All He Wants For Christmas...: Flirting With Intent / Blame it on the Bikini / Restless. Kelly Hunter
easy, conceded Damon. There could be awkwardness and boundaries to re-establish. Control to find. Leave to be taken, provided clothes could be found. So far, Damon had managed to find his clothes. Ruby hadn’t even managed that, but then, she didn’t have family waiting and wondering where the hell she was.
‘What time is it?’ she said.
‘Four.’
‘That late?’ She sat up abruptly, every inch the dishevelled wanton, and the corners of Damon’s mouth kicked in response.
‘I’m taking that as a compliment.’
‘And so you should.’ Ruby slipped from the bed and found her dress, no awkwardness in her whatsoever and it helped ease his. ‘Your powers of distraction are truly—’
Ruby laid a hand over her heart ‘—truly stupendous.’
Damon smiled at her words and turned away and headed for the en-suite. There’d been a hell of a lot more than distraction going on here this afternoon, but if Ruby wasn’t inclined to point it out then he certainly wasn’t going to. Ruby—it seemed—had bypassed awkwardness and moved straight to the setting of boundaries. Which was fine by him.
No promises and no regrets. They could do this. And then Ruby came into the bathroom with her dress on and leaned back against the bench as he splashed his face with water and took the hand towel she offered him.
‘I need to get going soon,’ he said, and wondered at his sudden reluctance to move.
‘Want a lift?’ And when he studied the towel instead of answering, ‘I can drop you at the door?’ He moved away from the basin and Ruby took his place, took one look in the mirror and gasped and then grabbed for her hairbrush. ‘Boy, am I dropping you at the door.’
‘You look fine.’ He took the brush from her and stepped in behind her, setting brush to hair. His gaze met Ruby’s in the mirror and it hit him like a train that he wanted this picture in his life. Wanted it with an intensity he usually reserved for his work. ‘And you’re welcome to come in.’
‘No. Thank you, but no. If you’re planning on attending your father’s Boxing Day luncheon I’ll see you tomorrow. If you’re not …’
‘I’ll be there,’ he murmured and handed her back her brush. ‘I’ll be at my father’s until the thirtieth.’
‘More information?’ she purred. ‘Why, Damon. You spoil me.’
‘No, I don’t.’ But he wanted to.
‘Anyway …’ she said with a shrug that reminded him of the shrugs of his youth. The ones designed to make people think he wasn’t hurting. ‘Time to get you home.’
She drove him to his father’s door. And then she smiled and blew him a kiss and drove away.
Russell West’s inaugural Boxing Day luncheon had been Ruby’s idea. An informal drop-in for business associates and friends, it started at midday and would go on until late as guests cycled through, staying for as long or as short a time as they wanted. The caterers were the best in the business and came complete with service manager and wait staff, which left Ruby very little to do but stay out of the way unless issues arose.
Instigator she might have been but host she was not. She left that to Russell and his family and could not fault any of them. Both Poppy and Lena were wearing the clothes she’d chosen for them. Both looked stunning—even if she did say so herself.
Ruby wore a simple ivory skirt and jacket with a violet camisole beneath. No lace. No frou-frou at all except for a tiny crystal-embedded hair clip to hold her hair up and out of her face. Her father’s reputation preceded her these days, but she did her best to be unobtrusive in this type of company so that her presence would not reflect poorly on Russell.
No need for people to know how Russell had come by his recent social savvy. All they needed to know was that a new social circle had opened up and that it glowed with opportunity when it came to matching investors with developers, visionaries with the more practically minded, movers and shakers with those who could oil their way.
Damn right no one paid her any attention—everyone was too busy doing what they did best.
Ruby allowed herself a tiny smile. At least two major business deals would get stitched up here today. Maybe three. Not bad for a former corporate lawyer turned social PA.
‘Ruby? Is that you?’
Ruby looked up at the sound of her name, her smile turning genuine as she recognised the speaker. ‘Juliet! How are you? It’s been too long. And you are still the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. I want your secret.’
‘Flatterer,’ said the other woman warmly as they exchanged kisses. ‘Your father taught you well.’
‘So true.’ Ruby stood back and caught the other woman’s hand. ‘I heard you’d remarried. Renauld Lang, yes?’
‘Yes.’ Juliet’s face softened. ‘He’s a good man, Ruby. A kind man. I got lucky.’
‘You deserved to,’ murmured Ruby gently. Juliet had been Ruby’s father’s lover once and had made the fatal mistake of getting serious about him, and befriending Ruby, and trying, bless Juliet’s gentle heart, to make a place for herself in Harry Maguire’s life.
It hadn’t ended well.
‘I know what they’re saying about your father, Ruby,’ said Juliet gently. ‘And for what it’s worth I don’t believe a word of it. Harry was restless, and ruthless, and frustratingly enigmatic more often than not. But he wasn’t a thief and he would never have walked away from you. You know that, don’t you?’
‘Sometimes I know it,’ said Ruby with a wry smile. ‘It means a lot to hear you say it.’
‘Any time,’ said the other woman gently.
‘Ladies,’ said a deeply delicious voice with just the right amount of wickedness in it. ‘I’m doing the rounds on behalf of my father. May I interest either of you in a drink?’
Ruby looked up and her smile grew even wryer as she took in the elegance that was Damon all suited up and primed to behave. ‘Juliet Lang, Damon West,’ said Ruby. ‘Juliet and I are old acquaintances. Damon and I are new acquaintances. Juliet, will you have a champagne?’
‘Of course,’ said the older woman.
‘What about you, Ruby?’ asked Damon.
‘Thanks, but no. I’m working. I have a glass of water around here somewhere.’
Damon nodded and moved away and Ruby watched him go. She’d been trying not to watch him for the best part of the afternoon. The way he mingled easily and endured his father’s pride in him with wry good humour.
The way he drew daughters, wives and grandmothers to him like locusts to a plague.
Charmer, no question.
Be whatever someone wanted him to be.
‘Impressive,’ murmured Juliet.
‘Very. But strictly short term.’
‘Heartbreaker,’ said Juliet warningly.
‘Only if you let him be.’
Ruby smiled and found her glass, caught his gaze and sent him a silent and appreciative toast.
‘Don’t bait the man, Ruby. Didn’t your father ever tell you not to play with fire?’
‘He did,’ said Ruby. ‘But it’s so much fun.’
She laughed with Juliet for a while and met her lovely husband, and then it was time to slip away and do the rounds of the powder rooms to make sure they were tidy and well stocked. Three bathrooms available to guests. Two off the atrium and living areas and another at the end of the hallway, past the guest bedrooms.
Ruby’s