Chapter 46
Beth stared at Jeremy in shock. Was he really back at the hotel?
‘What are you doing here?’ she croaked, more from shock than Frankie’s strong cocktail.
‘Enjoying the dark skies around here, although that doesn’t seem to be the case tonight with this ghastly weather,’ he replied smoothly, leaning forward to give her a peck on the cheek. ‘You did very well, darling.’
Jeremy then gave Noah a nod of greeting but didn’t seem to notice that it wasn’t returned.
‘What can I get you?’ asked Frankie, glaring at him from across the bar. ‘Gin? Rum? Arsenic?’
‘Pardon?’ asked Jeremy, thinking that he had misheard her.
‘I’ll just make up my own special concoction for you,’ Frankie told him, with an evil grin.
Looking a little alarmed, Jeremy turned back to Beth. ‘So how are you?’ he asked, with a glance at Noah. ‘Still blissfully in love?’
‘That’s none of your business,’ muttered Beth, blushing furiously.
She shuffled her feet under his scrutiny. She had always been terrible at lying and would have sworn Jeremy would have detected her unease had Noah not slipped an arm around her shoulders and drawn her against him.
‘Why would anyone with half a brain let someone as wonderful as Beth go?’ murmured Noah, kissing the top of her head.
She could feel the warmth and strength of him through the sweater he was wearing and leant gratefully against him.
‘I see.’ Jeremy’s eyes narrowed as he looked at them.
‘Here you go,’ said Frankie, passing Jeremy a cocktail glass full of brown liquid over the counter of the bar.
‘Thank you,’ he replied, absent-mindedly taking a large gulp before going puce in the face. ‘What is this?’ he croaked.
‘It’s called the Four Horsemen,’ Frankie told him, with a winning smile. ‘Equal parts of Jack Daniel’s, Johnnie Walker, Jose Cuervo and Jim Beam. All of my favourite men, in fact.’
‘It’s awful,’ spluttered Jeremy, his eyes watering.
‘Don’t you like it?’ asked Frankie, in an innocent tone. ‘I find they go together like drunk and disorderly.’
Jeremy put down the glass before either he or the glass exploded.
‘What do you want, Jeremy?’ said Beth, who had been enjoying his discomfort as she knew he always liked to be in complete control of any situation.
‘Could I have a word? In private?’ asked Jeremy.
Noah’s hand briefly tightened on her shoulder before Beth nodded. ‘It’s fine,’ she murmured and gestured with her head for Jeremy to follow her.
They walked through the busy bar and lounge before finally finding themselves alone in the entrance hall.
Beth looked at Jeremy and raised her eyebrows at him in question.
‘I just wanted to make sure that you weren’t letting down the good name of the magazine with any erroneous information,’ he said. ‘I’m sure you can understand.’
‘You never were a good liar,’ she told him.
‘Well, perhaps I was a little bit tempted to discover whether you and that person were still together?’ sneered Jeremy. ‘After all, what does he do, darling? What on earth do you see in him? He’s hardly got your intellect, wouldn’t you agree?’
‘I wouldn’t agree, no,’ Beth told him, feeling the anger flare inside of her. ‘He’s good and kind and supportive, abilities which you have no idea about. He’s also an extremely talented boat maker and carpenter actually. Which means he’s very good with his hands as well!’
She heard the double entendre just as soon as she had spoken out loud and was about to roll her eyes at herself when a hand slipped around her waist and spun her around.
She found herself face to face with Noah and before she could say anything else, he spoke instead.
‘I couldn’t have put it any better myself,’ he murmured with a gleam in his eye.
He quickly drew her up against him until their bodies were touching. As he dropped his head to kiss her she had to remind herself that it was all for show. But as his lips touched hers, she found all thought of Jeremy went out of her head and then there was nothing but Noah’s lips on hers.
All time stood still as Noah kissed her with a passion that Beth knew was pretence but wanted so much to believe that it was real.
All too soon, he lifted his head and smiled down at her. As they stared at one another, still a little breathless, Beth heard Jeremy clear his throat as if to speak. But she didn’t want to let him have the last word and she spoke to Noah instead.
‘Take me home,’ she told him.
‘Yes, ma’am,’ he replied and, taking her hand, he led her across the entrance hall and out into the fresh air.