"Oh, yes, definitely. You certainly know how to give your clients a wonderful experience even before they start their actual holiday," Bonnie said sincerely.
"Thank you. That's our goal," he answered with a slight bow of his head and a grateful smile.
"Do you know Clarise, William?" Bonnie asked, putting her hand on Clarise's arm.
"We haven't been introduced but I've heard of her," he said to Bonnie, his gaze already settling on Clarise.
Something caught Bonnie's attention in the far corner and she hastily introduced them to each other. "Clarise, this is William Matthews, his office is organising our next European holiday. William, this is Clarise Carson, Megan's sister. Now if you'd both excuse me, I see my chance to play with Lilly. Oh, such an adorable, pretty, little girl." Bonnie hurriedly left them with a wave of her hand.
Will gestured for a handshake as he stared at the attractive woman standing in front of him. Her gorgeous brown eyes were wide, as if she was surprised by something. Then she blinked and took his proffered hand.
"Hi, William, it's good to meet you," she said, her lips curling into a shy but devastatingly beautiful smile.
"Call me Will, please," he replied, in somewhat of a daze and desperately trying to regain equilibrium. He only realised he was still holding her hand when she gently extricated it from his grip.
"Uh, I've been looking forward to meeting you tonight, Clarise. I've been promised an introduction but the man who was going to do it is too busy dancing, so I thought I'd seek you out myself."
Her face flushed and she looked uncomfortable. It occurred to him she might not want to talk about work during a family party. He hastily tried to explain himself.
"Mark must have already mentioned to you that I'm interested in having your magazine do an article for my business. I know this isn't work time for you and we don't have to discuss it right now. I just want to introduce myself so we can talk about it some other time," he said apologetically.
"Oh, I see. I'm certainly happy to talk about your business tonight," she said. She seemed relieved.
"Thanks, but really, let's talk about it some other time. Maybe I can call you at work and discuss it?"
"Yes. Sure. You can call reception and talk to Elena. She can organise a meeting time for us."
"Great," he responded. He was aware he was being rude by continuing to stare at Clarise, but he couldn't take his eyes off her.
"Would you like to dance?" He found himself holding out his hand as an invitation for this enchanting creature to go with him to the dance floor. Huh? Since when do you dance, Will Matthews? You have two left feet!
"Sure," Clarise answered with a smile as she placed her hand on his.
Too late. Damn me.
Some sappy love song that he vaguely recognised was playing. Hell, he wasn't much of a dancer.
"Um, I think this is a good time to tell you I can't dance," he said to Clarise, his mouth quirking upwards, both embarrassed by and amused at himself.
Clarise chuckled, "So what are we doing here then?"
"Shuffling our feet. Well, I am anyway. I don't know about you."
"You're not doing too badly with the feet shuffle. I can shuffle too, you know. You're not the only one who's good at it," she teased.
They grinned at each other.
He held Clarise with an arm around her waist, his hand flat on her lower back, as they swayed with the music. Her hair smelled like flowers and he caught a whiff of her delicate perfume. She smelled lovely. She felt lovely.
His arm around her tightened involuntarily and he held her closer, acutely aware of an electric current in the air around them. He felt her sink into their embrace. He wondered if she had noticed that magnetic force, too. He could feel it slowly enveloping them with a power he could neither explain nor resist.
They danced, hardly moving to the music, their bodies pressed like they'd always belonged together.
His thoughts went to Rick and Megan's matchmaking plan and he wondered if there was a chance it could be Clarise they wanted to set him up with. The idea greatly interested him, and he forgot for a moment his determination not to get involved with anyone Rick might introduce to him tonight.
"Now, how about you twirl me?" Clarise said suddenly, pulling away, putting some distance between them.
"Pardon?" he asked, feeling bereft that she was no longer in his arms.
"Twirl. You know, like this." She proceeded to hold up their hands that were clasped together and twirled around.
"Oh, okay." He twirled her, his lips curving in an amused but perplexed smile.
The sappy love song ended and fast dance music started playing.
"Sorry, Twirly, my shuffling feet can only do slow, not this," he said with an abashed grin.