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poised on her wedding day and won’t need any help from anyone else.’
    Erin shot him a grateful look too.
    ‘Maybe not,’ Deena said. ‘But this is the most important day in our lives, Tavish. I don’t want anything to spoil it.’
    ‘It’s pretty important to us, too,’ Jay said quickly.
    Deena paused on the crest ofthe rustic bridge and looked over her elegant shoulder. ‘Of course it is, darling. But you, obviously more than Erin, should be aware of just how important family honour and tradition is. The entire family is open to scrutiny at a wedding. We’re all on show. Which is why I think it’s high time I found outexactly what you’ve got planned, before we lose all credibility.’

Chapter Five

    ‘Jay’s booked the table over there by the window,’ Erin said excitedly, as they walked into the Swan’s beautiful dining room. ‘The one with the view across the – Oh! There’s someone sitting there!’
    Erin glared at the stunning woman with the smooth, dark-honey skin, large perfectly made-up dark eyes and layered chocolate-brown hair shot through with auburn highlights feathered round a traffic-stoppingly beautiful, high-cheekboned face who was browsing the menu.
    ‘The cheek of her! We’ll have to ask her to move and–’
    The rest of Erin’s sentence was lost in a shout of amazement from Jay, and laughter from Deena and Tavish, as the woman abandoned the menu, uncurled herself and flew elegantly across the dining room on killer heels.
    ‘Jay!’
    ‘Nalisha!’
    Erin frowned in complete disbeliefas the tall, slender woman, who looked as if she’d just sashayed from the pages of some exclusive glossy fashion magazine, squealed with delight and entwined her arms round Jay’s neck and kissed him.
    A lot.
    ‘What the …?’ Erin shook her head.
    ‘Our lovely surprise, darling,’ Deena gurgled happily. ‘Nalisha’s one of Jay’s oldest friends.’
    Erin blinked. Was she? Really? It was news to her. She’d never heard of a Nalisha, had she?
    Erin suddenly felt a cold lump of fear grip her heart. So
this
was the big surprise, was it? This was what Deena and Tavish had brought them? The stunningly gorgeous Nalisha.
    Oh, great.
    Instantly knowing she’d really, really have preferred to be surprised by another bejewelled elephant or twenty, Erin tried to smile.
    Her lips didn’t quite make it.
    Which wasn’t surprising, was it? After all, what woman really wants to see some scorching female curled like a second skin round their fiancé?
    Not her, that was for sure.
    And she knew she’d never heard of Nalisha. Ever.
    ‘Erin,’ Jay laughed, his arms still clasped round Nalisha’s slender waist, ‘this is Nalisha. Nalisha – my fiancée, Erin.’
    ‘It’s wonderful to meet you at last.’ The long-legged vision in the short, fitted coffee-coloured lace dress with her arms still entwined round Jay’s neck, beamed. ‘I’ve heard so much about you.’
    And I’ve heard sodall about you, Erin thought, still man-aging to smile. ‘Er – thank you, and it’s lovely to meet you, too.’
    Liar!
    It
might
just have been lovely to meet Nalisha if she’d known she existed and if Nalisha had been some even averagely pretty woman. But
this
? This was definitely
not
lovely on any level.
    And why, again, did she feel so scruffy and grubby? Because, Erin told herself darkly, in comparison to this elegant, glorious vision of perfectly groomed Indian womanhood in a designer outfit that must have cost a fortune, she looked like a chainstore-dressed
child
in her now slightly crumpled summer dress and high street sandals.
    Euueewch …
    Jay managed to extricate himself from the hug, and beamed at his parents. ‘How on earth did you manage this? Last time I heard from Nalisha, she was still working in California and –’
    ‘Sir? Madam?’ The maître d’ hovered beside them. ‘Your table is ready and …’
    ‘Yes, sorry.’ Jay grinned. ‘We can all catch up when we’ve ordered.’
    Nalisha,