‘Er, hello,’ I answer, offering a small, hesitant wave.
‘Pay no attention to the drama queen—’
‘Guilty as charged! Come on, let’s have a look at you.’
He eyes me like a booker for Dior, which would make me the Russian teenager with a late onset of puberty.I wish! I’m probably nearer her pudgy, blini eating cousin.
‘You,’ he says with narrowed lids, ‘I should hate. But I can’t!’ His expression relaxes, as does my whole frame in response. ‘If I can’t have the man—I said, Meesh, she’d better be good for him!’ Taking my hands in his, he says, ‘And she says you are, so that’ll do me.’
Wow, drama llama!
‘Come, my little antipodean strumpet,’ he says, sliding an arm around my shoulder. ‘Let’s get this wedding planned!’
Its night-time and I’m curled up in the snug when my mobile rings.
‘Kitten.’
Usually, that one word pours over me like warm honey. Not today.
Kitten indeed.
‘Hi.’ Even though I so suck at sexy, today I’m not in the mood for even attempting a purr.
Hmph. Purr.
‘How was your catch up with Niamh?’
I haven’t spoken to him since before she arrived. Well, not beyond a couple of bland texts.
‘Oh, you know. She stayed over, got drunk, same old, same old.’
‘You had a good time?’
‘It was good to catch up.’
‘And today?’
I’m not sullying this conversation by mentioning Essam. I need this to be just about us—I crave him right now. Just want to listen to his voice. Be absorbed in our connection, especially as we’re so far apart.
‘I went to meet my dress designer with your mum.’
I won’t mention my run-in with Sofia, either. No need to make him feel worse than he does. Plus helpless, I’d imagine, stuck on the other side of the planet as he is.
‘Am I allowed to ask?’
‘If Phillippe sends his love? ‘Course he did, even if I thought he was going to poke out my eyeballs at one point.’
Kai’s laugh rolls down my spine, landing right between my legs. Okay, if I’m honest, I need this conversation to be like this, too.
‘Y—your mum says if there’s an event to attend in Dubai, it will always be one of his.It’s good of him to make time for us.’
‘Sweetheart, beneath the metrosexual exterior beats the heart of a stellar businessman. Our wedding will be one of the society events of the year. Of course he wouldn’t turn us away.
‘Beating heart, huh?’ I ask sardonically. And society event of the year? Ho-ley fricken’ hell! ‘You know you’re the object of his heart’s desire?’
‘Not my type, sweetheart.’
‘Your mum says he’s always had afondnessfor you.’ Kai’s snort is audible down the line. ‘I’d have to say, after meeting him, I would have thought ahardnesswould be nearer the mark.’
