think after the way they've treated you, the least they could do is keep quiet,' said Bella stringently. 'None of the people you have to impress are going to know, are they? I might not have Aisling's contacts, but I can do chit- chat, as you call it, just as well as she can. Probably better,' she added, thinking about it.

'Oh, I know you can chit-chat for England!' said Josh.

'Well, then.'

He looked at her with a puzzled expression. 'I'm trying to think why it's not a good idea,' he said slowly. 'It feels like it shouldn't be, but I can't actually think of a reason why it wouldn't work.'

'It feels wrong because you'd be going with me instead of Aisling,' said Bella evenly. 'I know it's not what you wanted, Josh, but it would be a way to save face. It's not as if you'd have to be careful the way you would with a total stranger. We're so comfortable with each other I think we'd be quite convincing as a couple. You know how often we've been out and people have thought that we were together because of our body language.'

'I can see body language wouldn't be a problem,' Josh agreed, 'but other things might be. How comfortable would you be about sharing a room, which is what we'd have to do?'

'I could cope with that,' said Bella. 'It's not as if we've never done it before.'

'A long time ago,' he pointed out. 'That was when we were students. It's not the same any more, and it's no use pretending that it is.'

No, it wasn't the same, thought Bella, looking at him and remembering those carefree days when Josh had just been a mate, before he had started to seem as necessary to her as breathing.

'You're right,' she said slowly, 'it's not the same, but I just think it's going to be really hard for you to see Aisling with Bryn-which by the way is a totally stupid name. I bet you anything he's called Bryan and he's just dropped the 'a'!'

She stopped, realising that she'd gone off at a tangent. 'Where was I?'

Josh grinned. 'You were trying to be deeply sympathetic about how hard it was going to be in the Seychelles and then you spoiled everything by making me laugh. I'm never going to be able to look at Bryn in the same way again!'

'Oh, yes,' said Bella, delighted to see the glint back in Josh's eyes but refusing to let herself be sidetracked onto the issue of Bryn's name again. 'Well, I do think it will be incredibly difficult and I can't help feeling that it would be easier if you had a friend with you. Don't you think so?' she asked anxiously, suddenly afraid that she was pushing him into something that he didn't want to do.

'I suppose that depends on the friend,' said Josh, straight-faced, and then relented. 'But yes, if you mean you, it would be nice-very nice!-to have some support.'

'That's what I'd be there for,' Bella told him. 'And if supporting you means pretending to be your fiancee to keep up appearances, fine, and if that means sharing a room, I'm not exactly going to make a fuss. We know each other too well for that.'

'What if it means sharing a bed?'

Bella hesitated, picking her words with care. 'We both know how things are, Josh,' she said. 'I know you're in love with Aisling, you know about Will. There's not much room for misunderstanding in our case, is there?'

She reached for his empty glass. 'Have a think about it while I get you another drink.'

Josh had already had two stiff whiskies. Perhaps that was why Bella's idea was seeming to make perfect sense, he thought hazily. But she was right, wasn't she? How could it be awkward for two such old friends to share a bed? Especially when it was absolutely clear that she was still in love with Will? There would be no room for any misunderstanding there, just as she had said.

And as for him, thought Josh, he was naturally devastated about Aisling. No man with any sense of decency would be sitting there, barely hours after his engagement had been broken off, wondering what it would be like to share a bed with another woman.

He wouldn't be thinking about her softness as she hugged him-purely sympathetically, of course-or the fragrance of her hair. About the indignation in her blue eyes or the curve of her mouth as she smiled.

He certainly wouldn't be thinking that sleeping with her might not be that easy after all.

Discovering that you weren't the decent man you thought you were was all he needed after the day he had had, thought Josh with an inward sigh.

Really, he didn't deserve Bella's sympathy, Josh thought guiltily. He knew she was offering to go out to the Seychelles because she felt sorry for him, but she probably could do with a break. She had had a hard time over Will, and if her finances were as chaotic as usual, he could well believe that she couldn't afford a holiday by herself.

Giving Bella a week in the sun would at least be one good thing to come out of this whole sorry mess with Aisling. Josh didn't mind letting her believe that he needed her support more than in fact he did. And it would be