Cinderella's Christmas Secret - Sharon Kendrick Page 0,46

silk dress, with a shiny fall of hair shimmering around her shoulders, and her transformation seemed complete.

She didn’t look like Hollie Walker any more.

Neither an uptight office girl nor a giddy Christmas elf stared back at her today.

She looked like an expensive glossy stranger.

And when Maximo came to collect her, he must have thought along similar lines because he appeared almost taken aback by her appearance.

‘Bien, bien, bien—what have we here, mia belleza?’ he mused, his black gaze travelling over every inch of her, before he slid onto the back seat of the car beside her.

‘You don’t like it?’

‘I didn’t say that.’ His hand slid over her thigh, his fingers stroking over the navy silk. ‘You look out of this world.’

‘Like an alien, you mean?’

He laughed. ‘No, not remotely like that. Why do you always put yourself down?’

‘Perhaps I’m not used to compliments.’

‘Then I shall have to make sure you get used to them. Like a beautiful woman at her peak, is that better? My only complaint is that there isn’t time for me to prove just how much you have excited my senses, because we need to buy you a ring before the shop closes.’

‘We don’t really have to do that today, do we, Maximo? Haven’t we shopped enough?’

‘I’m afraid we do. I was given to understand that women can never have too much shopping, although maybe you’re the exception to the rule,’ he added drily. ‘But tomorrow, we fly to Madrid and I intend that you should arrive there wearing the biggest diamond in the world.’

Hollie supposed it would be churlish to object to having ‘the biggest diamond in the world’ on the grounds that she was feeling increasingly detached from reality with all this high-end purchasing power. Yet wasn’t this just another example of making sure she was ‘good enough’ to meet his wealthy friends?

She tried to shake off her insecurity as he took her to a darkened store somewhere near Hatton Garden, which didn’t really look like a jeweller’s from the outside, and he and the owner began speaking in a language she barely recognised as English. They spoke of cushion and marquise and princess, which she gathered were cuts of diamonds, though when she emerged from the store an hour later, it was with an enormous rock called a round brilliant dripping from her finger.

As they were leaving, she saw a woman in the street do a double take when she spotted the size of the jewel. But all Hollie could focus on was the sobering thought that the entire purchase had been conducted with zero emotion. There had been no joy on the face of her husband-to-be as he slipped the priceless ring on her finger—just a glimmer of quiet satisfaction in his eyes as the shop’s owner informed him that he had just purchased the finest gem in his collection.

Because there was no emotion involved, Hollie reminded herself fiercely as they got into the waiting car. There might be mutual attraction and a determination to do the right thing by their baby, but this marriage was nothing but a solution to their dilemma, and she should forget that at her peril.

‘So where are we going now?’ she asked, slightly dazzled by the rainbow rays which sparkled on her left hand and wondering if she would have to remove it when she was cooking.

He glanced up from his phone, momentarily distracted. ‘We’ll spend tonight at the Granchester Hotel, for you must be tired after so much travelling?’

‘A little,’ she admitted.

‘And tomorrow we head for the airfield where my jet is ready to fly us to Spain, because it’s New Year’s Eve and we have a big party to attend.’

‘How big a party?’ she said, suddenly nervous.

‘Very big. The Spanish love to celebrate the start of the new year and since many of my friends will be gathered together in the same place, it means I can introduce you as my bride.’ He glanced at his watch. ‘We should arrive in Madrid in time for lunch.’

‘And that’s where you live? In Madrid?’ It seemed crazy that soon she would marry him and she didn’t actually know. There were so many things about him she didn’t know.

‘Yes, I have an apartment there, very close to the Retiro Park. I think you’ll like it.’

Hollie felt dizzy. London for shopping. Madrid for lunch. And a massive New Year’s Eve party with, no doubt, all the world’s glitterati there. Was this going to be her life from now on?