'I don't damned well care,' Natalie snapped. 'I could boil everybody in a vat of hot oil!'
Ray laughed and put his cheek against her hair, swirling her round to the music, singing, 'Love is the Sweetest Thing' under his breath, at total variance with the music.
'I'll crown you,' Natalie muttered, not at all amused, too tight inside to see anything funny at all.
'All right. All right.' He patted her shoulder and slowed down. 'Thanks, love. Somehow or other you've opened Paula's eyes. Maybe it will do me no good but I'm damned glad anyway. She might just surprise
Bradshaw. At any rate, you've given him an obvious snub.'
'By lying in my teeth,' Natalie pointed out, a bit anxious about her earlier boldness.
'I wonder?' Ray looked down at her suspiciously, and she gave him a small grimace of disgust.
'Please, Ray. Don't trouble your pretty head about me.'
They were both laughing as they left the floor and Neil was dancing with Paula, looking as if he had little alternative.
'Drink, Natalie?' Kip looked across at her, his eyes brilliantly alive, and she could only nod, her feelings suddenly too much for her. If he had ordered her to move towards him she would have done. Her gaze was fixed on his face, all the life in her drained into her radiant eyes.
'I think I'll keep you on white wine,' he said softly. 'Any mixing of drinks and you'll probably take off into the stratosphere.'
'Perhaps she's drunk too much already?' Annette snapped. 'She looks pretty odd to me.'
'She never drinks!' Ray came immediately to her rescue but Kip did not take his eyes off Natalie's face. There was a look about her he couldn't mistake and he wanted to get her out of here, cursing himself for offering this outing. She looked quite incapable of defending herself.
'She's had about four sips of wine all evening,' he pointed out calmly. 'Another sip or two won't hurt her.'
'I'll help to carry the drinks,' Ray offered, quite approving of Kip Forsythe, and Natalie was left alone, a bristling opponent close beside her.
'Keep your delicate little claws off Kip!' Annette hissed as soon as the men were out of sight. 'He's mine and that's exactly how things are going to stay.'
'I beg your pardon?' Natalie stood quite shocked at the openly vicious attack, staring into the pale blue eyes that glared at her. It was a funny thing about blue, she. thought dazedly. Paula had lovely blue eyes. These eyes were glittering with an almost feral rage.
'You heard me and you understand. Don't think I haven't noticed your little tricks. You've got the other two men hanging around your neck; leave Kip alone.'
'Suppose he won't allow that?' Natalie was stung to reply.
'How long are you here for? Two more days, three? I've had him for a lot longer than that and I'm keeping him. I'm not wasting my time. I've no intention of spending my life with a pack of simpering schoolkids. Kip's brother-in-law is a millionaire and Kip's part of it. His baby sister dotes on him and Kane Mallory dotes on her.'
'I see. You want a meal ticket,' Natalie said flatly, her eyes scornful.
'Oh, not only that. Kip is a very satisfying man, if you understand me.'
'I understand you,' Natalie said in disgust, the dazzling light dying in her green eyes.
When Kip came back, she took her drink with a muttered thanks and turned away, not looking at him. Annette hung on to his arm with every intention of staying there and Ray as ever became Natalie's protector.
'Well, I'll say this for you,' he murmured as they took their drinks and walked to the area around the brilliantly lit pool, 'you surely need a friend. What did she say to you during our brief absence? Not got a knife sticking in you anywhere, have you?'
'She's not important,' Natalie managed a little desperately. After all, she hadn't learned anything she wasn't already well aware of, except perhaps Annette's greed. The thought of Kip's arms around anyone else was just about killing her; no knife could have done any better.
'She feels important, I would say,' Ray surmised. 'She's hooked on to Forsythe's arm like an umbrella.'
'Bless you, Ray.' She smiled up at him. 'I'm glad to see this particular part of the team at any rate.'
'You'll keep on protecting me from your dad?'
'Ferociously.'
He draped his arm around her shoulders and they walked slowly around the pool.
'Two miserable wretches, you and I. Both very sadly in love.'