She glanced at the time. She could drop George off at Elliot’s and then go on into Manhattan.
‘Shall we say about five?’
‘I look forward to it,’ he said softly.
* * *
At exactly five o’clock she was staring up at a tall, gleaming tower as all around her crowds of tourists chatted and laughed—no doubt on their way to see the Empire State Building or some other world-famous landmark.
If only she was a tourist too, enjoying a well-earned holiday, instead of having to face her clever, calculating ex-husband. But the sooner she faced Aristo the 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.’