that morning.
Dee picked it up and peered at it before pressing the most obvious buttons and held it to her ear. ‘Hello. This is Dee. And I should have known that you would set my ringtone to something mad.’
‘Hello, this is Sean,’ a deep, very male voice replied with a smile in his voice. The same male voice that had kept her awake most of the previous night, reliving the way it had felt to saunter down the streets with Sean holding her hand.
Which was so pathetic it was untrue.
It was her choice not to have a boyfriend. And just because he had asked her to be his date at a company dinner did not mean that they were dating. Not real dating. His brother wanted to talk to her about tea. It was a business meeting.
She had tried that line on Lottie, who had still been laughing and muttering something about her being delusional when she’d staggered home.
‘I was wondering how you were getting on with your new phone. Do you like it?’
She snuggled back against the headboard and smiled. ‘I do like it. It was one of those unexpected gifts that take you by surprise and then make you smile. Thank you. Sorry I haven’t had time to call. We have been really busy.’
‘No problem. And you can change the ringtone to anything you like. There are several to choose from on the special options menu.’
Dee held the phone at arm’s length and made a scowl before holding it closer. Suddenly she felt as though she was being asked to sit an exam and she had not had time to study the subject.
‘Sean. It is flowery and shiny, and there are so many touch-screen buttons that working out which one to use is going to take me the rest of the day. If I can stay awake that long. I’m long past the tired stage.’
‘I know what that feels like.’ He breathed out hot and fast. Then his voice faded away until he was speaking in little more than a whisper that reached down the phone and sent tendrils of temptation into her mind, mesmerizing, tantalizing and delicious. ‘So here is an idea—have dinner with me tonight. I know a few restaurants in your part of town and we can have a great meal and a glass of wine while I squeeze in a master class on how to use your phone.’
Just the way he breathed out the word ‘squeeze’ was so suggestive that Dee almost dropped her new phone.
Dinner?
Oh, that sounded good.
But she was shattered and full of cake.
And not sure that she could sit opposite Sean Beresford without pouncing on him, which would be bad news for both of them.
‘That sounds great, Sean, but work has been mad and I ate earlier. And now you have made me feel extra guilty for not calling to thank you.’
‘No need. This is the first real break that I’ve taken all day. And if anything I should be thanking you.’
‘Why? Talk to me. After all, that’s why you sent me this phone. Wasn’t it?’
A gentle laugh echoed down the phone that warmed her in places that even her best hot tea could not reach. It was a laugh designed to tantalize any female within earshot and make her skin prickle with awareness. Right down to her toes. Pity that it was a sensation she liked more than she would ever be willing to confess to a man like Sean. He would enjoy that far too much.
‘I was giving a presentation to our new group of trainee hotel managers this morning and after thirty minutes in the all-white holding cell, as you described it so delightfully, I began to understand what you meant by an airless, windowless room. So do you know what I did?’
‘You went to the park and sat on benches and fed the ducks.’ Dee smiled. ‘The wannabe managers had to train the ducks to race for the food and the trainee with the fastest duck got the best job in the hotel chain. Was that how it worked?’
‘Ah. Duck training and Pooh sticks are only used in the advanced management courses. These were first-year students. If it had not been raining, I might have given them a treasure map to follow around London, but that option was out. So I decided to take your advice instead and I moved the whole group to the conservatory room at the Riverside, opened every door to the lawns and turned the presentation into a discussion about hotel design and meeting customer expectations. It was fascinating. And useful. Every one of those trainees seemed to come to life in the conservatory. They were transformed from sitting in total silence to being open and chatty and much more relaxed. You should have seen their faces when I told them why we had moved.’
Dee sucked in a breath. ‘Did you mention my name so that they could pin it to a dart board for target practice?’
‘Not specifically.’ He laughed. ‘You were a valued event planner who gave me feedback on the repressive feeling of the breakout rooms. But they totally got it, in a way that I couldn’t have predicted. Instead of telling them about the impact of room design, they described how they felt in the two spaces and worked it out for themselves. It was brilliant. Thanks.’
‘Ah. So that is the real reason for this call. It’s confession time. What you really want to say is that you listened to my whining about how intelligent people shouldn’t be packed into closed box rooms and then pretended that you had come up with the idea all by yourself. Is that right?’
‘Drat, you have seen through my evil plans,’ Sean replied in a low, hoarse voice which sent shivers down her back. She imagined him sitting in his office in the minimalist hotel surrounded by all-white marble and smooth, plastic surfaces, and instinctively pulled the silky cover over her legs.
‘Are you still at work?’ she asked, daring to take the first move.
‘I just got back to the penthouse at Richmond Square. The view from up here is fantastic. Pity you aren’t here to share it with me. Floor-to-ceiling windows. Breathtaking skyline. I have a feeling you might enjoy it.’
Dee closed her eyes to visualize how that might look and took a couple of breaths before replying. ‘Sorry to disappoint you, but I would hate to be one of those girls who only suck up to you because they want to share the view from the penthouse over breakfast.’
The second the words were out of her lips, she winced in embarrassment. What was it about this man that caused apparently random sounds to emerge from her mouth which bypassed the brain?
‘You could never disappoint me. And, as it happens, I know how to make breakfast without needing to call for room service.’
I bet you do.
‘I told you that you were cheeky.’ Dee smiled and nibbled at one corner of her little fingernail. ‘But I may have been mistaken about that.’
‘So you do make mistakes?’ Sean hit right back across the net. ‘And just when I thought that you had all of the answers.’
‘Cheeky does not come close. Brazen might be a better description. Does this wonderful breakfast include tea?’
‘Dee,’ he replied in his rich, deep, sensual tone that reached down the phone and caressed her neck, ‘for you, it would include anything you like. Anything at all.’
Suddenly she was glad that she was lying down because her legs seemed to turn to jelly and her throat went dry.
Closing her eyes should have helped but all she could hear was his lazy, slow breathing in her ear which did nothing at all to calm her frazzled brain.
A handsome man who she liked far more than she ought to was holding something out to her on a velvet cushion, gift-wrapped and sumptuous, and she already knew that it would be astonishing.
And terrifying. She was going to have to face him in less than twenty-four hours and somehow she had to get a hold on this out-of-control attraction before it spiralled away into something more elemental which could only ever be a short-term fling.
So she did what she always did when someone came too close. She put a smile in her voice and hit him right back between the