Appointment at the Altar

with his thumb, a touch so tantalising that Lucy closed her eyes instinctively against the sharp twist of response inside her. ‘What do you think?’ His voice dropped even further.

‘I…I’m not…’ How was she expected to think when his other hand was sliding beneath her hair, tugging gently at the back of her neck to bring her towards him? When every nerve in her body was sighing, Yes, say yes! Say you think it’s the best idea you’ve ever heard. When her blood was singing and her lips were tingling with anticipation and she wanted, more than anything, to close the gap between them and kiss him again.

And then the gap was closed anyway, and his mouth was on hers and hers was on his and the sensations exploded inside her, shattering the last feeble attempt to be sensible and releasing deep-honeyed delight that made her murmur with pleasure and curl her palm around his jaw. She could feel the faint prickle of golden stubble beneath her fingers and his smile curving against her lips and, deep down, the simmer of a lurking excitement that would erupt if they weren’t careful.

Perhaps Guy felt it, too. Reluctantly, he lifted his head and smiled down into Lucy’s face. Her cheeks were flushed, her blue eyes dazed and dreamy, her lips curved voluptuously, and he risked one more kiss as he smoothed some golden strands of hair behind her ears.

‘That’s better,’ he said. ‘You look like a girl in love now.’

This was just a game to Guy. The truth struck Lucy like a blow and she jerked back. That lovely kiss, the warmth and the sweetness, meant nothing to him. He had just been teasing her, playing with her. Look at his eyes, dancing with laughter. He thought it was funny.

‘Let’s hope it does the trick, then,’ she said. She longed to sound cool, but her voice wasn’t that steady. She fumbled for the door handle. ‘It would be a shame if all that was for nothing, wouldn’t it?’

‘Lucy-’ Guy began, but she was already grabbing her bag and clambering out of the car, slamming the door shut behind her when she finally managed to disentangle herself. Bridget was right. It was a stupid design.

And then Lucy was stalking away towards the hospital entrance, so blind with a mixture of fury and disappointment and frustration that she didn’t notice the man tucking a mobile phone into his jacket pocket until she had walked right into him. ‘I am so sorry…’ she apologised breathlessly, and then broke off. ‘Frank?’

‘Lucy!’ said Richard’s father, sounding equally surprised.

‘What are you doing out here? Is everything OK?’

‘Yes, I just came out to make a couple of calls. You know they won’t let us use mobiles in the hospital.’ He looked more closely at her flushed face and stormy eyes. ‘Are you all right, Lucy?’

Lucy opened her mouth to tell him that no, she was not all right. She had just been kissed by someone so insufferably smug, conceited, patronising and infuriating that he actually thought it was funny to turn her inside out and upside down and then laugh at her.

But they were interrupted before she could get started. ‘Lucy! You forgot your-’ Guy was getting out of the car with her mobile in his hand, calling to catch her attention before he registered that she was talking to someone she knew ‘-phone,’ he finished. ‘It must have fallen out of your bag.’

‘Oh.’ It would have been nice to have been able to tell him exactly where he could stuff the phone but, unfortunately, she needed it. ‘Thank you,’ she said stiffly, holding out her hand for it as Guy came up.

To her surprise, she saw Frank looking from Guy to her and then back again with a very odd expression on his face. There didn’t seem much choice but to introduce the two men and, since Guy was here, he might as well make himself useful. Surely meeting him in the flesh would convince Frank and Ellen that he was real at last-and a lot more effectively than a kiss!

‘Frank, this is Guy Dangerfield,’ she said, a little puzzled by the astonishment in Frank’s face.

‘Guy?’ he echoed. ‘Your Guy?’

‘Er…yes,’ said Lucy with a glance at Guy, whose face was carefully expressionless. What was going on? ‘Guy, as you’ve probably gathered, this is Richard’s father, Frank Pollard.’

Guy offered Frank his hand. ‘I was very sorry to hear about your son’s accident,’ he said, ‘but I gather that he’s on the road to recovery now.’

‘He is, thank you…yes…’ Frank stammered. ‘My goodness,’ he said, positively overwhelmed. ‘What a pleasure to meet you! This is a bit of a surprise, I must say. No wonder Lucy has been so secretive about you.’

Frank turned to Lucy and wagged a jovial finger at her. ‘You never told us you were involved with Guy Dangerfield!’

‘I did!’ Lucy was completely mystified by his reaction. ‘I was always talking about him!’

‘You just said Guy. We didn’t realise you meant Guy Dangerfield.’

Guy’s slightly wooden expression relaxed as he watched Lucy, who clearly didn’t have a clue what Frank was talking about. ‘You’re not ashamed of me, are you, darling?’ he said, and she glared at him, not trusting him an inch when he had that glint in his eye.

‘Of course not, darling,’ she replied, baring her teeth at him. ‘How could I possibly be ashamed of you?’ She turned back to Frank. ‘Have you met before?’

‘Me? No! I’ve just read about Guy here,’ said Frank hastily. ‘He’s a very well-respected figure in the business community-famous, in fact. But you must know that, Lucy.’

Guy put an arm around Lucy. ‘Lucy isn’t interested in the business pages, are you, sweetheart?’

‘Still, you must have realised that we’d have heard about Guy,’ said Frank, fortunately not noticing that Lucy was looking daggers at Guy at the time. ‘Well, well, well! And all the time you were here, you were going home to Guy Dangerfield and you never said a thing!’

‘That’s because he’s just Guy to me.’ Lucy even managed a simper as she snuggled into Guy and fluttered her lashes up at him, but only Guy could see that behind the sweet pose her blue eyes were bright with challenge.

Obviously he was a lot more famous than she had realised. Lucy was not, in fact, a great reader of the papers, but she didn’t need Guy pointing that out. She had recognised the respect in which he was held at Dangerfield & Dunn, but she hadn’t understood that he had a wider influence. Frank was carrying on as if he were Bill Gates! Meg hadn’t recognised him, but then Meg’s knowledge of the business world wasn’t much greater than her own. She would know if a chain of shoe shops had been the subject of a hostile takeover, perhaps, but that would be it.

‘It didn’t seem right to talk about how happy we were when Richard was so ill,’ she went on, feeling that she had a score to settle with Guy. He had claimed that kiss had been all about convincing Frank and Ellen that she really did have a lover. Well, she would make things even more convincing, and see how he liked that! ‘But of course, now he’s getting better, we don’t need to keep it secret any longer.’

Guy’s arm was like iron around her and she felt it stiffen, as if he could sense where she was leading. Lucy smiled adoringly up at him, rather enjoying herself now. ‘I can tell Frank, can’t I, darling? We’ve just come from Guy’s mother,’ she went on without waiting for his reply. ‘We wanted her to be the first to know.’

‘You mean…?’ Frank looked from one to the other, his evident incredulity scarcely flattering, she couldn’t help thinking crossly. What did he think-that she wasn’t good enough for the great Guy Dangerfield?

‘Yes.’ Her downcast lashes and demure smile were perfect. ‘We’re going to get married!’

CHAPTER SEVEN

LUCY HEARD GUY suck in his breath, but she deliberately ignored him. ‘We were going to keep it within the family for now,’ she told Frank, ‘but since it’s you…You don’t mind if the Pollards know, do you, Guy?’

‘Of course not,’ said Guy after the tiniest of pauses. ‘But, as Lucy says, we don’t want to make this public yet. I’m sure you understand,’ he added smoothly.

‘Oh, yes, yes, of course. Mum’s the word.’ Frank was clearly unsure how to take this unexpected development. Flabbergasted wouldn’t be too strong a word to describe his demeanour. ‘This is all a bit of a surprise.’

‘Isn’t it?’ agreed Guy, a certain rigidity in his smile as Lucy snuggled closer, pleased with his reaction. Let him be on the receiving end of a joke for once!