avoid him for the rest of the evening.
Standing by the kitchen door and out of the way of the catering staff, she fanned herself for a few moments and let the sounds from the waiters and waitresses create a bubble around her while she calmed her shaking hands. This was ridiculous, she told herself. The guy was probably married, and her father just was being polite by trying to provide an introduction.
But her father wouldn’t have gone to so much effort to introduce her to a married man. Her father was quite determined to get her married off as soon as he could, frustrated that his single daughter had thwarted all his efforts to rectify this situation prior to now. He wanted her married and stated the intention often enough that Eva knew when the diatribe was coming. Preferably to a nice, reliable Greek man who would help him in business. Eva’s father was old fashioned, believing in arranged marriages and mutually beneficial relationships.
Ugh! Why couldn’t she get that man’s heated gaze out of her mind? The look he gave her that last time had really shaken her. It was what those silly romance novels would describe as “bedroom” eyes. Or knowing, powerful eyes. Eyes that took possession of anything they wanted.
“There you are!” her mother said as she passed through from the opposite door. “Why are you hiding here in the kitchen? We’re about to sit down to dinner and your father has been looking for you for the past ten minutes. He wants to introduce you to someone. Come along, dear,” her mother said and looped her arm through Eva’s, pretending to be the ultimate, loving mother who had a fabulous, close relationship with her daughter. In reality, her mother only needed Eva’s arm to hold her up and walk straight. Her mother wasn’t just tipsy, she was flat out drunk, she realized.
Thankfully, only Eva would notice. And probably her father who would toss out his obligatory disapproving look and then completely ignore his wife for the remainder of the evening. At least her mother knew how to hide her inebriation well enough.
Maybe the start of dinner was a good thing, Eva thought. It would get some food into her mother and dilute some of the alcohol, slow down the inebriation process.
Eva walked her mother to the dining room where the guests were already taking their seats. Eva escorted her mother to the end of the table, then noted she was seated midway down among the guests.
Thankfully, that arrogant man she’d been trying to avoid was on the end nearest her father, so Eva was saved from needing to be polite to him during the meal. As the other guests moved into the dining room, she was careful to glance only at those who would be near her during the meal, meticulously keeping her gaze away from “him”.
When everyone was finally settled, the wait staff came through with the first course and Eva relaxed, sipping her wine and smiling through the conversations. She’d learned early on in life that one really only needed to ask a few pointed questions to dinner guests and they would fill in the silence. The best question to ask was, “How are your children doing?” and that would fill in the next thirty minutes while the person regaled the people nearest about their children’s foibles or accomplishments.
Damon surreptitiously watched Eva from his end of the table, impressed with her social skills while his target worked the people around her. She encouraged them to talk and had most of them laughing although he couldn’t hear what they were saying since he was farther away.
He turned to the people next to him and asked the elderly woman to his right how her grandchildren were doing in school. While the white haired woman talked about her youngest grandchild’s attempts to learn to walk, Damon glanced down the table, considering how long it would take before the lovely woman could organize the wedding. Just watching her, even from a distance, had his body stirring and he knew that he was going to enjoy their wedding night. He acknowledged that he’d made a good choice with this one and made a mental note to thank Joan for a job well done. There were many things about Eva that he already appreciated, including her delightful profile and her lush figure encased in that sapphire gown.
Eva wasn’t stick skinny but was curvaceous in all the right places, a preference he