The Dark Glamour (666 Park Avenue 2)

alternating pours, and held one out to her. Jane took it automatically, but André didn’t let go. She glanced up to see his burning black eyes boring into hers. ‘Where are you going?’ he asked, and there was nothing unconcerned about his voice.
    Jane fought the instinct to flinch; André would notice any sign of fear or uncertainty.
Lynne’s interest in me is a double-edged sword. He can’t afford to scare me off, but he’ll be scrutinizing every move I make.
She closed her eyes as she sipped her champagne, drawing the moment out as long as she could to steady her nerves. She had already lied to André about nearly everything she possibly could, and it was doubtful he believed any of it any more. What could it hurt to tell him where she was really going? London was a big place, and no one but she knew that Annette Doran was even alive. It was better to tell as much of the truth as she could than to risk getting caught over an unnecessary lie. ‘I have to go to London,’ Jane told him, deliberately turning her back on him to saunter to the taupe couch, ‘this afternoon. Some family business just came up.’
    André crossed the room in three swift steps and sank down beside her on the couch. The hairs on her arms stood up with the charge of his nearness, and she tugged absently at the cuffs of her robe. ‘You haven’t told me about your family.’
    I can’t fake a whole branch of a witch family to him,
she decided frantically; if she made up concrete facts, he might check them out. It would be best to stay vague. ‘They’re terribly boring,’ she countered, widening her eyes innocently. ‘But sometimes my twenty-year-old cousin gets it into her head to party like a rock star; she’s been to rehab twice already. But it doesn’t stick, so this time I got elected to talk some sense into her before she gets out of hand again.’
    André looked thoughtful. ‘London. Today.’
    She nodded, sipping her champagne and wishing he would relax enough to do the same. ‘I think the flights mostly leave in the afternoon, but I haven’t even booked a ticket yet, so I have a busy morning ahead.’
    An amused smirk twisted his mouth. ‘Considering that it’s almost noon, I would say so.’
    Holy crap.
Jane whipped around to check the clock on the mantel.
No wonder he was surprised to see me in my bathrobe.
The spell must have taken even more out of her than she had realized; she had slept for over eleven hours. ‘Wow,’ she observed feebly. ‘The aftereffects of last night.’
    André nodded thoughtfully, and Jane hoped he was comparing her current disarray with her long, long absence from the party the night before. She suspected that they would add up, even if it was only a lucky coincidence. ‘Well,’ he said finally, ‘it seems I can be of service.’ Jane raised an eyebrow curiously, encouraging him to explain. ‘I had an ulterior motive in coming here this morning,’ he confessed self-deprecatingly. ‘I planned to tell you that I needed to leave town for a while as well, and hoped you would forgive my absence. It’s unavoidable . . . but now I think the timing is better than I had thought.’
    ‘Oh,’ Jane blurted out, and then stopped, confused. ‘Where are
you
going?’
    ‘Mainland Europe,’ he purred, and she guessed that he didn’t intend to get any more specific about that. ‘But I had also been thinking of making a stop in London, and suddenly that seems like a much more appealing prospect. So,’ he finished in a businesslike tone that caught her off-guard, ‘we will take my plane. The pilot is on notice for five o’clock, which gives us plenty of time for brunch.’
    Jane blinked.
Well
that
happened fast.
‘I couldn’t possibly impose,’ she began, knowing as she did that protests would be useless.
    ‘Nonsense,’ he told her, just as she had expected, and then he reached over and held her chin in his fingers, forcing it up gently until she met his eyes. His pupils were dilated, and she felt uneasily as if she might fall in. ‘I will not take no for an answer.’
    ‘Well, then,’ Jane said slowly, licking her lips involuntarily. ‘I guess the answer is yes.’
    He smiled wider then and raised his still-full glass in a toast. As she clinked hers against it, her head was racing with excuses. She opened her mouth to backpedal, but before she could speak, he covered it with his own. Her objections slipped out of her mind as his kisses grew more insistent, more demanding.
    He