And the Bride Wore Red by Lucy Gordon Read Free Book Online

cheek.
    â€˜Don’t cry,’ Lang said.
    â€˜I’m not crying,’ she insisted.
    For answer he showed her his fingertips, wet with her tears.
    â€˜Don’t weep for him,’ he said softly.
    It would have been useless to utter another denial when he hadn’t believed the first.
    â€˜I get sentimental sometimes.’ She tried to laugh it away. ‘But I’m really over him.’
    In the dim light she could see Lang shake his head, smiling ruefully.
    â€˜Perhaps you belong together after all,’ he said. Suddenly he reached into his pocket, took out his mobile phone and pushed it towards her, then he leaned close to murmur into her ear without disturbing the singer.
    â€˜Call him. Say that your quarrel was a mistake, and you love him still. Go on. Do it now.’
    The dramatic gesture astonished and intrigued her. With a gasp of edgy laughter, she pushed the phone back to him.
    â€˜Why are you laughing?’ he demanded.
    â€˜I was just picturing his face if he answered the phone and found himself talking to me. There was no quarrel. He left me for someone else. She had a lot of money, so he obviously did the right thing. I believe they’re very happy. She bought him a posh car for a wedding present.’
    â€˜And that makes it the right thing?’ he enquired.
    â€˜Of course.’
    â€˜So if a millionaire proposed you’d accept at once?’
    â€˜No way! He’d have to be a billionaire at least.’
    â€˜I see.’ The words were grave but his lips were slightly quirked, as if he were asking who she thought she was fooling.
    But he said nothing more. The music had ended. The singer bowed to the heartfelt applause and embarked on another song, slightly more cheerful. Lang turned his head towards the little stage, but reached back across the table to take hold of Olivia’s hand, and kept it.
    She found that her nostalgic sadness had vanished, overtaken by a subtle pleasure that seemed to infuse the whole evening. Everything was a part of it, including the man sitting opposite her, looking away, giving Olivia the chance to study him unobserved.
    She could appreciate him like this. His regular features were enough to make him good-looking, but they also had a mobility that was constantly intriguing. His eyes could be bland and conventional, or wickedly knowing in a way that gave him a disconcerting charm. She wondered if there was anyone he regretted from his own past. A warm-natured man in his thirties, with a deep belief in the value of romantic love, had surely not reached this point without some sadness along the road.
    She began to muse on the subject, wondering if there was a way to question him without revealing too much interest. There wasn’t, of course, and an alarm bell sounded in her head. This was just the kind of atmosphere she’d learned to fear—seductive, romantic, lulling her senses and her mind in dangerous harmony.
    It was time for common sense to take over. In a few minutes she would suggest that the evening should end soon, phrasing it carefully. She began to plan the words, even deciding what she would say when he protested.
    Lang was beckoning to Wei, paying the bill, and ordering him to stop giggling and make himself scarce. Wei departed jauntily. Olivia took a deep breath to make her speech.
    â€˜We’d better go,’ Lang said.
    â€˜Pardon?’
    â€˜We both have to work tomorrow, so I’ll get you home quickly. I’m sorry to have kept you out so late.’
    â€˜Don’t mention it,’ she said faintly.
    On the journey she wondered what was going to happen now. Lang had recognised that she wasn’t ready for a decision, while subtly implying that he was attracted to her. He was charming and funny, with a quiet, gentle strength that appealed to her, perhaps because she could sense something quirky and irreverent beneath it.
    A light-hearted flirtation could be agreeable, but if he