Page 152 of Kiss Heaven Goodbye

Back at the hotel, Sasha pretended to hesitate when he asked her for a drink. They took the elevator up to the tenth floor bar, overlooking the city, packed with businessmen and blondes wearing jewels as big as ice cubes.

‘Bloody hell, the drinks are expensive,’ said Josh, flipping through the menu.

‘I didn’t realise you were looking for a cheap date,’ said Sasha.

‘Just social observation. Down the street you can get vodka for fifty roubles.’

‘The Russian way. Everything is either very cheap or very expensive. They’re still caught between communism and capitalism.’

They slipped into easy conversation, swapping stories about their liv

es and people they knew in common. Josh was easy-going and fun, ‘the only way you can deal with such a stressful job’, he reasoned. It felt like a long time since Sasha had really laughed, and not talked about business, just fun throwaway things like people, parties and gossip. She loved that they were in such an exotic, alien environment and yet she could feel so familiar and relaxed with this stranger.

‘How do you think it went tonight?’ said Josh, swirling the vodka around the bottom of his glass.

‘Very well,’ said Sasha. ‘Which is a relief, as Rivera’s investors were divided over whether we should even have the party. They were worried we might devalue the brand if we were too aligned with new Russian money. It’s preposterous! I mean, where does that logic lead? We don’t sell to the Chinese because of their human rights track record?’

He held his hands up and laughed. ‘OK, OK, I’m on your side. Maybe we shouldn’t talk about business.’

‘Sorry.’ Sasha winced. ‘Was I ranting?’

He held up his thumb and forefinger. ‘Just a little.’

They sipped their drinks and fell into an amiable silence.

‘Hey, you know I have seen you before,’ he said after a pause. ‘At that party at Somerset House recently. I was going to come to speak to you but someone told me not to bother.’

‘Really? Why?’

‘They told me you batted for the other team.’

‘No!’ she gasped, truly amazed.

‘They said you never have a boyfriend.’

She drew herself up in the chair. ‘What a ridiculous thing to say, just because I don’t flaunt my love life all over the papers. Actually I dated my finance director for four years. Then there was someone else . . .’ She hesitated. ‘Someone I shouldn’t have been seeing.’

‘What happened? Wife find out?’

‘He died,’ she said, knocking back her vodka.

‘I’m sorry.’ He put his hand over hers and she felt her anger simmer down. She glanced up and he was looking at her with his Paul Newman eyes.

‘I’ll walk you back to your room,’ he said, signing the bill. ‘You never know who might be lurking behind the plants.’

They rode the lift down in silence and stopped outside her room. As she reached into her clutch for her key-card, he took her face in his hands and kissed her. He tasted sweet and sour, the vodka and his lips, and suddenly she wanted him. She popped the door open and, without turning on the light, he pushed her up against the wall, his mouth hot on hers, desire running from her navel to her groin. Then, just as suddenly, she pulled away from him.

‘What’s the matter?’ he whispered.

‘It’s ... it’s just been a while, that’s all,’ she said honestly. ‘Bit nervous.’

‘You’re kidding me?’ he said, chuckling.

It was true. There had been nobody since Robert, and she felt so closed off, so resistant to the desire that was searing round her body, she felt a physical ache as he touched her.

‘We’ll take it slowly,’ he whispered, sliding his hand behind her, unzipping her dress.‘You just relax. I’m going to remind you exactly what you’ve been missing.’

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