shoulders and handed it back to him. She didn’t need it any more. Didn’t need any of this, in fact. She walked to the door and turned back to look at him.
“You’re wrong,” she said. “You were wrong when you said you were going to marry me and you’re wrong about this too.”
“It’s true that I’m not going to marry you.” His dark eyes narrowed, crinkling at the sides as his lips curled to a knowing smile. “That doesn’t mean we can’t have a bit of fun. Maybe more than a bit.”
Chapter Three
Striding along Mark Elliot’s side through The Rocks district, Kate reassured herself she was doing the right thing. It was only dinner and there would be lots of other people there.
She was doing Mark a favour. She would much rather have stayed at home in her cosy apartment than gone out this evening, particularly with his work colleagues. After all, she knew who’d be there and he wouldn’t make it easy for her.
“I’m glad you agreed to come,” Mark said. “This can’t be easy for you so I’m pleased we can both be mature about it.”
Sometimes Kate thought she was too good-natured. If she was a less practical but harder person she wouldn’t even be here.
“You know, you’re handling the break-up very well,” she said. “You don’t seem too distraught.”
It had been nearly a week since Kate had told Mark it was over between them. She’d wrestled with her feelings for a couple of days after Daniel Webb’s party but in the end she had to do it.
Not that she was leaving Mark for another man. Far from it. It’s just that Daniel had been right, though she’d denied it to him that evening, just as she’d been denying it to herself for months.
The state of her relationship with Mark had reached a point where she had to face facts. It was never going to work between them unless both of them were willing to work at it and that simply wasn’t going to happen. Their feelings for each other weren’t strong enough, no matter how much she had hoped for more.
Knowing it was the right thing to do had made it easier but she still found it hard. It was a year of her life. A significant relationship. And there was so little left of it now.
The worst part was that Mark didn’t seem particularly upset. He’d said it was a glitch in his plans for the future but that he’d get over it.
And he had. All too quickly.
Perhaps Daniel had been right and there was no chemistry between her and Mark.
They walked up the stone steps to the restaurant. His fingers on the door handle, Mark stopped and turned to her. “I’m glad you agreed to come tonight. I really appreciate it. This job is important to me and I didn’t want it to look like my life was a shambles when I’m on the verge of getting a promotion.”
“I know.”
She’d felt partially responsible because she’d misled Daniel by telling him she and Mark were engaged. Then, when Mark had asked her to come along as his partner, Kate had felt obliged to help out. It was his career and he was so close to getting the position he’d always coveted.
After all, she still wanted them to be friends. That wasn’t too much to ask, was it?
Mark pulled the door open and as they waited by the reception desk, Kate scanned the room, spotting his colleagues at the far end of the restaurant. It was a table of about ten or twelve with only two spare seats, both of them right next to Daniel Webb.
She suddenly wondered what she was doing here. She wanted to be friends with Mark and, hard as she’d thought about it, she hadn’t been able to find any logical reason why she shouldn’t accompany him tonight.
But as she looked across at Daniel, she knew this had nothing to do with logic or reason. He wasn’t even doing anything, just sitting there. Yet beneath her jacket she felt goose bumps forming on her arms, her palms suddenly cold, her heart racing.
How could this be happening? Though she didn’t like to think she was at the mercy of her hormones, it was clear that’s exactly what was happening. No point denying it.
Daniel stretched his arm out across the empty chair beside him and laughed, turning his head as he did so. His lips curled to a confident smile as his eyes locked with