Single Girl Abroad (Mills & Boon M&B) (Mills & Boon Special Releases) by Kelly Hunter

‘Come to lunch.’
    At one thirty-five exactly, Madeline walked into the elegant foyer of the Four Seasons hotel and headed for their high-end restaurant where Peking duck and all the delicate pancake breads and other accompaniments that went with it reigned supreme. She’d booked a table for three under the name of Bennett. According to the floor manager, one of her party already awaited her at the bar. Tentatively, Madeline headed in that direction.
    Jianne Xang was everything a Shanghai princess should be. Petite, exquisitely dressed, ethereally beautiful, and intrinsically aloof.
    She was also, thought Madeline on closer inspection, incredibly nervous. The eyes did not lie, and Jianne’s were fixed, hunted-deer style, on the restaurant door. Madeline’s arrival hadn’t registered with her. Luke might not have even told her to expect a third person.
    If he hadn’t, thought Madeline with a sigh of exasperation at the ignorance of men, then Jianne would have discovered at the door that the Bennett booking was a table for three. No guesses as to whom Jianne expected that third person to be.
    It wasn’t until Madeline started towards her that Jianne’s gaze cut to her. Jianne smiled tentatively, polite acknowledgement of a stranger, nothing more, and then as Madeline kept eye contact Jianne’s eyes grew puzzled.
    Madeline had no idea what title to use when greeting this woman. Mrs Bennett? Possibly not. So she settled for informality and hoped she would be forgiven the etiquette breach.
    ‘Jianne?’ she asked, and when the other woman nodded, ‘I’m Madeline Delacourte. Luke asked me to join you both for lunch. Mind you, it would have helped had he
mentioned
this to you at some stage.’
    ‘I … see,’ said Jianne, only clearly she didn’t.
    ‘It’d also help a lot if he were
here
,’ said Madeline dryly. Ji’s gaze cut to the door again. Madeline’s followed. ‘Speak of the devil.’
    ‘You’re Luke’s … paramour?’ asked Ji delicately as he started towards them.
    Nice word, paramour. Courtly and genteel. All the things her relationship with Luke wasn’t. ‘Something like that,’ said Madeline. ‘It’s complicated.’
    A hint of sympathy flared deep in Jianne’s dark eyes. ‘When there’s a Bennett involved, it usually is.’
    Luke reached them and greeted Jianne with a smile and a kiss for her cheek before turning towards Madeline. He did not kiss her cheek, he kissed her mouth, briefly, as if he’d done it a thousand times and would do it a thousand times more before he was through.
    ‘I should have taken one look at you and ran,’ she told him wryly. ‘I should have listened to your brother.’ No point tiptoeing around the subject of Jacob. He might not have been there in person, but he was the
reason
they were there, after all.
    Ordering came easy, the Peking duck times three, an extravagant affair that started formal but grew increasingly casual as pancake pockets were filled and different combinations arranged. Even Ji had begun to relax beneath the easy charm of the tiger’s golden gaze by the time they were halfway through the meal.
    And then, sated, Luke turned to Ji and with typical western bluntness got down to business. ‘Your aunt and uncle are worried about you, Ji. They say you need Jake’s help.’
    Jianne took her time before replying. She finished the morsel of food on her plate and dabbed at her mouth with her napkin before replying.
    ‘They’re wrong,’ she said. ‘I have a slight problem, yes. But I can handle it. There’s no need to involve Jake. There was no need to involve any of you, and I apologise for that. My aunt and uncle acted impetuously when they enlisted your help. I should have seen it coming. I shouldhave known they were up to something and put a stop to it.’ Jianne shrugged. ‘I didn’t.’
    ‘So if Jake were to file for divorce, you’d be okay with that?’ asked Luke.
    Panic flared in Jianne’s eyes. Not just an