Page 35 of The Christmas Holiday
‘Grumpy arse. You shouldn’t stay out all night if you can’t handle the next morning.Should he, darling?’
Sandeep held up his hands. ‘I’d prefer not to get drawn into this, thanks all the same.’
‘Oh, typical. All boys together.’
Hunter did a comical, double thumbs-up to Sandeep and dropped him in it further. Sandy, grinning, shook his head at Hunter then wrapped his arm around Olivia and cuddled her into him, whispering something as he did so that brought a smile toher face.
I sat back in the soft leather of the limo and watched as the city gradually grew smaller and the landscape changed as we finally left it behind entirely. Hunter’s energy drink seemed to have kicked in and he was soon busy doing something on his laptop. I turned back to the window, not wanting to miss a thing.
Traffic, which included mechanical, human and animal, had delayedus somewhat on the journey, although I dreaded to think how long Hunter would have taken if he really had got on that bus. As it was, we arrived just in time for an early afternoon tea. An excited ‘Ooh’ slipped out of me as we were informed of this.
‘Yeah. Don’t want to miss that,’ Hunter teased.
‘Oh, be quiet. I’m pretty sure that was your stomach I heard grumbling about half an hourago and, unless your entire personality has changed, you’ve never met a cake you didn’t like.’
He considered me for a moment. ‘You know, you can be quite annoying at times. Especially when you’re right.’
‘Thanks.’
‘It wasn’t really a compliment.’
I shrugged. ‘Don’t care. See you at afternoon tea!’ I winked, and smiled my thanks at the doorman as he swung open the gold-edged glassdoor for me to enter the cool interior of the hotel.
Having checked in and been shown to our rooms, we each took the time to have a quick shower and change to revive ourselves from the journey and be ready to head out to the Taj later. We then met downstairs again, ready for the promised afternoon tea. Hunter was last in and had changed into a pale-blue shirt, which showed up his tan and contrastedwith his dark hair, and a pair of smart but still very Hunter-ish sand-coloured cargo trousers. He was hard not to notice, and in turn it was hard not to notice that. Several female heads swivelled and watched his entrance, following him all the way to our table. He certainly looked more awake than he had earlier – which was surprising bearing in mind I’d been waiting for his caffeine crash– and he’d also now had a shave. I got a waft of aftershave as he took his seat next to me. It wasn’t the one he used to wear, but it was kind of delicious. I pulled my concentration away and focused on something else delicious – that being the two cake stands now placed in between us on the table, each one full of perfect finger sandwiches, and exquisite miniature pastries and cakes. Silver teapotswere brought and we were then each poured the perfect Assam tea.
‘Wait!’ Hunter called as three sets of hands reached out to dive in. We all froze. ‘I need to get a shot of this.’ He got up, moved a couple of times and fired off a series of shots. ‘OK. Go ahead.’ He flapped his hand and we resumed our positions.
‘So good!’ I said, my eyes closing as I finished a pistachio macaroon thatmelted perfectly in my mouth.
‘Aren’t they delicious?’ Liv said, snagging another.
‘Mmmm.’ My eyes flew open as I heard a camera shutter trip.
Hunter was grinning.
‘What did you just do?’
He gave an innocent shake of his head, and I narrowed my eyes at him. Liv and Sandeep were laughing.
‘Let me see that.’
Hunter glanced down at the screen. ‘Ummm… probably not.’
‘Give it to me.’ I leant over but he held the camera out and away from me.
‘Fine. Have it your way.’
‘I will,’ he grinned, showing the picture to Liv and Sandy instead. ‘What do you think? All sorts of market possibilities, I’m sure.’
Liv pulled a face, and I could see her trying not to laugh. Sandy had no such qualms and laughed heartily.
‘Oh ha bloody ha. Blimey. A girl can’teven enjoy a cake in peace without you shoving a camera up her nose.’
Hunter, still grinning, looked at the screen on his camera again. ‘You certainly look like you’re enjoying something.’
I glared at him for a moment then grabbed another cake. ‘Anyway, I know for a fact you can’t use it as I would have to sign a release form, which I’m pretty sure I’m not going to do judging by all ofyour reactions.’ I realised I was using my angel cake slice as a pointer and put it down before I took someone’s eye out.
‘That would indeed be an excellent point, assuming you hadn’t already signed said release before you left. Jeremy sent me a copy.’
