Sophie Weston - The Millionaire's Daughter

She flinched. He’s telling me I’m so weird no normal man would take me out. It hurt. Of course, she knew it wouldn’t have hurt if it had not been exactly what she was already afraid of. Annis felt her temper fly straight through the top of her head.

But she was too used to controlling her feelings to allow it to show. ‘No, no. Standard issue,’ she assured him affably.

His eyes flickered. ‘They have my sympathy.’

Annis flinched inwardly. That’s what comes of mixing it with the sexiest man in the room, she told herself, rejecting the hurt. You started it. So have your fun. Just expect to pay for it.

The woman on his other side said something. He inclined his head courteously for a moment, not taking his eyes off Annis. A smile began to lift one corner of his mouth. Not a nice smile.

‘I don’t think Ms Carew would agree with you. She’s just told me she doesn’t date. I don’t imagine she flirts, either.’ He leaned back so the two women could talk to each other.

That, thought Annis, was not playing fair. Theirs was supposed to be a private battle. He knew it as well as she did. But she set her teeth and prepared to meet him on this new ground. ‘Flirt?’ she echoed, smiling. ‘Me? Why not?’

‘You were the one who just told me to stop,’ he reminded her, enjoying himself.

Her eyes glittered.

Before she could retaliate, however, Kosta was addressing the subject to the table at large. ‘And I’m sure you’re right. Flirting,’ he announced ‘takes Mediterranean flair. The English don’t trust flirting any more than they trust garlic. Quite apart from the individual temperament.’

He glanced down at Annis quizzically.

He’s mocking me. He wants everyone else to join in, she thought. Her heart twisted. She concentrated on her anger.

The other woman frowned him down. Annis had met her before. She was on one of Lynda’s charity committees, a media personality. Now she was looking apologetic.

‘I was just saying to Kosta that flirting is one of the great lost skills.’

Konstantin Vitale smiled straight into Annis’s indignant eyes. ‘And I told Sally that you wouldn’t agree.’

Annis widened her eyes at him. ‘Oh? Why? It seems pretty lost to me. No sign this evening that either you or I know how to flirt, is there?’

Sally drew in a startled breath. Konstantin Vitale ignored her. He sat bolt upright and stopped smiling.

‘And no sign that you regret it for a moment,’ he told Annis crisply. ‘Like I said, no temperament for it.’

Sally murmured. ‘Fifteen-all.’

Annis was hotly indignant. It felt great. ‘You can’t expect someone to flirt with you if you make her account for herself as if you’re interviewing her for a job.’

Sally gave a soft laugh. ‘Ta-da. She’s got you there, Kosta.’

‘What else is a man to ask her about when the first thing she tells him is that she lives for her work?’

‘Thirty-all.’ Sally was enjoying herself hugely.

‘And when she tells him she’s at the party to network.’

‘Thirty-forty.’

Annis stared up at him. His eyes were curiously intent. She found she could not think of one thing to say.

‘And that dating bores her.’

‘Game, set and match,’ crowed Sally.

He did not take his eyes off Annis. ‘No,’ he said softly. ‘Not yet.’

And smiled.

Annis felt as if all her clothes had fallen off.

She did something she had not done since she was a child. She pushed her chair back with a harsh scraping noise and scrambled to her feet. ‘Excuse me.’

She fled.

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