his mouth settled firmly on hers, slowly tracing each soft curve and contour of her lips. His tongue touched the corner of her mouth, and her body jumped in surprise. One part of her brain ordered her to pull free immediately, but some deeper, more compelling voice rebelled at such an unjust reaction to his gallant efforts.
His tender efforts.
His persuasive efforts.
Besides, she realized, the photographer might have missed his first few shots. Diana acted on the side of justice and prudence and slid her hands up his jacket and tentatively, uncertainly kissed him back. The pressure of his mouth increased invitingly as his hand slid up and curved around her nape, his fingers shoving into her hair.
A loud burst of music and thunder of applause inside the ballroom announced that the formal festivities were already underway in the ballroom and snapped them both back to the present. Diana pulled away with a self-conscious laugh, and he shoved his hands into his trouser pockets, gazing down at her with his dark brows drawn into a slight frown. Cole looked to see if the photographer was still present and was glad to see that he had apparently gotten his shot and left.
'I—I can't believe we did that,' Diana said nervously, trying to smooth her hair as they walked toward the door into the hotel.
He shot her a sideways glance that was filled with a meaning she didn't understand. 'Actually, I wanted to do that years ago,' he said, reaching out and opening the heavy door for her.
'You did not.' Diana rolled her eyes in smiling disbelief.
'The hell I didn't,' he said with a grin.
Inside, the mezzanine was nearly deserted. Conscious of missing lipstick and mussed hair, Diana stopped when they came to an alcove where the rest rooms were located. 'I need to make some repairs,' she explained. 'Go ahead without me.'
'I'll wait,' Cole stated irrefutably, and he stationed himself at a nearby pillar.
Startled by his gallant determination to stay near her side, Diana tossed him a hesitant smile and vanished into the ladies' room. Several of the stalls were occupied, and as she walked up to the dressing table to smooth her hair, a lively discussion was underway between two of the occupants: 'I don't know why everyone is so surprised,' Joelle Marchison told her companion. 'Anne Morgan said Dan told her months ago that he wanted to break his engagement to Diana, but Diana wanted to marry him and she kept begging him to stay with her. Anne said that marrying someone else and letting Diana find out about it in the newspapers was probably the only way that Dan could break free of her once and for all.'
Rooted to the floor, Diana listened to a chorus of fascinated exclamations from the other stalls and felt tears spring to her eyes. She wanted to shout at all of them that Anne Morgan was a jealous, spiteful liar who'd been in love with Dan herself and had lost him to Diana, but even if she had had the nerve, she was afraid she'd lose control and start to cry. The door to Joelle's stall started to open, and Diana darted into an empty stall and stayed there until everyone left, wounded by the unprovoked malice of women whom she had never harmed in any way; then she walked back to the vanity and tried to dab at her eyes without ruining her makeup.
Outside the ladies' room, Cole was being treated to a recitation of the same information by two of the women who'd been in the ladies' room and who were now imparting the news to their friends: 'We just heard that Dan Penworth has wanted to get rid of Diana for ages, but she wouldn't let him go!'
'It serves her right,' one of them announced. 'The media has always treated her like a princess. Personally, I am sick to death of hearing about how wonderful that magazine is and how successful she is, and how gracious, and all that bullshit.'
The other woman was kinder. 'I don't care what you say; I pity her, and so do a lot of people.'
Partially concealed by the pillars at the side of the alcove, Cole heard every word, and he marveled at the viciousness of the female sex toward their own, and then he wondered which would hurt Diana more—their spite or their pity. He had a feeling she'd prefer their spite.
Chapter 21
Cole knew the instant he saw Diana's pale face that she'd heard something of what her 'friends' were saying in the ladies' room, and because he couldn't offer any comfort, he offered his arm instead. When they reached the ballroom doors, they were closed and the opening speech was underway.
Frowning, she drew back, loath to draw more notice by entering the ballroom noticeably tardy and with Cole. 'I suppose your table is in the front?'
As the donor of the most expensive item to be auctioned that night, Cole was to occupy the seat of honor at the head table, just below and in front of the auctioneer's podium. 'Table one,' he confirmed. 'Front row center.'
'Our table is in the third row.' She sighed. 'Why couldn't at least one of us have been seated at the back of the room? There's no way we can slip in there unnoticed.' Anxious to get inside before they were any later, she reached for the big handles on the heavy doors, but he laid his hand on her arm to stop her from pulling them open.
'Why try to be invisible? Why not let them think what everyone who reads the
'No one who knows me is going to believe that!' she cried, almost wringing her hands in despair. His whole face tightened. 'You're right. How stupid of me. I forgot that this is a gathering of the rich and useless, who would never believe you'd switch from one of their own to an ordinary, common man—'
Diana glared at him, confused and frantic and dumbfounded. 'What are you talking about! There's nothing ordinary or common about you.'
She meant it, Cole realized with a surprise that was outweighed by self-disgust at his ridiculous outburst. 'Thank you,' he said with an assessing smile as he studied her flushed, upturned face. 'At least anger put the sparkle back in your eyes. Too bad my kiss couldn't have accomplished that.'
Diana made the mistake of looking at his mouth, then had to look away before she could concentrate on the issue. 'I'm not accustomed to kissing men I hardly know, particularly when someone else is watching me.'
'You've gotten awfully finicky,' he joked. 'You used to kiss stray kittens and mongrel pups all the time.'
The analogy was so absurd that Diana laughed. 'Yes, but
In the ballroom, polite applause heralded the end of the opening speech. Cole pulled open the heavy doors, put his hand beneath her elbow, and escorted her forward. Murmurs erupted throughout the ballroom as one thousand startled people observed the unexpected arrival of their guest of honor—a notoriously illusive billionaire recently listed by
Cole escorted Diana to her table in the third row and seated her there in the vacant chair between Spence and Diana's grandfather. He nodded politely to everyone, but he winked at Corey, smiled warmly at Diana and briefly touched her shoulder, then strode off to his own table in the front row.
Diana watched him for a moment, impressed and amused by his supreme indifference to the excited curiosity his appearance was generating. Keeping her expression pleasant and neutral, she looked at Doug and his date, Amy Leeland, who were seated across from her to the left; then she glanced to the right at her mother and grandparents. Corey was one seat away, between Spence and Doug, and her eyes were filled with questions, but her expression was perfectly composed.
They were all dying of curiosity, Diana realized, but they all knew the first rule of social survival—always present a calm, united front. In keeping with that rule, Spence, Corey, and Doug smiled at her as if there were nothing in the least extraordinary about Diana arriving conspicuously late on the arm of a man whom they hadn't seen in over a decade and who treated her with possessive familiarity.
Diana's mother and grandfather had no idea at all who he was, but they followed suit.
