Fortune in the Stars (2 page)

'I warned them,' Lexy had fretted guiltily, when two
female acquaintances of hers had had their hearts well and truly
battered at the cavalier hands of her brother. 'Dominic's gorgeous and
I love him to bits, but he's a typical Libran charmer and I wouldn't
wish it on my worst enemy to fall in love with him—not till
his playboy days are behind him, anyway.'

Charm? wondered Penny dismissively as a pair of openly
mocking blue eyes caught and held hers in challenge. Looks he
admittedly possessed in abundance, but his charm was something on which
she intended reserving judgement.

'Lexy would never forgive me if I frightened off one of
her old school chums,' he murmured, adroitly managing to awake in Penny
an image of herself as a plump, hockey-stick-toting twelve-year-old.
'And, if it's any consolation, she couldn't have warned you of my
presence here because she wasn't warned of it—I only arrived
a couple of hours ago.'

'But that doesn't alter the fact that you weren't
expecting to share this place with a complete stranger,' muttered
Penny, discomfiture mingling with a prickle of animosity.

He flashed her a disconcertingly wicked grin as he picked
up one of her cases, holding the precariously draped towel in place
with his free hand.

'I was going to suggest you had Lexy's room—I
normally like to get to know a woman before she shares my
bed…though I'll happily make an exception in your case.'

A rueful grin creeping to her lips very much despite
herself, Penny made a mental note to keep in mind that it would be
foolish in the extreme ever to judge this man by the sister whose
disarming grin he had just replicated.

'There's no need for you to go to the trouble of making
any exceptions on my behalf,' she told him with false sweetness,
picking up the second case. 'Lexy's room will be fine.'

She followed his tall, broad-shouldered figure through the
confusing maze of marbled halls, and found herself making idle mental
comparisons between his physique and that of Rupert… Dominic
Raphael won hands down, he was nigh on perfect. And the graceful,
almost arrogant self-assurance with which that magnificent body prowled
these marble halls left her in little doubt that its owner was all too
aware of its masculine perfection.

'Here we are,' he announced, flinging open a door and
standing aside as Penny entered a room she could only describe as
palatial.

Her eyes widened at first with disbelief as she gazed
around the sparsely yet exquisitely furnished room, then in alarm as
they alighted on the huge canopied bed in its centre.

'This…' she cleared her throat, colour rushing
to her cheeks '…this is Lexy's room, isn't it?'

'Well, it certainly isn't mine, if that's what's bothering
you,' he drawled, those mocking eyes of his flickering over her face as
he followed her into the room and settling disconcertingly in the
region of her right shoulder, almost as though unable to drag
themselves away from the thick mass of dark blonde hair they
encountered there.

'They say gentlemen prefer blondes, don't they?' he
murmured, his eyes remaining on her as though mesmerised while he set
down her case. 'But then, as you've no doubt been warned, I'm no
gentleman.'

He turned and began walking away from her. 'The door on
the left leads to the bathroom and the one on the right to the
dressing-room.' He paused as he reached the door. 'There's a cold
buffet set out for us in the dining-room—you'd better give me
a shout when you're ready to eat, as you'll never find it on your own.'
The door was just closing behind him, when he added, 'And try not to
take all night, will you? It's late, and I'm hungry.'

There was a sharp glint of anger in Penny's wide-spaced
blue eyes as she heard the door close behind him; those last words had
managed to sound ominously close to being an order.

'Libran charm—my foot!' she exclaimed aloud, and
began unpacking at her leisure.

It was over an hour later when Penny came across him
standing, lost in thought, beside a swimming-pool in one of the
fascinating inner courtyards around which the villa was built.

He was now dressed—an impeccable cut to his
dark, close-fitting trousers and the unmistakable weight of silk to the
warm cream of his shirt. His hair was a shade or two darker than
Lexy's, observed Penny— almost black, yet with that same
familiar tousled hint of curl in it that drove Lexy to distraction
whenever she wanted to give an appearance of sleek sophistication.

She watched as he raised a glass to his lips and found
herself wondering what her reaction to him might have been under
different circumstances. She probably would have fallen head over heels
in love with him just as others were alleged to have done, she answered
herself morosely; so it was probably just as well Rupert had already
done all the damage ever likely to be done to her heart… How
could he have deceived her like that, and with Linda of all people?

She closed her eyes momentarily against the sudden threat
of tears. Lexy always claimed that people born under the sign of Leo
had an abundance of self-confidence…which only went to show
how wrong Lexy's astrological statements could be—this
particular Leo had no shred of confidence left in her!

'There you are.'

Penny jumped as that soft voice drawled its way into her
unhappy thoughts.

'Yes, here I am,' she muttered, struggling to regain her
composure and promising herself that from now on Rupert was banished
from her thoughts.

He turned and faced her fully, his eyes making their
leisurely progress from the ponytail into which she had tied her
still-damp hair and down the length of the navy T-shirt dress skimming
in soft hint over the curves of her slim body.

'You really shouldn't have rushed like that,' he murmured
drily, pointedly glancing down at the gold watch nestling among the
dark hairs at his wrist.

'I looked for the dining-room, but didn't come across it,'
said Penny, content to ignore his barbed remark because of the positive
boost her ego had experienced at the sight of the unmistakable gleam of
appreciation she had detected in his eyes in the instant before he had
lowered them to his watch. 'Have you eaten?' she added.

'No,' he replied, finishing his drink, then strolling to
her side. 'I do have the odd gentlemanly trait or two in
me…though, to be completely honest, I don't much care for
eating on my own.' There was the ghost of a self-deprecating smile on
his lips as he gave her a small bow and offered her his arm.

Penny gave a soft chuckle as she took his arm and followed
his lead, her spirits suddenly lifting. She could think of no better
medicine for an ego as battered as hers than a spot of gentle
flirtation with a handsome stranger. And if there was comfort to be had
from a broken heart, it had to be that no stranger—however
handsome—could inflict any further damage on it.

'All of a sudden, I'm starving,' she announced.

'I feel I should warn you of one of the several advantages
in not being a gentleman,' murmured Dominic, gazing down at her with a
completely straight face. 'I'll have no qualms about fighting you for
the tastiest morsels—I'm ravenous.'

Penny's laughter caught in her throat as he led her into
what she would have been more inclined to call a banqueting hall rather
than merely a dining-room.

'You know, Lexy's typically understated references to this
place had me conjuring up mental pictures of something on the lines of
a couple of bedrooms, cramped living quarters and a few primitive
washing facilities—the outer walls being white was the only
thing I got right.'

His reply was a short laugh, one Penny found
disconcertingly without humour. Then he made his way to the top of the
long table, dark and huge and polished to a mirror finish, where
napkin-covered bowls of food were laid out.

'One thing can be said of my grandfather—he
appreciated things on a grand scale. Not that this place was ever
his… But his taste, of course, was another matter
altogether.'

The chilling venom with which he had uttered those words
made Penny's skin prickle unpleasantly.

'Help yourself,' he suggested, his tone reverting once
more to normal as he handed Penny a plate.

'What little I've seen of this place shows exquisite
taste,' she stated quietly, unable to believe his remark could have
intended criticism of these beautiful surroundings.

'Thank you—I had it completely refurbished a few
months ago.'

Something in his tone brought Penny's eyes to his face.
She lowered them quickly, wondering what on earth could have brought
that grim, almost angry set to his features.

She made to help herself to some prawns from the huge bowl
before her, halting in mid-action.

'Is it something I inadvertently said?' she asked.

'Is
what
something you inadvertently
said?' he parried uncooperatively, the eyes meeting and holding hers
now so coldly challenging that she was almost convinced she must have
imagined the gleam of appreciation warming them scant minutes ago.

'For heaven's sake!' she exclaimed, her patience snapping.
'All I did was make a few comments about this place,
and…and…' She broke off in exasperation,
returning her still-empty plate to the table.

'And it happened to remind me of my grandfather,' he
stated, as though clarifying everything beyond further question.

'So?' exploded Penny impatiently as he began sampling the
food straight from the bowls with his fingers.

'So—if you're the great friend of my sister's
you claim to be, I'm surprised you need ask,' he muttered with his
mouth full.

'What do you mean
if
I'm the friend
of Lexy's I
claim
to be?' she demanded aghast,
the unnerving thought suddenly occurring to her that she was alone in
the middle of nowhere with a man who was beginning to sound more than a
little strange.

'Surely Lexy has mentioned our grandfather to you,' he
remarked, with a calmness Penny didn't find in the least reassuring.

'No, she didn't! In fact, you're the only member of her
family I've ever known her talk about.'

'No doubt to warn you what a bad boy her big brother was,'
he drawled.

'Actually, it was to make it plain how much she loved you
and looked up to you,' retorted Penny, stung by his inexplicable change
of mood. 'Mind you, we were only twelve then—word of your
appalling attitude to women didn't come out till years later.'

Penny felt a twinge of satisfaction as Dominic stood for a
while in complete silence, gazing down at the food before them in
frowning concentration; at least she had made it quite clear that she
could give as good as she got.

'Perhaps if we just took the bowl of prawns and some salad
out on to the patio—it would be simpler,' he stated. 'Here,
take this,' he added, shoving the bowl containing the prawns into her
hands and picking up another himself.

For once in her life completely at a loss for words, Penny
dazedly followed him through one of the arched doorways and on to a
patio with dazzlingly white-painted wood chairs and a large round table.

'I suppose it could be said that you've just shattered a
long-held illusion of mine,' he muttered, drawing out a chair for her.
'Hang on a moment,' he added, disappearing only to return second later
with a tray laden with a bottle of wine, two glasses, cutlery and
napkins and a dish filled with mayonnaise which exuded the pungent
aroma of garlic.

In silence, Penny accepted the napkin and cutlery he
handed her, the terrible suspicion entering her head that Lexy's
inordinate reluctance to discuss her family might just have something
to do with a streak of insanity running through it.

'How you behave towards women is your own affair,' she declared, her pride swept aside by a surfacing streak
of self-preservation warning her that she should placate rather than
antagonise him. 'I really had no right to make the comment I
did—and I certainly had no intention of shattering your
illusions.'

She wondered if perhaps she had overdone it when he gave
her a slightly alarmed look.

'You
are
the Penny who was at
secondary school with Lexy, aren't you—one of the quartet?'
he demanded.

Penny nodded, not trusting herself to speak, yet taking a
tiny measure of comfort from his reference to the quartet.

'Lexy was expelled from two schools before that
one—did you know?'

Again Penny nodded.

'You can't imagine how relieved I was when she seemed to
settle down at that third school, especially when she began talking
about the three close friends she'd made.'

'The quartet,' murmured Penny, relaxing a little at the
realisation that his hitherto rambling words appeared to be leading
somewhere. She helped herself to some prawns, watching as his slim
fingers deftly shelled several on his plate, and waiting for him to
continue.

'Until she met you three I was the only friend she had. As
you can imagine, a man of twenty is hardly the ideal confidant for a
twelve-year-old girl… The illusion you've just shattered is
that for all those years I believed she was confiding in her three
friends.'

Her eyes wide with shock, Penny shook her head. 'But your
parents… Surely she could confide in your mother?'

'Both our parents, together with our paternal
grandparents, were killed in a plane crash when Lexy was still a baby.
I thought girls of that age told their friends everything; didn't the
rest of you find it odd her not even mentioning her parents?'

Penny shook her head, an aching sadness filling her. 'It's
not that we didn't find it odd… There were so many girls
around from wealthy yet disastrously unstable backgrounds,' she told
him unhappily. 'All three of us realised pretty quickly that family was
a taboo subject as far as Lexy was concerned, and we accepted it as
such… Not that Sarah ever really spoke of her family either,
and Erica's parents—' She broke off, her teeth biting sharply
against her lower lip.