Free When Only Diamonds Will Do by Lindsay Armstrong Page B

composedly. ‘And I thought…you might change your mind anyway. You might find someone who suited you better. Or someone you actually loved,’ she said with irony.
    A dry smile twisted his lips. ‘Is that what you were hoping? If so, you shouldn’t have made yourself almost indispensable.’
    Kim looked at him. ‘Any good housekeeper could have done—’
    ‘Not quite,’ he broke in. ‘They wouldn’t care about Saldanha and Balthazar as you do or have taken the time with Darcy that you have,’ he said dryly. ‘You know,’ he added, ‘when we come home, we could take a walk through the garden in the moonlight—it’s a full moon tonight—then I could take you upstairs and make love to you. After all, Kim,’ he said deliberately, ‘we
were
once on kissing terms.’
    She took a ragged breath. ‘I didn’t know who you were.’
    ‘That didn’t affect the chemistry between us.’ He looked down at her with something like contempt.
    Kim closed her eyes because he was right and her objection had been unworthy—she had once kissed Reith Richardson with wonderful abandon, with passion andwith promise—before she’d found out who he was. All the same …
    She made a frustrated little sound and went to turn away.
    He put out his hand and stopped her. ‘And there was a lot more to it, as you damn well know.’
    ‘Reith—’ she looked pointedly at his hand on her arm ‘—this isn’t the time or place to be having this kind of discussion.’
    He didn’t release her. ‘You pick a suitable time and place then.’ He shrugged and looked at her cynically. ‘Provided it’s within the foreseeable future and not a year down the track—or ten.’
    She flinched inwardly at the insult. ‘What I meant was…we’re already running late for dinner.’
    He did release her arm then and stepped back. ‘You know, I never thought you were a coward, Kim.’
    ‘I’m not,’ she said icily.
    ‘Or an ostrich,’ he went on imperturbably.
    ‘I’m not that either,’ she flashed, her iciness turning to anger.
    He shrugged. ‘You could have fooled me. After you.’ He stood aside.
    She hesitated under the influence of an almighty desire to run away. But, really, she was like a puppet on a string and there was no way she could run away without breaking those strings. And the consequences of that could be catastrophic for her proud, dysfunctional family, whom she loved nonetheless …
    She walked down the steps and got into the car.
    It was a superb dinner.
    Twenty people sat around the dining table. The meal had been served on exquisite porcelain and the wine had flowed out of crystal glasses. The tablecloth alone was a work of art, hand-embroidered with birds of paradise on ecru linen.
    They were dining with their neighbours, Molly and Bill Lawson. Kim had known them all her life. She’d grown up with their children, all boys, and had been looked upon as a de facto daughter. That was still the case, which meant that Reith had been accepted without question, she thought darkly at times.
    Then again, Reith could charm the socks off anyone when he set his mind to it and it wasn’t only his dark good looks, his height and physique that did it. He had a way of making you laugh with a few wry words and a crooked grin. Sometimes he had a way of making you feel like the only person on the planet for him.
    Not that her husband spent a lot of his life charming people, she thought as she put down her wine glass and pushed away her plate with nothing left of what had been a mouth-watering Bombe Alaska. No, impressing people was his other forte.
    There was no doubt Bill Lawson, an astute judge of character with a good grasp of the business world, admired Reith greatly. There was no doubt Molly thought he was divine.
    Why, oh, why, she sometimes thought, couldn’t her parents have accepted Reith as the Lawsons had? Of course the answer was obvious—money and reputation and so much more had come into it, hadn’t it?
    She picked up