Part 16 (2/2)

Rosie's cold hands gripped the edge of a curling wrought-iron railing as she looked down from the gallery into the main room below.

Over two hundred people in evening dress milled about the ma.s.sive rectangular s.p.a.ce. A gleaming parquet floor shone in the light of six crystal chandeliers hanging from the multi-vaulted ceiling; a string quartet played in one corner of the room, a jazz band was setting up in the other, and white roses tumbled from every surface available.

She felt a sudden need to hitch up her dress.

'Come on,' Cameron said.

He took her hand and practically dragged her down the staircase and through the crowd so fast that he didn't have to stop and talk to anyone, and onto the dance floor, where several couples were swaying to the beautiful music.

He took her in his arms, pulled her close and together they danced.

With a blinding flash that had her losing her footing for a second, Rosie found herself deep in the middle of a memory she'd long since forgotten.

She was at the only school dance she'd ever attended. She'd been invited by a boy in her science cla.s.s-Jeremy somebody. He'd been two inches shorter than her, and had always worn his trousers too tight, but in those days even to be asked...

Halfway through the night, dancing alone within the pulsating crowd, she'd turned to find herself looking into a pair of stunning blue eyes br.i.m.m.i.n.g with effortless self-belief. Cameron Kelly. A senior. She'd looked and she'd ached, if not to be with him then to be like him-content, fortunate, valued. He hadn't looked away.

And like that they'd danced with one another for no more than a quarter of a song before one of his friends had dragged him away for photos with the gang.

Cameron pulled her closer and drew her back to the present, just in time to hear him say, 'If only you'd let me dance with you this close all those years ago then who knows what might have happened?'

Rosie snapped her head back so fast she heard her neck crack. 'Excuse me?'

He pulled her back into his arms and wrapped her tighter until her cheek was back against his chest, and she could feel the steady beat of his heart as he twirled her around the floor.

'My senior-year dance,' he said, the sound rumbling through her. 'You were there, weren't you?'

She closed her eyes lest he realise what she could no longer deny-that she was still very much the young girl with the nave, wide-open heart that had seen something exceptional in him all those years ago.

'You remember,' she whispered.

'Mmm. I remembered a couple of days back, actually. I forgot to mention it til now.'

Her knees wobbled in recognition of the smile in his voice. Her poor, struggling heart wobbled right along with them.

'Skinny black jeans,' he continued. 'Hot-pink tank top, enough eyeliner to drown a s.h.i.+p. And I might be getting this part wrong, but did you have your hair in two long plaits?'

Rosie's hand lifted off his shoulder to slap across her eyes. 'Oh no, I'd forgotten that part. That was my ”separate myself from the preppy, pastel suburban princesses before they separate themselves from me” phase. You know what? I'm not sure I ever grew out of that.'

Cameron slipped a finger beneath her chin and didn't slide it away until she was looking into his eyes. Those beautiful, corn-flower, soulful, s.e.xy, smiling eyes. 'I'm glad. And for the record you looked adorable. And scary as h.e.l.l.'

She blinked up at him, her brow furrowing. 'Scary?'

'G.o.d, yeah. I was mucking about, pretending to dance with my mates, and when I turned there was this stunning creature right under my eyes, chin up, eyes fierce, daring the world to even try telling her off for simply being herself. I was fairly sure that girl must have thought me ridiculous.'

'Ridiculous?' she repeated, beginning to feel like a parrot, but it was either that or say something she'd never be able to take back. That, in that moment, she'd been fairly sure she was looking at the most beautiful boy in the whole world.

She gripped his shoulder a tad too tightly, but he didn't seem to notice. He just looked deep into her eyes with that barely there smile lingering upon his mouth.

'It didn't take any kind of genius on my part to know you were far too cool for the likes of me.' He reached out and slid a finger under her fringe, pus.h.i.+ng it off her face until he cupped her cheek. 'You know what? Nothing you've said or done this week has made me think any differently. Only now I'm old enough not to give a d.a.m.n.'

And then he kissed her, so softly, so gently, her heart turned inside out.

'Well, if it isn't little Cam Kelly. I'm not sure I believe my own eyes,' a deep male voice drawled.

Rosie dragged herself out of the bottom of a beautiful dream and blinked into the warm light to find they'd stopped dancing.

And Cameron was no longer all hers.

His shoulders were stiff, his back straight, his neck tense as he stared at a taller man with slick hair and cold eyes.

'Brendan, this is my friend, Rosalind Harper,' Cameron said, his voice so cool if felt like the exhilarating warmth that had enveloped them both only moments earlier had all been in her imagination. 'Rosalind, this is my brother, Brendan. He is the heir apparent to my father's empire.'

Brendan gave her a short nod with a smile that didn't light his eyes. She smiled back and offered a tiny curtsy. His eyes narrowed, but his smile broadened, and Rosie caught a glimpse of Cameron's charisma therein.

'Which by the old joke makes our Dylan the spare,' Brendan said. 'And what does that make you, brother?'

'Delighted to be my own man.'

Feeling like she was in the middle of two lions circling one another, hoping to bite the other's head off, Rosie disentangled herself from Cameron's hold and waggled his little finger. 'I think I'll take a look around, see what there is to eat. Give you boys the chance to do what you need to do.'

'I'll come back for you soon,' Cameron said.

Rosie smiled, but a s.h.i.+ver ran down her back as she thought it would be asking too much to have the same good luck twice. 'Nice to meet you, Brendan.'

'Likewise,' he said, and this time she believed him.

As she walked away through a crowd of people she'd never met, and didn't particularly want to, she glanced back to find Cameron and his brother already deep in heated conversation.

She'd brought him here, she'd made his first step bearable. Was that as far as she was needed? She kept walking straight ahead and ignored the sadness that had once again begun to settle in her chest.

It was all she'd ever known how to do.

CHAPTER TWELVE

TEN minutes later Rosie leant against a marble column in the corner of the room, a champagne gla.s.s in one hand, a couple of minutes later Rosie leant against a marble column in the corner of the room, a champagne gla.s.s in one hand, a couple of hors d'oeuvres hors d'oeuvres secreted within a linen napkin in the other. The food hadn't done much to ease the tightness in her chest; the champagne, on the other hand, had. secreted within a linen napkin in the other. The food hadn't done much to ease the tightness in her chest; the champagne, on the other hand, had.

She watched Cameron and Brendan holding court with two politicians, a tennis pro and a guy with so many s.h.i.+ny medals on his chest she figured he was an army general.

For a guy who'd supposedly turned his back on all this guff, Cameron was in his element-while she was hiding lest she was forced to have another conversation about yachting, or golf, or the medical benefits of rhinoplasty.

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