The Man Who Broke Hearts. Stephanie Howard
so over the next hour, until coffee, Justin told her about himself. He told her about his own modest upbringing in London and about how he started his first publishing venture with a loan from a wealthy uncle.
‘I owe it all to him,’ he told her, ‘and I’ll always be grateful. I would never have made it without his help.’
‘Oh, I’ll bet you would.’ Tina shook her blonde head at him. ‘It might have taken you a little longer, but I bet you’d have made it.’
For there was one thing she had no doubts about—Justin was one of life’s natural winners.
He didn’t exactly dispute it, but with a serious smile he pointed out, ‘A helping hand at the right time can be a great bonus, however. One must always remember to be grateful for such things.’
The remark, Tina sensed, had not in any way been intended as a reminder of the helping hand he’d given her in her career, and to have expressed her gratitude at that moment would only have embarrassed him. So she said nothing. She would thank him properly when the time was right. Besides, right now she wanted to hear more about him.
She looked into the iron-grey eyes. ‘So, what are your plans for the future? JM Publishing has four successful magazines at the moment, but I get the impression you don’t intend stopping there.’
He smiled. ‘I’d like to expand a bit. Like you, I’m ambitious.’ Then, as she laughed at that, he leaned towards her suddenly and surprised her as he added, his tone suddenly grown serious. ‘But right now it’s the more immediate future I’m thinking of. I’m rather hoping you’ll agree to have dinner with me again tomorrow.’
Tina’s heart had stopped stone-dead. Secretly, she’d been wondering what, if anything, would happen next. I couldn’t bear it, she’d been thinking, if this turned out to be a one-off.
She nodded now with all the restraint she could muster. ‘I’d love to have dinner with you again tomorrow.’
In fact, they spent virtually the entire weekend together. The theatre and dinner on Saturday. Lunch on Sunday, followed by a romantic walk in Hyde Park. Then dinner together at Justin’s sumptuous Kensington flat.
And it was on the Sunday evening, after that candlelit dinner, that Tina knew for certain that she was on the brink of something special. For that was when, for very first time, he kissed her.
Tina had dreamed of that first kiss, but the reality was better.
They were sitting together on the huge, soft sofa, two untouched cups of coffee on the low table before them, and the atmosphere between them was electric. It had been building up all evening. Every smile, every glance, as the evening wore on, had seemed to crackle with promise.
As he had led her to the sofa, Tina had scarcely been breathing. Her heart had felt as big as a football in her chest. It had been a relief to sit down, her legs felt so weak.
He had laid the coffee-cups on the table and now he was watching her, those long-lashed dark eyes of his like molten metal against her skin.
And she was suddenly afraid to meet them. Afraid of what her own eyes would reveal to him. With a darting, nervous movement she reached out to take her coffee-cup.
But her hand never reached it. He caught hold of it in his.
‘No,’ he was saying, ‘there’s something I want to do first.’
Then he was turning her round very gently to face him, and suddenly his eyes were pouring into her as his arm slipped round her waist and he drew her closer to deliver the kiss that had been waiting all evening to happen.
Tina was already hyped up, but at the moment his lips touched hers a jolt of excitement, so huge and so powerful that even in her wildest moments she could never have imagined it, went jackknifing through her, leaving her throbbing and breathless, her senses reeling, her head in a spin.
Never had a kiss been more worth waiting for. Tina clung to him as a bushfire went rampaging through her, melting her bones, sending flames shooting from her skin. Hungrily, she kissed him back, her lips as eager as his.
After a while, the tempest within them abated a little. Wrapped in each other’s arms, they sat together amid the tumbled cushions, quietly, the only sound the furious pounding of their two hearts.
‘You’re a very special girl.’ Justin’s hands caressed her. ‘I hope we’re going to see a very great deal of each other in the future.’
Tina shuddered beneath his touch, loving the cool, masterful touch of him, drinking in the delicious scent of him through hungry nostrils.
‘I hope so too,’ she murmured. ‘I hope so very much.’
He kissed her eyes, her lips, her chin, her forehead, then paused for a moment to press his lips lingeringly against the warm, throbbing pulse in the hollow of her throat.
‘There’s just one thing,’ he murmured softly, glancing up at her. He hesitated for an instant. ‘I think we ought to be discreet.’
Tina had already been thinking that. She nodded and smiled at him. ‘You’re right.’ She had no desire to start tongues wagging around the office. ‘I won’t breathe a word to a soul,’ she agreed.
‘Good girl.’ Justin held her close for a moment. Then he looked down at her, his dark eyes bright with emotion. ‘I think what lies ahead of us is going to be very special indeed.’
It was. The next nine months were the happiest of Tina’s life. Her romance with Justin seemed to go from strength to strength. He was busy a lot of the time and he travelled a great deal, presiding over his growing empire, and there were few more weekends spent entirely together like that first one, though they spent all the time they could together.
When she didn’t see him, Tina pined for him. Being without him was awful. For with every day that passed she was falling more deeply in love with him, with a love that brightened every corner of her life. She was so in love she scarcely cared about Eunice’s ever more frequent tantrums at the office. Justin had declared his love for her. She could take anything in her stride.
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