The Valentine Affair by Lyons Mary

Author:Lyons, Mary
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2011-06-07T16:00:00+00:00

‘That was really great!’ Alex sighed some considerable time later as she viewed the empty plate in front of her. ‘I hate to say it, but you’re obviously a really good cook.’

‘Gee—thanks!’ he drawled, grinning as he accurately mimicked her own words from earlier, when he’d expressed surprise at her ability to string more than one or two words together.

‘Well, you might have known that I could write, since that’s obviously the way I earn my living,’ she pointed out mildly. ‘But, since I’m not clairvoyant, how could I have possibly guessed that a stuffy City banker—who also, according to Fleet Street gossip, has a really terrific reputation as a Casanova—would turn out to be a really great chef?’

‘Gee—thanks. Again!’ he ground out, clearly not so amused this time. ‘As for my so-called reputation...1 can assure you that it’s highly exaggerated. Quite a work of fiction, in fact.’

‘Yes, well...’ She took another sip of the really excellent wine. ‘Never mind, Leo. Once the word gets around that you cook like a dream, I don’t suppose you’ll have any problem with your love life.’

‘I can assure you that there’s no problem with my love life!’ he snapped irritably.

‘But I thought you just said—?’

‘Rubbish! I was merely pointing out...’ He paused, catching the gleam of laughter in her eyes. ‘Ouch! I walked straight into that one, didn’t I?’ He shook his head with annoyance and self-disgust. ‘It’s clear that not only should I watch my tongue—but that you, my dear Alex, have had quite enough to drink,’ he drawled in an icy tone of voice. ‘So I think it’s time we had some coffee in the other room, don’t you?’

Oh, Lord! The awful man was quite right. Unfortunately, the smoked salmon tagliatelle, followed by grilled king prawns and a delicious salad—which Leo had seemed to conjure up out of thin air—had been so scrumptious that she’d hardly noticed how much wine she’d been drinking. Which meant that she was now in no fit state to drive home. What on earth was she going to do?

It was a question that was still buzzing intermittently in her head as she sipped her cup of strong black coffee in the sitting room some minutes later. Maybe, if she concentrated on putting as much caffeine into herself as possible, she’d be able to sober up by the time it came to drive home?

Unfortunately, while the coffee was certainly helping her to feel a lot more wide awake, the alcohol still coursing through her veins seemed to have the disastrous effect of loosening her tongue. Which meant that, almost before she knew what she was doing, she found herself telling him all about her plan for the three couples to attend a St Valentine’s Day ball.

‘That’s all I need,’ Leo muttered grimly.

Under normal circumstances, he would have been prepared to quite cheerfully wring this damned girl’s neck! However, since he had absolutely no intention of attending any stupid ball—and there was little or no chance of Alex,

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