Page 14

He looked up at the flashy advert, a wry smile on his lips. ‘Aiden’s image carries more appeal.’

‘There must be plenty of brands out there wanting to lean into your bad boy rep.’

He flicked her a look that had the heat creeping into her cheeks. Thank God it was cold and her upturned collar hid half of her face. Next time she’d wear a scarf too!

‘Some.’

‘But you don’t do it.’

‘No.’

‘Why is that?’

He shrugged. ‘Just not my scene.’

She knew there was more to that answer. She also knew he wasn’t about to give it.

‘I’m going to need one for the article, if that’s okay?’

‘What? A picture?’

‘Yes.’

‘I said I’d give you what you need, didn’t I?’

‘You did.’ She gave him a small smile. ‘Thank you.’

He nodded, taking a few more strides. ‘So your mom… she sounds like a pretty cool lady?’

She smiled. ‘Yeah, she is. Too cool.’

‘How can someone be too cool?’

‘Someone who trusts too readily, loves too readily…’

‘Gets burned many times over?’

‘Yup. You’d think she’d learn but no, Mum’s all too willing to give people the benefit of the doubt. Men especially. I used to wonder whether she was in love with the idea of falling in love, rather than the men themselves.’

‘There’ve been a few then?’

‘Oh yeah, my mother seemed to make it her mission in life to find us a replacement for my father. The sooner they could move in the better, too.’

‘That can’t have been easy for you growing up.’

She shrugged. ‘It kind of went in cycles.’

‘Cycles?’

‘A happy few weeks, maybe a few months if I was lucky, of her falling head over heels. And then the misery of her falling apart when they inevitably walked away.’

‘What happened with your father? How come you don’t see him?’

She hesitated, worrying over what she was saying and realising she needn’t. What her father had put her through, put her mother through, it was child’s play compared to his past. Not that he’d told her any of it himself yet. But if she shared, maybe he would. Eventually.

‘He was a friend of my grandfather’s, a married man who gave a lot of this’ – she chatted with her fingers – ‘sweet talked his way in, promised her the world and got her pregnant. To this day, my grandparents don’t know he’s my father, and we don’t want them to know. They’ll only blame themselves.’

‘Jesus, she was so young. How long were they together before you…?’

‘A year. No laws were broken, only hearts. Well, one heart. He doesn’t have one.’

‘Shit.’ Blake shook his head. ‘And he was in your life for seven years, but no one knew…?’

She shrugged. ‘In my life is probably an overstatement. He was around, at family functions and he’d visit for the odd weekend under the pretence of travelling with work . It’s amazing how easily one can hide a second family when they have the money, the means and the motivation.’

‘What changed?’

‘His wife found out. Not about me, but about Mum. And things spiralled from there… It wasn’t a fun alternate reality for him any more.’

‘A fun alternate reality?’

‘Oh yeah, that’s exactly what Mum was. Twenty years his wife’s junior with a child who was so desperate to make him stay longer I doted on his every word.

Made him feel like super dad. Then one day his wife turned up on the doorstep and Mum hid me in my room, but I could hear everything. She was a screaming mess…’

And it was Chase’s wife Astrid now saw when she reimagined that scene. Knowing she’d done the same thing to another woman. Didn’t matter that she hadn’t known, she’d still done it.

‘Mum finally saw him for the man that he was, a heartless liar who didn’t have the balls to sort his life out.

So she ended it. For a time, he pretended to care about me, to want to see me but it was just a ruse to see Mum.

And when he realised it was over, he stopped calling and she gave up making excuses for him.

She realised it was far healthier for me not to know him at all, than to know the douchebag that he truly was. ’

‘And he let you go, just like that?’

‘You missed my point; he didn’t want me. He wanted her. She was young and beautiful. A total ego boost and a break from the mundane – a wife, three children, and a dog.’

His curse was lost on the wind now lashing sleet at their faces and making further conversation impossible as they walked the rest of the way.

‘Well, this is me…’ She paused beneath the covered entryway to her uncle’s building, and he gave a low whistle.

‘Nice place.’

‘It’s my uncle’s.’

‘Is he home?’

‘No. He splits most of his time between Barbados and the UK.’

‘Lucky man. Any chance you’re going to invite me in for a nightcap?’

‘If I thought you were asking for just a drink, maybe.’

‘Who says I’m not?’

‘Your eyes.’

He flashed a dimple with a lopsided grin. ‘I can see I’m going to have to watch what they do around you.’

She laughed. ‘You’re incorrigible.’

‘So they say.’

‘Goodnight, Fury.’ She turned to walk away and paused, looking back over her shoulder. Could she ask him? Dare she?

‘Blake…?’

His eyes lit up. ‘Yes?’

‘What did you mean, earlier?’

He frowned. ‘Earlier? You’ll have to be a little more specific.’

‘When you said you were onto me. What did you mean?’

He paused for a beat and she held her breath. Maybe she shouldn’t have asked him. Maybe she should’ve let it go and hoped that he would too. Maybe?—

‘I meant…’

He stepped forward, the devilish glint in his gaze stealing all thought, save one – you definitely shouldn’t have asked!

‘…you dress like you’re all about business – the hair, the suit, the shoes.’

His gaze swept over her, more effective than any central heating.

‘But really, you’re all about the fire. The fire, the fun, and the?—’

‘If you say fornication…’

He chuckled low and slow. ‘That too.’

She shook her head, suppressed a dizzied laugh of her own. ‘You don’t know me.’

‘No. And you don’t know me either. But I’m enjoying unravelling the mystery of you.’

‘There’s no mystery,’ she was quick to say. Too quick.

‘I’ll be the judge of that. Goodnight, Twinkle Toes.’ He leaned in and swept a kiss to her cheek, his stubble tantalisingly rough. ‘Sweet dreams.’

And then he was gone, leaving her on a cloud of his aftershave and pheromones… and God, did she just sigh ?

She shook her head and stomped into the foyer, stomped into the lift, stomped into her uncle’s apartment, right up to her bed and face planted.

She. Was. Doomed!

* * *

Blake let himself into his apartment and tossed his wallet onto the console table. Catching his reflection in the mirror above, he shook his head. What the hell was that goofy smile about?

‘Didn’t trust herself alone with you, huh?’

Aiden appeared in the hallway, a glass of water in hand.

‘What can I say?’ He shucked his jacket. ‘The girl’s got it bad.’

His brother shook his head, but Blake wasn’t interested in being humbled by his big bro.

Grin still fixed, he swept past him into the open-plan living space.

The glittering New York cityscape through the floor-to-ceiling glass greeted him, perfectly set off by the dark room with its black leather furnishings, dark wood and polished concrete floors, accent lighting set to low.

Sometimes he still had to pinch himself that this was how they lived now.

‘Ever the humble one, aren’t you?’ Aiden said, following him into the room as he set the sound system going. The dulcet tone of Tracy Chapman’s ‘Fast Car’ hitting the spot .

‘You’re just pissed you had to leave early.’

‘Yeah, about that…’

Blake headed to the bar and poured himself a bourbon. ‘What about it?’

‘Got something you wanna tell me?’

‘No, don’t think I do.’

Aiden sipped his water. ‘So that’s how you want to play it?’

‘Play it?’

‘Astrid?’

Blake threw back his drink. ‘You want me to play nice with her, I’m playing nice. And now I’m off to bed.’

Aiden watched him go, muttering under his breath, ‘Playing dirty more like.’

‘I heard that…’

‘You were supposed to.’

And Blake just chuckled, Chapman’s lyrics about being someone with nothing to prove melding with his determination to show the world exactly that…