The Trouble with Valentine’s (6 page)

Feigning nonchalance, Hallie withdrew her hand from his thigh and reached for her glass of water. She was flustered; she was aroused; she was totally out of her league.

She was enjoying every minute of it. ‘Actually, I’ve changed my mind,’ she said.

‘Good call.’ He exhaled deeply.

‘After all, it wouldn’t do to forget that this is strictly a business arrangement.’

‘Exactly.’

Exactly. The sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach was
not
disappointment. Nick was her employer, nothing more, and only for one week. After that it was contract fulfilled and goodbye. Surely she could resist his considerable charms for one lousy week.

All she needed was a more professional approach.

‘So how do you want to approach this business
of being married?’ she said crisply. ‘Are we aiming for warm and fuzzy or a fiery attraction of opposites?’

‘Think of yourself as a cross between a personal assistant and a German Shepherd,’ he said. ‘Supportive, loyal, and when necessary, extremely protective.’

A German Shepherd? Ugh. This new approach worked fast. ‘Anything else?’

‘Are you sure you couldn’t manage a simper?’

‘Positive.’

Nick sighed. ‘Just be yourself then. That’ll work too.’

‘Oh.’ And after a moment’s reflection, ‘That was a nice thing to say.’

‘You realize that was almost a simper?’

‘It was not.’

Nick’s answering smile was suspiciously gleeful as he flicked on his overhead light, reached for the in-flight paper and snapped it open, effectively ending the discussion.

Hallie glared at the back page of the paper. It was shaking ever so slightly. He was laughing at her, dammit. ‘That was
not
a simper.’

‘If you say so, dearest.’

A fiery marriage, she decided. A constant battle of words and of wits and it was a damn
good thing this marriage was only going to last a week.

Any longer and she’d probably kill him.

Twelve hours and several time zones later, they touched down at Chek Lap Kok International Airport, collected their luggage, and met up with the Teys’ driver, who went by the name of Kai. They followed the silent Jet Li lookalike through the streamlined arrivals terminal, out through the huge automatic opening glass doors, and they were in Hong Kong.

‘Phew.’ Wide-eyed at the sleek steel-and-glass building they’d just emerged from, Hallie paused to gather her composure. ‘It’s cooler than I thought it would be.’

‘It’s winter,’ countered Nick. ‘If you want hot and humid, we’ll have to come back in September.’

‘Ah.’

They followed the Teys’ driver towards an illegally parked Mercedes and Hallie began to watch their guide with increasing interest. Maybe it was the easy, graceful way he moved or the way he seemed to know what was happening around them without ever seeming to notice. Maybe it was the way he loaded their suitcases into the trunk as if they were empty, which was definitely not the
case. Maybe it was simply that he was gorgeous, with a quiet intensity about him that drew the eye, but … no. That wasn’t it either. He reminded her of someone.

He reminded her of Tris.

‘
This
is the Teys’ driver?’ she whispered to Nick ‘I’m guessing that’s not all he is.’

‘No,’ agreed Kai in a soft, cultured voice as he shut the trunk and opened the car door for her. ‘I also cook.’

‘Nice.’ Hallie smiled at the man. ‘But you can’t fool me. You’re security.’ High-end protection with supernatural hearing and a penchant for kitchen knives. Lucky for Nick she’d had years of experience when it came to outwitting suspicious, eagle-eyed men whose mission in life was to serve and protect. At least this one wasn’t related to her. ‘Pleased to meet you.’

‘And you, Mrs Cooper.’

Mrs Cooper
. Oh, hell. This was it.

For the next five days she was Mrs Nicholas Cooper.

The drive to the Tey residence was a silent one. The driver drove, Nick brooded, and Hallie grew wide-eyed again as they entered the neon-lit tunnel that would take them beneath Victoria Harbour and across to Hong Kong Island. Awe at the tunnel
added to her anxiety about meeting the Teys and set her stomach to churning. Funny, but she’d never actually thought posing as Nick’s wife was going to be hard.

Until now.

Finally, they shot out of the tunnel into real light again, skirted Hong Kong Island’s central business district, and started weaving their way up a long, steep slope; towering apartment blocks giving way to luxury villas that grew bigger and grander the higher they climbed.

‘How do I look?’ she asked as the Mercedes pulled into a paved driveway and swept through no nonsense wrought iron security gates that closed behind them.

‘Beautiful.’ Nick took her hand in his and, with a reassuring smile, brushed her knuckles with his lips. ‘You look beautiful.’

‘Not helping,’ she warned, rapidly withdrawing her fingers from his grasp.

‘Beddable,’ he said next, which earned him a glare.

They were as ready as they were going to get.

Nineteen-year-old Jasmine Tey stood at her bedroom window and waited for her father’s guests to arrive with a mixture of anticipation and terror.
Nicholas and his wife would arrive within the hour, their room was ready, refreshments were ready and Kai had gone to collect them from the airport. Everything was as it should be except for the butterflies in her stomach that would not be still and the suffocating fear that within this next hour Kai and her father were going to find out about her late night visit to Nicholas’s room, and once that information came out …

If
that information got out …

Because Jasmine’s current mission in life was to
prevent
that information from coming to light. She had to get Nick off somewhere by himself and apologise and beg his pardon for her earlier behaviour. Somehow, she had to swear him to silence on the matter and she had to do it fast.

Because Kai and her father; they could never know.

Jasmine turned away from the window at the sound of her father’s footsteps, slid damp palms down the front of her pretty silk sundress and offered up a smile.

‘Everything ready for our guests’ arrival?’ he asked from the doorway.

‘Yes, Father.’

Her father’s eyes were smiling and wise. They’d always been wise. They’d always looked on her
with love and delight and Jasmine never wanted that to change.

‘I wonder what his wife will be like,’ he said.

‘Me too.’

‘He didn’t mention her last time he was here,’ her father said next.

Jasmine offered up a composed smile – a smile that pretended indifference when it came to Nicholas and his rarely mentioned wife. No secret shame here, nothing to worry about at all. ‘He did to me.’

Nicholas’s wife was a vibrant, bright-eyed woman not that much older than Jasmine. She had a wide warm smile, golden-brown eyes and the most amazing dark red hair … Jasmine tried not to stare at her hair and did a poor job of it as her father moved in to welcome Nick and they shook hands and clasped shoulders and then Nick turned to his wife and put a gentle hand to the small of her back.

‘I’d like you to meet my wife, Hallie Bennett-Cooper,’ said Nick and Jasmine stood back, making herself as small as possible, and let the introductions continue until her father beckoned her forward.

‘My daughter, Jasmine,’ said her father and she put on her best social smile for Nick and
Hallie Bennett-Cooper both. Nick’s eyes were still smiley; he was still very handsome.

Best of all, he didn’t look angry or wary and when he opened his mouth the words that came out were, ‘Lovely to see you again, Jasmine’ and not ‘don’t enter my room uninvited this time.’

Not that he would have said that. Not in front of people, surely. Nicholas Cooper was an English gentleman. Wasn’t he?

‘Welcome,’ she offered, and dragged her gaze away from Nick and turned her attention to his wife – hoping upon hope that Hallie Bennett-Cooper would attribute Jasmine’s lack of speech to English-as-a-second-language problem rather than an acute attack of embarrassment and guilt.

Hallie’s gaze met hers and Jasmine coloured, because awareness was there in the other woman’s eyes. Nicholas’s wife
knew
. He’d told her, and any minute now Hallie was going to make mention of it.

Sickness rose up in Jasmine like the tide.

Don’t, she wanted to beg. Please don’t say anything. Can’t we just pretend it never happened? I didn’t know. I
didn’t
know he already had a wife.

Hallie Bennett-Cooper’s smile was surprisingly gentle. ‘Nick neglected to mention how beautiful you were,’ she murmured, and leaned forward to
brush her cheek gently against Jasmine’s before pulling back and narrowing her eyes. ‘Or how young. Men. Show me one who can give you all the necessary details.’

‘Kai can,’ said Jasmine, before her brain could catch up with her mouth.

‘Okay, I’ll give you that one,’ murmured Hallie. ‘But I stand by the statement that my husband’s powers of observation need work. I swear; he and I are going to have words.’

‘I’m quaking,’ said Nick dryly.

Jasmine had no idea what they were talking about, not that it mattered. First and foremost, it beat talking about that night. ‘Please,’ she said, remembering her role and trying not to let anxiety render her useless. ‘Would you care to come inside?’

Jasmine Tey was
nothing
like the brazen teenage seductress Hallie had imagined. Never mind the exquisite jewel-coloured sundress she wore. Never mind the waist-length black hair held away from her face with a bamboo clasp in a style both youthful and inspired because it drew attention to both face and hair and both were stunning. Hallie didn’t even mind the wide, shy eyes Jasmine turned on Nick – Hallie was fast coming to the conclusion
that most women
did
have big eyes for Nick … No, what bothered Hallie most was that Jasmine Tey seemed to have not one scrap of confidence in her own appeal and no idea whatsoever of the guilt and mortification that was currently stamped on her face for anyone with eyes to see.

Whatever Jasmine had done the last time Nick was here, boy did she regret it.

‘I—I trust your flight went well?’ asked Jasmine as Hallie tucked her hand through the crook of Jasmine’s elbow and turned the younger girl towards the villa and away from driver Kai’s all-seeing eyes.

‘It was good,’ said Hallie. ‘Well, apart from this one woman who fell into Nick’s lap on purpose. And it wasn’t me.’ Hallie rolled her eyes. ‘She simpered. She swooned. You can imagine.’

A tiny smile tilted Jasmine’s lips. It seemed she could.

‘I don’t blame him,’ Hallie continued, warming to her theme. ‘He can’t help the effect he has on us. Of course, he doesn’t have to enjoy it quite as much as he does.’

‘But darling—’

‘Don’t you darling me, Nicholas Cooper!’ He’d wanted possessive, requested jealousy. Hallie stopped and turned around to see if he was following.
He was, and so was John Tey. Driver Kai stood by the car, watching impassively. She contemplated a head toss and decided against it. Too dramatic – this was a
very
restrained household, no need to overplay it. Jealous words would more than suffice. ‘I’ve had quite enough of women falling over you for one day!’

‘You could always try trusting me.’ Nick’s voice was dry, very dry, as he reached where she stood, bent his head and touched his lips to hers in the merest whisper of a kiss.

They were in a public place. They were making a point for Jasmine’s benefit. Role playing, that was all. But the quiet intensity in his gaze made her heart race and her body want more. Had she really been married to this man she’d want him in her bedroom now. So he could show her with his body and with his eyes just how much he loved her. Not the pretty little flirt on the flight today, not any one of the women who’d tried to engage his interest, but
her
. She was hot, she was sticky, she was well and truly aroused, and dammit she was blushing, her worldliness stripped from her too easily.

She let go of Jasmine’s arm, hoping that the reassuring smile she sent the younger woman would suffice. ‘Um, I don’t suppose there’s somewhere I can freshen up?’ she asked.

‘Of course,’ said Jasmine. ‘Come, I’ll show you to your suite. I also have refreshments prepared for you if you’d care to join us on the terrace a little later. I wasn’t sure how hungry you’d be so there’s a bit of everything.’

‘That sounds lovely.’

More reassurance, because Jasmine Tey still looked like she desperately needed it.

Nick’s wide palm rested on the small of her back as they followed Jasmine to their suite, the warmth of his touch searing into her through the thin silk of her top. By the time they reached the room, his touch was a feather-light caress between her shoulder blades and her body was awash in sensation. ‘Right, then. Thank you,’ she said to Jasmine. ‘We’ll meet you on the terrace in, um—’

‘Half an hour,’ murmured Nick in
that
voice, and quietly shut the door.

‘Phew.’ Hallie blew out a breath and headed for the window, more to put some distance between herself and Nick than to admire the view. It was a magnificent view though, now that she looked at it. The Teys’ three-car garage and manicured terraced gardens were spread out directly below them and beyond their walls stood more luxury housing that only the extremely wealthy could afford. Down slope, the villas and the apartment blocks gradually
morphed into the towering skyscrapers and neon madness of Hong Kong Island’s central business district. Beyond that lay the glittering waters of Victoria Harbour and beyond
that
, more skyscrapers; the skyscrapers of Kowloon. ‘Wow,’ she said softly.

‘Breathtaking, isn’t it,’ said Nick, crossing the room to stand beside her. ‘How do you think it went with Jasmine?’

‘She got the point.’

‘You don’t think it was too subtle?’ he asked.

‘We women are subtle creatures.’

Nick didn’t seem entirely convinced. ‘I think we need more.’

‘More what? More jealousy? Look, I’m trying to be supportive here but in my professional opinion Jasmine’s not going to come anywhere near you ever again. She’s an innocent girl, Nick. You never mentioned that. And you should have. I was all set to play the over-possessive fruitcake. I don’t
need
to play the over-possessive fruitcake. I doubt I even need to be here.’