‘Thank you. I appreciate that.’
‘Shall we have a nightcap in the bar?’ Raff suggested. ‘As you won’t be dashing off.’
‘Why not. But please, please, please, let me pay for those at least.’
‘No. Sorry. We had a deal. The next time is on you.’
Kate puffed out a sigh. ‘Fine. I’m just going to text my gran to tell her I won’t be home tonight. I don’t want her to worry.’
‘Good idea. I’ll go ahead and get the drinks. Champagne? Cognac? Something else?’
‘I’d love a Drambuie. But I usually only drink that on special occasions.’
‘This is a special occasion. It’s Valentine’s Day.’ He grinned and headed towards the bar.
Kate typed a text: ‘I’m staying but don’t get excited. No cabs available. Sleep well. Love & kisses. XX’
She knew her gran would have a field day when she read the text, despite the fact that Kate had tried to make it clear she wasn’t staying for romantic reasons. Granny Viv would be imagining all sorts of scenarios and no doubt thinking up a variety of schemes to get Kate and Raff together again as soon as possible.
Mind you, Kate had to admit that Granny Viv could never have guessed that Kate would phone Raff and ask him out to dinner tonight.
Nor could she have known they’d be having dinner in the restaurant of the hotel in which he was staying and that it was, for all intent and purpose, in the middle of nowhere.
And not even Granny Viv could have conjured up a storm of such magnitude that roads would be flooded, and getting a cab would be impossible.
The woman couldn’t have planned this better herself.
In fact, it almost seemed like … Fate.
Fourteen
Kate was usually fairly sensible about the quantity of alcohol she consumed. Tonight though, her commonsense appeared to have been washed away.
She had already consumed more than her fair share of the bottle of wine she and Granny Viv had with their lunch; her gran having been strangely abstemious in the pub today.
On arrival this evening, she and Raff had both quaffed two glasses of champagne. They’d had wine with their meal. Quite a lot of wine. But it was the nightcap that had done the damage.
Well, maybe not the first nightcap. Maybe not the second. But the third and fourth had taken her well and truly over her limit.
And yet, somehow, when they had eventually left the bar an hour later, she had been able to walk up to Raff’s room without any assistance from him.
She would even have been perfectly capable of getting undressed, had the zip on the side not got stuck in some way. She had lifted her arm and endeavoured to see the cause but as soon as she thought she had ascertained the reason, she had decided she would require his help.
Which was possibly her first mistake.
The side zip had somehow caught on the layer of tulle and, as the dress did not belong to her, she didn’t want to tug at the zip or the dress and risk ripping the delicate material.
‘I’m so sorry,’ she said, reopening the bedroom door she had closed a few seconds before, ‘but I seem to need some help with this zip.’
They had just said a somewhat awkward good night to one another having both made use of the en suite bathroom. Raff had kindly acquired a toothbrush for her from the hotel receptionist and there had been a complimentary vanity kit Raff hadn’t touched and had told her she was welcome to use. They had taken turns in the en suite and had then stood and looked at one another, their eyes locked for several seconds, as if uncertain what to do next.
‘Thank you again for tonight,’ Kate had said, a frisson of excitement palpable between them. ‘Especially for giving up your bed.’
‘You’re more than welcome. I’m the one who should be thanking you. Prior to your call, a rather boring evening lay ahead of me. Instead, this has been … an evening I’ll remember for a long time to come.’
‘Me too,’ she said, wondering if – and in total honesty a part of her hoping – he might try to kiss her.
The quick lick of his lips, his hand through his hair, and small cough, revealed he might be considering it, but he threw her a brief smile before turning away.
