The Party Starts at Midnight

by Lucy King

  ‘Not a thing.’

  ‘You’re really not going to budge?’

  ‘Not even a millimetre.’

  He took in the set of her jaw, the challenge in her eyes and realised that this wasn’t a battle he’d be winning. Not here and now, at least.

  And that was fine because now he knew that she wanted him as much as he wanted her he could wait. He only had to hold out a few more weeks and he could easily manage that. In the meantime he’d perhaps spend the weeks wearing down her resistance so that by the time the party was over she’d be begging for him to take her to bed, and his track record of avoiding rejection would once again be blemish-free.

  ‘OK,’ he said with a casual shrug and an even more casual smile that gave away nothing of his thoughts. ‘Then I’d better get the bill.’

  * * *

  The ease with which Leo had let the whole business/pleasure thing go had been surprising, but as Abby prepared for bed later that night she certainly wasn’t complaining. He’d never know how close she’d come to giving in. How tempted she’d been to hurl aside the table and launch herself at him and to hell with the principle that had helped keep her and her business on the straight and narrow.

  So much for thinking that everything was fine. She should have known that things would implode. She should have been prepared for it.

  But really, how could she have been? She’d never ever have imagined that Leo-tighter-than-a-clam-Cartwright would have actually put what he was thinking into words. Even once he had, she’d struggled to believe what she was hearing.

  He’d badly rocked her resolve. He’d certainly rocked her thought processes because maybe she shouldn’t have told him that she thought about him and that night all the time. Maybe it would have been better to deny it and pretend that the chemistry that arced between them wasn’t an issue.

  But then again, as she’d told him, she’d never believed in not saying what she thought and what she felt when the need arose, and the need had definitely arisen then because her nerves had been shredded.

  So no, she’d done the right thing, she thought, throwing back the duvet and climbing into bed.

  It had been much better to acknowledge that there was something between them because once she’d done that she’d been able to deal with it. And she had. Successfully. It had been a close-run thing, and if Leo had pushed even a little bit further she might have relented, but her sense of self-preservation was still intact because somehow—thankfully—she’d convinced him to stop.

  Now all that remained was for her to do the same about the sweet, aching tension in her muscles and the hot throbbing between her legs and everything would be back under control.

  * * *

  Given how badly he’d been sleeping and how much effort he’d expended—fruitlessly—on wondering how he could wear away Abby’s obstinate resistance without drawing attention to what he was doing, the last thing Leo felt like was meeting up with his brother to be introduced to his new date.

  For one thing, ever since their parents’ anniversary party had come into being things had been a bit tense between them. Shortly after Leo had informed his brother of the fact that he’d be spending much of his time in Madrid, they’d met up for a beer and within five minutes of sitting down Jake had begun interrogating him with a tenacity that Leo normally admired but then had had him gritting his teeth.

  Despite Leo’s lack of input and his icy glares Jake hadn’t let up, prodding, dropping Abby’s name into the conversation at every possible opportunity and smiling knowingly, until Leo had slammed his glass down on the table, shot him a look that could have frozen hell and told him to shut up. Which seemed to have done the trick because Jake had backed off and stayed backed off ever since.

  For another, spending a couple of hours watching the latest in a long line of women moon over his brother and knowing that the relationship would last only marginally longer than his did, wasn’t his idea of fun.

  He wasn’t envious, as Jake was so fond of suggesting. He didn’t do envy, and, besides, what was there to be envious of? He just didn’t particularly enjoy being a gooseberry, and he didn’t particularly enjoy having to bite his tongue so that he didn’t tell whoever was wrapped round his brother at the time not to bother, that was all.

  But then he’d considered the alternative, which was trying not to fantasise about Abby and what he was going to do with her the minute the party was over, a battle he inevitably ended up losing, and he’d settled for the option that was marginally less unappealing.

  And that was how he’d come to be at The Cross and Sceptre halfway through his second pint and trying to stifle a yawn.

  It wasn’t that Caroline Adams wasn’t charming. She was. She was attractive, amusing and had dozens of entertaining stories about the things that had happened on the set of St Jude’s. He could see why Jake was, however temporarily, captivated. But he was knackered and keen to get home to work on his strategy for dealing with Abby.

  Which was why he was only paying the barest attention to what Caroline was saying, until she happened to mention that they were a month or so away from filming the thousandth episode of the show that Abby loved so much and suddenly he was on full alert.

  Light bulbs were flashing in his head left, right and centre, and the strategy that had proved so frustratingly elusive recently became blindingly clear.

  Adrenalin pumping, he put his glass on the table with such force that both Jake and Caroline jumped. ‘Well, now, that sounds like something to celebrate,’ he said, obviously sounding more enthused than he had all evening if the way they were staring at him in surprise was anything to go by.

  ‘It does, doesn’t it?’ said Caroline with a bright smile.

  ‘Need an event planner?’

  ‘Do you know one?’

  Ignoring his brother’s smug smile, Leo kept his gaze pinned to the woman who might well turn Abby to putty in his hands, and said, ‘As it just so happens, I do.’

  * * *

  As Abby had hoped, everything was totally back under control, until about a week after that dinner, when Leo rang to say that he’d heard about some work she might be interested in and if she could spare a day midweek to follow it up with him it would be worth her while.

  She couldn’t really spare a day midweek but neither could she refuse the possibility of work—the memory of those four months of absolutely nothing in the diary had never completely faded—so on Thursday morning, in response to the peel of the doorbell Abby found herself heading down the stairs with a spring in her step and a buzz of excitement that had nothing to do with seeing Leo again and everything to do with the prospect of a job.

  The tiny lurch that her heart gave when she opened the door and saw him standing on the step, looking all tall, dark and serious, was as a result of nearly tripping up on a wrinkle in the hall carpet. The quick tightening of her stomach had to be hunger because for the first time in years she hadn’t quite got round to breakfast. The sudden dryness of her mouth was, naturally, down to too much coffee and not enough water.

  ‘Good morning,’ said Leo, giving her a barely there smile.

  ‘Is it? For me it’s a bit too early to tell.’

  The smile deepened into a grin as he backed off the step and waited for her to lock her front door before walking beside her to the car.

  ‘Ready to go?’ he asked, holding open the passenger door for her.

  ‘Not really,’ said Abby, because he’d been unnervingly vague about the details, ‘but I intend to remedy that as soon as we’re on our way.’

  Taking great care not to brush against him, she slid into the car and wondered how the hell she was going to handle who knew how long a journey with him in such close proximity. All that presence, that masculinity filling what was really a very small, very confined space.

  She had t
o focus, she thought, doing up her seat belt and sitting back against the soft leather while staring ahead in an effort to not watch Leo do the same. Concentrate on business. Not on his hands on the steering wheel or his hard muscled, jean-clad thighs so close that touching them would be almost accidental...

  Business, she told herself, snapping her gaze back to where it should be, that was, the windscreen. That was the thing.

  ‘Are you going to tell me where we’re going?’ she asked as he pulled away from the kerb, drove down the road and smoothly slipped into the heavy rush-hour traffic.

  ‘I wasn’t planning on it.’

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘It’s a surprise.’

  Abby twisted round a bit and stared at him. She couldn’t help it, and it did give her a lovely view of his profile. ‘A surprise?’

  ‘That’s right.’

  ‘As a rule event planners aren’t great fans of surprises. We’re good at organising them, lousy at being on the receiving end of them, especially when the latter happens slap bang in the middle of the former.’

  ‘I think you’ll like this one.’

  She doubted it. She doubted it very much, and now she wished she’d quizzed him a bit harder when he’d first suggested this trip, wished she hadn’t been quite so dizzily distracted by the sound of his voice. ‘You said it was about work.’

  ‘That’s right. There’s a party to be organised.’

  ‘What for?’

  ‘You’ll see.’

  Abby dropped her gaze to the faint smile that was tugging at his lips, and frowned. ‘Why do I get the feeling that you’re pleased with yourself?’

  ‘Because I am.’

  And just like that her temper sparked because she was tired, frustrated and tense, her career was not his plaything and actually there was nothing remotely amusing about any of this. ‘OK, look, Leo. I get that this is, for some reason, tickling you pink, and you think you’re being really clever and mysterious by being so secretive, but consider my point of view for a moment. I’m heading to a business meeting about which I know absolutely nothing. I don’t know who the client is. I’ve had no chance to prepare or to do any research. I don’t like it. I don’t feel comfortable. And you’re not playing fair.’

  ‘Maybe not but you’ll be fine. You can organise a party standing on your head with your eyes closed.’ He shot her a quick searing glance that did nothing to calm the flurry of nerves that were churning up her stomach. ‘And besides, I should think you know pretty much everything there is to know about the client.’

  ‘I do?’

  ‘Yup.’

  That was some small comfort, she supposed, but still... ‘How would you feel if the roles were reversed?’

  ‘One hundred per cent confident in my ability.’

  ‘Sure you would.’

  ‘I’d also trust me.’

  ‘Easy for you to say. You know you. I don’t.’

  ‘I’d trust you.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘You’ve never given me cause not to.’

  ‘Neither have I given you much cause to trust me. Nor you me.’

  There was a pause and then he said with a conviction she’d never heard from him before, ‘Abby, all you need to know is that if I say it’ll be fine, it will be.’

  ‘Are you really not going to tell me?’

  ‘Nope.’

  And that was when she gave up because she could hardly force it out of him, could she? And as she wasn’t willing to throw herself from a moving vehicle, what else could she do but just as he suggested and trust him?

  ‘Then it seems I have little choice,’ she said a bit grumpily.

  ‘If it helps we’ll be there in around an hour.’

  ‘Do you mind if I catch up on some work en route?’

  ‘Not at all.’

  And that was what she did. She took out her iPad, blocked Leo from her thoughts, and as they crossed the river and headed north through the city she sent emails, added appointments to her diary and made lists.

  She was so engrossed she barely noticed the car slowing an hour or so later. It was only when Leo cut the engine that she glanced up and saw that they’d stopped in front of a barrier that kept people out of what looked like a huge industrial estate.

  ‘What’s going on?’ she asked, looking around and wondering whether she’d been right to put her trust in him after all because they appeared to be in the middle of nowhere and it was deserted.

  ‘We’re here.’

  ‘Where’s here?’ she asked, and thought that she really should have paid more attention to where they were heading.

  ‘They’re expecting you,’ he said, undoing her seat belt, then leaning across her, opening her door and practically pushing her out in the direction of the booth. ‘Give me a call when you’re done. Have fun.’

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  THREE HOURS LATER Abby was back at the barrier, still buzzing, still reeling, still unable to believe that she’d just had a tour of the set of her favourite TV show, had met some of the cast and had all but got the job of planning a party to celebrate a thousand episodes.

  As Thursday mornings went, this one had been a corker.

  And it was all down to lovely, lovely Leo.

  Caroline—fabulous producer and practically her new best friend—had told her about the drink. She’d told her about how he’d recommended her, and how he’d fixed up not just the meeting but also the tour, and as a result Abby was now filled with nothing but warm, melty, gooey thoughts for him.

  Setting up a meeting was one thing, but requesting a tour surely went beyond making a simple professional recommendation, didn’t it? It meant that he’d remembered her love of the programme. It meant that he’d done something for her that he knew she’d enjoy.

  Which meant...what exactly? Something? Nothing? What?

  With her brain going into overdrive as she tried to work it out Abby sent Leo a quick text to tell him she was done, and leaned against the booth to wait.

  Would she be reading too much into this morning if she considered the possibility that maybe their relationship was slipping into something a bit more...well, personal?

  Could she even begin to wonder whether, as unbelievable and contrary to her previous experience as it seemed, he might actually be changing in his approach to emotion? After all, his declaration of his feelings in the restaurant and now this would suggest he was. A bit. Maybe. And if he was beginning to open up and their relationship was shifting then what was she going to do about it? What did she want to do about it?

  Hmm.

  Perhaps she was being a bit over the top with the whole business/pleasure-mixing thing, she thought, frowning down at the ground and biting her lip. Surely her business wouldn’t go down the tubes if she broke her rule just this once? Things were very different today from what they had been seven years ago. She was on a far firmer footing business-wise, and she was no longer naïve when it came to men.

  Besides, Leo wasn’t the kind of man who’d use what went on between them for his own ends. He hadn’t yet, and she could think of no reason why he would. He wouldn’t need to.

  So maybe disaster wouldn’t strike if she gave into the desire that had, if she was being honest, been eating her up inside and driving her totally nuts. It might even be fun. It would certainly be hot...

  And right now, she thought, her heart hammering and the possibilities of an affair racing through her head as she watched his car come round the corner and pull up right in front of her, so was she.

  * * *

  Leo watched Abby approach his car as if she were floating on air, her eyes shining, her cheeks pink and her smile wide, and satisfaction shot through him.

  Oh, yes, fixing up this trip had been a stroke of genius. A
stroke of bloody genius. He’d thought she’d love it, and it seemed as though he’d been right. And as a result, she was his. Absolutely and without doubt.

  Or she would be before very long, he amended, climbing out and striding round to the passenger side to open the door for her, because those light bulbs that had started flashing a week ago in the pub hadn’t stopped and he’d come up with an offensive that couldn’t possibly fail.

  Once they got back to London he was planning to capitalise on the success of this morning by inviting her out to a dinner designed to seduce. Then there’d be another and another, and possibly another. He’d intersperse the dinners with a picnic. The theatre. The Boat Race. And whatever else he could think of.

  She wouldn’t have time to question or doubt or wonder what he was doing. Her head would be too busy spinning with the charm he’d be hitting her with. Or trying to, at least, because he had to admit that therein lay the only flaw to an otherwise perfect plan. Not that it was a major flaw. No. He was, perhaps, a little rusty on the charm front, but he used to have gallons of the stuff, and surely it couldn’t be that hard to dust it off and put it into practice.

  ‘Hi,’ she said, giving him a dazzling smile as she slid into the passenger seat.

  ‘Hi,’ he replied, duly dazzled as he shut her door, made his way round to his side, got in.

  She was peering at the dashboard. ‘Do you have air conditioning in this thing?’

  ‘This thing,’ said Leo, a bit bemused by the effect that a mere smile could have on him, ‘can do nought to a hundred in six point eight seconds. It has a V12 engine, five hundred and forty-seven horsepower, and every gadget known to car manufacturing. Of course it has air conditioning.’

  Abby flashed him another blinding smile. ‘Great. Would you mind switching it on?’

  ‘Not at all,’ he muttered, pressing a button and switching the temperature to low because now he thought about it it was kind of warm in here.

  ‘Thanks.’

  He fired up the engine and then they were on their way. ‘So how did it go?’