Kathryn Ross - The Night Of The Wedding

“But you’d play it…if I asked you to?”

He didn’t answer her for a moment.

“Nick?” She frowned.

“Yes…I said I’d do it. But don’t say I haven’t warned you.” Nick reached out a hand and tipped her chin up so that he could look into her eyes. “Toying with people’s emotions is always dangerous. You need to forget Stephen Harrington ever existed.”

“I don’t need you to tell me what to do, Nick.” Kate glared at him. “And I am forgetting about Stephen.”

“If you were forgetting about him you wouldn’t be wasting your time trying to think of ways to make him jealous.”

“If you’re referring to my going to the wedding with you, you can forget about it. It was a passing thought and not a very good one. No one would believe we were lovers anyway.”

“Wouldn’t they?” Nick’s voice was dangerously low. “Are you trying to issue some kind of a challenge?”

Anything can happen behind closed doors!

Do you dare find out…?

Welcome again to DO NOT DISTURB!

Pretending to be Kate’s escort at a wedding proves to be surprisingly easy for Nick—too easy, in fact—and as night falls their luxuriously sensual hotel suite is irresistibly inviting. But what will happen when the cold light of day follows the fiery heat of the moment?

Find out if Nick and Kate have finally found what they’ve both been looking for, in this sizzling tale of passion and seduction from much-loved Presents ®author Kathryn Ross!

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

WAS Stephen going to propose to her tonight? Kate wondered as she cycled home from work. The idea came into her head from nowhere and with it came a feeling of nervous anticipation, but surprisingly not the burst of joy she would have expected.

Why didn’t the thought make her happy? They had been living together for two years now and they had agreed that if everything worked out they’d get engaged on their second anniversary. Things were working out, weren’t they? Suddenly she wasn’t sure.

Then she felt impatient with herself. Of course things were working out. Stephen was happy in his job now, and her job at the small publishing house of Temple and Tanner was challenging and exciting. And they both loved living in this city.

Amsterdam was bathed in beauty. The tall, majestic buildings glowed in the evening summer sun, their reflections shimmering in the waters of the canal. Pavement cafés were coming to life, buzzing with the low hum of conversation as friends met up after work, just as she was on her way to meet up with her best friend Nick Fielding again. The thought caused a frisson of pleasure to surge through her body as she hurried towards the last bridge and the café where they usually met for a drink after work.

It was five weeks since she had last seen Nick because he had been back in London on business. She had missed him, missed his sound advice, his infectious laugh. He always made her feel good.

Nick saw her immediately as she rode over the bridge, her long dark hair streaming back from her face. She wore a grey pair of trousers with a pretty pink strappy top that showed the perfection of her supple figure. As usual she was cycling one-handed and far too fast, with a large heavy rucksack on her back.

He watched as she hopped off the bicycle and chained it to the railings. Then she turned and saw him and waved, a smile lighting the beauty of her heart-shaped face.

She was thirty-two, only a year younger than him, but she looked about seventeen. Really she had changed very little since their days together at college, he thought as he watched her make her way through the crowded tables towards him.

‘Hi, Katy.’ Nick stood up as she approached the table and reached to kiss her on the cheek. Her skin was soft and smooth. She smelt sweetly of summer. Honeysuckle…or was it roses?

‘You’ve changed your perfume,’ he remarked as he pulled back from her, thinking with a pang about the bottle of her usual scent that he had purchased at the airport for her next birthday.

‘Yes, Stephen bought it for me ages ago and I thought I’d better use it up before it went off.’ Kate took off her rucksack and sat down opposite him. ‘So how are you?’ she asked with a smile.

She looked fabulous; her skin glowed with health, her wide green eyes sparkled with devilment. ‘I’m fine—’ he sat back down and put up a hand to catch the waitress’s attention ‘—but I’m glad to be back. The London office was in chaos. I spent the first week just getting the files in order.’

She laughed. ‘I bet they heaved a sigh of relief when you left. You’re such a perfectionist, Nick.’

‘When you run your own business you’ve got to be.’

The waitress came over and he ordered two coffees.

Kate suddenly noticed the woman at the next table was staring at him, open admiration in her eyes. Nick was extremely handsome, she agreed as she looked back at him. He had a fabulous physique, and he looked every inch the successful businessman that he was. The cut of his clothes was stylish, the light-coloured jacket and open-necked shirt emphasized his dark, almost Latin good looks. She felt a sudden dart of pride that he was her friend. Women had come and gone in his life, but their relationship remained constant, never changing. No matter how long it was since they had seen each other, there was always this easiness between them.

‘I hope you didn’t spend all of your time in London working on your computers,’ she said as the waitress left them. ‘You were supposed to be taking time out to show Serena the sights, weren’t you?’

He shrugged ruefully. ‘Things didn’t quite work out.’

Something in his tone of voice made her frown. ‘What do you mean?’

‘I mean that our relationship has reached an end,’ he said bluntly.

‘Oh, Nick!’ Kate leaned back in her chair. Although she was surprised at the suddenness of the break-up, she couldn’t honestly say she was shocked. She had always known deep down that Serena wouldn’t get Nick. ‘I’m so sorry.’

He shrugged. ‘Just one of those things,’ he said easily.

She met the darkness of his eyes. ‘Did you finish with her?’ she asked softly.

‘It was a mutual thing,’ he murmured evasively, but Kate didn’t believe a word of it. Serena was a beautiful leggy blonde but, despite her gorgeous looks and pleasant personality, Kate had always suspected that Serena was more serious about Nick than he was about her.

‘So, what happened? Serena seemed so happy before you left. She was really looking forward to you showing her around London.’

‘We had a nice time and we’ve parted on good terms.’ Nick said nonchalantly, ‘but we both wanted different things out of the relationship.’

The waitress brought their coffee as Kate digested this information. She presumed he meant Serena had wanted the relationship to deepen and he hadn’t. Kate had seen it all before. Any time one of Nick’s girlfriends started to move too close to him, or even hint around the possibility that the relationship might get serious, that was his cue to start to back away.

‘It’s a shame,’ she murmured. ‘I really liked Serena.’

‘So did I,’ Nick agreed easily.

‘But not enough.’

Nick didn’t answer that. ‘We had been going out together for quite a while. I think we both agreed it was time to move on—’