The Perfect Seduction {#wattys2016}

Chapter 7

Luke was having a hard time keeping the impatience out of his voice as he introduced Fenella to Jon and Jenny. He was still infuriated at the way she'd managed to inveigle herself into being included in their party, tricking James into agreeing to pick her up by giving him the impression, deliberately so, Luke knew, that he had invited her as his partner, when in fact...

"What is she doing here?" he had demanded half an hour earlier when, as arranged, James had called round to collect him and he had seen Fenella sitting demurely in the back of James's car.

"She rang me up and asked me to collect her," James had informed him, looking both upset and uncomfortable when Luke had told him pithily that he had been deceived and that there was no way he had ever intended asking Fenella.

"Oh, but she said---" he began, but Luke cut him short.

"I don't give a damn what she said, James," he snapped testily. 'I am telling you that she tricked you and that I most certainly did not invite her to come with us. God knows how she even knew about tonight in the first place.'

"Oh, I think that's probably my fault," James confesses. 'I bumped into her in town while you were in Brussels and we got talking and I mentioned the party. She said she knew all about it and that you were taking her and...' James looked uncomfortable. 'I know that you and she...and I thought...well...'

"You know that she and I what?" Luke demanded grimly, answering his own question by continuing, 'We dated for a while a long time ago, yes, a long time ago,' he underlined. 'She approached me for advice about her divorce and that is the only kind of contact I have had with her since her marriage, and that's the only kind of contact I intend to have with her. She's poison, James,' Luke warned his younger brother. 'Take my word for it.'

Poison she indeed was, and infuriated though he might be by the way she was clinging to him like a piece of ivy, good manners and a very male disinclination to cause a scene prevented Luke from disengaging her arm from his and walking off and disowning her.

"Fenella...what's it?" Jon commented quietly to Jenny after they had disappeared to remove their coats. 'Isn't she the one that Luke used to...?'

"Mmm...I think so," Jenny agreed.

"I thought she was married to Sir Peter Longton," Jon remarked.

"She is," Jenny confirmed. 'Or rather she was. Apparently they're going to divorce.'

"Well...I doubt that will please Luke!"

Jenny shot her husband a questioning look. 'Won't it? They are here together.'

"They are certainly both here but, reading Luke's body language, they are not, definitely not, together," Jon informed her. 'And if she is hoping that Luke will prove as malleable as a man as he was as a boy, I suspect she's going to be doomed to disappointment.'

As Jon and Jenny gently swept their guests towards the private suite they had reserved for the party, Joss started to search the foyer anxiously. It was eight o'clock.

"Joss," Jenny called out as she saw her youngest child hovering by the entrance.

"I won't be a moment," Joss told her, excitement giving way to disappointment and anxiety as he searched the foyer a second time for his new friend.

Jenny frowned. She had almost forgotten that Joss had told her that he wanted to invite a friend.

"Come on, Mum," Louise demanded.

Jenny gave Joss an uncertain look. He was, after all, only ten years old, but the lobby of the Grosvenor was surely a safe enough place for him to be allowed to wait for his friend on his own for a few minutes whilst she checked that everything was in order in their private suite.