‘Lots,’ Lily answered brightly. ‘I had a meeting at the centre—turned down the opportunity to start up a support group for teenagers recovering from eating disorders. In fact, I was the perfect little wife today. I took myself shopping and needlessly spent lots of your lovely money, then went and had a facial and pedicure. Oh, and I didn’t worry about you a single bit.’ Nothing could have been further from the truth! She’d spent the entire day drenched in her own anxiety, hanging around the chemist at the shopping centre like a sixteen-year-old boy attempting to purchase condoms, Hunter’s warning about the ever-present paparazzi making her too paranoid to buy a simple pregnancy test. So instead the afternoon had been spent surfing the net, trying to find out the early symptoms of pregnancy, each site she visited either reassuring or confusing her till she given in and, as if she’d been visiting some torrid website, carefully deleted her user history, so Hunter wouldn’t be able to see which websites she’d visited. The only money she’d spent today was on the fabulous book he was holding in his hands, but she wasn’t going to tell him that!
‘Oh, and I’ve seen a fabulous picture I’d like for the entrance hall,’ Lily added.
‘Good girl.’ Hunter grinned at her facetiousness and squeezed her thigh through the sheet as he read on. ‘Now you’re getting the idea. Oh, and you need a new dress for the ball.’
‘I’ve got a wardrobe of new dresses,’ Lily pointed out. ‘What’s it in aid of?’
‘Sorry?’
‘The ball?’
His hands stopped halfway through turning a page.
‘What charity is it?’
‘Spinal injuries.’ Hunter shrugged and carried on reading.
‘Oh!’ Lily stared over at him, waiting for him to elaborate. They’d been to so many events. More often than not Lily didn’t know what she was dressing for till Hunter picked up his car keys or summoned his driver, but, given Emma’s injuries, she’d at least have expected a touch more interest. ‘Is Emma going?’
‘Why would she?’ Hunter glanced over, his voice suddenly scathing. ‘As the token victim, she’s got a bit more style than that.’
‘I was just…’ Her voice trailed off, her nose wrinkling in concentration as she remembered a half-forgotten conversation when they’d first met.
‘Is this the big charity ball you were talking about when we first met the one you’re organising?’
‘I told you it was.’
‘No, Hunter.’ Lily shook her head. ‘You didn’t.’
‘You didn’t actually turn them down?’ Hunter stared over at her bemused frown. ‘The support group…’
‘I said I’d think about it,’ Lily answered tactfully.
‘You don’t have to defer to me…’ Hunter turned his attention back to the book, seemingly nonchalant, but she knew how hard it was for him to say the words. ‘If you think you should do it, go for it.’
‘I will.’
‘This is actually a good book,’ Hunter commented without looking up, completely changing the subject. ‘What happened to her?’
‘Sorry?’ Lily frowned, her mind trying to gather all the snippets of information he constantly blasted her with, trying to keep track of his endless threads of conversation and somehow piece them together.
‘What happened to her? I can’t make it out.’
Only then did she realise he was talking about the book, and she let out a tiny incredulous laugh ‘You haven’t read the beginning and you probably won’t read the end…’
‘So?’
‘You can’t just open up and demand to know what’s happened. You’re supposed to read the whole thing—it’s like walking in on the last five minutes of a film and asking for the entire plot!’
‘And what’s so wrong with that?’ Hunter frowned. ‘So are you going to tell me?’
‘No.’ Lily let out an irritated sigh. ‘Because I actually don’t know what happened to her. That’s what I’ve been up half the night trying to find out.’
‘So you’ve no idea!’ He raised his eyebrows. ‘You’re up to page 242 and you still don’t know!’ He carried on reading, his curiosity piqued now, at least for a little while. Lily stared over at him. Even after a month his beauty still astonished her, his restless splendour as he lay beside her still drawing her in. But it wasn’t just his looks or his touch that enthralled her, it was the man she hadn’t yet met that really kept her captivated, the man that slowly, painfully slowly was being revealed to her: the flashes of just plain niceness that utterly disarmed her; the dry humour that could always foster a smile. And the gentler side, too, that occasionally she was privy to. Every now and then she was treated to a glimpse of what it could be like to be truly adored by a man like Hunter—and it made her yearn for more, yearn for the man she was sure was there behind the expensive suit and snobby derisive voice.