November Harlequin Presents 2(211)

‘How?’ Hunter frowned. ‘I mean, all the trouble you’ve had with balance…’

‘I’ve worked that out now.’ Emma was almost tripping over her words in her joy. ‘I can’t explain it. It’s as if all the pain, all I’ve been through is there, right there in my music, as if everything I can’t say I can…’

‘Play…’ Lily offered, smiling as Emma gave a grateful nod. ‘You were fantastic. I know nothing about music, but I do know you were amazing.’

‘Thanks, Lily.’ They’d clicked at the wedding and Emma often called around at the apartment or met Lily for coffee, bolstering Lily’s confidence when an unflattering photo of her appeared in a magazine, laughing out loud at some of the hurtful comments—the press delighting in calling her a nobody and questioning how someone so apparently plain could seemingly have captured Hunter’s heart.

‘How about dinner, then?’ Hunter suggested, but his voice faded into a frown as Emma shook her head.

‘Jim’s already booked a table. For two,’ she added, wincing as she did so.

‘Well, we’ll tell them to make it for four,’ Hunter clipped, but, seeing Emma’s blush, Lily leapt to her rescue.

‘Actually, I’m exhausted, Hunter. I really could do with just going home and going to bed. You don’t mind, do you?’ Lily needlessly checked with Emma, giving a tiny unseen wink as Emma gave a relieved shake of her head.

‘Of course not.’ Emma smiled as Hunter stalked out with barely a goodbye. ‘Thanks so much for coming and for the gorgeous flowers…Oh and, Lily…’ As she made to go and catch up with her impossible husband, the whisper of anguish in Emma’s voice had Lily turning around. ‘I don’t want to tell you how to…’ Her eyes pleaded for Lily’s permission to go on, but a bewildered Lily just stared. ‘You know this is so hard for him.’

Only she didn’t—didn’t know because Hunter refused over and over to tell her what was going on inside. At every turn he thwarted her, at every attempt he pushed her away. Only how could she tell Emma that? How could she tell this gorgeous, vibrant woman that the brother she so dearly loved, that the marriage she so clearly endorsed were both a sham.

‘Surely it’s harder for you?’ Lily answered carefully, hoping for a flash of clarity, but instead the waters muddied further as Emma slowly, so slowly, shook her head.

‘Lily, just keep telling him that none of this is his fault—one day he’ll hopefully believe it.’



‘What was that about?’ Hunter asked, tapping an impatient foot as his driver flashed his lights from the traffic lights to tell him he was coming. ‘Emma wanted—’

‘To be alone with Jim,’ Lily broke in. ‘Only you’re too insensitive to see it.’

‘Hell!’ As his driver pulled up at the kerb, it was as if the anger, the tension in him just dissipated, a smile creeping onto his face as an impossible thought occurred. ‘Do you realise,’ he said out of the corner of his mouth, ‘that if they end up getting married, my ex-wife could be at the wedding.’

‘My ex-husband, too.’ Lily gave a rather more wobbly smile, still bristling at his impossible behavior tonight, still reeling at the impossible thought that had earlier occurred to her and still utterly bemused by whatever it was Emma had been trying to tell her.

‘Your cousin and my sister…’ Hunter mused. ‘Would that make us related?’

‘Heaven help us!’ Lily dry response actually made him laugh, and then totally unashamedly, despite the crowd outside the concert hall, despite traffic piling up behind his silver car, Hunter pulled her into his arms and gave her the most thorough of kisses.

Or because of them? Lily wondered as a camera flashed. She pulled back, slightly breathless from the intensity of his kiss and suddenly felt more than a bit used.

‘Was that for the cameras?’ Lily asked. But Hunter shook his head, that gorgeous, debauched mouth moving in on hers once again, those strong warm hands on her bare back, as her insides promptly melted.

‘That—’ Hunter’s voice was low and very definite ‘—was for me!’





CHAPTER TEN




‘ARE you doing anything today?’

He knotted his tie as he spoke, standing proud and beautiful amid a pile of damp towels and the chaos of a man who neither cared nor needed to pick up after himself.

‘I’m not sure.’ Lily yawned and stretched, blinking at the day that lay ahead of her, realising it was the first time since she’d met Hunter that she had a whole day to do with whatever she wished. The haste of their marriage should had left an endless ream of loose ends to tie up, juggling work and playing the part of Hunter’s wife two ridiculous parallels, listening and working on people’s problems while seemingly having escaped from hers. And, admittedly, the glamorous world she had stepped into had been immense fun at first—lining her wardrobe with designer clothes, having her blonde hair styled and maintained, not just at the most exclusive of salons but by the owner himself. But she felt as if she were living on a movie set, only one where the cameras never stopped rolling, playing the part of Hunter’s wife impinging more and more on her real world, Hunter’s leading lady, seemingly an all-consuming role.