Free The Best Man's Guarded Heart by Katrina Cudmore Page B

Man’s Survival Manual .’
    She gave him a triumphant smile. ‘The wedding planner gave it to me. Apparently she always carries one for emergencies.’
    He threw her a disparaging glance. ‘The next time I meet with the team at the disaster recovery charity I sponsor, I’ll have to check that they carry one at all times.’
    She gave him an even brighter smile. ‘Hah, very funny. Now, how about I help you pull it together?’
    He gestured once again to his desk. ‘I’m busy. And I have an urgent conference call in two hours I need to prepare for.’
    â€˜Twenty minutes—no more. I promise.’
    â€˜Grace, I have to warn you I’m on to you, I overheard your conversation with the wedding planner earlier. I know your technique. You’re not going to wear me down by refusing to go away.’
    â€˜I’m not!’
    She was, but now was not the time to get into that argument. He wanted to get back to his work. ‘Why are you doing this?’ he asked.
    Her laughter died and she sat down on the seat opposite his desk. The indigo denim made her violet eyes shine brighter than ever. ‘You helped me with the flowers—I’d like to help you in return.’
    â€˜I don’t need help.’
    â€˜Fine. Wing your speech for me now, and if it’s up to scratch then I’ll leave you alone.’
    He knew she wasn’t going to leave without a fight—and anyway he never had been able to resist a dare.
    He flew through his introduction and then launched into some witty anecdotes about Christos, one of which even had Grace snorting with laughter. But then he dried up. And died spectacularly. He didn’t know what else to say. How could he celebrate marriage and love when he didn’t believe in either?
    He glanced at Grace and then away again—away from the sympathy in her eyes.
    â€˜I shouldn’t have agreed to be best man.’
    â€˜I think it’s admirable that you did. It means the world to Christos.’
    Guilt churned inside him. He couldn’t let Christos down. But right now he wanted to forget the speech, in fact forget the whole wedding.
    With a raised eyebrow he deftly changed the subject. ‘Christos rang earlier. Sofia and he are delighted we’re getting on so well.’
    To that she gave a guilty smile. ‘Sofia rang me last night. What was I going to say? That you’re against the wedding...? That I’m way behind with the flowers? That we disagree on just about everything?’
    â€˜Not everything. Apparently you think I’m hot.’
    * * *
    It took a few seconds for Grace to compute what Andreas had just said. ‘What? No! Oh, I’m going to kill Sofia when she gets here. We were just messing around on the phone... She kept asking me what I thought of you. I only said it as a joke, to get her off my back. She’s always trying to set me up with unsuitable guys.’
    He sat back in his chair and folded his arms. ‘So I’m unsuitable now?’
    â€˜Of course you are. You don’t believe in love, commitment, marriage. Need I go on?’
    â€˜Hey, but I’m hot—what more do you need?’
    Oh, this was excruciating—especially as part of her agreed with him. But if she was going to remain sane for the next few days she couldn’t go there.
    â€˜It was a joke.’ For a second she pressed the palm of her hand against the raging heat on her cheeks. Time to change the subject. ‘Back to the speech. Twenty minutes and we’ll pull it together. Are you on?’
    He considered her for a while and she willed him not to move the conversation back to whether she thought he was hot or not. At first a grin played at the corners of his mouth, but then he cleared his throat, contemplated the messy pile of paper on his desk and shook his head wryly. ‘You’ve been here ten minutes already—you have ten minutes left.’
    â€˜Fine.