‘But I also wish to support my son in any way I can,’ Alexi added.
My excitement at the new job opportunity hit a brick wall as Alexi mentioned Cai.
Yes, I wanted my son to have a chance to get to know his father, especially if Alexi was willing. But Cai’s whole life was based in London. That was where his friends were, his school, the teacher he adored whose class he was due to move into full time at the end of the summer. But, even as the excuses ran through my head, I knew they were just that... Excuses.
‘So, are we agreed?’ he asked, tilting my chin up. ‘You will take the job, and relocate to Nice, so I can get to know my son?’
My skin heated. Perhaps I was making a huge mistake, agreeing to take this job, this opportunity, agreeing to relocate—because it wasn’t just Alexi’s relationship with Cai that was super-complicated. But I knew I couldn’t object any longer. I owed this to my son, the chance to get to know his father properly. I also owed it to Alexi after robbing him of the first four years of his son’s life. And maybe I owed it to myself too. I’d worked so hard to have an opportunity like the one Alexi was offering me...
This didn’t have to be about me or him. I needed to be pragmatic now. As pragmatic as Alexi had always been.
Yes, we’d kissed, and it had been phenomenal, but I was an adult with adult responsibilities—and Alexi had not suggested that he wished to take our kiss any further. Thank goodness.
Controlling my heart, as well as my hormones, where he was concerned would not be easy, but then who said life had to be easy? The important thing was I knew the risks this time. I was going into this with my eyes open.
So I nodded. ‘Okay,’ I said. ‘I’ll take the job. And bring Cai to Nice. Thank you.’
‘Excellente...’ he whispered.
But then he hooked a lock of hair behind my ear—and I wondered if I had just bitten off a great deal more than I would ever be able to chew.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Belle
‘WOW, WOULD YOU look at this view? It’s breathtaking!’ Jessie swung open the doors leading onto an elegant balcony that wrapped around the front of our new home. Nice stretched out below us: the wide arc of the beach, the promenade and the warren of streets behind, like a series of treasures waiting to be explored.
‘Mummy, I can see boats and a pool!’ Cai shouted gleefully, putting his small hands on the marble balustrade and lurching up onto his tiptoes to get a better view. With the city several miles away, the villa was part of the built-up area between Nice and Villefranche-sur-Mer. Perched on the cliffs, it had an enviable parcel of private land split into terraced gardens that included an outdoor patio area, a small, shallow fenced-off pool complete with a water slide and a series of steps leading down from the pool to a narrow inlet below us.
‘And look, Mummy, a beach. Is that ours too?’
Probably.
‘I don’t know—we’ll have to ask Pierre,’ I said as I laid a hand on Cai’s shoulder. ‘Why don’t you find him and invite him to lunch?’
Alexi’s assistant had arranged everything over the past weeks and had been in constant contact. I’d tried to veto the more extravagant places he’d suggested, but when he’d driven us here from the airport he had explained to me that Alexi had insisted on purchasing this villa for us.
I’d been prepared to refuse Alexi’s extravagance—I wanted Cai to feel at home here. He wasn’t used to the kind of luxury Alexi took for granted. But as soon as Cai had seen this place—and his new bedroom, which came complete with racing-car wallpaper and a bed shaped like Galanti’s latest Super League prototype—I’d realised Alexi had completely outmanoeuvred me.
I wouldn’t be able to tear Cai away from here with dynamite.
But as Cai ran off through the house, shouting for Pierre like a wild thing, his excitement clear, I couldn’t resent his happiness. Especially as I knew my objections to living in this palace were not really to do with Cai’s reaction. Cai had always been adaptable and he loved to meet new people and see new places. He would thrive in this environment.
No, my objections were all my own, because this place felt as overwhelming as all the other sudden changes in my li
fe.
I’d been introduced to Alexi’s R&D team a week before on a brief trip to France and was enthusiastic about starting my new job. I’d taken a month off after resigning my position at Camaro to settle myself and my son into our new home, but I’d already gone over the designs for the new prototype and had attended some runs at the test track. The work would be exciting, challenging and everything Alexi had said it would be in terms of my career development.
Jessie was a personal events chef, so she had arranged to take a break between contracts to join us in Nice for the summer and help ease Cai into his new childcare situation when I started my job. I couldn’t have been more grateful for her presence now as she walked towards me and gave me a brief hug.
‘Is it just me, or are you totally blown away by the grandeur of this place?’ she said, grinning.
‘It’s not just you,’ I said, but I couldn’t muster an answering grin.
‘What’s wrong?’
‘It’s too much,’ I replied.