when she saw him heading up the steps from the beach, moving fast, the phone still pressed his ears.
‘I agree. I can’t see a way round it. Okay. Thanks, Mike. We’ll speak on the flight.’
Striding past her into the room, he tossed his phone onto one of the sofas. His jaw was tense, the skin of his face stretched taut across his cheekbones and, her heart hammering against her ribs, she stood in silence, feeling invisible, extraneous, frozen out.
‘Is everything okay?’
He turned and stared at her blankly, almost as if he didn’t know who she was, and then, frowning, he shook his head. ‘No, it’s not.’ His eyes narrowed and he ran his hand over his jawline. ‘But it’s my own fault. This is what happens when I go off-grid.’
‘What’s happened?’
The air around him seemed to vibrate with tension.
‘There’s a problem in Dubai. For some incomprehensible reason they’ve been using single-use bottles out there and I need them replaced.’
Was that all? She felt a rush of relief. ‘It’s obviously just a mistake. Surely all you have to do is get someone to replace them?’
He stared at her impatiently.
‘This isn’t just about replacing bottles, Teddie. Leonidas hotels and resorts are supposed to be eco-friendly. If this gets out it’s going to look like I’m greenwashing my business, and I can’t have publicity like that—particularly when I’m about to float the company.’
Glancing down at his swim-shorts, he grimaced.
‘I need to change,’ he muttered and, turning, he began walking purposefully towards the stairs.
Change? She followed him, feeling slightly off balance.
‘Are we going somewhere?’
He stopped, one foot on the first step, and to her agitated mind, he looked ominously like a sprinter waiting for the starter gun to be fired.
‘Not we.’ Turning, he locked his eyes with hers.
‘I don’t—’
‘You don’t need to go anywhere.’
Finishing her sentence, he smiled politely and she had a rush of déjà-vu—a familiar unsettling sensation of being demoted to ‘any other business’.
‘Look, this shouldn’t take more than a couple of days,’ he said calmly. ‘Melina and Dinos will take care of you while I’m away.’
She felt a head-rush, his words pulling the blood away from her heart.
‘What? You’re going to Dubai?’ Her legs felt flimsy suddenly, and she reached out to grip the bannister. ‘Now? Can’t you send someone else?’
He stared past her, his features hard and closed. He could see the confusion in her eyes, and the disappointment in her clenched fists, and it hurt knowing that he was the cause, but he couldn’t risk handing this over to someone else.
‘Of course not. I need to be on the ground. I’ll need to talk to the staff, and if anything’s leaked out then I’ll need to talk to the media. Otherwise it’ll look as though I don’t care about the promises I make.’
‘Promises?’
Her grip against the bannister tightened. There was an ache inside her chest, cold and dark and heavy, spreading like an ink stain. ‘What about the promises you made to me?’ she heard herself saying.
His eyes didn’t so much as flicker. ‘Teddie, this is important. Otherwise—’
She cut him off. ‘You said I was important to you,’ she said flatly. ‘You promised me that this time it was going to be good between us. You promised that you’d be at the opening of the Castine. In the front row.’
He frowned. ‘And I will be—’