For a moment, she couldn’t move. Lie low, she’d told herself. Stay out of his way. It had been the entire point of going out this morning . . . She hadn’t wanted to even glimpse him before tonight. She had a plan and she had to stick to it. Now, for the second time in an hour . . .

‘Quick then. Before they see me.’

She stepped into the lift’s opposite corner, keeping as much distance as she could. He seemed to notice.

‘How did you . . .?’ She glanced back at the photographers again, still waiting pointlessly out the front.

He reached forward quickly and pressed for the doors to close. ‘They’re letting me use the kitchen entrance,’ he muttered.

‘Oh.’

‘. . . Which floor?’

‘Uh, four.’

She watched him press the button, felt the lift begin to move. She could have bitten on the tension between them. It was the first time they had been alone since the night of the casino, since she had brazenly taken a bath in his room and climbed into his bed, pushing for secrets he had been right to hide. It didn’t matter that she had wanted to believe the best in him; they both knew she had brought this situation to bear and, standing in opposite corners, their night together might as well have happened between two entirely different people than the two of them here now.

The lifts were polished brass interiors – anywhere they glanced, their eyes could meet. His gaze fell to her bags. To safety.

‘Christmas shopping,’ she explained in a quiet voice. ‘Mainly for my brother and his family.’

‘Nothing for me?’

She looked back at him but only a wry look flickered in his eyes as he looked away again. A joke. Small talk. He was locking her out; she was just another stranger in a lift.

‘So what were you doing just now?’ she asked.

‘Outside?’

She nodded.

‘Just went for a walk. Trying to clear my head.’ He didn’t mention helping the little old lady off the frozen pavement. Being a Good Samaritan. But she knew now that he never did.

‘Are you nervous about tonight?’

‘Not really.’

‘Really?’

‘. . . Maybe a bit.’

She caught his gaze but he looked away again, elusive as a fox.

His phone rang. He checked it with a sigh. ‘. . . Ari,’ he muttered in a low voice. ‘I’m just with Clover.’

He frowned as his manager said something to him. Clover watched the number three run past on the digital display. A few more seconds and she could be out of here. She had a desperate urge to get away as quickly as she could—

His arm shot forwards, pressing the stop button. The lift lurched, making her stagger slightly as he looked back at her.

‘What is it?’ she asked worriedly, feeling her heart begin to pound as she felt the full weight of his scrutiny.

‘Ari says you have something important to tell me?’