Expecting the Billionaire's Heir - Chapter 16

'Anyone you’d like me to introduce you to?’ Dario Lorenti said conversationally.

‘Yeah…’ Brody murmured, but he was too busy looking over his host’s shoulder, searching for one particular face.

The Lorenti party wasn’t what he had expected. The fairy lights strung across the villa’s elegant frontage, and the soft hum of music, the tinkle of laughter and enthusiastic chatter added a relaxed friendly vibe to the luxury event.

And while everyone was dressed to the nines—Lorenti in his tux and the young wife he obviously adored, who Brody had met briefly earlier, wearing a purple dress which accentuated her tall figure—no one seemed to be networking… Instead, they were enjoying themselves. Even the Sicilian, Sante Trovato—whose wife, Lorenti’s sister Mia, had just joined him on the pool terrace—had been uninterested in talking business.

Which was good, because Brody couldn’t have talked about business if he tried. Anticipation was making his chest hurt, but he’d been at the party for over an hour and seen no sign of Ellie.

‘Who are you looking to connect with?’ Lorenti asked pointedly, forcing Brody’s gaze back to his.

He cursed inwardly. Busted.

But as he shoved his hands into his pockets, he decided it was time to take the direct approach. If Ellie wasn’t here, he would travel to Wiltshire tonight. The last two weeks had only increased the torture. Waiting to ‘bump into her by accident’ at this party had been the coward’s way out.

‘Actually yeah, is Ellie Sullivan here?’ he asked, not caring when Lorenti’s eyebrows rose.

‘You know Ellie?’ the man said, not giving him an answer.

He nodded. ‘Yeah, I knew her when we were both kids,’ he blurted out, giving the man too much information, but to hell with it. He needed to know if Ellie had been invited. And he could already see Lorenti wasn’t inclined to give him the information. ‘We…’ He cleared his throat. ‘We reconnected at Westwick while you were on your honeymoon. I was planning to make a bid on the Hall and…’

‘Westwick’s not for sale…’ Lorenti shut him down

‘I’m not interested in buying it anymore.’ I’m only interested in Ellie.

Brody tightened his fists. What was happening to him? He suddenly felt frantic. Needy. Desperate. His palms sweaty.

‘That’s strange. She didn’t mention you’d come to view the Hall,’ Lorenti said, his tone curious.

‘I didn’t tell her,’ he managed, as guilt blindsided him, because that small subterfuge suddenly felt huge now too.

Had he ever really gone to Wiltshire to sneak a tour of Westwick Hall? Or had it simply been a convenient excuse to see her again, and sleep with her, then run out, because he had been too scared to ask for more?

Why else had he waited so long to acknowledge—even to himself—that something powerful and fundamental had happened that night?

But before he could ask again if Ellie was there, Lorenti’s eyes flared with what Brody could only describe as joy, as he spotted someone over Brody’s shoulder.

‘Tali, you’re back,’ Lorenti said. Brody swung round too, as the man added. ‘Is Ellie with you? It seems Kane here is an old friend of hers.’

But then he noticed the woman lingering behind Lorenti’s wife on the terrace, her figure even lusher and more beautiful than he remembered in a flowing silver gown.

Ellie. Thank God.

Something that felt weirdly like the same joy he’d seen in Lorenti’s eyes slammed into his chest. But as he charged through the crowd desperate to get to her, to touch her again, what he saw in her eyes wasn’t joy…

Then his own joy, at seeing her again, turned to horror when she bent over and vomited into a plant pot.