LITMIR.BIZ

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the right thing letting everyone assume … They’d all been so pleased and supportive. It had been the idea of Oliver’s baby—her great-grandson—that had kept Olivia, his grandmother, going after the devastating news of her grandson’s death. Of course she’d done the right thing—the only thing, she reassured herself briskly.

      ‘I’m sure Mr MacAllister is not gunning for you, Sophie.’

      ‘He’ll either think I’m just a feckless kid who got out of her depth, or I’m using the oldest trick in the book to get a rich meal ticket.’ Her carefully nurtured hard-boiled expression was spoiled by the quiver of her soft lips.

      ‘I’m sure he won’t think anything of the sort, and even if he does, five seconds after he’s seen you he’ll know different,’ Alice responded crisply. ‘Besides, what does it matter what he thinks of you?’

      ‘In a perfect world it wouldn’t,’ Sophie admitted, sounding very mature and even a little bit cynical to Alice’s sensitive ears. ‘Didn’t you like him?’ she added shrewdly, regarding her normally placid sister’s belligerent expression curiously. ‘You haven’t told me much about what he said.’

      ‘There isn’t much to tell.’ She was amazed and relieved that Sophie couldn’t hear the guilt in her voice.

      ‘And was he as good-looking as they say?’

      ‘Better, probably,’ Alice admitted after a reluctant pause during which an image of Gabriel’s dark lean features rose up to mock her. ‘And I’m sure he’d be the first to tell you so,’ she reflected with sweet malice.

      Sophie laughed. ‘That’s probably where Greg gets it from,’ she concluded ruefully. ‘He takes longer than me to get ready, and I’ve not known him to pass a mirror without checking himself out.’

      Alice instinctively knew the comparison was unfair, and had to bite her tongue to prevent herself springing, quite inappropriately, to Gabriel’s defence. You couldn’t compare her sister’s lover’s narcissistic love affair with his own reflection with Gabriel’s impregnable confidence. Gabriel’s innate arrogance was such that he didn’t need the designer accessories to bolster his self-worth.

      Alice double-checked the pocket of her light jacket. Fortunately Sophie had been too preoccupied to notice that her big sister was as jumpy as a kitten.

      ‘I’ve left my mobile in the car.’ She clicked her tongue in exasperation and frowned as her sister rang the doorbell.

      ‘Don’t panic. I’ll get it.’ Sophie was halfway down the shallow steps that led to the entrance of the sprawling Victorian pile before Alice could respond.

      She didn’t like the necessity of leaving Will, not even with her mother. Even though it was only two nights a week, she made sure she could always be contacted. Considering her mother’s age, she wasn’t sure how fair it was to her, or how much longer the arrangement would work, but that was a problem for the future. She had plenty more immediate ones to occupy her mind at the moment!

      Money wasn’t a major problem yet, but since a couple of Oliver’s more chancy investments had gone bad the hours she put in at the hospital were a big help, and when Will was eventually in school and the time came for her to resume her career full-time it would be an advantage that she wasn’t totally out of touch.

      It was a smartly dressed pleasant-looking woman who came to the door. Alice assumed she was the housekeeper; the MacAllisters were the sort of people who had housekeepers, chauffeurs and probably food-tasters too, she decided grimly. She couldn’t be the only person who wished Gabriel was safely out of the picture—she instinctively knew he would make a formidable business adversary.

      Before either she or the older woman had had a chance to speak, Gabriel was there.

      ‘Thanks, Mrs Croft, I’ll see to this. Come in, Alice …

      Said the spider to the fly … she thought, obeying the command thinly disguised as an invitation. She’d only ever seen him in a formal suit—or nothing at all—before. It had been a bad idea to recall the ‘nothing at all’ part! Today he was wearing pale-coloured jeans, that emphasised his ultra-slim hips and endless legs, teamed with an open-necked black polo shirt.

      Even when she stepped up from the lower step he still towered over her. Despite the fact she’d stepped out of the sun her body was abruptly bathed in an uncomfortable heat.

      Gabriel had to be used to the stock female reaction of open-mouthed appreciation. He probably accepted such admiration as nothing more than his due, she thought sourly. Perhaps it was far too late not to be obvious, but Alice didn’t want to be classed with the adoring masses. She kept her own mouth firmly shut, even when her squirming insides were swallowed up by a deep dark hole.

      His features were not nearly as classically perfect as his half brother’s, his nose might even be classed beaky by the envious, but he had a raw sex appeal that went clear off the scale. Alice’s eyes touched his wide sensual mouth and she gave a little shudder that had nothing whatever to do with disgust!

      Alice was angered by her obvious display of weakness, but decided the best way to deal with it was to pretend it hadn’t happened. He probably hadn’t noticed; he wasn’t even looking at her.

      ‘Where is your sister?’

      Horror swept over Alice. Reprehensibly, she’d forgotten about Sophie, who arrived at that moment dead on cue. She looked sweet, sexy and wholesome. Alice avoided looking at Gabriel’s face; she didn’t particularly want to see the boringly predictable male response this dynamite combination inevitably inspired in men. It was then that she noticed for the first time Sophie was looking from her to Gabriel and back again with a stunned expression.

      ‘Are you unwell?’ Gabriel had obviously noticed too.

      Sophie tipped her head back to look up at the tall dark man. ‘I’m fine,’ she said hoarsely, licking her dry lips. ‘It’s crazy, but seeing you standing there with Alice, I thought … from a distance you looked so like Oliver.’

      Just shut up … please … I should have foreseen this possibility, Alice thought, feeling the panic that had been her constant companion since her dark anonymous lover had acquired a name rise dangerously close to the surface.

      ‘Oliver?’ He looked distressingly alert.

      ‘Alice’s husband.’ Sophie stepped into the hallway, her soft hair a bright focus against sombre panelling and attractive dark William Morris wallpaper. ‘It felt like someone just walked over my grave,’ she confessed with a theatrical shudder.

      ‘And does seeing … Oliver always make you look so distressed?’

      ‘He’s dead,’ Sophie said, glancing apologetically towards Alice.

      Gabriel’s dark eyes moved automatically to Alice. The light dusting of blusher along her high cheekbones stood out starkly against the pallor of her pale, blemishless skin.

      ‘It was only from a distance, when I was over by the car. Up close you’re nothing alike.’

      ‘I’m very sorry.’

      If Sophie hadn’t been there she’d have told him where he could shove his insincerity. Alice inclined her head coldly in acknowledgement.

      ‘Is this bereavement recent?’

      ‘Nearly three years ago,’ Sophie said, when her sister continued to stare at Greg’s brother with a peculiarly intense animosity. She’d never seen Alice behave like this towards anyone before. Perhaps it hadn’t been such a good idea to bring her after all.

      The housekeeper appeared and their host turned aside to speak to her. Sophie took the opportunity to hiss warningly at her sister.

      ‘There’s no point antagonising him. I’m not asking you to sleep with the man … Joke, Ally, don’t be such a prude,’ she said in an impatient undertone when her sister went bright scarlet. ‘But he is

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