One-Man Woman

Beth still didn’t look convinced. ‘I doubt that he will stay here very long—’

‘Then make the invitation for tomorrow evening,’ Ellie interrupted impatiently, standing up to smooth down her straight black skirt to its just above the knee length. ‘I have to go and take over in Reception for the rest of the evening now, so I’ll leave you to think about it. But if you really want to know if he’s at least seen James I think dinner would be the best way of finding out.’

This last remark was perhaps a little below the belt on her part, but if they were to find out Daniel Thackery’s motive for being in the area someone had to make a move, and as she’d pointed out, it would look odd if she approached him with a dinner invitation.

It was quiet on Reception at this time of night, and Ellie took advantage of the lull to catch up on some of the paperwork that seemed never-ending where running a hotel was concerned.

Her parents had run the hotel until two years ago, when her father had suffered a mild heart attack and been ordered to take it easy for a while—an opportunity her mother had taken to whisk him away to Spain to live in early retirement. Their parents had given the hotel equally to Beth and Ellie, but since taking over Ellie had realised exactly why the hotel had been such a strain on her parents; it was a twenty-four-hour-a-day job, and left little time for anything else. She—

‘Good evening, Ellie,’ greeted a huskily male voice. ‘Do you ever get away from this place?’

The question so echoed the sentiments of her own thoughts that she wasn’t able to maintain her usually bright smile as she looked up at Peter, their master chef, as he stood at the other side of the reception desk.

The restaurant was open to the public as well as to guests, and it was one part of the hotel that did make a profit. And justifiably so; Peter was a chef of a calibre Ellie had never met before, and had brought people into the restaurant from far and wide since he had taken over in the kitchen six months ago. She knew they were lucky to have found him and didn’t question their good fortune too deeply—she just gave thanks for it every day. Without Peter’s expertise as a chef she knew they would be in even more dire financial straits than they already were.

‘Not as often as I would like, Peter,’ she answered somewhat wistfully, her chin resting on her palm as she leant on the desk-top looking up at him; he was one of the few men she could look up to when she was wearing high-heeled shoes, as she was now—Peter was a little over six feet tall, a good-looking man in his late thirties.

He shook his head. ‘I wish you would accept my invitation for the two of us to go out. I see by the rota that you’re off tomorrow evening too...’

This was, as Peter had so rightly pointed out, far from the first time he had invited her out. It wasn’t that she didn’t find Peter’s blond good looks attractive, because she did, very much so; she just didn’t think it was a particularly good idea to go out with someone she was working with almost every day. It could be very uncomfortable for everyone if it didn’t work out. And Peter really was an excellent chef...

Besides, she was hoping that tomorrow evening she and Beth would be dining with Daniel Thackery!

She gave Peter an apologetic smile. ‘I already have an appointment tomorrow evening. I’m sorry.’

He grimaced, obviously in no hurry to leave. His shift was over for the evening and the restaurant would be closing shortly—only the lingering coffee-drinkers were left. ‘Out of luck again,’ he said teasingly. ‘Who’s the lucky man?’

He didn’t know who he was himself yet, and she somehow doubted he would think of himself as ‘lucky’ when he did—although hopefully a sense of politeness towards James’s wife would make him accept the invitation. ‘No one you know.’ She shrugged dismissively.

‘Aha!’ Peter looked interested now, leaning conspiratorially across the desk. ‘A secret lover, hmm?’ His brown eyes twinkled with mischief.

‘Hardly!’ Ellie chuckled softly. ‘I don’t have time for lovers—secret or otherwise—’

‘Are there any messages for me?’ interrupted a harshly cold voice.

Neither she nor Peter, she was sure, had been aware of anyone approaching the desk. But Ellie recognised that voice only too well; hadn’t she listened to him earlier when he’d been talking to ‘Darling’ before making that telephone call to his fiancée? And she was sure, from the faintly disdainful expression on his face as he looked at the two of them, that he had overheard her ill-timed remark about lovers!

She turned to check the box for his suite, studiously hiding any awkwardness she might feel at his having heard her conversation with Peter. ‘No messages, Mr Thackery,’ she told him with a brightly professional smile, noticing the woman standing a short distance away watching the exchange uninterestedly—probably ‘Darling’, of the long, silky legs!

He nodded abruptly, his expression still grimly disapproving as he glanced briefly at Peter. ‘I’ll be in the bar if there are any—’ He broke off abruptly as he was racked by a sudden sneeze. ‘Damn it!’ he muttered furiously, his gaze a fierce blue glare now.

Ellie maintained her smile of cool politeness. ‘You seem to be starting a cold, Mr Thackery. I’m sure we have something you could take for that, if you—’

‘I don’t have a cold,’ he cut in harshly. ‘I’ll be in the bar if there are any calls for me.’ He gave an abrupt nod of dismissal before turning on his heel and striding off across the reception area to join the woman waiting near the entrance to the bar—a tall, blonde woman, her beautiful face animated as she put her hand through the crook of Daniel Thackery’s arm.

If his fiancée called again he would be in the bar, Ellie guessed crossly. Well, she hoped none of them were expected to lie for this man; if Angela telephoned again Ellie had every intention of telling the other woman exactly where he was. Not who he was with, of course, but it would be up to Daniel Thackery to explain away his presence in the bar. She—

‘I seem to know that man,’ Peter said slowly as he gazed after Daniel Thackery with narrowed eyes.

Peter was a hotel employee, so there was no problem in revealing the identity of a guest to him. Besides, after her exploits in Daniel Thackery’s suite earlier, who was she to preach about a guest’s right to privacy?

‘That’s Daniel Thackery,’ she told Peter flatly.

‘The Daniel Thackery?’ Peter said slowly.

Was he ‘the’ Daniel Thackery? He was known worldwide as a very successful businessman, with his restaurants in the capitals of the world frequented by the cream of society, so she supposed that, yes, he was ‘the’!

‘Yes,’ she confirmed abruptly. The man under discussion had entered the bar with the beautiful blonde now, and Ellie turned her full attention back to Peter.

‘I see.’ He whistled softly through his teeth. ‘What does a man like that want in a sleepy little place like this?’

What indeed? It was what Ellie wanted to know too. ‘Anonymity, probably,’ she snapped. ‘If the woman he’s with is anything to go by.’ She grimaced her disapproval of the other woman.

Peter’s brows rose. ‘She looks rather beautiful to me.’

Oh, there was no doubting that the blonde was absolutely gorgeous to look at—tiny in height, with an hourglass figure, long legs and a youthfully beautiful face. But there was also no dismissing the fact that the man she was with was getting married next week—or that ‘Darling’ was well aware of Angela’s existence!

‘The two of them aren’t married,’ was all that Ellie could think of by way of explanation for her own bitchiness; after all, she could hardly admit to hearing of the existence of Daniel Thackery’s fiancée while hiding in his wardrobe!

Peter grinned, leaning conspiratorially over the desk towards her. ‘Signed themselves in as Mr and Mrs Smith, did they?’ He gave her a teasing wink.

Ellie had to smile at that ludicrous wink. ‘Sorry.’ She gave a rueful smile. ‘There’s just something about that man that puts my hackles up.’ That had to be an understatement; just being anywhere near that man seemed to set her teeth on edge!

Peter still smiled, straightening away from the desk. ‘That isn’t—or so we’re led to believe by the newspapers—what women usually have to say about him!’

‘Well, I’m not one of his usual women.’ The tartness returned to her voice, her green eyes flashing. ‘Anyway, he seems to prefer tiny blondes,’ she added scornfully.

‘Whereas I prefer tall redheads.’ Peter looked across at her appreciatively. ‘Sure I can’t tempt you with dinner tomorrow evening?’ he added wistfully, the subject of Daniel Thackery clearly forgotten.

At least, it had been forgotten by Peter. Ellie couldn’t forget about him—because she hoped she and Beth would be dining with him tomorrow evening!

‘I’ll even cook for you,’ Peter added persuasively. ‘If you come to my apartment.’

The temptation of eating a meal Peter had cooked was one not many women would resist. But Ellie had other priorities for tomorrow evening.

‘I’m really sorry, Peter,’ she refused again with a regretful smile. ‘I really am busy tomorrow night.’ She hoped!

‘I know when not to push it,’ he accepted with a dismissive shrug. ‘Another time. I had better be on my way,’ he said with a brief glimpse at his wristwatch. ‘My cat will be wondering if I’ve found myself a woman other than her!’

Ellie chuckled throatily. ‘See you in a couple of days’ time.’

He nodded. ‘Have a good time tomorrow night. Whatever it is you’re doing.’ He gave her another suggestive wink before leaving.

Ellie shook her head, smiling fondly. He really was the most outrageous man, but she liked him anyway, found his light-hearted banter refreshing. It was a pity about tomorrow evening because if it hadn’t been for this thing over Daniel Thackery she might just have accepted Peter’s invitation...

‘Could you arrange for an early-morning call tomorrow, please?’ rasped the harsh voice that was becoming so familiar to Ellie—unfortunately so!

She turned slowly to look at Daniel Thackery as he glared across the desk at her. He had only gone through to the bar a few minutes ago; what—?

‘An early-morning call,’ he repeated impatiently as she blinked up at him uncomprehendingly. ‘Do you think you could manage that?’

Colour darkened her cheeks at his sarcasm, and she bit her lip to stop herself returning an equally sarcastic reply. ‘I’m sure I can,’ she said tautly.

‘At seven-thirty,’ he nodded. ‘And coffee,’ he added tersely before he was racked by another sneeze.

Ellie automatically noted down the time of the early-morning call and the request for coffee.

‘Coffee for one,’ he corrected as he saw what she had written down on the pad in front of her, his mouth twisting with mocking amusement as Ellie looked up at him sharply. ‘My guest has departed for the evening,’ he explained drily as he saw Ellie’s instinctive glance behind him for the diminutive blonde.

Ellie could have kicked herself for being so obvious. But she had assumed—incorrectly, it now seemed—that ‘Darling’ would be spending the night with him in his suite. But she wished she hadn’t made what she had thought so obvious, hated that knowingly mocking glint in those deep blue eyes.

‘I only booked the suite for one guest,’ he told her softly. ‘Myself,’ he added, before he gave yet another sneeze.

She was regathering her scattered wits now, forcing herself to meet his derisive stare with a cool green gaze. ‘The suite is booked in its entirety, Mr Thackery,’ she told him coolly. ‘Regardless of the number of guests.’

‘Really?’ Dark brows rose. ‘In that case—’ his voice lowered huskily as he leant forward over the desk ‘—perhaps you would like to join me upstairs? For a nightcap?’ he added lightly as he saw the shocked way her eyes widened.

First the blonde. Then his fiancée. Then the blonde again. And now her. He really was having a busy evening where women were concerned, wasn’t he? Or was he...? Neither his fiancée nor the blonde was here, was she...?

Ellie smiled up at him with sweet insincerity. ‘You seem to be developing a rather nasty cold, Mr Thackery.’ She managed to keep her voice neutrally polite. ‘I would suggest it might be more beneficial—to everyone concerned—if you snuggled down in bed with a cold-remedy or a hot toddy rather than a woman!’ She met his gaze challengingly. Really, this man had an incredible nerve.

He appeared completely unruffled by her refusal. ‘Permit me to know what is “beneficial” to me,’ he dismissed arrogantly. ‘And, as I told you earlier, I do not have a cold.’ As if to prove him wrong he gave another sneeze. ‘I would suggest, however,’ he rasped once the sneeze had dispersed, ‘that if you do decide to join me in my suite for a nightcap you wash off your perfume before joining me. I happen to be allergic to Sapphire,’ he added with a grimace. ‘You see—Ellie...’ he said her name softly after looking at her name-tag attached to her blouse ‘...it makes me sneeze.’ He looked down at her unblinkingly now.

Ellie’s mouth opened. And then closed. And then opened again. But no sound came out.

He had sneezed late this afternoon when she had booked him in. And earlier in his suite—he had been sneezing then too.

Because she had been hiding in his wardrobe wearing Sapphire!

Every time he came near her he started to sneeze. As he had in his bedroom earlier tonight—and even more so as he’d stood on the other side of the wardrobe door. Had he known she was there? Did he know?

He gave a dismissive shrug as the silence stretched between them—through pure shock on Ellie’s part! ‘I won’t actually be going to bed for a while, so if you should change your mind about the nightcap... Or just feel in the mood for a chat,’ he added—tauntingly, it seemed to Ellie. ‘But don’t forget about washing off the perfume before you come up,’ he advised before strolling off in the direction of the lift.

Ellie stared after him, knowing her face was very pale. She was so stunned that she still hadn’t been able to make so much as a movement when he turned after stepping into the lift to give her a parting gesture of his hand before the doors closed in front of him.

Had he known she was in his bedroom earlier? Did he know?

CHAPTER TWO

‘IT’S a nuisance that it’s Peter’s evening off.’ Beth frowned as she battled to take the stone out of the centre of the avocado without actually damaging the fruit. ‘We could have done with his expertise in the kitchen tonight if we’re to soften Daniel Thackery up enough to get any information out of him!’ She grimaced as the stone finally popped out of the fruit only to roll across the floor.

To Ellie’s immense dismay Daniel Thackery had accepted Beth’s invitation to dinner this evening. Beth had managed to speak to him this morning before he’d left for a business appointment, and he had been only too pleased, according to Beth, to accept dinner with an old friend. But after his parting comments to Ellie the evening before she really had no desire ever to see the man again. She was certain that if he didn’t actually know for sure, then he at least suspected her presence in his suite the evening before—otherwise why would he have made those comments about her perfume and suggested a chat?

Her first instinct the night before, once she had recovered from the shock, had been to go up to his suite and brazen the situation out—at least find out what he did know. But then common sense had prevailed, and she had realised she would be playing into his hands by going anywhere near his suite again that evening; if she didn’t go near him, he couldn’t ask her any embarrassing questions.

But before she could tell Beth that she had changed her mind about inviting the man for dinner Beth had come and told her she had already asked him—and he had accepted!

‘He ate in the restaurant yesterday evening,’ Ellie told her sister distractedly. ‘He knows how good a chef Peter is.’

‘But even with the two of us making our best effort we’re nowhere near as good,’ Beth groaned, having retrieved the stone from the floor now and placed it in the bin.

Ellie shrugged, having been given the job of shelling the prawns to go with the avocado. ‘Just ply him with lots of wine—that should mellow him,’ she dismissed scathingly. ‘Anyway, I told you I have to stand in on Reception this evening, so you’re on your own with this dinner,’ she announced with satisfaction. She had never been so relieved in her life to have had two people call in sick for this evening, one of them being their evening receptionist; she did not want to spend several hours sitting with Daniel Thackery trying to be polite to him, no matter what his reason for being in the area!

She no longer cared what his reason was; he couldn’t buy their hotel if they weren’t interested in selling. And they weren’t! And Beth’s interest in James was a private thing; her sister didn’t need her presence at dinner to ask Daniel Thackery whether or not he had seen her husband recently.

‘You don’t have to go on Reception until ten o’clock,’ Beth protested. ‘Plenty of time for you to have dinner with us first.’

‘That’s true,’ Ellie accepted grudgingly. ‘But one of the bar staff is off sick too, so—’

‘Send Doris in there,’ Beth interrupted practically. ‘She’s done it before, so that shouldn’t be a problem. And the two of us can turn back the beds in the rooms. We aren’t that heavily booked, so it shouldn’t take long.’

She sometimes wished her sister weren’t so practical. Or so logically capable. But the two of them had been brought up in this hotel, had watched their parents’ management of it for years, and they had learnt how to deal with staffing and other problems. And Beth’s answer to the problem now was perfectly correct. It was just that Ellie didn’t want to be present at the dinner!

She wanted to avoid Daniel Thackery for the rest of his stay—still had the uncomfortable feeling that he knew exactly where she had been the evening before. And, if he did, there was no way he was going to let something like that pass without further comment.

‘Ellie, will you finish the prawns so that we can get on with preparing the chicken?’ Beth impatiently interrupted her wandering thoughts. ‘It’s almost seven o’clock now, and if we have the beds to turn back...’

Which meant she had lost her argument about joining Beth and Daniel Thackery for dinner. Damn. But she really couldn’t come up with another excuse not to join them—not without alerting Beth to the fact that she really didn’t want to spend any more time in the man’s company. There was just something about him, the wardrobe incident apart, that set her teeth on edge...

And, appreciative of the way her luck was going at the moment, she wasn’t in the least surprised when Beth elected to do the beds on the second floor, leaving Ellie to deal with the first floor. Daniel Thackery’s suite was on the first floor...

Taking all possible precautions against bumping into him accidentally, she rang up his suite first and received no answer. Nor did her loud knocking on the door of the suite. Good, he was still out. Although he was cutting it a bit fine if he intended joining them for dinner at eight o’clock; it was almost seven-thirty now...

He certainly wasn’t an untidy man. In fact, looking around at the neatness of the suite, she acknowledged that it was difficult to tell whether it was occupied or not—no personal effects were lying around anywhere. But he was definitely still staying here; Ellie would have been the first to know if he had booked out. And the first to give thanks. He had been a disruptive influence on her life ever since he’d first booked in. And she had to sit down to dinner with the man in—oh, just over half an hour.

She would get this over with as quickly as possible and make good her escape; the last thing she wanted was Daniel Thackery returning to his suite while she was still there!

She had barely begun to turn back the bed when she heard the sound of a door opening behind her. She turned sharply, her expression one of guilty dismay. Not that she had anything to feel guilty about tonight, but—

It hadn’t been the bedroom door that had opened, but the adjoining bathroom door. Daniel Thackery must have just taken a bath or shower. His hair was still damp—his body completely naked!

Ellie just stared at him, hardly able to breathe. He—She—They—Oh, God...!

Daniel looked no more pleased to see her standing in his bedroom, apparently rooted to the spot, than she was to see him. A dark scowl marred his handsome features as he returned her stare. ‘You again!’ he snapped disgustedly.

She was still too shocked to react to that ‘again’, keeping her gaze riveted to his darkly scowling face after that first shocked recognition of his nakedness. There would be time later to remember the smoothly muscled contours of his body, his darkly tanned skin, the almost black hair that lightly covered his body. For now she had to concentrate on explaining herself—and then getting out of here!

‘I did telephone and knock before coming in to your suite.’ She rushed into breathless speech. “There was no answer, so I—’

‘I was taking a shower.’ He drily stated the obvious, making no effort to cover up his nakedness. ‘But the offer was for last night, not tonight!’

Her face suffused with colour as his meaning became clear. ‘The maid wanted to turn back the bed—’

‘Then why didn’t she?’ Dark brows rose over piercing blue eyes.

Why didn’t he put some clothes on, instead of just standing there completely unconcerned with his nudity? He might be accustomed to being naked in front of women, but she certainly wasn’t used to being in the same room with men who had nothing on. And who seemed completely unruffled by the fact!

‘Because for this evening I am acting as the maid,’ she bit out forcefully. ‘Our usual maid is in the bar because we’re short-staffed, and—’

‘Never mind, Ellie,’ Daniel interrupted in a bored voice. ‘I get the picture. You—’ He broke off with a frown as the telephone began to ring on the bedside table. ‘It’s like being stuck in the middle of a traffic junction! Get that, will you, while I put something on?’ he said impatiently.

She was relieved that he was at last going to cover his nudity, but she was not his personal secretary. The fact that she was here at all was because of a set of circumstances she had no control over. She—

‘Ellie!’ he prompted again harshly as the telephone continued to ring and she made no effort to answer it. ‘Just get it, will you?’ he said wearily at her mutinous expression, turning away to open the wardrobe door and look through its contents for something to put on.

She snatched up the receiver. ‘The Grafton Suite,’ she barked automatically, keeping her gaze firmly averted from Daniel, not wanting to watch him as he dressed. It would be too intimate an action, and intimacy was definitely something to be avoided between herself and Daniel Thackery.

‘Oh, good grief.’ The female voice on the other end of the line sounded almost as impatient as Daniel had when the telephone had begun to ring seconds ago. ‘I asked to be put through to Daniel Thackery’s room, and instead I’ve been connected with another part of the hotel. Are you able to put this call back to Reception?’ the woman continued briskly. ‘Or will I have to call back and start again?’

She didn’t exactly sound pleased at the prospect. ‘Actually, you have been put through to Mr Thackery’s suite,’ Ellie answered while giving Daniel Thackery a beseeching look.

She was relieved to see that he was at least wearing a pair of black underpants now. Not that the brief garment made any difference to the intimacy of the situation. He might be wearing as much now as he would at a swimming pool or at the beach, but this wasn’t either of those places—and the two of them were completely alone here in his bedroom. Except for his female telephone caller!

‘But he—er—be can’t come to the telephone just now,’ she continued conversationally as Daniel Thackery made no move to take the receiver but continued to look through the wardrobe for his clothes for the evening. ‘He—’