The last question was impossibly silly. Her job as the company driver was too good to give up and she’d continue doing it for as long as she could. But remaining professional while driving her one-time lover around, and pretending he was nothing more than her boss when he’d taken ownership of her heart, invaded her dreams and occupied most of her thoughts was going to be a huge ask.
Lex felt the burn of tears in her eyes, pulled her sunglasses off the top of her head and dropped them over her eyes. She couldn’t let him see her cry...
Lex sniffed, took a deep breath and told herself, yet again, that she’d be okay, that she wouldn’t feel heartbroken for ever. That, hopefully some time soon, she’d feel less sad, less...
Empty.
She was as busy as she’d ever been. The girls were back from their holiday, had started a new term at school and she was preparing for upcoming exams. She’d taken on a new student whose French was abysmal but who was prepared to pay her double her normal tutoring rate and she’d done the occasional delivery and pick-up for Thorpe Industries. But Lex felt like a spectator in her own life, as if she was standing outside of herself and watching herself run around. She was present but also not.
Because, honestly, seventy percent of her brain and all of her heart and soul was focused on Cole—wondering where he was, what he was doing, if he even missed her a fraction of the amount she missed him. Her world was in grayscale, her emotions muted, and she doubted whether she’d ever feel whole again.
She really hoped she would. But when? In two weeks? Two years? Twenty?
Lex saw the doorman step up to the door, her heart rate accelerated and all the moisture disappeared in her mouth.Right, well, here goes nothing...
She pulled out of her spot, cursing when the car jerked, and pulled up in front of the entrance, her eyes on Cole as he exchanged words with the doorman.
He wore light-grey trousers and a dark-navy jacket over a white shirt, and she immediately noticed he’d had his hair cut. She couldn’t see his eyes because he wore dark sunglasses, but his face looked pale, and the smile he flashed at the doorman held none of its normal power.
He looked wonderful but tense. Was he as nervous at seeing her as she was seeing him? No, that wasn’t possible. Cole did billion-dollar trades and invested ridiculous amounts of money in little-known products and business concepts. He was completely confident all the time and didn’t tolerate nerves...
He walked over to the SUV and wrenched open the back passenger door. Lex closed her eyes when the scent of his cologne filled the car, remembering how she’d loved to bury her nose in his neck, in that soft place just below his jaw.
Be professional, Lex.
‘Thank you for picking me up, Lex,’ Cole said, after their eyes met in the rear-view mirror.
‘Sure’ She shrugged. ‘It’s my job.’
‘How have you been?’ he asked, and Lex wondered if she imagined the crack in his voice or whether she was projecting her jumpiness onto him.
‘Fine. You?’
‘Fine.’
Lex was quite certain that, within the space of thirty seconds, both their noses had grown two inches. She could see rigidity in his jaw and the tension in his shoulders. Her expression was no doubt grim. They were anything butfine.
She didn’t bother to contain her sigh. ‘Where am I taking you, Cole?’
He reached across and handed her a slip of paper, and Lex plugged the address into the on-board GPS. He wanted her to drive him to Upper Constantia, to a very luxurious area called The Avenues, populated by mansions sitting on huge plots of land.
She started to ask him why he was going to a private address and then remembered that she had no right to pry into his business.
His choice, not hers.
Lex stopped at ten-feet-high wrought-iron gates and Cole leaned between the seats to aim the remote at the control box. As instructed, he pushed the blue button and the gates swung open. ‘Follow the driveway and park in front of the house,’ he told Lex and grimaced at his croaky voice.
He felt fifteen again, weak-kneed in the presence of his biggest crush. He rubbed his jaw, smoothed back his hair and looked out of the window, automatically clocking the massive oak trees, the huge swathe of lawn and the pretty single-storey, historic Victorian homestead.
Nice.He liked it.
He’d traded tens of billions of dollars, and made some ballsy choices business-wise, but this was his biggest ever gamble to date. For the first time, he felt queasy. He wasn’t only gambling with a couple of million pounds—petty change—but with his heart, his future.
What if he’d missed his chance, screwed this all up by letting her down, by not taking her to Europe, for not allowing her to go with him to Thailand? What if he’d missed the boat?
What if...?
His rollicking thoughts were interrupted by Lex stopping the car. Thinking he’d jump out of his skin if he didn’t move, he exited the car and walked towards the front door of the house. He was halfway there when he realised that Lex wasn’t following.