Wrong-footed, Hannah frowned, trying to remember events. ‘I don’t think I deliberately didn’t tell you. I knew there was something wrong with the relationship and actually made the decision to end things on that evening. I’d already tried to talk to Albin about why he’d changed towards me but he claimed to be under too much stress to deal with it. Turned out it was so he could sort everything out in his own favour while I was away. I was trying not to sour the wedding by thinking about him,’ she admitted. ‘Sorry.’ Then, because she wanted to know, she said, ‘I think Amanda Louise might have been hoping for more from you.’ She told him about the ‘snagged and shagged’ conversation she’d overheard at breakfast the next day.

Surprise flitted over his face. ‘I went to my room alone to relieve the babysitter … and think about you.’

‘Oh,’ she breathed, both intrigued and charmed at his frankness. ‘Well. We can’t dance here. No music.’ She shrugged in mock despair, glancing around the beautifully dressed tables as if an orchestra might be hiding behind a white napkin.

A grin quirked his lips. ‘There must be a killer chat-up line about you and me making beautiful music together but I’m not enough of a lizard to carry it off.’

She smothered a laugh. ‘I’m not sure anyone is.’ Then her amusement faded and this time she was the one to take his hand as she looked him in the eye. ‘The only feelings I have left for Albin are disappointment and irritation. The nicer emotions vanished like a snowman in the rain.’

He kissed her fingers again then smoothed back her hair. ‘I’d very much like to go somewhere where there’s no table between us.’

Heat rushed up from the soles of her feet. ‘I want that too.’

They paid their bill and zipped their coats. They stepped outside and the snowstorm swallowed them up. ‘Whoo!’ shouted Hannah, trying to shield her face from the driving, stinging snow.

‘Come on!’ Nico threw his arm around her and they were blown back to the hotel by the storm’s wintry breath, staggering on slushy pavements.

Finally, they burst into the hotel foyer, faces pink and burning. They shoved back hoods and stripped off icy gloves and scarves and Nico kissed her all the way up in the lift, lips cold and tongue hot.

In the corridor between their rooms he halted, kissing her more gently, lips soft against her chilly cheeks and the corner of her mouth. ‘I don’t want to take anything for granted,’ he breathed, more a question than a statement.

‘My room has twin beds,’ she said against his mouth.