A good point. ‘Why not?’
‘It’s been a turbulent time.’
‘Your father’s illness?’
He hesitated and sympathy tugged at her heart.
‘You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.’
‘I would if I could,’ he said, looking utterly, hopelessly tortured.
‘But you can’t so you shan’t?’
‘Something like that.’
‘Too raw?’
He nodded and his eyes filled with bleakness. ‘Shattering. In so many ways.’
Overwhelmed with the need to comfort him, to ease his torment in any way she could, Georgie shifted and rolled him onto his back, sliding her hand down the hard planes of his body and watching as the distress in his expression slowly disappeared.
‘What happened to needing to know that Josh is OK?’ he said, his voice thick with growing desire.
‘We’ll definitely call,’ she said, giving him a slow smile. ‘But later.’
* * *
It was quite a bit later when they finally made that call. Shortly afterwards, with great reluctance, Finn dragged himself out of bed and headed off for a meeting with the hotel management, which he had a feeling was going to be a challenge, when all he could think of was Georgie and how she continued to blow his mind.
She might not know who she was, but he did, and he was in awe. He’d never met anyone so insanely tough yet so unbelievably soft. So doggedly determined yet at times so achingly vulnerable. So generous and giving and fearless. Not of the struggles she’d had—those merited every bit of fear she’d felt—but of facing up to them. The way she was able to work through hugely difficult, personal, emotional topics and talk about them was staggering.
How did she do that? he wondered as he stepped into the lift and hit the ground floor button. Where did she find the strength to acknowledge her problems and confront them, her shoulders back and head high? He’d never figured out how to achieve any of that. Give him a complex strategic issue and he was all over it. Impossible deals and intransigent planning departments, no problem. A massive upheaval to his personal life, however, with all the tumultuous emotions that came with it, and he fell apart. After everything Georgie had told him about her experiences in hospital, he couldn’t even talk about how he felt about Jim’s death. He didn’t know where to start.
Maybe he ought to ask her for tips. Maybe he ought to open up to her. A little. Because he might as well admit it, he thought, striding through Reception and walking into the meeting room, where a dozen of his staff shot to their feet, it wasn’t just sex that had made his life less tense and stressful and somehow better over the last couple of weeks. It was her.
CHAPTER TEN
GEORGIE WHILED AWAY the hours Finn was out mostly by wafting around the suite and reflecting on her Parisian adventure so far, starting with the sex, which had surpassed her wildest expectations, and she’d had a fair few. The night they’d met had been scorching, but now... Well, now, in addition to the red-hot physical chemistry, there was knowing and feeling and, dare she say it, liking.
What would have happened if he had taken her number that morning? she wondered as she lathered up in the shower and tingled at the memory of Finn’s hands on her body. Would they have dated? Would he have somehow noticed what she’d failed to? Could her pregnancy have been as it should have been? It was a pointless exercise if ever there was one, but that didn’t stop her imagination playing out the various scenarios or her heart squeezing in response.
Conversely, what if she hadn’t found him the evening she’d gone looking for him? She liked to think that she’d have muddled through somehow and that she and Josh would have been all right, but life was so much richer, so much brighter for having Finn in it.
Reliving the harrowing details of her stay in hospital had been agonisingly difficult, but ultimately she was glad she’d told him everything. She had no secrets left now and nothing more to hide, and, while she’d taken a massive risk and made herself incredibly vulnerable, she had no doubt that he’d take care of what she’d given him. Not only was he the sexiest man she’d ever met, he was also the most patient and the most understanding.
And then there were the glimpses of his soul that she caught through the tiny cracks that appeared in his armour from time to time. Beneath his brusque and aloof exterior lay a seething mass of emotion, she was sure. The issues he clearly had surrounding the death of his father made her heart wrench every time she recalled how desolate and devastated he’d looked, lying there next to her.
He was everything she could possibly ask for in a co-parent or a lover yet the things she found most attractive about him had nothing to do with Josh or his devastating looks and wicked bedroom skills and everything about who he fundamentally was. He took his responsibilities seriously. His support was steadfast. She had no doubt she would always be able to depend on him.
Little wonder, then, that she was beginning to fall for him.
And, as if all that wasn’t enough to make her heart melt like butter over heat, Finn was now feeding her. When he’d returned from his meeting he’d announced that he was taking her out to lunch and told her to hop to it.
It was a glorious spring day so they’d walked, taking in the gardens and the parks and lingering in the Jardin des Tuileries, before being seated on the terrace of the fanciest restaurant she’d ever been to. While a string quartet nearby played something light and uplifting Finn tucked into a plate of seabass and she tri
ed not to devour her delicious seared tuna too greedily.
The weekend was turning out to be as wonderful and romantic as Georgie had imagined, maybe even more so, and she was so overwhelmed by it that she thought she’d best stick to business before she did something unwise like tell him how she was beginning to feel about him.