Modern Romance February Books 5-8. Jane Porter
sooner she could return home, and so, heart pounding, she slipped through the revolving doors into the cool smoked glass interior of the Leonidas Holdings’ headquarters.
Five minutes later she was riding up in an elevator, only just managing to force her mouth into a stiff smile as the doors opened.
‘Ms Taylor.’ Smiling politely, a young male assistant stepped forward. ‘If you’d like to come with me, Mr Leonidas’ office is this way.’
But not Mr Leonidas, Teddie discovered as the assistant showed her into the empty office. She wondered if Aristo had absented himself on purpose. Probably, she decided. No doubt he was trying to psyche her out by making her wait, by giving her a glimpse of his personal fiefdom.
She glanced slowly around the room, her narrowed gaze taking in the dazzling panoramic views of New York, the Bauhaus furniture and the huge abstract painting that hung behind his desk.
‘Sorry to keep you waiting.’
She turned, her body tensing automatically as Aristo strolled into the room, his dark eyes sweeping assessingly over her black cigarette trousers, burgundy silk shirt and towering stiletto heels.
He stopped in front of her and she felt her stomach flip over. He’d taken off his jacket, and the sleeves of his cornflower-blue shirt were rolled up, the collar loosened. Her eyes darted involuntarily between the triangle of golden skin at the base of his neck and the fine dark hair on his forearms.
Her breath pedalled inside her chest. He looked both invincible and stupidly sexy, and any hope she’d had that she might have miraculously developed an immunity to him in the intervening hours since she’d seen him evaporated like early-morning mist. Even just being in the same space as him was sending her body haywire, her chest constricting and a prickling heat spreading like a forest fire over her skin.
If Aristo was feeling as uncomfortable as she was, he wasn’t showing it. But then in the six months of their marriage she’d never really known what he was thinking—she might be a mistress of illusion on stage, but he was a master at disguising his feelings. Her lips tightened. Although that, of course, presupposed that he had any.
‘It’s fine,’ she said stiffly. ‘I know you’re a busy man.’
His gaze hovered over her face and she cursed herself silently, for she knew what he was thinking.
Aristo’s obsession with work had quickly become an issue for her. The long hours he’d spent at the office and his single-minded focus on building his business had slowly but inevitably excluded her from his life. Not that either of them had done much to stop it eroding their marriage. For Aristo it had only ever been her problem, and she had found it impossible to tell him the truth. That she wanted the man who had craved her, who had been so hungry to share her life that he hadn’t been willing to wait.
She swallowed, pushing back against the sudden swell of misery spreading through her. It was her own fault. She should have known what to expect when he’d cut their honeymoon short to fly halfway across the world to buy a resort. But of course when he’d pulled her into his arms and told her it was a one-off she’d believed him. She’d wanted to believe him, and to believe that she hadn’t just made the biggest mistake of her life.
Only, her brief doomed marriage was not what she wanted to talk about now. They’d moved way past the point where there was even a ‘them’ to discuss. As far as she was concerned, the less she had to do with him the better, and after this meeting hopefully there would be no reason for her to see him except briefly and occasionally.
Watching the conflicting emotions flitting across his ex-wife’s face, Aristo felt a ripple of frustration. She had always been so unsupportive of his career, when all he’d been trying to do was build a life for her, for them.
Glancing round his office, he steadied his breathing. Surely now she could understand what he’d been trying to do? But, either way, he wasn’t going to let it get in the way of what really mattered.
He shrugged. ‘Very busy,’ he said softly. ‘But let’s not get distracted. I’m sure you didn’t come here to talk about my work.’
She gave him a small, tight smile. ‘We need to make arrangements. Something stable and uncomplicated. Because what’s most important to me is that George feels happy and safe.’
He nodded. ‘And I want that too.’ Gesturing towards a cluster of easy chairs and a sofa grouped in front of the windows, he smiled slowly. ‘So, why don’t we sit down and talk about how we can make that happen?’
Teddie gazed at him warily. So far it was all going better than she’d expected. Her heartbeat scuttled forward. Only, it wasn’t fair of him to smile like that. It would be so much easier for her to keep a clear head if he was cold and dismissive. When he smiled that extraordinary smile it was difficult to think straight. Difficult to think about anything other than that beautiful mouth.
Feeling his dark gaze, she ignored both his hand and the sudden rapid pounding of her heart and nodded, then walked as casually as she could manage across the room.
She purposely avoided the sofa and sat down in one of the chairs, but regretted her decision almost immediately as, dropping down into the chair closest to hers, he stretched out his long, muscular legs and began to speak.
‘Look, Teddie, before we start I have something I need to say to you.’
‘So say it.’ She had been aiming to sound casual, offhand. Instead, though, her voice sounded stiff and unnatural.
His eyes fixed on hers. ‘I know this can’t be easy, having me back in your life and in George’s life. But I’m going to try to make it as painless and unproblematic as possible for both of us. All I want is to be a good father.’
She held his gaze. It was on the tip of her tongue to tell him that he wasn’t back in her life. But to be fair he was trying to meet her halfway, and it seemed churlish to nit-pick over his choice of words.
Glancing away to the skyline, she shrugged. ‘I hope so. That’s why I’m here.’
It was true, and she wanted to believe Aristo, to take his words at face-value—only after everything he’d said and done in the past it was just so hard to trust him. But if this was going to work, for her son’s sake, she was going to have to put the past behind her and concentrate on the present.
She took a quick, steadying breath and said quickly, ‘I know it probably doesn’t seem like it to you, but I really do want George to get to know you.’
The air seemed to still, like a held breath, and, looking up, she found Aristo watching her so steadily and intently that for a moment she forgot where she was. Suddenly the huge office seemed as though it had shrunk, and his body seemed way too close to hers.
Before she could stop herself she shifted in her seat, drawing her legs in tighter and then regretting it immediately as his eyes dropped to her throat, taking in the jerkiness of her pulse.
‘So what do you suggest?’
It was a straightforward enough question, and his expression was blandly innocent, but something in his eyes made her body tense, her muscles popping and suddenly primed for flight as she quickly went through the options she’d rehearsed on her journey to his office.
‘I thought perhaps we could meet in a park,’ she said hopefully. ‘George loves swings, and we have a nice park just down the street.’
She felt her pulse begin to hopscotch forward as slowly he shook his head.
‘I was thinking of something more than just a trip to the swings. How about you bring George to the apartment for a weekend? That way we’ll have more time, and plenty of space, and of course there’s the pool.’ He raised his dark gaze to hers. ‘You have taught him to swim?’
She glared at him. ‘Yes, of course I have. But—’
‘Excellent, so we’re agreed.’ His smile widened but she started to shake her head.