The physical damage of her three crying jags had not been easy to repair. An ice pack had helped, plus some carefully applied make-up. She’d changed her clothes as well, her outfit this morning having been chosen with Gary in mind. Now she was wearing tailored cream trousers and a red shirt with three-quarter-length sleeves. Fawn pumps. Straw bag. Red lipstick.
‘Will you be booking into the hotel, ma’am?’ the parking valet asked when she climbed out of her car.
Charlotte suppressed a groan over the ‘ma’am’. Since when had she become a ma’am and not a miss? Still, the valet attendant looked all of nineteen, if that, so she supposed, at thirty-three, she was a ma’am to him.
Depressing, though, and not what she needed today.
‘No,’ she said, forcing a smile as she handed the fellow the keys to her silver Kia Rio. ‘Just meeting someone here for lunch,’ she added.
‘You’ll need a parking ticket, then, ma’am.’
Taking the ticket from him, she whirled and pushed through the revolving glass doors into the huge, airy arcade which led to the hotel proper.
A right trap for tourists and guests, this arcade, Charlotte thought as she strode past the exclusive boutiques which sold designer clothes, fabulous jewellery and the sexiest of lingerie. A trap for brides-to-be as well, she recalled with a sigh, thinking of the money she’d spent in the lingerie shop the last time she’d been in here.
Charlotte promptly veered to the other side of the arcade, where there was nothing to provoke depressing memories, just a couple of doorways. The first led into the Rendezvous bar, a trendy bar she’d visited once or twice with Louise. The second led into the bistro-style bar and grill called the Tavern, which she’d checked out the last time she’d been here and where she intended taking her parents for lunch. They served good old-fashioned pub and club meals, just the thing for a country couple who weren’t partial to à la carte cuisine.
‘Can’t stand fancy food,’ her father always said.
Charlotte’s stomach churned as she thought of her father. More so when she reached the end of the arcade and stepped from the marble floor onto the plush carpet of the hotel lobby. Just the sight of the decor in there reminded her how expensive a wedding reception here was, even one which was only having fifty guests. The cake alone had cost a bomb!
Charlotte’s only comfort was that she’d decided on only the one bridesmaid. If one of her sisters hadn’t been pregnant there would have been two more!
But oh…how she wished she’d taken notice of Gary when he’d requested a really small wedding. That would have made what she was about to do a little easier. Bad enough that she had to tell her parents she wasn’t getting married. Worse that her dad had wasted all that money which he could have put to far better use.
The ongoing drought over the last decade had not hit the family as hard as some, but things were still tough. The money her wedding had cost would have replaced the breeding stock her dad had been forced to sell this past year. Or put in an extra dam. Or taken her parents on that cruise they were always talking about going on but which they never got round to having.
She’d thought how tired and old they were looking at Christmas.
Charlotte glanced around the lobby with an ever-tightening stomach. But her parents weren’t there. She turned full circle, her gaze checking every corner of the reception area. The place wasn’t remotely crowded at this time of day. Too late to be booking out. Too early to be booking in.
No. They definitely weren’t there.
She might have rung them if they’d had a mobile phone, check if they’d become lost once they hit the city. But of course her parents hadn’t come into the twenty-first century yet. Probably never would.
Charlotte settled herself down on one of the deep, velvet-covered armchairs to wait, her body facing the entrance from the arcade. That was the way her folks would come.
She almost didn’t recognise him at first. He wasn’t wearing the same clothes he’d been wearing this morning. His expensive grey suit had been replaced by dark blue jeans and a navy polo shirt trimmed with white. A pair of sunglasses was perched on top of his head. Navy and white trainers covered his feet.
It had taken an effort of will for Charlotte to put Mr Daniel Bannister out of her mind after she’d left the airport this morning, though once she arrived home more immediate and pressing events had overtaken her. Now, suddenly, there he was again, as disturbingly sexy as ever.
Charlotte’s jolt of shock had her sucking in air, and immediately his head turned in her direction. He seemed just as startled to see her. But pleased.
Oh, yes, definitely pleased.
Charlotte’s back stiffened against the armchair as he started walking towards her. At the last moment, she rose to her feet, rather than stay seated. Too awkward having to look up so far into those incredible eyes.
He whipped the sunglasses off his head during his approach, folding and popping them into his chest pocket, his mouth broadening into a dazzling smile at the same time, showing perfectly straight white teeth and a dimple in one cheek.
As if he wasn’t attractive enough already.
‘I don’t believe it!’ he exclaimed. ‘I came here hoping to pry your name and number out of the hotel staff, and here you are in the flesh.’
All the breath rushed out of Charlotte’s lungs at his admission. This wasn’t an amazing coincidence. He was actively pursuing her.
Fury warred with flattery till she was simply flustered.
‘I told you I was meeting my parents here for lunch,’ she said, her face going hot once more. What was it about this man that made her act and feel like some silly teenager in front of her favourite pop star?
‘Really? Can’t say I recall you mentioning it. If you had, I would have remembered. But no matter. You’re here. Now I have the opportunity to redress the bad impression my sister must have given you of me this morning.’
‘You just don’t know how to take no for an answer, do you?’ she threw at him.
He grinned. ‘Beth said as much when I told her I had to find you. She’s here in town, seeing her doctor, so I set out on my mission to uncover the identity of the lovely lady I met this morning, and whom I haven’t stopped thinking about since.’
‘You are the most annoying man,’ Charlotte declared, even as she coloured some more. Couldn’t he understand that the last thing she wanted and needed today was more evidence of how stupid she’d been, thinking she was in love with Gary?
It was mortifying, the way her eyes kept gobbling him up. Dear heaven, but he was gorgeous.
She couldn’t help wishing that it had been this LA lawyer she’d run into on the Gold Coast last year. Because he wouldn’t have taken any notice of her romantically. He’d have seduced her on the spot, then happily dumped her the next day. He wouldn’t have lied to her and betrayed her and jilted her.
Men like Daniel didn’t have to con women to get them into bed. The silly fools would be only too ready to do whatever he wanted without a single promise, herself included.
This was the most flustering part of her feelings right now. That she, Charlotte Gale, a just-jilted woman, could be wanting any man the way she was suddenly wanting the man standing right in front of her.
‘I’m still not going out to dinner with you tonight,’ she pronounced tartly.
‘That’s OK,’ he replied without missing a beat. ‘Tomorrow night will do just as well. Or the next night. I’m here in Sydney for a fortnight.’
‘You’re not listening again. I said no. Now I’m saying it again. I don’t want to go out to dinner with you. Ever.’
‘You don’t