restaurant?'
Luke hesitated, then nodded. `All right,' he said, giving her the name of the restaurant. `I'll see you there about eight. Wear that green dress I picked out, and don't be late!'
He turned and walked out without more ado, leaving Kate in a state of simmering exasperation at his abrupt orders. So much for his making an effort to be more polite!
Resigned to her fate, she let herself be led off to have her hair washed.
Two hours later she sat in front of the mirror and stared at her own reflection. She had been determined to dislike the way she was to be changed on Luke Hardman's instructions, but now she was taken aback by what she saw. Was that girl in the mirror really her?
The hair which had always been so soberly brown had been cunningly highlighted so that it gleamed as she turned her head-copper, bronze, gold. Then they had taken ruthless scissors to it and, released of its weight, it bounced exuberantly about her face in soft, natural waves, and threw into relief the fine cheekbones, the clear, luminous skin and the long, graceful line of her throat.
`It suits you,' Susan reassured her, mistaking Kate's silence for disappointment. She drew the brush through a wing of burnished hair and let it swing softly forward again.
It did more than suit her. It transformed her. Kate turned her head this way and that, watching her profile out of the corner of her eye, a little annoyed that Luke had been proved so right and almost alarmed at how different she looked. How would she ever be able to live up to such a glamorously vibrant image?
The bright new hair blew about her face as she stood on the King's Road and waved down a taxi. She wondered what Luke would think. It was just like him to bully her into a complete change of appearance! Now she was unsettled, unsure of herself and confused about Luke. Just when she had decided to like him, he was arrogant and unpleasant, and then, as if that weren't enough, he confused her further with a quite unexpected charm. Now she didn't know what she felt!
CHAPTER FIVE
A SUBDUED murmur of voices and the discreet chink of china greeted Kate as she stepped through the door and surrendered her coat to a silently efficient waiter. She felt vulnerable without its protection, and smoothed down her dress nervously.
It was very plain, a deep dark jade, with a wide V neck and arms demurely covered with long, tight sleeves. Otherwise the design was of classic simplicity, the skirt falling from a tailored bodice in soft folds of the finest wool.
It was a dress designed to flatter the wearer rather than itself. Kate had deliberately tried to underplay the effect by not wearing any jewellery, but she was still very aware of the sensuous feel of the soft material against her skin, of the way the stark design emphasised the swell of her breast and the pure sweep of throat and shoulder.
She was still unused to the feel of her hair and she touched it self-consciously as she followed the waiter across the room to where Luke was sitting.
He was studying a wine list with ferocious concentration, dark brows drawn together and lean jaw set, unaware of her approach. His expression was dauntingly grim; he looked like a man who had relied on himself for so long that he had forgotten that others could offer warmth and comfort, and Kate, who had been feeling edgy and resentful of the way he had cast her into confusion, found herself swept by a contrary rush of tenderness so unexpected that she faltered.
He looked up just then and saw her. At first incurious, impatient at his having his concentration broken, his gaze sharpened suddenly as he recognised his quiet, efficient secretary in the woman walking towards him.
Kate wished she weren't so conscious of the subtly alluring sway of the skirt as she moved. She had never been so aware of her own body. She could feel Luke's eyes on her slender curves and longed for her coat, a cardigan,
Luke was still holding the wine list. He laid it down very slowly as she came up to the table and then, as if suddenly aware of the waiter's surprised look, rose hastily to his feet.
To Kate's relief, his eyes had left her body and rested on her face, as if he was still having trouble convincing himself that it was really her. She wished he would say something to break the silence, which threatened to become awkward.
Instead, he glanced down at his watch.
`I'm not late!' Kate found herself saying instinctively.
Her sharpness seemed to break the spell, and a more familiar look of impatience closed over his face. `I didn't say you were.'
`You didn't need to. You just looked at your watch in that very pointed way!'
Kate allowed the waiter to pull out her chair and sat down, ruffled as much by the look that had been in Luke's eyes as she had walked towards him as by her uncharacteristic self-consciousness and the awful realisation that she had hoped he would do more than think about the time.
A half-smile twisted Luke's mouth. `I was playing for time. I wasn't quite sure it was you until you snapped at me like that!'
Kate's lips tightened. She shook the starched linen napkin out with a pointed flick of her wrists. `Of course it was me. A haircut doesn't change you that much!'
`Evidently not.' Luke's voice was dry and Kate flushed slightly. He obviously thought she was being shrewish. She must pull herself together.
`The hair's a great improvement,' he went on. `I told you it would look better short.'
Hardly an effusive compliment! `Thank you,' Kate said crisply, determined not to let him guess that she was disappointed by his lack of
There was a short pause. Luke looked as if he was about to say something, then changed his mind.
`I've ordered for you,' he said eventually, picking up the wine list once more. `I thought it would be easier.'
`I'm perfectly capable of choosing my own meal, thank you,' Kate said frostily. `I have been to a restaurant before, and I won't need the menu translated!'
Luke frowned, but he handed her the menu that lay by his plate with an irritable shrug. `Have it your own way.'
Kate opened the menu and studied it with spurious interest. She didn't really care what she ate, but it seemed important to keep some control to herself. Luke had ordered her about enough for one day!
Peeping over the top of the menu, she saw that he was intent on the wine list. In dinner-j jacket and bow-tie, he looked darkly, dourly attractive. The subdued lighting softened his features, but, when he looked up suddenly and met her gaze over the leather-bound lists, the slate eyes were as penetrating as ever.
Kate dropped her eyes hastily back to the menu.
`Have you decided yet?' Luke asked in a voice of long suffering as a waiter appeared at his elbow.
`I'll have the salmon and sole roulade, and then the magret de canard.' She closed the menu with a defiant snap.
`Sure?'
'Yes, thank you.'
`I was thinking of a Sauvignon to start with, and then a Chateau d'Yquem,' Luke said with
heavy irony. `Is that acceptable, or would you like to choose the wine too?'
'No, that sounds fine,' Kate said primly, folding her hands in her lap and refusing to rise to the bait.
Luke turned to the waiter. `We'll have the salmon and sole, and then the duck-as I ordered previously.' When he had ordered the wine he turned back to meet Kate's accusing gaze.
`What's the matter?'
'Why didn't you tell me what you'd ordered?' 'What, and have you choose something different, just to be difficult? I chose what I thought you'd like. What's wrong with that?'
'I've got a mind of my own,' Kate said with a touch of sullenness.
