THEHOTEL—WHICH, Curtis had told her en route, had been hand-picked by his PA—was one of those dreamy locations only within reach of someone with extremely deep pockets.
Unlike most of the hotels, this one was more like someone’s private country house. Neither of them had brought skis, in her case because she didn’t actually own any, but she had given her shoe size a couple of days ago to his secretary and not only were skis waiting for her but also boots in exactly the right size.
They were ushered into a foyer warm with subdued earth-toned colours. An expanse of cream and caramel marble led to a desk behind which two smiling women, who would not have been out of place on the cover of a fashion magazine, were waiting to check them in.
Despite the fact that it wasn’t an adults-onlyhotel, there was a marked absence of any families. Jess was so accustomed to sharing her space with kids of all ages and sizes that she found herself whispering, the way she would in a library.
‘Lovely.’ This to Curtis as they stood in front of the blonde magazine cover receptionist who was busily trying not to pay the slightest bit of attention to the hunk standing in front of her.
‘You’re whispering,’ he whispered with a grin. ‘You approve then...?’
Checked in, he took the credit-card-style keys handed to him without glancing in the direction of the receptionist, instead gazing at Jess, eyes still amused.
‘It’s certainly a step up from the last place I went to with the school kids,’ she said crisply. Those green eyes on her did crazy things to her breathing and she broke eye contact to look around. It was awe-inspiring. Where he had grown up, if not in the lap of luxury then in the lap of well-to-do comfort,shehad been brought up with the motto thatEvery penny counts.Her contact with any kind of luxury had been all those many times she had hung out at his godfather’s place while her mother had cleaned, bringing in some pin money to bolster the salary her dad got from the glass factory where he worked as a foreman.
She’d never in her entire life ever imagined that somewhere as perfect as this could possibly exist. It was a prime example of what happened when a top interior designer shook hands with limitless budget.
‘Have you been here before?’
‘Every year,’ Curtis said wryly. ‘I like the fact that it’s small and it’s private. One of the advantages to having money. It buys you peace, if that’s what you’re after.’
‘Is that why we’re here?’ she asked shrewdly.
She dragged her eyes away from the breathtaking surroundings, reminding herself that there would be ample time for her to explore on her own at some point, and looked at him as the concealed lift pinged shut behind them with the hush of bank vault doors softly sealing closed.
Suddenly the space felt suffocatingly intimate and her skin heated up as he continued to look at her.
‘We’re in separate rooms,’ he said. ‘Adjoining thanks to a connecting door, but separate. Bearing in mind you’re supposed to be my plus one, it made sense not to advertise the fact that we’re not sleeping together. My plus ones would usually share my bed.’
Jess could feel her skin begin to burn and her breathing became jerky and shallow because, just like that, her head was cluttered with images of him in bed, naked...
She gulped and her eyes glazed over and thankfully she was spared a response because the lift doors slid open, disgorging them into a plush hall off which their rooms were located.
‘Your key.’
Jess took the card and stared at it for a few seconds while her batteries tried to recharge.
‘Good idea,’ she muttered, turning away and blindly tapping the door with the card to push it open, at which point she turned to him, finally braving his eyes, with the safety of her bedroom behind her. ‘No point...you know...wagging tongues and the like...’
‘My thoughts exactly.’
Jess wondered whether it was her imagination or did those veiled eyes remain on her for just a tiny bit longer than necessary? At any rate, there was a furnace raging inside her and she couldn’t wait to douse it under a tepid shower.
‘So...’ It wasn’t yet six in the evening.
‘So?’ He’d been lounging against the doorframe, having edged her back without her even noticing, but now he straightened, one hundred per cent business. ‘Tonight I’m meeting John and a handful of the guys for a night of fun and too much alcohol, I imagine. You’re free to do your own thing. Order whatever you want, explore the place to your heart’s content. Everything is on me, Jess. You can buy the entire boutique downstairs if you want to. Alternatively, you can come with me and hang with the bride-to-be and her bridesmaids, who will be doing their own thing, probably with considerably more restraint. I’m sure Philippa wouldn’t object...’
‘I’ll skip that option,’ Jess said hurriedly.
‘Thought you might. Right. And tomorrow...what say we take to the slopes? Before the rest of the world has time to wake up?’
‘Isn’t that going to be difficult if you’re nursing a hangover?’ But that sounded just about right to her. She knew that he was a good skier. There would be no awkward conversations on the slopes and the truth was that she was dying to get her skis on and get out there. She’d gazed at the conditions from the back seat of the limo that had ferried them to their hotel and the snow was perfect. Mouth-wateringly perfect.
‘I have way too much self-control to overindulge in alcohol,’ he informed her. And it was true. He’d spent too many years knowing what it felt like to have no control over any single part of his life, however minuscule. It was thus the one thing he valued now. ‘I’ve never been drunk in my life before and it’s not a habit I have any intention of picking up any time soon. So are you okay to fend for yourself this evening?’
‘You’re a saint, Curtis,’ she teased, relaxed at the thought of an evening to herself and normality being resumed in the morning on the slopes. ‘And yes, I think I can manage. I’ve been doing it for the past twenty-six years after all.’
She thought that she might have spent the evening with her thoughts on him, brooding on whatever the next couple of days held in store and analysing to the point of a migraine whether she regretted her decision to come or not, but in fact she had never felt so relaxed as she unwound over the next few hours.
