‘So be it.’ And with a shrug of his broad shoulders Nick walked to the door and held it open. ‘Run along, friend,’ he drawled sarcastically.
She had done the right thing, Liza told herself an hour later, tossing restlessly in her own bed. The only trouble was she could remember all too vividly Nick making love to her in the same bed, and she burned with frustrated desire until finally she fell into a troubled sleep.
In the room next door Nick downed another brandy, and, slamming the glass down on the table, he muttered, ‘To hell with it.’ Liza was never going to be his again; she had made that very plain—he was not her type. No woman had ever told him that before. It was ironic it had to come from the one woman he truly wanted.
Never mind, he would do what he had planned to do before he knew she was coming. He was flying to Switzerland tomorrow, to take part in the Verbier run.
Anna and her mother were halfway though their breakfast by the time Liza made it to the dining room.
‘You look like hell,’ her mother said.
‘Thanks, Mum. Good morning, Anna,’ she greeted the pair of them and sat down at the table, but she wasn’t hungry.
‘There is nothing good about it,’ Anna said bluntly. ‘I thought when Nick agreed to come to dinner last night with you and Pam, he might have given up on the Verbier run tomorrow, though I knew he had entered it.’
Liza’s face paled; the Verbier run—she had heard of it and seen it on television. It was a death-defying snow-boarder’s race in the Alps at the end of the extreme-sport season. ‘Oh, no.’
‘Exactly, Liza.’ Anna’s brown eyes met Liza’s appalled blue. ‘He left here this morning hell-bent on taking part; he is flying to Switzerland this afternoon. I told him not to be so crazy.’ She shrugged. ‘But he takes no notice of me. I don’t know what happened between you two last night, but
you must have said something to upset him.’
‘Me, upset him?’ Liza exclaimed.
Her own mother chipped in, ‘Anna and I went to bed at a ridiculously early hour so the pair of you could be alone, so what went wrong?’
Liza could not believe what she was hearing. ‘You… She…’ She looked from one to the other, and they both stared back at her with bland faces. ‘You tried to set me up? To set us up?’
‘Certainly. I know what has been going on between you, Nick and Carl Dalk,’ Anna said firmly, and Liza’s face turned scarlet. For a moment she thought his mother knew they were lovers, until she added, ‘My son is not the only one with friends in high places.’
‘You know about the diamond theft?’ Liza asked hesitantly, hoping that was all they knew.
‘Yes, and don’t worry, your mother knows as well,’ Anna confirmed. ‘And from what I can gather Nick rescued you from a very awkward situation. All your mother and I were doing last night was giving you a chance to thank Nick in person, because according to my chauffeur, Lancio, you and Nick did not part on the best of terms.’
‘You should have told me Liza,’ her mother cut in. ‘And I do hope you have thanked Nick properly.’
‘Yes, I did, Mother,’ Liza murmured, and she wondered what her mother would say if she told her the truth. Nick did not want to be thanked properly, but very improperly, if the scene in his bedroom last night was anything to go by.
‘Leave the poor girl alone, Pam. Can’t you see she is embarrassed?’ Anne prompted and reaching across the table took Liza’s hand in hers.
‘I know my own son, he is a hard man, he allows very few people to get close to him. But has a soft spot for you, Liza, or why else would he have helped you out of that mess in January? So I was wondering if you would try and talk Nick out of going to Verbier? Myself, Manuel, everyone has tried, and the stubborn fool takes no notice. I have no desire to see my only child, dead or paralysed in the name of sport. You are my last hope, Liza, and you will be doing me a huge favour if you can stop him.’
Her imagination running riot, a vision of Nick’s magnificent body crushed and broken at the foot of a snow-covered cliff filled Liza’s mind. And she knew she couldn’t bear it if anything happened to him. Whether she was with him or not, it didn’t make any difference. She should have realised that when she watched Nick para-skiing, and decided not to let herself love him. Love was not something you could take or leave. It was inside you, filling every atom of your being, and if you were really lucky your love was returned.
Nick had not offered her everlasting love the night before, but he had offered her a relationship of sorts and she had turned him down, too frightened of getting hurt. Yet she was a hundred times more terrified of Nick getting hurt, and the realisation made everything clear. She loved him totally unselfishly. Whether he was with her for a day or a lifetime, she was going to take a chance.
‘I’ll try,’ Liza said; she had been a coward for far too long, hiding her emotions. If she wanted Nick’s love she had to take a chance and ask for it. ‘Just tell me how to find him.’
‘We can do better than that,’ her mother said, giving her a gentle smile. ‘Manuel is waiting with the car to take you to the airport. Nick’s plane is scheduled to leave at one.’
It was the longest ride of her life; she watched the clock on the dashboard ticking away the seconds and minutes, willing Manuel to drive faster.
Finally at twenty to one she leapt out of the car at the airport.
She dashed in to the building and scanned the crowd and her heart fell to her feet. There was no way she was going to find Nick’s plane in time. She rushed to the information desk and was directed to the VIP lounge, only to find when she got there, breathless and panting, that she was refused entry. Swinging frantically around, panic setting in as to what to do next, Liza slammed into a hard body.
‘Sorry.’ She tried to step back and found her lace top was caught in a jacket button; she grasped it with her finger and looked up. ‘Nick!’
‘You appear to be attached to me,’ he mocked, his dark eyes roaming leisurely over her, lingering on the wide blue eyes, and lower to her lush, trembling mouth.