His Irresistible Darling - Sarah Randall Page 0,41

staircase to their suite. Concentrate on your job for the next few months and then head home, she lectured herself. Simple, her head thought. If only her heart would get on board with the plan…

“Ah, bliss,” she moaned, lowering her body into a hot bubble bath. A treat after a whirlwind week that started with the visit to Dubai with Jumal, spending some time with James celebrating her actual birthday with a lovely meal before his onward flight to continue his holiday, comforting a heartbroken Melina, finalising the details for the polo match and charity auction that weekend and climbing mountains with Jake.

She could finally relax now, happy with all the arrangements for tomorrow. She had thrown herself into her work that week, perfectly executing stage one of her “Get over Jumal plan”. The co-star of her plan had been suspiciously absent from the office which, rather than helping, only made her think about him even more than usual. Where the hell was he? He’d simply emailed her from his phone to cancel his scheduled appointments for the week and marked his diary out as “unavailable/no appointments”. Probably busy enjoying himself with the long-legged freak.

She took a sip of her red wine and allowed the glass to bob alongside her body in the warm water as she reached for a chocolate. Hmm, red wine and chocolate from home courtesy of James—definitely bliss. She closed her eyes and allowed her mind to drift for a moment… Where is he right now? Agghhh, she jerked her eyes open moments later, grabbing desperately for her glass before it spilt in the water. “That bloody man.” She cursed at her treacherous and wayward thoughts. “Can’t even let me relax in the bath in peace,” she grumbled to herself.

So Saturday had arrived without Pip having spoken to or seen Jumal all week. He hadn’t even checked in with her to see if she needed any help with the polo match. Jerk.

The morning of the polo match hadn’t started well and she hoped it wasn’t an omen. She’d stepped out to her car that morning, already running a bit late, to find the tyres on her car flat. Not just one, which would be perfectly understandable, but all four. Slashed. She didn’t have time to sort it but thankfully a red-eyed Melina was on hand to give her a lift and was now helping her put the finishing touches to the arrangements. She’d already checked the reception marquee and the place setting and organised the prizes and donations for the charity auction, which was planned for later that evening after the match and dinner dance. Thankfully her bad luck from this morning did not appear to have lingered…

“Hello Pip.”

Pip jumped at the American accent behind her and quickly spun around. “Oh, Jake. Hi, how you doin’?”

His cheeks reddened and he kicked at the grass nervously. “Good thanks.” He grinned back at her. “You look lovely in that dress. Can I do anything to help? You look like you have your hands full.”

“Ah, no thanks. Melina and I have got it all sorted. You just go on and enjoy yourself. I’ll come and find you.”

“Oh,” he said, the smile falling from his boyishly handsome face. “Okay, if you’re sure.” He shrugged, dropped his head forward and continued to kick at the grass.

“Actually—”

“Yes?” he jumped in eagerly.

“You could help me carry these boxes across to the reception marquee.”

“Great. Yeah. Sure, I don’t really want to hang around with the big bosses. Feels like they’re always watching me,” he answered eagerly, like a puppy anxious to please. “So how are your aching muscles?” he asked, picking up the boxes full of table gifts.

The jerk hadn’t even bothered to say hello to her before mounting his bloody horse for the first chukker. But damn the man looked good sporting his team’s pale blue jersey, white jodhpurs, brown leather boots and white helmet. Trust him to make that ensemble look good, especially when teamed with his jet-black horse. The animal looked like it belonged to one of the horsemen of the apocalypse. It was panting and snorting tensely. She’d tried not to stare as he’d mounted his horse confidently and cantered around the pitch, conversing with the other three teammates. She hadn’t missed the intense stand-off between Jumal and Yves. Not that she’d been staring of course…but it seemed that the grudge match was very much on. The only saving grace was the apparent absence of Faridah. Again. Hmm, maybe the