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‘Thank you.’ She put her purse down on the settee and shrugged. ‘I’m not sure what that means, but it sounded like a compliment so I’ll take it as one.’

‘It was a compliment—to a special girl. But.’ He paused.

Alex squared her shoulders. ‘It’s not going to work, is it? I mean, if you marry her, you won’t need me and—’

‘Who said I was going to marry her?’

‘Just about everyone I’ve spoken to in the last—’ she gestured ‘—forty- eight hours.’

‘Who?’ he insisted.

Alex heaved a sigh, ‘That’s a bit of an exaggeration, but your sister, your cousin, your housekeeper.’

He grimaced. ‘I’m sure my secretary put in her vote too.’

Alex thought for a moment with a slight frown in her eyes. ‘Funnily enough, she didn’t.’ She put her hands on the back of the settee and studied them for a moment, then looked up to see him watching her narrowly. ‘Are you?’

‘Going to marry Cathy?’ He paused and she thought she’d never seen his features so finely sculpted, his mouth so chiselled—or his emotions so