It made them both forget, just for a little while, the end.
They visited Robert one more time, as promised, even though Alex video-called his father every day.
Buoyed by how much better he looked, they were at ease with leaving for Melbourne.
Alex’s private jet stood on the tarmac, gleaming in the weak sunshine. He followed her up the stairs. Emma had grown up with money. There wasn’t a thing on earth she couldn’t buy. But this life that Alex led was on a different level. She didn’t care to reflect on it. Not when Alex was leading her to one of the cream-coloured seats and buckling her in.
‘You know, I’m perfectly capable of doing up my own belt.’
‘I do know, but I’m enjoying getting to tie you down.’
She felt the colour rise up her neck as he ran his nose along her jaw, then seated himself across from her. She wondered what it would be like to be bound to his bed, with him having his way with her. Showing her pleasure as only he could. The look on his face told her that he had a direct line to her thoughts.
Once the plane had levelled off, a stewardess placed artful plates containing their lunch on the table between them. Throughout it, Emma kept casting longing glances at Alex, until she knew he couldn’t take it any more.
Calling for two glasses of champagne, he handed one to Emma, then took her hand and led her to the bedroom at the back of the plane, where they crossed off another first...
Alex lay tangled in sheets that had damp patches on them, from where the champagne had run off Emma’s body and collected in the fabric. With their chests heaving and sweat glistening on her skin, she drew abstract patterns on his hard torso, and he curled his arm under his head as he watched her fingers dance.
‘Everything okay?’ he asked, when at last she came down from her high and Emma was able to reply to the email that had pinged on her phone.
‘Fiona wants a meeting as soon as I’m back. She says she wants to get going on things as quickly as possible.’
Emma propped her head up on her arm and looked down at Alex, who tucked the curtain of her hair behind her ear.
‘She told me she wants to make the transition as smooth as possible and keep everyone on board. We’re all volunteers anyway.’
Emma laughed to herself. A small sound that he knew held very little humour.
‘I don’t know how my family is going to react.’
‘What are you going to tell them?’
‘No idea. But I couldn’t possibly disappoint them any more than I do already.’
She tried to cover up the sadness in her eyes, but he still saw it.
‘Emma...’ he whispered, and pulled her down into a kiss, wrapping his arms around her as her head came to rest on his chest. ‘It hurts when your own blood doesn’t acknowledge you, but you don’t need them. They’re just people. People who don’t even really know you. Just be proud of yourself. You have achieved this without anyone.’
‘That’s not true. I’ve achieved this because of you, Alexander,’ she said softly. ‘I would never have met Fiona if it wasn’t for you.’
‘You would have found a way. I have no doubt.’
Maybe, she thought to herself.
But those words could have been said to him just as much as to her. It did hurt when family abandoned you. And no one would understand that more than Alex. A little boy abandoned first by his selfish mother and then by his father, when he chose to throw himself into his work.
She rested her chin on her hands as she turned to look at him. ‘How do you do it?’
Strong fingers stroked through her hair. ‘Do what?’
‘Deal with it? Your mother was at that ball. I saw how angry you were. But you acted like she wasn’t even there. Most of the time...’ she tacked on at the end, remembering the look on his face when she had spoken to Emma.
‘I told you. I don’t have a mother.’
While his fingers still caressed her, and his arm still held her to him, his eyes wore that empty look that appeared whenever he shut his feelings away. A simple message.Back off.But Emma didn’t want to. That woman had hurt him over and over again since he was a child.
‘Except you do. She may not want to be, and you may not want her to be, but the fact is, she is.’