Fortune in the Stars (13 page)

The dining-room was small, yet cosy and pleasant, and the
food surprisingly good—not that Penny dared comment on it as
such; doubtless it would fall far short of the hypercritical standards
of a jet-setting Libran, she informed herself sourly.

'This is actually pretty good,' he remarked, glancing up
from his plate to break the silence that had hung between them
virtually since they had left the room.

Patronising devil, thought Penny, disconcerted to find her
disparaging conclusions so promptly overturned.

'Don't tell me this enforced slumming's getting to you
already,' he drawled, glowering across the table at her. 'Perhaps it
will help you grow up a bit, seeing how the other half lives for a
change—though I doubt it.'

Penny slammed down her knife and fork, her face pale with
anger.

'Frankly, I'm surprised someone like you is even aware
another half exists!
You're
the one strutting
around as though there's a bad smell under his nose,' she hissed,
though her voice had begun rising ominously. 'And
you're
the one who finds all this so depressingly beneath him. And, if you
must know, the only reason I didn't verbally agree with you about how
good the food is—'

'Would you mind lowering your voice?' he demanded icily.

'Was because I was momentarily stunned by hearing you
actually coming up with words of praise for a change!' she continued
relentlessly.

'You misjudge me,' he informed her, his words positively
dripping ice. 'It's not so much the setting I find so
depressing—though I have to admit I've seen
better—as the company with whom I'm obliged to share it.'

Those crushing words were scarcely out of his mouth before
they were joined by the receptionist who had booked them in earlier.

'I've been looking for you, Mr
Smith
,'
she cooed, the conspiratorial emphasis she gave to the false name
managing to incense Penny out of all proportion.

'Have you, now?' murmured Dominic, his entire demeanour
altering as his amused and knowing eyes met those of the hovering young
woman. 'And to what purpose?'

The receptionist's eye's flickered momentarily towards
Penny, then dismissively away as she gave a breathless little laugh.

'Your luggage has arrived,' she told him—her
words, to Penny's furiously critical ears, sounding positively inviting.

'Fine,' stated Dominic, treating her to a megawatt smile.
'Perhaps you'll be good enough to have it sent to the room,' he added,
the smile switching off abruptly as he returned his attention to his
food. 'For someone who claims not to want to draw attention to himself,
you're not making much of a job of it,' observed Penny frigidly, the
girl's parting smug look having done nothing for her already grossly
disturbed equilibrium.

'Jealous, darling?' he enquired innocently, raising his
wine-glass and regarding her over its rim through mocking eyes.

'Like any normal person, I object to being made to look a
fool. As you insisted on registering us here as a couple, the least you
can do is not pick up other women right under my nose,' seethed Penny.

'If that's the way you feel about it, perhaps you should
trot off after her and suggest pistols at dawn,' he drawled, his eyes
narrowing as they examined the wine in the glass before them.

'Dominic, I warn you… I'm almost at the end of
my tether,' she said, weariness and desperation vying in her tone. 'I
know you find it just about impossible to accept, but I'm every bit as
worried about Lexy as you are.' She picked up her own glass and drained
it, her hand shaking. Where was that wonderful feeling of certainty
that Lexy would be all right, now? 'If I lose my temper—which
I'm almost certain to do if you continue making a public spectacle of
me like this— then I guarantee we'll be the complete centre
of everyone's attention.' She began fiddling agitatedly with her glass
as she heard her voice threaten to break, and took a deep breath before
continuing. 'I've no idea what measures you're taking to find
Lexy…but all I want to do is help. Please,
Dominic… I'll do anything—' She broke off, biting
fiercely against her trembling lower lip.

For several seconds he said nothing, his eyes cold and
watchful.

'Why—because you're bored and feel the urge to
do something?' he sneered, his hand snaking out and trapping hers
heavily against the table-top as she made to leap to her feet. 'Stay
put, Penny,' he ordered sharply. 'OK, I'll tell you what measures I've
taken.' He waited until the angry tension in her had subsided, then
released her hand. 'I've informed the police—not that they
can do anything, but at least they're on the alert. And before leaving
Formentor I contacted an old friend who's a barrister here, and he's
made arrangements with a network of private detectives… I've
also been in touch with others whose contacts are with far less
salubrious networks.' He paused, his fingers toying restlessly with his
napkin. 'And now all I can do is wait.'

Penny glanced at him uncertainly, a thousand questions
clamouring in her mind.

'Dominic, why did you pick an out-of-the-way hotel like
this?' she blurted out, selecting one at complete random. 'I know you
said you wouldn't be likely to run into anyone you know here,
but—'

'But you think it's a touch on the dramatic side,' he
finished for her. 'I'm not so much worried about people I know seeing
me—there's no reason why I shouldn't be visiting London; it's
more a question of how
I'd
handle running into
them
.'
He glanced up, his eyes accusing. 'I imagine it must be almost
impossible to exchange pleasantries with old acquaintances when you're
worried half out of your mind, and its not something I intend finding
out…though perhaps you wouldn't understand that, would you,
Penny?'

When she gave no reply, he glanced down at his watch.

'I think we'd better have coffee brought up to the room;
I'm expecting a number of calls,' he stated, rising. 'I can also find
out what sort of wardrobe Monique's packed me for this miserable
climate.'

'Monique?' puzzled Penny, as she too rose. 'Good heavens,
the luggage that's arrived!' she exclaimed. 'You don't honestly mean to
tell me you got Monique to pack clothes and have them sent over here to
you?'

'You don't expect me to swan around in a climate like this
in shorts and a T-shirt, do you?' he demanded, obviously slightly taken
aback by her reaction.

Penny's wry eyes took in the immaculately tailored
trousers adorning long, athletic legs, the soft cashmere of the jumper
he had drawn on over the heavy richness of an unmistakably silk shirt.
Shorts and T-shirt, my foot! she thought ironically. Apart from looking
the epitome of sartorial elegance, he also looked warm— and
the only warm things she had were a sweat-shirt, now desperately in
need of laundering, and the jumper she had borrowed from him!

'I suppose we ought to do something about collecting your
clothes tomorrow,' he mentioned as they left the dining-room.

'But we can't!' exclaimed Penny, caught completely
off-guard.

She gave a silent groan of frustration as she felt the
colour rush to her cheeks under his sudden intrigued scrutiny.

'You're going to have to face up to loverboy sooner or
later,' he drawled. 'If it's to be later, I suggest you sneak in and
get a few things while he's out.'

Uncertain as to whether it was with herself or with her
taunting companion that she felt the more furious, Penny gave an
impatient toss of her head.

'Why bother,' she said airily, 'when I feel like a new
winter wardrobe anyway?'

She
had blown just about every penny she possessed, Penny accused herself,
half stunned by the disbelief mounting in her as she sat in a taxi on
the way back to the hotel, surrounded by a mountain of purchases.

And there was no excuse whatever for it, she remonstrated
with herself with growing dejection; she had simply gone way over the
top. All right, so she had staggered from the hotel that morning
practically comatose with weariness—Dominic having spent the
best part of the night either receiving or making telephone calls; and
yes, there had lurked in her mind a mental picture of herself decked
out to the nines in the sort of clothes she imagined the women with
whom he mixed would be…one of whom he believed her to be,
she reminded herself with a small shiver of apprehension. And yes, she
had enjoyed trying on those clothes, the price of which would have
normally sent her scurrying in the opposite direction. But what had
possessed her actually to buy some of them?

Moments later she was having to admit what a lift it gave
to her sorely battered ego as, snuggled in the luxury of her new
cashmere coat, she swept past the receptionist without so much as a
glance of acknowledgement, her expensively booted tread light and
confident as she made her laden way to the lift.

Once in the lift, it was another matter; her spirits
plunged virtually to zero as the realisation of her now virtual penury
returned once more to haunt her. She was jobless and homeless and had
squandered what to her was not just a small fortune, but practically
all she possessed—and why? To lend credibility to a silly and
totally unnecessary lie?

By the time she gave a fumbling knock on the room door,
she had got around to questioning the motives behind her grand entrance
of moments before…it had been an act of indescribable
pettiness, brought about by nothing other than downright jealousy!

Convinced she was undergoing a disastrous personality
change over which she had no iota of control, she walked straight past
Dominic as he opened the door to her, an expression of grim withdrawal
on her face as she dumped her purchases on the nearest bed.

'Had a pleasant morning's distraction, have you?' he
enquired, his eyes glinting their condemnation as they swept along the
bed.

'Fabulous!' stated Penny, her eyes glittering their own
message. 'There's nothing quite like a spot of conspicuous spending to
boost flagging spirits.'

Though it had undoubtedly been her own voice she had
heard, there was a part of Penny that wanted to turn and check for the
presence of another in the room, steadfastly refusing to believe she
herself was capable of making such a crass statement.

'No, I'm sure there isn't…for you,' observed
Dominic, his tone tight with disgust.

'You seem to have no idea how incredibly hypocritical you
sound at times,' she retaliated hotly, his words stinging her to defend
what she at heart knew to be indefensible. 'Cushioned by the trappings
of wealth as you so obviously are, your sanctimonious remarks don't
carry much in the way of weight.'

'Give it a rest, will you, Penny?' he muttered with weary
disgust, flinging himself down on the bed he hadn't even got around to
sleeping in the night before. 'I've sleep to catch up on while I
can…and no, in case you're interested, we've had no luck so
far in locating Lexy—nor Langton, for that matter.'

Tight-lipped and not trusting herself to speak for fear of
what might come out, Penny began putting her new possessions away.
There weren't that many of them, she thought—doggedly
training her mind to concentrate on them and them
alone—considering the small fortune they had cost.

When she had finished, she closed the wardrobe and leaned
her head against it, all the confusions and feelings of self-disgust
she had been battling to keep at bay now running loose in her.

'Dominic, I know how I must have sounded…to be
honest, it sounded as horrific to me as it must have to you,' she
whispered dejectedly. 'Can't you understand that the only reason I keep
coming out with fatuous remarks such as that is because I can't get it
through to you how desperately worried I am too about Lexy? The last
thing we should be doing is fighting; we should be supporting one
another.' There was pleading in her eyes as she turned towards where he
lay. 'Dominic, I—' She broke off with a soft exclamation of
disbelief and frustration. He was fast asleep.

She tiptoed to the bed and stood gazing down at him.
Fully-suited and with his shoes still on, he lay sprawled on his back,
both arms curved above his head, his face turned towards her and etched
with exhaustion even in sleep.

Yet even in exhaustion he was just about the most truly
beautiful man she had ever seen, though beautiful in a way that was
undeniably and quite aggressively masculine. Her eyes roamed the length
of him, from the tousled darkness of his hair to the gleaming leather
tips of his sprawled feet, a nameless, mindless yearning churning hotly
within her.

This was ridiculous…crazy, she informed herself
with dazed dejection; she was infatuated with this wretched man to such
a degree that she was unable to think or act coherently!

Penny turned and flung herself disconsolately down on her
own bed, a vivid mental picture of Lexy leaping from nowhere into her
mind. It was anxiety over Lexy playing these ghastly tricks on her
mind, she told herself, desperately willing calm on the terrible
confusion of her thoughts. But Lexy would be all right! There was a
closeness between herself, Lexy and Sarah that went beyond the bounds
of the tangible and which she knew would bring instinctive awareness to
the others if one of them was in danger…and, from the start,
her fears had been cushioned by a knowing that Lexy would be all right.

She closed her eyes, the frantic pounding of her heart
easing under the balm of that feeling which had never really wholly
deserted her. The string of catastrophes besetting her recently had
left her completely disorientated—which was only to be
expected, she now realised. And developing this ludicrous infatuation
for a man as dangerous as Dominic was certainly
catastrophic—but it would die its natural death once Lexy
turned up, of that she was absolutely certain.