Carole Mortimer - The Yuletide Engagement

‘Ellie…?’

She looked up, her breath catching in her throat as she found herself the focus of Patrick’s McGrath’s enigmatic grey gaze.

He really was the most gorgeous-looking man, she acknowledged weakly. All six foot two inches of him!

‘You know where I am if you should change your mind…’ he told her pointedly.

Yes, he was gorgeous, and there was no doubt that having him as her escort would have salvaged her damaged pride—just as there was no doubt she had no intention of taking him up on his offer!

‘I won’t,’ she assured him with finality.

How could Ellie have known, how could she possibly have guessed, that something disastrous would occur during the following week—something that would necessitate her not only changing her mind, but having to go to Patrick McGrath herself and ask him if he would consider coming to the company dinner with her after all?

‘HOW do I look?’ She grimaced at Toby questioningly as she entered the kitchen where her brother sat eating the dinner she had prepared for him before getting ready for her evening out.

‘You look great,’ he assured her enthusiastically. ‘New dress?’ he observed teasingly.

Of course it was a new dress; she couldn’t go out with Patrick McGrath wearing the old trusty little-black-dress that she had worn to last year’s company Christmas dinner. No, as Patrick’s dinner date she wanted to wear something much more stylish. And noticeable.

She had known as soon as she saw the knee-length figure-hugging red dress in the shop that it would ensure, once and for all, that Gareth was no longer under any misapprehension concerning her having fully got over him. Especially with Patrick McGrath as her dinner partner!

‘Do you like it?’ she asked her brother uncertainly.

Trying the dress on in the shop and actually putting it on at home were two different things, she had realised a few minutes ago. Seen in this homely setting, the dress was much more revealing than anything Ellie had ever worn before, clinging to her slenderness in a bright red swathe, the low neckline and sleeveless style showing arms and throat still lightly tanned from her holiday in the summer.

Her hair was swept up loosely from the slenderness of her neck and secured with two gold combs. The change in hairstyle seemed to enlarge her eyes and the dark sweep of her lashes. Blusher highlighted her cheeks, and the bright red gloss on her lips was the same colour as the dress.

Ellie had noted all of this in her bedroom mirror a few minutes ago, sweeping out of the room and down the stairs before she had time for second thoughts and settled for the familiar black dress after all.

‘You look wonderful, sis,’ Toby told her, sitting back to look at her admiringly. ‘You’re going to knock him off his feet!’

She frowned. ‘Toby, the idea isn’t for me to attract Patrick McGrath—’

‘I was referring to Gareth,’ he murmured pointedly.

‘Oh…Gareth,’ she acknowledged weakly, feeling the colour warming her cheeks at her mistake. In all honesty she had totally forgotten about Gareth as she prepared for her evening out. Which was ridiculous when he was the reason she had gone to all this trouble in the first place.

The reason she had swallowed her pride and gone to Patrick, and told him she had changed her mind after all!

To give the man his due, he hadn’t batted an eyelid when she had turned up at his office three days ago—without an appointment—and asked him if he was still agreeable to going out with her on Friday evening.

She had acted instinctively, knowing that if she gave herself time to think about whether or not she should go and see him she would change her mind. Although she had been a little thrown by his opening comment!

‘I’ve been expecting you.’ He put his gold pen down on top of the papers on his desk before smiling across at her as she stood just inside his office, his secretary having closed the door behind her as she left.

‘You have?’ Ellie frowned; how could he possibly have been expecting her when until half an hour ago she hadn’t expected to be here herself?

‘Call it a hunch.’ He nodded. ‘You can sit down, you know, Ellie,’ he added mockingly. ‘There’s no charge!’

He seemed different today, Ellie realized, more the thirty-eight-year-old successful businessman that he was. He was dressed formally too, in a dark grey suit with a white silk shirt, a light grey tie knotted meticulously at his throat.

She made no move to sit in the chair he indicated, knowing that she had made a mistake in coming here today, that she should have taken the time to think after all, that—

‘I still have Friday evening free, if you’re interested,’ he told her huskily.

Her eyes widened. ‘You do?’

He nodded. ‘Are you interested?’

She swallowed hard, wishing she could say no but knowing that, after what she had learnt today, she badly needed this man’s presence at her side on Friday evening—for moral support if nothing else.

‘Ellie…?’ he prompted at her continued silence.

‘I’m interested,’ she admitted abruptly.

‘Has something happened?’ he asked shrewdly.

Had something happened! Gareth, that selfish, unthinking, uncaring—

‘Something’s happened,’ Patrick acknowledged ruefully, standing up to pour her a cup of coffee from the hot percolator that stood on the side. ‘I’m sorry it’s nothing stronger,’ he apologised dryly as he handed her the cup and saucer. ‘You look as if you could do with a double whisky!’

‘I don’t drink whisky,’ she said vaguely, taking a sip of the hot coffee. Not because she thought it would make her feel any better, more for something to do with her shaking hands.

Cold hands, she realised belatedly as she wrapped them about the cup; the snow that had been threatening to fall all week had finally come tumbling down this morning. And in her agitation Ellie had completely forgotten to collect her outer coat and gloves before leaving the office earlier.

‘Is it anything I should know about?’ Patrick gently urged.

‘Anything…? It isn’t Toby, if that’s what you’re worried about,’ she hastened to reassure him.

‘I didn’t think for a moment that it was; as far as I’m aware Toby is in York today, with—with another of my employees,’ Patrick dismissed lightly. ‘I wish you would sit down, Ellie,’ he said softly.

Of course. He wouldn’t sit down if she didn’t. Ellie sat, the cup rattling precariously in the saucer as she did so.

Patrick moved back to sit behind his desk. ‘Take your time,’ he invited. ‘I don’t have any appointments for a couple of hours.’

‘It isn’t going to take me that long to—!’ She broke off, her face pale as she brought herself under control. ‘My ex-boyfriend intends announcing his engagement at the dinner on Friday evening,’ she bit out reluctantly.

‘Ah,’ Patrick murmured comprehendingly.

Ellie looked across at him sharply. ‘It doesn’t bother me,’ she assured him.

He raised dark brows. ‘It doesn’t?’

‘Look, Mr—Patrick,’ she amended as he raised those brows even higher. ‘I don’t know what Toby told you about the end of my relationship with Gareth, but—’

‘Nothing at all, as it happens,’ he assured her dryly. ‘Toby can be discreet when he needs to be,’ he added at her sceptical look. ‘He wouldn’t have lasted long as my assistant if he couldn’t!’

‘Yes. Well.’ Ellie grimaced. ‘I was the one to end my relationship with Gareth.’

Patrick frowned. ‘Then why—?’

‘He told everyone at the office that he was the one to end it,’ Ellie recalled disgustedly. ‘And when he was seen with someone else only a few days later…!’ She shook her head. ‘If I had tried to contradict his story then I would have just looked like “a woman scorned”,’ she reasoned heavily.