CHAPTER ONE
AERINSAWHIMbefore he saw her. Drake Cawthorn was standing on the corner of the street opposite her, checking something on his phone while he waited for the ‘walk’ signal at the busy London intersection near his office. She took a moment to study him in secret and a little frisson danced down her spine. Drake was head and shoulders over everyone else in the crowd, with hair as black and sleek as a raven’s wing and a strong nose that looked like it might once have been broken. He was wearing a dark blue suit teamed with a crisp white business shirt that emphasised his olive-toned skin. His tie was a checked blue, but it was loosened at his neck, as if he had tugged at it impatiently at one point during the day and not bothered to readjust it. He would have ticked number one on her soulmate checklist for ‘tall, dark and handsome’ perfectly if it weren’t for his bent nose and the jagged scar that interrupted his left eyebrow.
The pedestrian signal beeped and Drake lifted his head from his phone and his eyes met Aerin’s. Even though she was several metres away, as soon as that bottomless dark brown gaze meshed with hers it was like being struck by a bolt of lightning.
Every. Single. Time.
Which was why she didn’t cross paths with him unless there was absolutely no choice. He was the celebrity lawyer who specialised in iron-clad prenuptial agreements she and her wedding business partners recommended to clients from time to time. But Aerin wasn’t standing outside his suite of rooms hoping to see him about a business matter—she preferred to email or send a text to inform him of a client’s wish to see him. This visit was personal. Embarrassingly, skin-crawlingly personal. Aerin hadn’t seen him face to face in months, and normally, she liked it that way. She had turned keeping her distance from him into quite a consummate skill. She found his arrant masculinity a little too...unsettling. His hardwired cynicism too jarring to a hopeless romantic as herself. And his sardonic smile and those dark chocolate eyes a little too mocking.
Drake strode across the intersection in long easy strides, carving his way through the bustle of people until he came to her side of the street. Her feet were suddenly glued to the footpath, her heart doing a complicated gymnastics routine in her chest and her cheeks feeling hot enough to buckle the bitumen.
‘Hi there, Goldilocks. Were you on your way to see me?’ His tone was as gently teasing as his smile.
Aerin could hardly deny it was him she had come to see when she was standing outside his office building, but she would have dearly liked to. She had done a walk-by or two to summon up the courage to see him, oscillating whether she should go ahead or melt back in the crowd before she made a complete and utter fool of herself. But she only had five days to find a stand-in date for her high school reunion. If she didn’t find a date to accompany her she would have to suffer the embarrassment of being the last of her school friends to find a partner.
Every year that passed, she was becoming more and more of a pariah to her friends. The only singleton. The only virgin. The pitying looks from her school friends were worse each year, she was sure she wasn’t imagining it. The covert whispers, the speculation about her single status, the pointed questions and glances at her ringless left hand, when each of her friends had such gorgeous sparklers winking on their ring fingers you could practically see them from outer space. It was making her wonder if her dream of finding her own Mr Perfect was a little...well, out of touch with reality. It was quite hard to meet people these days and she wasn’t going to download the social media app unless things got desperate. Well, even more desperate than they already were with her nearly thirty and never been kissed.
But shebelievedin true love.
It was her goal, her lifelong hope.
Her Mr Perfect Soulmate had to be out there. All she had to do was find him.
Aerin gave Drake a mock glower. ‘I wish you’d stop calling me that.’
His wide grin made his eyes dance and fine lines crinkle at the corners. ‘I’ve been calling you that since you had braces on your teeth and pimples on your chin. I must say, you’ve improved greatly with age.’
As her older brother’s friend from university, Drake had been a regular visitor to her family home in years past. For years he had simply been Tom’s friend, Drake Cawthorn, barely worthy of her notice. But once she hit late puberty, she became increasingly aware of him as any young woman did over a handsome and charming man. Fortunately, she had never embarrassed herself by communicating any interest in him. Not that a worldly playboy like him would ever be interested in someone as homespun and conservative as her.
‘Please don’t remind me I’m turning thirty in January.’
Drake widened his eyes as if in stunned surprise. ‘No way. Got anything planned? A big party to celebrate?’
Aerin could feel a blush stealing over her cheeks hot enough to contribute to global warming. What was there to celebrate about turning thirty when she didn’t have a partner, had never had a partner and had not even been kissed? Argh. Her dream of finding Mr Perfect before she turned the big Three O was becoming a nightmare and her biological clock was ticking loud enough to wake up an entire cemetery of bodies. She shifted her gaze from his and gave a dismissive shrug. ‘I’m not sure. Maybe.’
He jerked his head in the direction of his suite of rooms. ‘Did you want to see me about a client? I’ve got just under an hour before I’m due in court.’
Aerin shifted her weight from foot to foot and readjusted her tote-bag strap over her left shoulder, conscious of his steady gaze. ‘Erm... I don’t want to bother you when you’re busy...’
‘I’ve always got time for you. Besides, you send a lot of business my way.’ His eyes twinkled again, and he added, ‘I heard your other business partner, Harper, got herself engaged to Jack Livingstone. Are they going to come and see me about a prenup?’
‘Not that I know of.’
‘Pity. With Jack’s sort of wealth, it could be a messy divorce without one.’
Aerin gave a stiff smile to cover her annoyance at his cynicism. ‘I don’t think they’re ever going to divorce. They’re too much in love and besides, they have baby Marli to consider.’
Drake shrugged one impossibly broad shoulder. ‘Everyone is in love until they aren’t.’
‘Have you ever been in love?’ The question popped out of her mouth before she could slam the emergency brakes on her tongue.
‘No. How about you?’
Her cheeks warmed up again and she couldn’t hold his gaze. A relationships cynic like Drake would mock her quest to find the love of her life. But it was no secret she was waiting not just for Mr Right but Mr Perfect. ‘No, but I’d like to one day.’
There was a short but weighted silence, even the sounds of rushing pedestrians and busy traffic seeming to fade into the background.
‘What did you want to see me about?’ Drake asked, looking down at her with a small frown between his eyebrows.