JUST ONE MORE NIGHT (10 page)

Eleven

T
he next morning, Elena dressed with care for the official part of the program: the What Women Really Want seminar.

Keeping her mind firmly off the fact that, despite everything, she was still attracted to Nick, she studied the filmy pink-and-orange halter top and white resort-style pants. The hot, tropical colors of the top revealed her smooth golden tan and a hint of cleavage. The pants clung to her hips and floated around her ankles, making the most of her new figure.

The outfit was perfect for a luxury resort, but even so she was tempted to retreat behind the business persona that had been her protective armor for years. Picking up pretty pink-and-gold earrings, she determinedly fitted them to her lobes.

The sound of a door closing in the cottage next door distracted her. A glimpse of Nick, dressed in narrow dark pants and a dark polo, strolling in the direction of the resort, made her heart slam against the wall of her chest.

The path he was using was the same one that led to her cottage and one other. Since she had heard a door close and then had seen Nick strolling
away
from the cottages, there was no way he could be just casually strolling before breakfast. He was living in the cottage next door.

Last night, after Nick had left, she hadn’t given any thought to where he was staying. She had been too relieved that she had managed to say “no,” and too busy going over every nuance of the exchange.

But the fact that Nick had stooped to the tactic with the key card and put her in a cottage next door to his underlined that he was serious about wanting her back.

She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Just because Nick was next door didn’t change anything. When he realized that she meant what she had said, he would soon switch his attention to one of the many gorgeous women she was sure would be at the resort.

After spraying herself with an ultrafeminine floral perfume, she picked up her folder of workshop notes and the quiz and strolled out of the cottage.

The restaurant was buzzing with guests enjoying breakfast and sitting on the terrace looking out over the stunning views. Relieved to see that Nick was not among the diners, Elena chose a secluded table, and ordered items that were listed on her diet maintenance plan.

Half an hour later, fortified by fresh fruit, yogurt and green tea, Elena strolled into the conference center and froze.

In a sea of femininity, Nick, dressed in black, his shoulders broad, biceps tanned, was a shady counterpart to the preponderance of white cotton, expensive jewelry and flashes of bright resort wear.

His head turned and her heart jolted as his gaze locked with hers.

Jaw firming against the instant heightened awareness and a too-vivid flashback of the previous night, Elena quickly walked to the podium and made an effort to ignore him.

Setting her folder and her laptop down on the table next to the lectern, she booted up the laptop and connected with the large state-of-the-art computerized screen. Briskly, she opened the file and checked that there were no glitches with the software. With the first slide displayed, she was good to go.

A wave of excited feminine laughter attracted her attention. A group of half a dozen of the youngest, prettiest women was clustered around Nick.
Like bees to a honeypot.

The knowledge that, just as she’d thought, Nick was in the process of hooking up with one of the very pretty women in her seminar made her freeze in place.

She sloshed water from a jug into the tumbler beside it, barely noticing when some spilled onto the table. Setting the jug down with a sharp crack, she looked for a napkin to wipe up the spill. It shouldn’t matter that Nick was making conquests, setting up his next romantic episode.

She couldn’t find a napkin. Irritation morphing into annoyance, she found a notepad, which she dropped on top of the small puddle.

A sexy rumble of masculine laughter punctuated by a husky feminine voice calling to Nick jerked her head up. She was in time to see a tawny-haired woman with the kind of sultry beauty and lean, curvaceous figure that graced lingerie billboards, fling herself at Nick.

Nick’s arms closed around the goddesslike creature, pulling her into a loose clinch.

In that moment, Elena registered two salient facts. Firstly, that the woman Nick was now hugging casually against his side was Nick’s cousin, although only by adoption, Eva Atraeus. Secondly, that Eva
was
the kind of woman who graced underwear billboards.

Once a very successful model and now the owner of her own wedding-planning business, Eva was the feminine equivalent of a black sheep in the Atraeus family. Single and determinedly strong-willed, she had sidestepped her adoptive father’s efforts to maneuver her into an advantageous marriage. Instead, she had become notorious for serially dating a number of tabloid bad boys.

Elena’s stomach tightened as she watched the casual but intimate exchange. It was clear that Nick and Eva knew each other very well.

Who Nick hugged shouldn’t matter. Nick Messena didn’t belong to her, and he was not husband material.

He’d had his chance,
twice.

Scrunching up the sopping wet little pad, she tossed it into a nearby trash can. Grimly, she concentrated on stacking her notes neatly on the podium and remembering her last date with Robert. Frustratingly, she couldn’t recall the name of the restaurant or what she had eaten. Her one abiding memory was that she had learned just a little too much about Australian tax law.

She checked her watch. She had given herself plenty of time to set up, and consequently had a good fifteen minutes left until the official start time to mingle with her clients.

Extracting her name tag from her handbag, she fastened it on to the left shoulder of her top then walked down onto the floor of the conference room to circulate.

Nick cut her off just as she reached a table set up with coffee, green tea, a selection of wheatgrass and vegetable juices, and platters of fresh fruit. “Looks like a good turnout. Congratulations.”

Elena pointedly checked her wristwatch. “We start in just a few minutes.”

“I’m aware of the start time. I’m sitting in on the seminar.”

Elena reached for a teacup, her careful calm already threatening to evaporate. “You can’t stay.”

Nick’s expression was oddly neutral. “It’s my resort. I’m entitled to make sure that what you’re doing works for the level of service and luxury we provide.”

Elena tensed at the thought of Nick sitting in on her seminar. Jaw tight, she poured herself a cup of green tea. “Constantine approved the program—”

“In the same week he handed over control to me.”

With calm precision, Elena set the cup on its saucer, added a slice of lemon and tried to control an irrational spurt of panic. If Nick wanted to crash the seminar she couldn’t stop him.

Last night, before she had gone to bed, she had used her priority clearance to check the Atraeus computer files for the details of the resort deal. Nick owned 51 percent. It was a reality she couldn’t fight. Not only was he the majority shareholder, it would appear he was also now the current manager.

Technically, he was also her employer for the entire New Zealand group of resorts.

She held the steaming green tea in front of her like a shield. The thin, astringent scent, which she was still trying to accustom herself to, wafted to her nostrils, making her long for the richness of coffee, although she quickly quashed the thought. She was intent on cutting anything bad out of her life. Like Nick Messena, coffee was banned. “The seminar is of no possible interest to you. It’s designed for women—”

“There are other men here.”

Two men, both booked in by their wives. She had already checked both of them out and couldn’t help noticing that they were oddly similar in appearance. Both were medium height and trim as if they ate sensibly and exercised regularly. They were also well dressed and extremely well-groomed.
Like Robert.

With an effort of will, Elena called up Robert’s image again. Right now, with Nick looming over her looking muscular and tanned, as relaxed as a big hunting cat, Robert was a touchstone she desperately needed.

Although, distressingly, she was having trouble remembering exactly what he looked like. Whenever she tried to concentrate on Robert’s face, Nick Messena’s strong, slightly battered features swam into view.

She kept her expression pleasant as she sipped the bitter tea and tried not to watch longingly as Nick helped himself to black coffee, adding cream and two sugars.

A clear indication that he was settling in for the duration.

She took a sip of tea and couldn’t quite control her grimace. “I decided to throw the seminar open to men who were interested in improving their relationships.”

“And I’m not?”

She met his gaze squarely. “You said it, not me.”

“The question was rhetorical. As it happens, now that the nature of my business is changing, I’m going to have a lot more time on my hands to dedicate to...relationships.”

Elena almost choked on another mouthful of tea. She glanced at Eva who had just helped herself to coffee. Unbidden, her mind made an instant wild leap. As an Atraeus employee she had heard the rumor that Eva’s father, Mario, who was terminally ill, had been trying to force a match between Eva and Gabriel Messena.

The rumor had been confirmed by Gabriel’s new wife, Gemma. Since Gabriel had just married, that meant Mario would be looking for another bridegroom for his headstrong daughter. Of course Nick, as the second Messena son, would be Mario’s natural choice.

“No way,” Nick said flatly.

Startled, Elena carefully set her tea down before she had another spill. “No way, what?”

“Eva and I are just good friends.”

Elena could feel her careful control shattering, the veneer of politeness zapped by a hot burn of emotion she had no hope of controlling. “Then why is she here?”

Somewhere in the recesses of her brain she registered that she must have taken a half step toward Nick, because suddenly she was close enough that she could feel the heat from his body, smell the clean scents of soap and masculine cologne.

Nick’s gaze narrowed. “You’re jealous.”

Elena stared at the taut line of Nick’s jaw and a small scar that was almost as fascinating as the nick across the bridge of his nose. “That would be when hell freezes over.”

“You don’t have to worry. I’m not interested in Eva. After last night you have to know that I want you back.”

A tingling thrill shot through her, cutting through the annoyance that he knew she was jealous.

He still wanted her.

A surge of delight mixed with an odd little rush of feminine power put a flush on her cheeks and jerked her chin up a little higher.

But a familiar dash of panic doused the surge of excitement. The last thing she needed to know now was that, after everything that had gone wrong, there was a chance for them after all.

He had left her twice. She should be over him, but clearly she wasn’t because the dangerous, electrifying attraction was still there.

Six years. The time that had passed since they had first slept together was a dose of reality she badly needed.

Those years had been lonely and more than a little depressing because she had been unable to settle into another relationship. Like any other woman her age, she had wanted to be loved and connected to somebody special. She had wanted all the trappings of marriage, the warmth and commitment, the family home, the babies.

She hadn’t come close, because in her heart of hearts she hadn’t been able to move on. She had still been in love with Nick.

She went still inside, the hubbub of conversation receding as she examined the extremity of her emotions, the single-minded way she had clung to the one man who had never really wanted her.

Could she possibly still be in love with Nick?

The thought settled in with a searing, depressing finality. If so, she had loved him through her teens and for all of her adult life, eleven years and counting, with almost no encouragement at all. The chances that she could walk away from him now and get over him didn’t look good.

She knew her nature. As controlled and methodical as she was in her daily life, she was also aware of a lurking streak of passionate extremity that seemed to be a part of her emotional make up. Like her aunt Katherine, she obviously had a deep need for a lasting, true love. The kind of love that was neither light nor casual, and which possessed the terrible propensity for things to go wrong.

Nick set his coffee down, untouched. “Eva’s a wedding planner. This resort is one of her most requested wedding venues.”

Unbidden relief made her knees feel suddenly as weak as water. “If all you want is to gauge the effectiveness of the seminar, you don’t need to attend. The head therapist of the spa facility is sitting in.”

Nick crossed his arms over his chest. “I’m not leaving, babe.”

A secret little thrill shot down her spine at Nick’s casual use of “babe,” a term that carried the heady subtext that they were a couple and he was stubbornly bent on proving that fact.

A little desperately she skimmed the room and tried to restore her perspective. “I am not your
babe.
”

Ignoring the steady way he watched her, she checked her watch, set her tea back down on the table and walked back to the podium.

Once the first session started it was easier to focus. Nick, true to his word, hadn’t left but was occupying a seat near the back of the room. She would have to tolerate his presence until he got tired of material he could have absolutely no interest in and left. The other two men, Harold and Irvine, obviously keen to learn, were seated in the front row.

After introducing the other speakers who were there for the day, Elena surrendered the podium to a beauty therapist who wanted to talk about the latest skin-care technology. While that was going on Elena handed out her quiz.

When she reached Nick’s row, which was occupied by Eva and a couple of the more elderly women, she bypassed him without handing out a quiz sheet.