Page 84 of Filthy Rich Temptation

‘Much like her mother,’ I say thickly. ‘It’s so beautiful here… I can’t believe you rarely visit.’

He looks out towards the sea with me, a small smile playing about his lips.

‘Now you sound likemymother.’

‘It was Isla who dropped you in it. She thinks it’s a travesty that the place sits empty much of the time.’

‘It doesn’t sit empty. She lives here.’

‘I think her point was more that you don’t take time out to enjoy it. Like your mother, she probably worries that you work too hard and play too little.’

It’s what I think too, but he promised not to judge me when it came to my life, and I owe him the same. Doesn’t mean I can’t pass on the message, though… and tease him a little along the way.

‘Though if you ask me, it does feel mighty cruel on the rest of us, owning a place like this and not using it. If it were mine, I’d be here all the time.’

He grins down at me. ‘Is that so?’

Turns out, the only person I’m teasing is myself. The picture paints itself so vividly – me, him, Lottie, here. Not just now, but…

I take a swig of wine, force it through my tightened throat. ‘Who wouldn’t.’

‘I can think of a few.’

‘Axel?’

He nods. ‘Too quiet.’

‘Taylor?’

He smiles. ‘She’d manage a short stint, I reckon.’

‘Katie?’

He coughs mid-sip of his wine. ‘How did you—Taylor?’

‘She may have let slip you had a fiancée…’ I say it with all good humour, because it is. I shouldn’t care that he has a past. Especially when I have my own… as questionable as mine is. And he’s a thirty-seven-year-old guy who looks like he does, lives the life he does; I’d be more concerned if he didn’t have one.

No, what does concern me is that no one has stuck. That according to Taylor, he’s unable to share his life with another. And Lottie and I are living proof that’s not true. And the fact that he owns a place as incredible as this and doesn’t use it…

‘I never brought Katie here.’

‘But you did own it when she was around?’ And to be engaged, she must have been around long enough; did he really come here thatlittle?

He nods. ‘I bought it just before dad died.’ His gaze drifts to the view as he raises his wine glass to the cove. ‘There’s a small holiday cottage in the grounds, tucked away just down there. It’s where my parents brought me every summer as a kid. When it came on the market, I figured, why not? The cottage was supposed to be a retirement gift to them both…’

‘Oh, Theo.’ My heart breaks. ‘You never said anything about this place back then.’

He told me of his guilt. Of how much he missed his father and wished he’d been around more, wished for another family dinner, a conversation, just time. But this… to miss gifting him this.

‘It wasn’t much to write home about in those days. The cottage was in dire need of renovation and this place was a derelict outbuilding. I forgot about it all for a long time after Dad… Then a few years ago, the farm next door got in touch asking to buy the land and it gave me the kick I needed to sort it out. I paid a team to come in and refurb the cottage for Mum, redesign this place for me. I figured one day, I’d have the time to come and enjoy it.’

‘I bet your mum loves it,’ I say softly.

His eyes flicker over the horizon as he gives the faintest of smiles. ‘Yeah, she does…’ Then he clears his throat as his mouth quirks up. ‘Katie, though, she was more your cocktails on the Côte d’Azur type than a glass of wine in Wales.’

‘Your words or…?’

‘I think hers were that it lacked in the essentials.’