‘So, was the launch considered to be a success?’ she asked, putting her fork down on her empty plate and taking a sip of crisp chilled Chablis in an effort to appear cool and collected.
‘Yes.’
‘Is anything you do not a success?’
He flashed her a quick smile that set off fireworks in the pit of her stomach. ‘Rarely.’
‘And again, I envy you,’ she said with a sigh.
‘Why?’
‘It feels like a long time since anything I did was successful.’
‘Not from where I’m sitting,’ he said, giving a nod of thanks to the waiter who cleared their table, then sitting back and eyeing her thoughtfully. ‘You know, we’re very similar, you and I.’
She felt her eyebrows shoot up. Seriously? Finn was a put-together billionaire who knew exactly who he was and where he was going. She was still a bit of a mess who knew next to nothing about anything. She could see no similarity whatsoever. ‘Are we?’ she said sceptically. ‘How?’
‘We’re both survivors.’
‘I suppose,’ she said, although she still didn’t really know enough about him to judge.
‘But that’s not all. We’re both determined. Both ambitious. We’ve both come a long way and done it with little outside support.’
Hmm. ‘Well, I might have been all that once upon a time,’ she conceded, wondering whether that might be why she felt such a strong sense of recognition whenever she looked at him. ‘But I’m not sure about now.’
‘You will be again.’
‘Not in the field of law,’ she said, nevertheless warmed by his belief in her. ‘My career in that is pretty much over, I suspect. I was sectioned. I haven’t looked into it but it wouldn’t surprise me if that didn’t disqualify me from practising. And I doubt I’d get a glowing reference from my last company anyway.’
‘Want me to take them on?’
‘Why not?’ she said with a grin.
‘I mean it.’
Her grin faltered and her heart gave a great thump. ‘Would you do that?’
‘All you have to do is say the word and they’re history.’
As if she needed a reminder of his power and influence or another reason to fall a little bit more in love with him. ‘Thank you, but no.’
‘Sure?’
‘Yes.’
‘Shame.’
‘I’ll figure something out workwise,’ she said, forcing herself to focus on something other than how giddy she felt at having someone on her side for possibly the first time in her life, at being part of a team. ‘Maybe I’ll retrain and do something to help people who are going through what I did. I had amazing care. I’d like to give something back. Maybe I could fundraise or something.’
‘Let me know what I can do to help.’
He already had, more than he could possibly know. ‘I will,’ she said with a smile.
His gaze dropped to her mouth then, his eyes darkening in a way that never failed to render her hot and breathless. ‘Let’s have dessert back at the hotel,’ he said, and called for the bill.
* * *
Quite some time later, as Georgie lay sprawled across the bed, unable to move for lazy lethargy, it occurred to her that the thing that had been bubbling away inside her all day, filling her with light and hope, was happiness. She was happy. Actually happy. Her confidence and self-esteem were soaring and it felt as though her demons were finally in retreat, which only went to show how very good for her Finn was.