One evening that changes everything!
After Lady Kaitlin Derwent was kidnapped as a child, she shut down her emotions and focused on becoming the perfect daughter her aristocratic family wanted. But one evening in Barcelona she meets a handsome stranger who makes her crave freedom...
Wealthy lawyer Daniel Harrington has never believed in love, but spending the evening with Kaitlin opens up new possibilities. Daniel is determined to show her that only by being true to herself can she be truly happy... If only sheâll let him show her the way!
âHow about dinner? No strings. Weâre two people alone in a vibrant city and I could do with some company.â
The words held a ring of truth and for a moment Kaitlin wondered what demons he wanted to hold at bay.
Temptation, warring with the final grains of common sense, pointed out that after all she had to eat.
Danielâs shoulders lifted in a shrug. âI had a reservation at one of Barcelonaâs best restaurantsâI could try and resurrect it.â
Kaitlin frowned. âSo you did have plans.â
âLetâs say my plans didnât materialize.â Harshness underlaid the words and pain flashed across those blue eyes. Kaitlin hesitated, sensed that the man seated opposite her was hurting. Clearly heâd been stood up. Doubt unfurledâsomehow that didnât seem feasible. It wasnât a scenario that played out. Ridiculousâyes he was good-looking and magnetic and... and... and... but she hardly knew him or his relationship background.
Yet more reasons to make her exit now.
But she didnât want to. Never again would she have a chance like this. To be free, to shed the Lady Kaitlin persona. Because soon there would be the meeting with Prince Frederick of Lycander, a meeting where she needed to demonstrate her suitability to be a Lycander bride and then... Enough. She wouldnât, couldnât think of that now.
âDinner sounds wonderful. A night of freedom before I step into a gilded cage.â
CHAPTER ONE
LADY KAITLIN DERWENT, poster girl for the aristocracy, daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Fairfax, stared at her nigh on unrecognisable reflection and wondered if sheâd run mad... No, she knew she must have run mad.
There could be no other explanation for the fact that she was standing in this glitzy Barcelona hotel room, her Titian-red hair obscured under a bottleful of cheap blonde dye, her green eyes masked by baby-blue contact lenses, on a âBlonde Hair and Blue Eyes in Barcelonaâ themed hen weekend for a woman she hadnât seen for years.
âYou OK?â Lynette Cooper, her childhood playmate and the bride-to-be, leant forward to peer more closely into the dressing table mirror and layered on another sheen of letterbox-red lipstick. âAre you sure you wonât come out tonight? Weâre making cocktails and then weâre drinking cocktails.â
Kaitlin summoned a smile. âNo, thank you. I appreciate it, but Iâd be gatecrashing.â
She didnât know any of the other guests; it had been a crazy impulse of the type she never, ever demonstrated to ask Lynette if she could join the hen group so that she could escape for a weekend. Travel as part of a group with a degree of anonymity and gain some time out, some space to think.
âI will truly be happy chilling out here. Iâll order room service, watch a film and go to sleep.â
Lynette tipped her blonde head to one side. âYou sure?â
âIâm sure.â
âOK.â Lynetteâs smile was genuine, and so reminiscent of her ten-year-old self that Kaitlin couldnât help but smile back.
âAnd, Lynette... Thank you.â
âYouâre welcome, Kaitlin. I know weâve lost touch, but Iâm glad I could help. Really.â
Lynette looked as though she wanted to say more, and Kaitlin knew she needed to forestall her. She wouldnât explain the reasons for the breakdown of their friendship all those years agoâcouldnât revisit the memories of a trauma she had relegated to the surreal.
âAnd I am really grateful, Lynette. Now, go and have fun. Donât worry about me.â
Lynette stood, undecided, and then nodded. âOK. Be good. Call me if you change your mind and want to meet up with us.â
With that she swirled from the room in a gust of perfume.
Be good. No problem there. Lady Kaitlin Derwent was always goodânever a breath of scandal to her name and that was the way it would stay. This was as mad as she was ever likely to beâdisguised as a blonde, holed up in a hotel room in Barcelona, so that she could contemplate her future.