Cinderella's Christmas Secret - Sharon Kendrick
CHAPTER ONE
‘I CAN’T...’ HOLLIE’S words came out as a strangled squeak as she held the dress up.
It was very Christmassy. In fact, it screamed Christmas—and not in a good way. Short, bright and very green, it gleamed beneath the garish lights of the hotel where the party was being held. She tried again. ‘I can’t possibly wear this, Janette.’
Her boss’s perfectly plucked brows were elevated. ‘Why not?’
‘Because it’s...’ Hollie hesitated. Normally, she was the most accommodating of employees. She was a peacemaker. A facilitator. She worked very hard and did what was asked of her, but surely there was a limit. ‘A little on the small side...’
But her boss wasn’t interested in her objections. In fact, she was even more self-absorbed than usual and had been in a particularly vile mood since her fingernail had chipped that morning and subsequently snagged one of her super-fine stockings.
‘Someone of your age can get away with wearing something as daring as that,’ Janette clipped out as she adjusted a low-hanging bunch of mistletoe. ‘You might find it suits you, Hollie—it’ll certainly make a change from your usual wardrobe choices.’
‘But—’
‘No buts,’ continued her boss smoothly. ‘We’re sponsoring this party, just in case you’d forgotten. And since one of the waitresses is a no-show and with so many VIPs coming, we can’t possibly be short-staffed. All you have to do is to turn up dressed as an elf for a couple of hours and hand out a few canapés. Why, if I were a few years younger I would have worn the outfit myself! Especially as Maximo Diaz has agreed to come.’ She flashed a veneer-capped smile. ‘Potentially the most valuable client we’ve ever had. Mr Big. Mr Limitless Bank Account. And if his hotel purchase goes through before Christmas, you’re looking at a big fat bonus. Surely you haven’t forgotten that, have you?’
Hollie shook her head. No, of course she hadn’t. How could she have forgotten Maximo Diaz and all the fuss which surrounded him whenever he made an appearance in the small Devon town where she’d moved after her life’s savings had become someone else’s pocket money? How could anyone ever forget a man who resembled a dark, avenging angel who had tumbled to earth in a custom-made suit? A man who made her heart race with uncomfortable excitement whenever he caught her in the hard, black spotlight of his gaze so that she felt like a butterfly pinned to a piece of card.
She swallowed. She guessed every woman felt that way about him. She’d seen the way he was watched by every female who happened to be in the vicinity, whenever he walked into the estate agency where Hollie worked. She’d noticed the way their eyes were drawn—reluctantly or otherwise—to the powerful muscularity of his body and the glow of his olive-dark skin. He was a man who seemed to have taken up stubborn residence in her imagination. A man who symbolised a simmering sexuality and virility which scared her and excited her in equal measure—and no matter how hard she tried, she found it impossible to remain neutral to him.
Not that she would have made very much of a mark on his radar. Powerful Spanish billionaires tended not to take much notice of nondescript women who beavered away quietly in the background of large offices. Occasionally she’d made him a cup of coffee, accompanied by one of the home-made biscuits she sometimes brought to the office, if her boss wasn’t on one of her rigid diets. She remembered him absently taking a bite from a piece of featherlight shortbread and then looking at it in surprise, as if the taste of something sweet was something he wasn’t used to. He probably wasn’t. Because ‘sweet’ wasn’t really a word you associated with the rugged tycoon. Hard and dark were words which sprang more readily to mind.
But she shouldn’t be thinking about Maximo Diaz—not when Janette was still fixing her with that expectant stare, and automatically Hollie smiled back.
‘Of course I haven’t forgotten Señor Diaz,’ she said. ‘He’s a very important client.’
‘Yes, he is. Which is why all the local bigwigs and politicians are so eager to meet him,’ Janette said eagerly. ‘He’s going to have a big impact on this area, Hollie. Especially if he turns the old castle into a hotel like it was before, back in the day. It means we won’t have to use this eyesore of a place any more for our official functions—and not before time.’
‘Yes, I do