The Missing Heir(8)

                “I never met him.”

                The suspicious expression didn’t detract at all from her beauty, and Cole experienced an urge to sweep back her hair and kiss the delicate curve of her neck.

                “So you disliked him from afar?” she asked.

                “I didn’t...” This was getting worse by the second. Cole gave himself a mental shake. “I knew people who knew him.”

                “Amber?” prompted a man at her elbow.

                Cole clenched his jaw at the interruption.

                “Five minutes to introductions,” said the man.

                “Thanks, Julius.” She glanced at Luca for a moment before settling her attention back on Cole. “It looks like I need to take my seat. It was a pleasure to meet you, Cole Parker.”

                “Are you always this polite?”

                “Do you want me to be rude?”

                Cole was the one who’d been rude. “This conversation didn’t go the way I expected.”

                “Maybe you could try again some other time.”

                “What are you doing later?” He hadn’t intended the question to sound intimate, but it did.

                She didn’t miss a beat. “I believe I’m eating crab cocktail and chicken Kiev, giving a short, heartfelt speech on behalf of the Henderson family, then relieving the nanny and going to sleep.”

                “Zachary?” Cole took advantage of the opening.

                “He’ll be having his bath about now. He likes splashing with the blue duck and chewing on the washcloth.”

                “Are you staying for the dance?”

                “I doubt it.”

                “Will you stay for the dance?”

                She hesitated. “You think you’ll do better if we’re dancing?”

                “I’ll try not to insult the evening’s deceased honoree.”

                “You set a high bar.”

                “Underpromise and overdeliver.”

                The man named Julius returned, touching Amber’s arm. “Amber?”

                “Goodbye for now,” she told Cole with a smile.

                Though her expression was more polite than warm, he decided to take the words as encouraging.

                “What the hell was that?” Luca muttered as she walked away.

                “Contributing to his scholarship?” asked Cole. “Where did you expect me to go from there?”

                “You choked.”

                “We are not contributing to his scholarship.”

                “You made that much clear.”

                They turned to wind their way between tables.

                “She’s not what I expected,” said Cole as they returned to the back half of the big ballroom.