Fiancee for One Night Read Online Free PDF

welcomed her to the hotel.
    Deep breath
.
    Warily she stepped out of the car, cautious on heels that seemed perilously high, where once upon a time she would have thought nothing of sprinting to catch a bus in even higher. Strange, what skills you forgot, she thought,when you don’t use them. And then she sincerely hoped she hadn’t forgotten the art of making conversation with adults because a few rounds of ‘Open, shut them, open, shut them,’ was going to get tired pretty quickly.
    And then she stepped through the sliding doors into the hotel and almost turned around and walked straight back out again. It was little more than the entrance, a bank of grand elevators in front of her and a lift lobby to the left, but it was beautiful. A massive arrangement of flowers sat between the escalators, lilies bright and beautiful, palm leaves vivid green and all so artfully arranged that it looked too good to be real.
    Just like her
, she thought. Because she did so not belong here in this amazing place. She was a fake, pretending to be something she was not, and everyone would see through her in an instant.
    She must have hesitated too long or maybe they recognised her as a fraud because someone emerged from behind the concierge desk and asked if she needed assistance. ‘I’m to meet Mr Zamos in his suite,’ she said, her voice sounding other-worldy in the moneyed air of one of Melbourne’s most prestigious hotels, but instead of calling for Security, like she half expected, he simply led her to the lift lobby and saw her safely inside a lift, even smiling as he pressed Leo’s level on the floor selection so she could make no mistake.
    Oh, God, she thought, clutching her shawl around her as the lift door pinged open on the chosen floor, the keycard clenched tightly in her fingers, this is it.
    One night, she told herself, it’s just one night.
One evening
, she corrected herself,
just a dinner
. Because in just a few short hours she would be home and life could get back to normal and she could go back to being a work-from-home mum in her trackpants again.
    She could hardly wait.
    She stepped out into the lift lobby, drinking deeply of the hotel’s sweetly spiced air, willing it to give her strength as she started on the long journey down the hall. Her stomach felt alive with the beating of a thousand tiny wings, giving flight to a thousand tiny and not so tiny fears and stopping her feet dead on the carpet.
    What the hell was she doing? How could she be so sure Leo wouldn’t recognise her? And how could she bear it if he did? The shame of knowing how she’d act-ed—like some kind of wanton. How could she possibly keep working for him if he knew?
    Because she wasn’t like that. Not normally. A first date might end with a kiss if it had gone well, the concept of a one-night stand the furthest thing from her mind, but something about Leo had stripped away her usual cautiousness, turning her reckless, wanting it all and wanting it now.
    She couldn’t bear it if he knew. She couldn’t bear the aftermath or the subsequent humiliation.
    Would he terminate her contract?
    Or would he expect to pick up where he’d left off?
    She shivered, her thumping heart beating much too loud for the hushed, elegant surroundings.
    Lift doors pinged softly behind her and she glanced around as a couple emerged from the lift, forcing her to move both her feet and her thoughts closer to Leo’s door.
    Seriously, why should he remember her? A rushed grope in a filing room with a woman he hadn’t seen before or since. Clearly it would mean nothing to a man with such an appetite for sex. He’d probably forgotten her the moment he’d left the building. And she’d been Eve then, too. Not the Evelyn she’d reverted to whenshe’d started her virtual PA business, wanting to sound serious and no-nonsense on her website.
    And it’s only one night, she told herself, willing herself to relax as she arrived at the designated door. Just one short