Girl Behind the Scandalous Reputation Read online

  Lily shifted on the black leather bench seat beside him and for the millionth time he wished she’d just sit still. They had been given a corner booth, overlooking Hyde Park, and whenever she so much as blinked, or turned to take in the view, his mind thought it was a good idea to let him know about it.

  He glanced around at the über-modern, low-lit interior and recognised some of the more celebrated restaurant clientele, who all seemed to be having a better time of it than him. Laughter and perfume wafted through the air, along with the sound of flatware on Limoges china, but none of it could distract him from his unhealthy awareness of her.

  He reached for his glass and took a long pull of classic 1956 Mouton Rothschild Medoc, forcing his attention from the spoon Lily was trying to lick the last morsel of ice cream from, as if it was thousand-pound-an-ounce caviar, and back to Oliver’s discourse about his barbaric Scottish ancestors and some battle he’d no doubt claim they had won against the English.

  God, his friend could talk. Had he known that about him?

  Lily leaned forward and laughed, and Tristan refused to look at the way her low-cut silk blouse dipped invitingly, wondering where her tent-like cardigan had disappeared to.

  When they had arrived at Jordana’s prior to dinner the two girls had cried and hugged for an eternity. Then Jordana had whisked Lily away to shower and change, berating him for not thinking of it himself. Tristan hadn’t told her that the last thing he needed was to have Lily Wild naked in his shower!

  Now she was dressed in a red gypsy blouse, fitted denims and ankle boots, all provided by his sister. Her hair was brushed and fell in shiny waves down her back and she’d put on a bra. Pink. Demi-cup. Though he’d be a lot happier not knowing that. Because she had fabulous breasts and he couldn’t help wondering what they would look like naked.

  ‘It was love at first sight.’

  Jordana’s words sounded overly loud to his ears, and brought his awareness sharply back to the conversation.

  What was?

  Tristan looked at his sister, who was thankfully gazing at her fiancé and not at him, and released a breath he hadn’t even realised he was holding.

  ‘That’s rubbish,’ Oliver grouched. ‘It took a month of haranguing you to help me find the perfect anniversary present for my parents before you even agreed to a real date.’

  ‘I wasn’t talking about me!’ Jordana giggled pointedly, and then squealed when Oliver grabbed her leg under the table.

  Lily laughed at their antics—a soft, musical sound that curled through Tristan’s abdomen like a witch’s spell.

  ‘Steady on,’ he said, as much to himself as to Oliver. ‘She’s still my baby sister, you know.’

  ‘Stop your whining, you great plonker,’ Oliver retorted. ‘You’re just jealous because you can’t find someone who’ll have you.’

  ‘Ah, but haven’t you heard, my good friend?’ Tristan drawled. ‘A man doesn’t know what real happiness is until he’s married. And by then it’s too late!’

  Jordana pulled a face. ‘Oh, ha-ha. You’ll fall in love one day. Once you get your head out of those legal bibles and stop dating women who are entirely unsuitable.’

  ‘That swimwear model didn’t look too unsuitable to me.’ Oliver grinned.

  ‘That swimwear model looked like a bobby pin.’ Jordana said archly. ‘Or should I say booby pin?’

  ‘Lady Sutton, then?’ Oliver offered.

  ‘Hmmm, right pedigree, but—’

  ‘I am still here, you know,’ Tristan grumbled, ‘and I’ll thank you both for staying out of my personal affairs. There’s nothing worse than two people who think love conquers all trying to talk perfectly happy singles into jumping off the same cliff.’

  Not to mention the fact that he had no plans to relinquish his freedom to such a fickle and painful emotion as love.

  But that reminded him that now would be a good time to find out who Lily could be so in love with she’d risk everything to please him.

  And he had a right to know. He’d stuck his neck out for her, and he’d be damned if he’d risk getting it cut off because she’d done some idiot’s bidding.

  ‘What about you, Lily? Ever been in love?’ he asked, smiling benignly as she shot him a look that would have felled a tree.

  Now, what on earth had made Tristan ask her that? He’d ignored her all night, and when he did speak to her it was to ask something she had no intention of answering. Not seriously anyway…

  ‘Oh, gosh, how long have you got?’ Lily jested lightly, trying to think of a feasible way to change the subject. She’d rather talk about money than love!

  ‘As long as it takes,’ Tristan replied amiably.

  She cast him a frosty look and murmured her thanks as a waiter discreetly refilled her water glass just before she picked it up.

  Tristan scowled at him, but Lily appreciated his attentiveness. As she did the ‘no cameras’ policy the restaurant insisted on. No doubt the main reason the place was so well-attended by the super rich. Although, as to that, this restaurant exuded a class all of its own.

  Eating out had been the last thing Lily had felt like doing, especially after the incident in Tristan’s office, but she’d have done anything not to be alone with him. Which she would be once they left the restaurant.

  And now he wanted to discuss her love-life as if they were best friends!

  She didn’t think so.

  There was no way she would tell him that, yes, she had thought herself silly enough to be in love once.

  With him!

  Especially not when she had returned those kisses in his office a few hours earlier as if she still was in love with him. Unbelievably, her body had gone off on a tangent completely at odds with her mind, and she was still shocked by her behaviour.

  And his.

  Although she shouldn’t be. Tristan had been angry and had shut her up in the most primitive way possible. It didn’t make it right—in fact it was downright wrong—but then so had been her response. She should have slapped him, not kissed him back. All she’d done was confirm his view that she was easy. A view she already knew would be impossible to reverse, so why even try? It wasn’t as if he would believe the truth anyway.

  ‘Well, let’s see…’ Lily paused, avoiding Jordana’s interested gaze and counting on her fingers. ‘First there was Clem Watkins, and then Joel Meaghan. Then—’

  ‘Joel Major, you mean? And Clem? The guy from the gym squad?’ Jordana scoffed. ‘He had a nose that looked like he’d gone ten rounds with a hockey stick and he thought the ozone layer was a computer game.’

  Lily pasted on a smile. ‘He had good teeth, and he realised his mistake about the ozone layer almost straight away.’

  ‘After everyone laughed. How could you have been in love with them? You didn’t date either one.’

  And that, Lily thought as she tried to ignore Jordana’s frowning visage, was one of the problems with ad-libbing. Or telling white lies. You made mistakes.

  Like forgetting that your closest friend was also at the dinner table and knew almost all of your teenage secrets.

  ‘I’m not interested in your high-school dalliances, Lily.’ Tristan cut in scathingly, his voice rising over the sounds of laughter in the background. ‘I do want to get home tonight. Let’s talk about men you’ve been in love with.’

  Ha!

  ‘Let’s not,’ Lily said, dismissing him with one of her enigmatic smiles. ‘You’d be bored silly.’

  ‘Humour me,’ he insisted, his tone intimate as he shifted his hand along the back of the velvet seat. ‘Who’s the current love of your life?’

  His thumb grazed one of her shoulderblades and the heat of his touch burned through her thin blouse like dry ice.

  Lily jerked forward and pretended she had been about to place her water glass back on the table.

  He had done that deliberately, and if she hadn’t agreed to put on a united front for Jordana and Oliver she’d happily tell him where to go.

&nb
sp; Looking at the sexy little smile curving his lips, she knew he knew it. Which only fuelled her ire. If he thought he had the upper hand in this situation he had another thing coming.

  ‘Oh, don’t be silly,’ she cooed, reaching across and placing her hand a little too high on his thigh, and patting him as one might a family pet. ‘You already know everything there is to know about me. Remember?’

  She felt a spurt of pleasure when Tristan looked taken aback by her action.

  ‘I thought it was your contention that I didn’t?’ He replied lazily, smiling a devil’s smile and clamping his larger hand over hers, effectively imprisoning her palm against his muscular thigh. ‘I’ve always believed it’s better to go directly to the source when you want to find something out.’

  Lily’s smile froze as his steely thigh muscles contracted beneath her palm. Her fingernails automatically curled into his trousers and she gave serious consideration to piercing through the heavy fabric to the flesh beneath.

  Heat surged through her body as he squeezed her hand and locked his darkly amused eyes with hers. Lily shifted her gaze to the twinkling lights of the park through the unadorned windows before managing to recover her equilibrium enough to flick her dismissive gaze back over him.

  ‘How very open-minded of you,’ she purred pointedly, digging her nails into his thigh once more before dragging her hand away.

  Lily had wanted to put Tristan in his place, but instead he threw his head back and laughed—a delightfully masculine sound that was like fingernails down a chalkboard to her highly strung emotions.

  She could see Jordana and Oliver looking perplexed, and then Tristan smiled at her. ‘That’s just the kind of guy I am,’ he said, picking up his wine glass and holding her gaze as he stroked his thumb over the stem.

  ‘I take it that was an in-joke?’ Jordana offered, jolting Lily’s attention away from Tristan.

  ‘I don’t know.’ Lily sniffed. ‘I didn’t find it funny at all.’

  ‘Well, regardless, now I’m even more confused.’ Jordana tilted her head. ‘Are you seeing someone, Lil, or not?’

  Lily saw the open curiosity in her friend’s face and wished she could rewind the last few minutes—because Jordana was far too nosy and would no doubt start hassling her about how hard she worked and how she needed to get out more.

  ‘No.’ She sighed, and then, feeling herself observed by Tristan’s sceptical gaze, added, ‘No one of any importance, that is.’

  Let him make of that what he would!

  ‘Well, good,’ Jordana surprised her by saying. ‘Because like Tristan, you’ve gone for completely the wrong partners so far. But—’ she raised her index finger as Lily was about to intercede ‘—as you’re my best friend I’ve decided to help you out.’

  ‘How?’ There was nothing scarier than Jordana on a love mission.

  ‘Ah, not telling. Let’s just say I have a little surprise for you during the wedding celebrations.’ Jordana cast Oliver a conspiratorial glance from behind her crystal wine glass.

  Lily didn’t even try to smile.

  ‘Jordana, what are you up to?’

  ‘Now, don’t be like that,’ Jordana admonished her. ‘I know how hard you’ve worked the past couple of years and it’s time you cut loose a little bit. Look around, Lil.’ She waved her glass towards the row of white tabletops. ‘Have some fun, like your peers.’

  Lily gave her friend what she hoped was a good-natured grimace. Jordana was sounding more and more like her old therapist, and that was just plain scary. ‘Jordana, you’re starting to scare me, and—much as I hate to agree with Tristan—I think you’re so loved-up at the minute you’re blinkered. I’m very happy as I am. I don’t want a relationship. I like being single.’

  ‘I’m just loading the gun, Lil, you don’t have to fire the bullets,’ Jordana returned innocently. ‘Now, how about a pot of tea to finish off?’

  ‘We really should be going,’ Tristan said. ‘Lily’s tired.’

  Lily looked at him, surprised he’d noticed. She was tired, but she’d do anything to prolong the time before being alone with him.

  ‘No, I’m not.’ She smiled brightly. ‘And I never finish a meal without a cup of peppermint tea.’

  ‘I’ll have one too,’ Jordana said.

  Tristan and Oliver both raised their hands to signal the waiter at the same time, and Lily couldn’t help laughing. Clearly Jordana had found herself an alpha male top dog to stand up to her overbearing brother.

  The waiter took their order and Lily excused herself to use the bathroom.

  Tristan frowned at her as she stood up, and she knew exactly what he was thinking. ‘Be a dear and mind my handbag, would you?’ she said to him, tilting the smaller satchel she had brought along in place of her tote precariously towards him and enjoying the way his eyes flared at her provocative move.

  Serve him right for asking her such a personal question before, and trapping her hand against his thigh.

  ‘Lily! Hi.’

  Lily looked up into the mirror above the handbasin into the gorgeous face of a previous co-star she had shot a film with two years ago.

  ‘I thought it was you. Summer Berkley—we worked together on Honeymooner.’

  ‘Yes, I remember.’ Lily wiped her hands.

  Summer was a quintessential LA actress, with the tan, the boobs, no hips whatsoever and the hair just so. But she had a good heart, and a genuine talent which would eventually take her further than all the rest combined.

  They swapped stories for a few minutes, and when Lily couldn’t stall in the bathroom any more without drawing attention to the fact that she was doing so, she reluctantly preceded Summer into the dimly lit corridor—and almost straight into Tristan, leaning indolently against the opposite wall, arms folded, legs crossed at the ankles.

  ‘Oh, hello,’ Summer breathed behind her, and Lily mentally rolled her eyes. ‘Are you waiting for us?’

  ‘In a manner of speaking.’ Tristan smiled at the redheaded Summer with bemused interest.

  Lily decided there was no way she was standing around to watch Tristan hit on another woman, but when she moved to sidestep him he deliberately snagged his hand around her waist to waylay her.

  Lily stiffened, and couldn’t miss Summer’s disappointed pout before she strutted suggestively past Tristan, who looked designer casual with the top buttons of his shirt undone and a five o’clock shadow darkening his chiselled jaw.

  ‘I’m sorry, Lord Garrett. Did I take more than my allotted thirty seconds?’ Lily murmured, stepping away from his touch.

  Tristan let her go and held up his mobile phone. ‘I had to take a call. But, yes, as a matter of fact, you did. And deliberately, I have no doubt.’

  ‘Now, why would I do that?’

  ‘Oh, I don’t know.’ His smile didn’t reach his eyes. ‘Because you like bugging me?’

  ‘Hardly,’ Lily denied, looking down her nose at him. ‘Do you mind?’ She looked pointedly towards the restaurant’s dining room.

  ‘Why don’t you want me to know who your current lover is?’ he asked.

  Lily stared at the stubble on his chin and wondered absurdly if it was hard or soft. ‘If I ignore you will you go away?’ she queried hopefully.

  ‘Nope.’

  She sighed. ‘How about because it’s none of your business, then?’

  ‘Is he famous?’

  ‘No.’

  She had to step closer to Tristan to allow two women to walk past, but quickly stepped back again.

  ‘Married?’

  ‘No!’

  ‘Do I know him?’

  Lily let out a breath. She couldn’t understand why he was pushing this. He was starting to sound like a jealous beau. But that was ridiculous. He didn’t even like her, did he?

  ‘I don’t see that it’s any of your business,’ she said again with icy politeness, folding her hands across her chest.

  ‘Unfortunately for you everything about you right now is very much my busine
ss.’

  Lily shook her head. ‘I don’t see how. You’re not my lawyer, and the question is irrele—’

  She broke off with a squeak as Tristan grabbed her elbow again, to avoid more diners heading to the bathroom and marched her around a short corner, stopping in front of a closed door.

  They were close enough now that Lily could feel heat—and anger—emanating from his muscular frame.

  ‘If you brought those drugs into the country for someone else,’ he began scathingly, ‘and you get approached by the moron while you’re in my custody I could be implicated. Not only could my reputation and legal practice go down the drain but, depending on how it played out, I could be charged along with you.’ His voice never lost its tenor, and the message was clear. ‘So, whether you think my questions are relevant or not is completely irrelevant to me.’

  Lily’s heart beat heavily in her chest. So that was what was behind his earlier probing. She had been right. He wasn’t interested in her as a person. She hated the fact that for a brief moment she had toyed with the idea that he might actually like her. Talk about living in a dream world.

  She swallowed, not wanting to dwell on the way that made her feel—because she couldn’t—wouldn’t—continue to be disappointed by his low opinion of her.

  She looked furtively around the small space and realised she was trapped between some sort of cupboard and Tristan and would need to push past him to return to the dining room.

  For a minute she considered ignoring him, but she knew how well that would go down. And nobody had ever benefited from pulling a tiger’s tail that she knew of…

  ‘I wasn’t anyone’s drug mule and I don’t know who the drugs belong to or how they ended up in my bag. And, contrary to popular belief, I don’t have a lover right now. Sorry to disappoint you on that score.’

  His brooding gaze held hers, and Lily resisted the urge to slick her tongue across her lips. He looked annoyed and intimidating, and a lot like he had when he’d thrown her out of his family home six years ago.

  ‘What happened in my father’s study six years ago?’ he asked suddenly, and Lily wondered if maybe he really was a mind reader!