Holding Strong. Lori Foster

as a date, but she didn’t know how else to explain it; saying she had to meet the American uncle of her daughter would be revealing too much.

      ‘I see.’ Nick abruptly released her hand as he sat back in his chair, his gaze narrowed on her speculatively now.

      ‘I doubt it.’ Joey shook her head. ‘Would you rather I had said I was washing my hair this evening?’ she added impatiently as he continued to look at her in that insulting way.

      He shook his head. ‘So much for all those brave words on the worthlessness of men!’ he scorned.

      Her cheeks became flushed. ‘I don’t believe I actually said that!’ she defended heatedly. ‘Besides…’ she broke off, biting her bottom lip.

      There was no way she could explain about David Banning without totally letting her defences down. And she had needed those the last seven years. Needed them still!

      ‘It doesn’t matter,’ she dismissed briskly as she stood up. ‘Thank you for lunch,’ she added challengingly.

      Nick nodded. ‘You’re welcome,’ he returned tightly.

      Leaving Joey with no choice but to walk out of the sandwich bar with as much dignity as she could muster. Which was quite a lot, really. She had needed her pride the last seven years, too!

      Another potential romance blown, she accepted ruefully to herself as she wandered around the supermarket picking up something for Lily’s tea—not a Mason’s supermarket; she refused, as a matter of principle, to use that particular chain of supermarkets!

      It was a pity, really, that she and Nick had parted so badly, because she quite liked him—actually, more than liked him. There was a physical awareness between the two of them that was impossible to deny. Although there was no guarantee that it would ever have been any more than that, she argued with herself. Even if she had wanted it to be. Which she probably didn’t…

      Probably? Get a grip, Joey, she admonished herself. Nick was thirty-five, still single, so what did that tell her about him?

      That he just hadn’t found the right woman?

      Romantic nonsense. The sort of thing she had believed in when she was sixteen years old. Real life wasn’t like that. If you were lucky you managed to find someone to share your life with that you were reasonably compatible with; if you were less lucky you managed to live with those differences in uneasy harmony. There simply wasn’t a ‘right’ man or woman in the world for everyone. Mr Right did not exist!

      So decided, Joey put Nick firmly from her mind, paid for her purchases and returned to work. She had the much more pressing problem of David Banning to deal with this evening…

      She dressed with care for her evening out; a simple black dress that reached her knees, teamed with an emerald-green short jacket that matched the colour of her eyes. It was formal enough for dinner, almost businesslike, in fact. Which was exactly the impression she wanted to give David Banning this evening.

      Even from her brief meeting with Daniel’s brother the previous evening, Joey knew he was going to be a formidable adversary. Because adversary he most certainly was. When it came to Lily, anyone, or anything, that threatened the even tenure of her carefree young life came under the heading of enemy as far as Joey was concerned. And she had a definite feeling that was exactly what David Banning intended…

      ‘Miss Delaney,’ he greeted, standing up smoothly as Joey joined him in the lounge of the hotel at exactly eight o’clock. ‘You’re looking very nice,’ he added evenly.

      And God, how it hurt him to say that, Joey observed derisively as she sank down into the chair opposite the one where he was now resuming his own seat. It made her wonder exactly what he had expected the mother of his brother’s child to be like. Hard? Grasping? Calculating? She wasn’t any of those things. Although he would find she could be as fierce as a lioness guarding her cub if anyone threatened Lily!

      ‘So do you,’ she returned drily.

      His clothes might be a little over-the-top for this particular hotel, but there was no denying that David Banning did the tailored evening suit and white silk shirt justice, emphasising his broad shoulders, tapered waist and long legs. The black leather shoes looked as if they might be handmade too. And why not? The Banning family were one of the most wealthy in New York.

      ‘The niceties over, I suggest we go in to dinner.’ He stood up, looking down at her coolly with those icy blue eyes.

      Joey stood up too, a humourless smile curving her lips as she accepted the short duration of those ‘niceties’; this evening was going to be every bit as awful as she had known it would be.

      Although the last thing she had expected to see, as she preceded David Banning into the hotel dining-room, was Nick seated across the room at a corner table!