Now, as she moved around the space, around him, gathering the things she and Josh needed, she could feel his cool, assessing eyes on her, and his scrutiny caused her skin to prickle and a strange heat to seep through her. Not that it mattered how Finn made her feel. Even if he had been interested in her in the way he once had been, which clearly and thankfully he was not, she was far too fragile for that sort of thing these days, so it was just as well her libido had gone AWOL. And, besides, she had other, far more important things to focus on now.
Zipping up the bag, Georgie handed it to Finn and went to pick up their son. From above there came an ominous thud followed by a loud crash that made her jump. And as she locked the front door of the bedsit and followed Finn down the dimly lit stairs she thought that whatever his reaction when he eventually learned the truth, however precarious her position in all this, the future had to better than the past.
* * *
What a night.
A couple of hours ago all Finn had had to worry about was the frustrating lack of results the investigation into his adoption had generated. Now he had a son being tucked up in one of his spare rooms by an unexpected house guest, and he was pacing up and down in front of the wall-to-wall windows of his sitting room wondering what more the universe could possibly hurl at him. Battered didn’t come close to describing how he felt about everything that had happened this evening. He’d been on the receiving end of one punch to the gut after another, and, quite frankly, how he was still standing he had no idea.
And that wasn’t all he couldn’t fathom. There was also the conundrum that was Georgie. What had happened to her? he wondered as he strode t
o the drinks cabinet and poured himself a large Scotch. When they’d originally met she’d been vivacious and sassy and intoxicating, out celebrating her twenty-fifth birthday with friends. She’d told him she worked as a lawyer specialising in defamation, that she’d just been promoted and had her eye on a partnership. She’d been living in Kensal Rise, and he specifically recalled her telling him, out there on the street in between hot, drugging kisses, that if they wanted privacy the flat she shared with three others was not the place to go.
Clearly she’d fallen on hard times, but how, and why? She’d had a baby, yes, but that wouldn’t have felled the Georgie he’d met fifteen months ago. That girl would have taken a baby in her stride and carried on conquering the world.
And, on the subject of timings, why was he only finding out about his son now? Why had she taken so long to contact him? Why the secrecy? He couldn’t stand secrets. Ignorance put a man at a disadvantage. It robbed him of control and rendered him powerless and weak, and he should know because he was living it.
Well, he’d had enough of being kept in the dark, he thought, knocking back half his drink and resuming his pacing. The issues surrounding his adoption aside, he had a multitude of questions to ask Georgie about Josh, and the minute she reappeared he was getting an answer to every single one of them, whether she liked it or not.
CHAPTER THREE
OBLIVIOUS TO THE drama going on around him and having remained asleep throughout, Josh handled the move to Finn’s place with ease. Georgie, on the other hand, was having slightly more trouble adjusting.
She’d been too relieved to see the back of the bedsit to give much thought to where Finn might be taking them, but even if she had, the seven-star hotel where they’d spent that wild night together would not have crossed her mind. Yet here they were, in the penthouse, no less, which boasted a stunning sitting room, a state-of-the-art kitchen, a library and a terrace. The upper level comprised of three en-suite bedrooms—two of which were interconnecting—and a separate wing that had been presumably designed for staff. The chandeliers were crystal and the linen on her bed felt as though it had a thousand thread count. The walls throughout were painted a soft white, and neutral rugs covered glossy dark oak floorboards.
The whole apartment smelled divine and the sense of peace and tranquillity was like a balm to her soul. She couldn’t imagine a greater contrast to either the bedsit or the mother-and-baby unit of the psychiatric ward where she’d spent close on five months, and once again a wave of gratitude and relief washed over her, along with a hefty dose of curiosity. Who exactly was he, her knight in shining armour who owned a nightclub, drove a Lamborghini and lived in a seven-star penthouse?
Leaving the door to Josh’s room ajar in case he needed her, Georgie went down the stairs, crossed the hall and stopped in the doorway to the sitting room. Finn was pacing up and down in front of the window, a near-empty glass in his hand and a deep frown creasing his forehead. When he saw her, he came to an abrupt halt. His jaw was set, his eyes were dark and intense, and something in his expression, in the way he was looking at her, sent a shiver down her spine.
‘Is everything all right?’ he said.
‘Everything is very all right,’ she replied, ignoring the shiver and mustering up her second smile of the day, which had to be a record. ‘I just wanted to say thank you for everything you’ve done.’
‘You’re welcome.’
‘You have no idea how grateful I am for your support.’
‘Josh is my son.’
And what was she? An inconvenience? Undoubtedly. Finn didn’t even want her here, she knew, remembering how he’d grudgingly told her she could come too when she’d swiftly disabused him of the idea that he’d be taking Josh without her.
‘I didn’t realise you actually lived here,’ she said, dragging her gaze from his to sweep it around the room upon whose threshold she was hovering. ‘When we met you said you were renovating. I assumed your stay was temporary.’
‘I was, and in that room it was temporary.’
‘But why live in a hotel?’
‘Why not? I own it.’
Her gaze snapped back to his and her jaw dropped. ‘You own it?’
‘Yes.’
‘As well as the club where we met?’
He gave a brief nod. ‘Among other things.’
‘Who are you?’ she said, thinking that in hindsight it was a question she should have asked him last October. She still didn’t even know his last name. She’d had to leave that space on Josh’s birth certificate blank.