Destiny Unleashed by Sherryl Woods

reassured him smoothly. “I was just hoping that there are more of those delicious crab puffs. People are raving about them.”
    “There are more in the oven. They’ll be out in a few minutes,” he promised.
    “Wonderful,” she said. “I’ll tell the others.”
    She brushed past William, anxious to make her escape from his disconcerting presence, but he caught her hand.
    “I’d like to see you again, Destiny. Perhaps we can have dinner.”
    “I’ve just arrived and my schedule is packed until Christmas,” she told him. Her plan to keep him close now struck her as far too dangerous. Arm’s length was better, after all.
    “Will your family be joining you then, or will you fly home?” he asked.
    “Neither. I intend to put my feet up and catch mybreath over the holidays, so that I can hit the ground running after the first of the year. I’ve barely settled in and there are a million things to do to make this place my own.”
    “Then we’ll see each other during the holidays,” he said. “I’ll be in touch to arrange it.”
    She regarded him curiously. “Why, William? Why, after all this time, would you want to see me again?”
    “We’re old friends,” he said. “At least I like to think we are.”
    “We were much more than friends, William. That’s the problem. What we had is not something that can be recaptured. Nor is it something I really want to reminisce about. In case you’ve forgotten, it ended rather badly.”
    “Whose fault was that?” he asked, a surprising edge in his voice.
    “I can’t believe you need to ask,” Destiny said tightly.
    He searched her face, then sighed. “Then we’ll have a fresh start,” he said.
    She shook her head. “That’s not possible, either. Some things are impossible to forget.”
    His expression brightened a bit then. “Then you do remember,” he said quietly.
    Destiny steeled herself and looked directly into his eyes. “That you abandoned me when I needed you most, that you’ve systematically gone after my family? Yes, William, I remember. I remember all too clearly.”
    She left the kitchen then, leaving him staring after her, the waiters dodging him with their trays of food. It was unfortunate that the servers were very agile. Atthat moment, she wouldn’t have minded seeing William covered with seafood dip and crackers. In fact, if she hadn’t been trying very hard to make a dignified impression tonight, she might have tossed them at him herself.
    It was beyond annoying that the man thought he could waltz into her party, say a few sweet words and charm her right back into his bed. There was little question in her mind that that had been his intention. Either he had a very high opinion of himself or a very low opinion of her. Maybe a combination of the two.
    Okay, maybe it was a tiny bit flattering. Despite her age, there were still many men who regarded her with evident fascination, but she’d grown increasingly cynical about their interest. Many were far more intrigued by the Carlton name and wealth than by her. But there had been real heat in William’s eyes, the kind with which she had once been intimately familiar. To her discredit, for a moment, she’d let herself revel in it, allowed herself to feel like a desirable woman.
    But if those men back home had ulterior motives, how could she doubt that William’s motives were equally impure? No, she simply could not permit herself to be distracted for a second from her suspicions about him and the harm he meant to do to her family.
    Besides, she hadn’t come to London to have herself a midlife fling, as attractive and exciting as the possibility might be. She’d come here to prove to herself that she had the talent and ingenuity it took to be a powerful businesswoman in her own right. That was her mission, and she couldn’t lose sight of it, certainly not with the real game just beginning.

6
    D estiny had changed. William had recognized it the moment he’d looked into her eyes and seen