The Trouble with Valentine's. Kelly Hunter

His eyes had so often been crinkled and smiling. He’d been careful to include Jasmine in his conversations and he’d paid attention to her opinions whenever she’d voiced them. She’d taken it as encouragement.

      So heady, Nick’s attention.

      So stupid, what she’d done next.

      She’d gone to Nick’s room one night and waited for him. Not naked, nothing so shameful as that, but she’d waited, hands twisting, breathless with anticipation. She wanted to know what a man’s lips would feel like against hers. She ached for the slide of warm hands around her waist. She’d wanted someone to want her and there were so few some-ones in her sheltered world to choose from.

      She’d wanted Kai to notice that Nicholas Cooper had treated her like a woman rather than a girl.

      She’d been such a fool.

      Nick had stepped into the guest room, taken one look at her standing to one side of the window and blanched.

      He’d stammered something about leaving his computer downstairs and needing to go and get it.

      ‘Wait,’ she’d said. ‘I didn’t mean—I don’t mean to offend.’ She’d looked pleadingly at him. ‘I thought—’

      She’d thought he might like to take their friendship further.

      ‘Jasmine.’ Nick’s voice had cut across hers, low and urgent. ‘God help me if I’ve given you the wrong impression, I never meant to, but if it’s romance that you want from me … I’m sorry, but I can’t.’

      Humiliation had coursed through her, fierce and all consuming.

      ‘You’re a lovely girl,’ he’d continued. You are. And I’m honoured. And flattered. Very flattered. Really.’

      He hadn’t looked flattered. He’d looked completely aghast and Jasmine had felt the hot prick of tears behind her eyes. ‘Is there something lacking in me?’ she’d found the courage to ask and he’d shaken his head and gone two shades paler.

      ‘No,’ he’d said. ‘No. Don’t go there; it’s not you. Don’t ever think that. I just—can’t. Jasmine, I’m married.’

      Jasmine had fled his room after that and Nick had left the following day on urgent business, with enough speed to make her father frown and wonder about the merits of doing business with flighty Englishmen. Kai had just looked at her, one eyebrow raised, and Jasmine had blushed hard and looked away.

      Kai didn’t know what she’d done. He merely suspected that she’d done something.

      ‘Jasmine?’ Kai’s voice came to her, soft, as always, and threaded through with steel. As always. ‘Something bothering you?’

      ‘No. Nothing,’ she said and followed through with a restrained nod and a half-smile. Too much reaction and Kai would know there was something wrong. He knew her reactions, all of them.

      And she knew his.

      ‘Your father would like you to entertain Mrs Cooper while she’s here.’

      ‘Of course,’ she said. It wasn’t the first time her father had called on her to help entertain his guests. ‘You have the dates?’

      Kai gave them to her and she nodded again and turned back to the stir fry she was preparing. ‘Would you like some?’ she asked, knowing that once upon a time Kai would have helped her with the cooking and thought nothing of sitting down to a meal with her in her father’s kitchen. Not so these days, and with Kai’s retreat came a loneliness that went bone- deep.

      ‘No, I’m going out.’

      ‘Oh.’ Oh, of course. ‘It’s Valentine’s Day.’ Of course he would be going out. All the beautiful people went parading on Valentine’s Day. Just because Kai had never brought a woman back to his apartment over the garage … just because he’d never introduced Jasmine to anyone … that didn’t mean he didn’t have a special friend. ‘I hope you brought her a big bunch of flowers.’

      ‘What?’ Kai looked momentarily puzzled.

      ‘Flowers. For your date. For Valentine’s Day. I hear it’s best to give them in public, and then you walk somewhere with her, while she’s holding them in her arms so that everyone can see how highly regarded she is. And you need a really big bunch.’ Kai was looking at her strangely. ‘What?’

      ‘How do you know all this?’

      The question stung, mainly because of all the things he didn’t say. You’ve only ever been on one date, and that was arranged by your father and the boy in question never asked for another, he could have said. And you’ve certainly never been given a gift on Valentine’s Day. He could have said that too. Instead, he’d gone with ‘How do you know all this?’ and shamed her anyway.

      ‘I see what people do,’ she offered tightly. ‘I know what’s expected. Just because—

      Just because she’d never had a proper boyfriend and barely knew kisses …

      ‘Just go,’ she said.

      But Kai had never been one to take orders – at least, not from her. He stood there watching her; so many secrets behind those beautiful black eyes. Kai had been her bodyguard for eight years now, ever since she was eleven, and there’d never not been secrets in those eyes.

      Nicholas Cooper’s laughing blue eyes had been refreshingly devoid of secrets.

      Well … except for the fact that he had a wife.

      ‘It’s not a Valentine’s Day date,’ Kai offered finally. ‘I don’t have a Valentine. I’m not buying flowers. I’m going to watch a martial arts demonstration. Wing Chun style versus Aikido.’

      ‘Oh.’ The bean shoots were burning. Jasmine turned down the heat and gave the food another stir. ‘May I accompany you?’

      ‘It’ll be hot and crowded.’

      This was Hong Kong. It often was. ‘I don’t mind. I wouldn’t treat it like a Valentine’s Day outing, or anything. I mean—that’s not how I think of you. At all.’

      Much.

      Kai just looked at her and then with a flicker of something in his beautiful black eyes, he looked away.

      ‘No, Jasmine,’ he told her quietly. ‘The answer’s no.’

      Hallie’s bedside phone was ringing. She rolled across the bed, arm outstretched, groping wildly. Because no way on earth were her eyes going to open at this hour. She’d spent most of last night watching bad action adventure movies with Tris. She’d planned on a ten a.m. wake-up time, minimum. It wasn’t ten a.m. It was still dark, not even dawn. She found the phone, found her ear. ‘‘Lo,’ she mumbled.

      ‘Can you get some time off work this afternoon?’

      ‘Nick?’

      ‘Yes. Nick.’ He sounded impatient.

      ‘Couldn’t this have waited till morning?’ she mumbled.

      ‘It is morning. Were you still in bed?’

      Hallie slitted her eyes open to glance at the glowing red numbers of her bedside clock. Five-fifty! A.m! Ugh, he was a morning person. The notion was going to take some time to digest. She held the receiver to her breast and took several deep breaths before putting it back to her ear. ‘Nick, it’s the weekend. I have one day off a week and this is it and there’d better be a good reason for this call. What do you want?’

      ‘To let you know we have an appointment at Tiffany’s at two this afternoon to get your rings.’

      ‘Rings?’ Hallie’s eyes snapped open. ‘Tiffany’s? As in Tiffany and Co. the jewellers?’ She was wide awake.

      ‘Wedding ring, engagement