Free Her Fortescue Diamond by Alicia Hope Page B

chuckled. ‘Just bear with me. So, what happened next?’
    Alicia turned her head slightly sideways and squinted at her friend. ‘I’m not sure where you’re going with this ... but OK. Well, we finished dinner without any more interruptions, and Gideon took me home in what I thought was his beautiful BMW, but which turned out to be his mother’s car. He’d bought it for her when her beloved old buzz-box finally threw in the towel.’
    ‘Very noble of him. I’d say that’s two outta two.’
    Alicia chose to ignore that comment and continued. ‘And he asked me to go sailing with him the following weekend.’
    ‘Hang on, what happened when he dropped you home a fter dinner? Anything, you know ... ?’
    ‘Get your mind out of the gutter , Poll! He was the perfect gentleman and didn’t make me feel obliged to invite him in for “coffee”—or anything else for that matter.’
    ‘Hm m ... t hat’s three. OK, so you went sailing with him?’
    ‘Yes. It was our third date. That’s when he told me about his first marriage, which ended in a savage divorce apparently.’
    ‘Ah, so our hero is love-scarred. Like the one in your second book, what was his name? Greg? Gary? No, hang on, I remember now. Grayson.’
    ‘Yes, Grayson was a bit the worse for having loved and lost.’ Alicia smiled fondly and paused to take another drink from her mug. She held the flavoursome mouthful on her tongue, relishing it for a long moment before continuing, ‘A nyway, this left Gideon financially drained, so it’s a wonder he was able to make such a good recovery.’
    ‘Hmm , a successful businessman who’s clever, ambitious, doesn’t suffer fools gladly, but is also caring, loyal and—’
    ‘Funny,’ Alicia interjected without thinking. ‘He’s also funny. He’s got a great sense of humour, which came as something of a surprise. I thought all tycoons were crusty bean-counters only interested in balancing the bottom line.’
    Polly smiled at her friend’s innocent enthusiasm. ‘OK, he’s also funny, and honourable despite having been kicked in the pants by love. So far, so good.’ She checked the points off on h er fingers while Alicia watched her with a bemused expression.
    ‘Do you want me to continue with the story or not?’
    ‘Of course, but someone’s gotta keep a tally on the “Hero versus Zero” scoreboard.’
    Alicia gave a derisive snort. ‘So, anyway, we had a fabulous day out on his yacht—’
    ‘What’s it called?’
    ‘What’s what called?’
    ‘His yacht, dummy!’
    ‘Oh. Wait, I k now this, it’s something cute ... o h yes! It’s called “Thisiz Livin” . But why is that important?’
    ‘Oh, just trying to get a better picture of his character. So he obviously thinks there’s more to life than business?’
    ‘If you say so.’
    ‘I do. So, what happened next?’
    ‘Well, we sailed back into the harbour right on sunset, and Gideon cracked the bottle of bubbly he’d been chilling in the icebox.’ Alicia rested her chin on her hands and gazed dreamily up at the sky. She sighed, ‘He served it in two champagne flutes, accompanied by a platter of cheese, crackers and whole strawberries.’
    ‘Ooh, I love a man with class who knows what really matters, like food and wine. And appropriate glassware.’ Polly gave a cheeky grin.
    Alicia smiled too, a little warily this time. ‘And then we moored the yacht, and I went home.’
    ‘What? T hat’s it?’
    ‘Yep, p retty much.’
    ‘No, there’s gotta be more to it than that?’
    ‘Well.... ’
    ‘C’mon. Out with it!’
    ‘ Oh alright, if you must know. We wer e making our way through the marina towards the car park and he was talking about a movie he wanted us to see .’
    ‘That’s more like it! And?’
    ‘And right about then two bikini-clad bimbos appeared out of nowhere and claimed him.’
    ‘What, right out from under your nose?’
    ‘You make it sound like I had dibs on him!’
    ‘Come on, what