Annie's Secret. Carole Mortimer

had certainly looked less than pleased when Luc had stepped out onto the platform. In fact, her eyes had widened in alarm and her face had visibly paled, he noted grimly.

      Eyes that sparkled with sudden anger, and cheeks that flushed with temper, as Luc’s mocking gaze deliberately caught and held hers.

      She abruptly resumed her seat to stare at him with a glassy attention that was fixated rather than genuinely interested in what he had to say.

      In an effort to unnerve him as he had so obviously unnerved her when he stepped out onto the platform?

      Possibly.

      Except Luc was not a man as to be unnerved by the angry challenge in a pair of sparkling blue eyes.

      ‘Our afternoon speaker has expressed a wish to be introduced to you, Anna,’ Daniel Russell, the chairman of the conference and owner of the prestigious Russell Hotel Group, announced heartily from behind Annie as she attempted to move hurriedly through the crush of people in her haste to escape.

      She had listened to Luc talk for more than an hour and then had to listen to him answer questions for a further hour. An agonisingly slow two hours when all Annie had wanted to do was get out of here and shut herself away in the privacy of her hotel suite so that she could get her jumbled thoughts into some sort of order. Away from Luc. Away from the mockery in those piercing black eyes that had returned to her again and again during the long afternoon.

      Learning who he was had turned Annie’s world upside down, and now he had the gall, the arrogance, to ask to be introduced to her!

      Annie’s eyes blazed with renewed temper as she turned to face both Luca de Salvatore and Daniel Russell, the latter a grey-haired man of her father’s age who Annie knew slightly from his past business dealings with Oscar.

      ‘It’s good to see you again, Daniel.’ She ignored Luc completely as she briskly shook the older man’s hand.

      ‘You too,’ the older man returned warmly before stepping slightly aside. ‘Anna, may I introduce Luca de Salvatore.’ He beamed proudly. ‘Luca, this is one of the team at Balfour Enterprises, Anna Balfour.’

      Luc’s face darkened ominously. ‘Balfour?’ he echoed incredulously.

      ‘One of Oscar’s many daughters,’ Daniel Russell explained pleasantly.

      Daughters Annie knew that Luc had certainly heard of—or more likely read about in the more lurid of the tabloids!—if the way those piercing black eyes narrowed on her so grimly was anything to go by.

      A polite mask swiftly replaced the grim one, Luc’s expression now becoming totally unreadable as he offered her his hand. ‘Miss Balfour.’

      Luc couldn’t believe Annie was Anna Balfour!

      Or, more descriptively, one of the many daughters of Oscar Balfour who regularly made the headlines in newspapers and magazines for embarking on one scandalous escapade or another.

      ‘Mr de Salvatore,’ she returned with unmistakeable mockery as she allowed her hand to briefly touch his.

      A nerve pulsed in Luc’s tightly clenched jaw. ‘There is no reason for us to keep you any longer, Daniel,’ he gritted out through a clenched jaw as he continued to stare down at Annie—no, at Anna Balfour.

      ‘Oh. No. Of course not.’ The older man was slightly flustered by the abruptness of the dismissal. ‘It really is good to see you again, Anna,’ he recovered enough to add. ‘I was so sorry to hear about Lillian,’ he added regretfully.

      Annie nodded. ‘It was a tremendous shock to everyone.’

      Daniel paused from turning away. ‘I almost forgot to ask.’ He glanced back at her. ‘How’s Oliver?’

      If Luc hadn’t been staring at Annie so intently he might have missed the slightly shocked look in her eyes, and the way her chin rose defensively. As it was he saw both those reactions, and wondered why she should react like that at the mention of the man she had been talking to on the telephone earlier today.

      Perhaps because she would rather Luc didn’t know about the current man in her life?

      It was a little late for that when Luc had already overheard at least part of her telephone conversation with the other man where she had told Oliver that she loved him.

      For the moment, one presumed; the Balfour sisters were not known for their fidelity or constancy. What they were known for was causing scandals and gossip on a daily basis!

      Annie’s maternally defensive response to Daniel’s mention of Oliver had been wholly instinctive. Instinctive but stupid, she realised as Luca de Salvatore’s hard black eyes studied her even more intently.

      She forced a relaxed smile to her lips as she answered Daniel warmly. ‘He’s very well, thank you.’

      The older man smiled back. ‘What is he now—three, four?’

      ‘Three,’ Annie said tightly as she watched Daniel walk away rather than meet Luc’s glittering gaze.

      ‘Who is Oliver?’

      Annie drew in a sharp breath before turning back to face Luc, forcing herself to meet that accusing gaze unflinchingly. She really would prefer not to tell Luc about Oliver in surroundings such as these!

      Her chin slanted proudly. ‘Oliver is my son.’

      ‘Your—?’ Luc’s eyes narrowed icily. ‘You did not tell me you are married!’

      Annie moistened suddenly dry lips. ‘That’s because I’m not.’

      ‘Have you ever been?’

      ‘No. And so you are Luca de Salvatore?’ she murmured, suddenly wanting to change the subject. This really wasn’t the place to tell Luc that Oliver was his son too! And how dare he stand there and make judgements on her when he was the reason she was an unmarried mother!

      ‘And you are Anna Balfour?’ he came back coldly.

      She nodded. ‘Family and close friends call me Annie.’

      Those chiselled lips curved into a hard, humourless smile.

      ‘No doubt you refer to the sort of ‘close friends’ we once were?’

      Annie felt the warm colour enter her cheeks. ‘No doubt,’ she bit out curtly.

      Luc’s mouth thinned. ‘I find the Balfour part of your name of more…interest,’ he grated.

      Annie knew by the contemptuous curl of his top lip exactly what sort of interest he was referring to! ‘As I recall, neither of us seemed particularly interested in introducing ourselves properly four and a half years ago, Mr de Salvatore,’ she pointed out drily.

      ‘What was that all about, I wonder?’ Luc countered scathingly. ‘A dare amongst the Balfour sisters, perhaps, as to which of you could lose your virginity first—I think not, Anna!’ He easily caught her wrist in a tight grip as her hand swung up with the obvious intention of slapping his face. ‘I think we should leave before you cause a scene.’

      ‘Before I cause a scene?’ she choked, tears—of anger or distress?—balanced precariously on long dark lashes as she glared up at him.

      ‘Before either of us causes a scene,’ Luc amended, his fingers tightening about her wrist as he began to pull her along beside him towards the exit, knowing that his usual tight control over his emotions was in serious danger of snapping completely.

      Anna Balfour.

      This woman, the woman Luc had made love to over and over again that night four and a half years ago, was one of the infamous Balfour sisters. She also had a young son. A young son whom she admitted had been born out of wedlock.

      Annie knew by the inflexibility of Luc’s grip on her wrist, and the grimness of his expression as he easily pushed his way through the