Chapter 28
Theo
‘Theo.”
I glance up from admiring how my fingers look entwined with Nora’s slim ones on her thigh. Miles, like us, is showered and dressed for dinner. His hair is still damp, and he’s holding two goldfish-bowl glasses of what’s presumably G&T.
‘What’s up?’
He jerks his head towards the pool. ‘Fancy a drink and a chat?’
I can count on one hand the times my older brother has pulled me aside or shown me any interest in the past couple of years.
Nora extricates her hand and nudges me with her shoulder. ‘Go for it. I’ll go find the girls. We were being a bit antisocial, anyway.’
Jimmy and Eddie materialise behind Miles like they’ve caught the scent of a soon-to-be-lone female. Eddie winks at me. ‘Or we can keep her company.’
I stiffen. ‘Stay the fuck away from my girlfriend, you twats.’
Look. I know she’s not my girlfriend, okay? But she’s the woman I’m having a shitload of naked fun with right now, and no one else gets to touch her.
Or even look at her.
Eddie laughs. ‘I’m sure Nora can speak for herself. You’ll tell us where to go if you don’t like our chat, won’t you, Nora?’
My magnificent fake girlfriend tosses her hair over her shoulder.
I gaze at her red mouth longingly. She looks incredible this evening.
Her dress is simple—black, stretchy and totally strapless, ending halfway down her calves.
It has some kind of gathering going on down the sides that shows off her knockout figure to absolute perfection.
And don’t get me started on her skin. Lightly tanned, glowing from the body lotion I conscientiously applied to every inch of her beautiful body in our room, and so fucking lickable I can’t even—
I won’t lie. I feel weird about leaving her with these douches, even for a few minutes.
I’ve been dying to get my brother to myself, to bend his ear, but after the day Nora and I have had, I just want to keep her close.
Especially because I know this little bubble we’re in, of being here together in one of my favourite parts of the world, will burst in twenty-four hours.
This afternoon in the sea was one of the hottest moments of my life. After all the sexual tension and aborted kisses and cat-and-mouse of the past few weeks, the mere fact of getting each other off so furiously, so desperately, was fucking smoking.
Not to mention, I had her shaking and moaning and coming apart on my fingers in the middle of the sea.
She’s been so standoffish for the most part, up until now, so to be able to lure her into the sea with zero false pretences, only a straight-up proposition of what I wanted us to do to each other, was hot as fuck.
She’s ditched the games.
She’s given herself over to the inevitable between us.
She’s yielded to me.
And rather than making me run for the hills, it makes me want to stick to her like glue. To hold her tightly. To capitalise on this insane chemistry between us.
That’s what it is. Right? Chemistry. Pheromones. We’re drunk on each other’s bodies. On the way we can make each other feel.
It’s nothing more than that.
Anyway, if this conversation with Miles gets the ball rolling in my favour, and I uphold my end of the bargain and get her ex back for her, we’ll both be going our separate ways soon. So I’d better get used to it.
The idea makes my stomach heave.
‘I’ll tell you exactly where to go,’ Nora says now to the Percivals and pats me on the thigh. I relax. My girl can look after herself around these twats.
‘Let’s do it,’ I tell Miles. I brush my lips down the side of Nora’s face and drop a kiss on her jaw. ‘See you shortly, gorgeous. Don’t take any crap from these animals.’
‘Jesus Christ, leave the poor woman alone,’ Jimmy drawls as I follow Miles, sticking my middle finger up behind me.
‘This is a new side to you, mate.’ He hands me a G&T.
‘How do you mean?’ I know exactly what he means, but it makes me uncomfortable, for some reason.
‘Loved up. Attentive. Adoring. You’re like the Nora Wilder fan club.’
‘Fuck off.’
‘Don’t get me wrong. It’s cool. She’s a cracking girl, and I like seeing you like this. It’s how I feel about Saoirse, after all. It’s good to know my little bro is falling for a good woman, too.’
‘I’m not falling for her.’ I stick my face in the glass. It’s delicious—ice-cold and tangy, garnished with a huge wedge of pink grapefruit.
‘Could have fooled me. You can’t keep your hands off her. Or your eyes. When you guys crashed out on the loungers earlier, you had one big sweaty leg and one arm over the poor girl. She must have been sweltering. You can’t leave her alone for a second.’
This is news to me. We’d pushed our beds together when we came out from our sex-fest in the sea, but I didn’t know I’d draped my limbs all over her while I slept. And that’s having not even spent a night together yet as a couple. No pillow down the middle of the bed tonight.
I’ll probably glue myself to her all night.
Spoon her.
Inhale her.
Fall asleep with my arms full of her and rock her awake in the morning against my hard-on. Just like I wanted to do this morning. God, I can’t wait to entangle myself with her for a whole—
‘Anyway.’ Miles sits down heavily on a lounger and gestures to me to do the same. The pool is mirror-still in front of us, the sea sparkling pink-gold in the distance. It’s spectacular. ‘I didn’t pull you away from your Siamese twin so we could talk about your love life.’
‘What then?’ I grunt.
He shifts and holds out his glass. ‘Cheers, mate. Good to have you here.’
‘Good to be here.’
We clink. Avoid eye contact. God forbid I should share a meaningful moment with my brother.
‘Anyway.’ He clears his throat. ‘Dad mentioned you had some ideas for Manhattan. He suggested I get more detail off you.’
I perk up. Now’s the perfect time for my pitch. Miles is relaxed. More pliable than usual.
‘Did he tell you what I proposed?’
‘Not really. Something about a membership club. But go for it. Because, honestly, I’m tearing my hair out.’
This isn’t the Miles I know. Admitting vulnerability? He’d rather let hell freeze over. I throw him a bone.
‘Well, at least my ideas can’t be worse than what Kurt’s been doing.’
‘It’s been a hell of a challenging time, these past couple of years,’ Miles says feebly. ‘He’s done his best.’
I raise my eyebrows.
‘Okay, yeah, he’s a useless fucking tool.’ Miles coughs out a laugh and shakes his head.
‘Thank you.’ I widen my legs, rest an elbow on my knee. ‘So the way I see it is…’
I lay it all out for him. The vision I have.
I know that while Miles is forward-thinking, he always protects his downside when he’s experimenting.
Something he says he picked up from the ultimate diversifier, Richard Branson.
So I know how I need to frame this for him.
How to ignite that entrepreneurial excitement while reassuring him that the risks are explicitly ring-fenced.
Allowing Battery Park and Madison to stick to their core customers while using the SoHo asset as our test site.
Approaching SoHo as a valuable but flexible asset, rather than a hotel by default.
Treating every storey as its own opportunity that should work as hard as possible, rather than lumping the building into one homogenous site.
Brainstorming on diversifying revenue streams away from tourism and business, so if international travel screeches to a halt again, we still have a viable business on our hands.
Homing in on structural trends like the rise of entrepreneurship, social media and flexible working so Montague Group can carve out a piece of that wallet share.
Exploiting my connections among the wealthy, powerful, younger generation Manhattanites, and identifying exactly what would be required to entice them to our hotel.
Using the positive cash flow of having founding members for a members’ club to part-finance and de-risk any big-budget remodelling we’d need to undertake.
Keeping in our back pocket the idea of turning entire floors of our buildings into lavish serviced apartments should hotel occupancy rates remain structurally lower.
It’s a high-level pitch, but the more I warm to my theme, the more the vision makes sense to me. I know this is the way to go. I can feel it in my bones.
I have Miles’ attention the whole way through. He’s sitting forward, taking the odd sip of his drink, expression rapt.
‘Do you have any of this down on paper?’
‘Yeah. I do, actually.’
‘Numbers?’
‘A few headlines. I don’t have the details—I’d need help with forecasting the CapEx.’ I’m a big-picture guy, not a numbers guy. My strength is the vision. The enthusiasm. Figuring out what kind of capital expenditure we’d need, and how to finance that, is not my bag.
‘Fair enough.’ Miles is quiet for a moment.
‘Look. I really like it, mate. I’ve been thinking about some of those ideas myself, especially the club, but not as…
cohesively as that.’ He rubs his forehead.
‘I mean, that’s a big, bold vision, but God knows, we need to reinvent the wheel.
Because what we’ve got isn’t working. The CapEx would be key, as would lost revenues due to disruption.
We’d probably have to close SoHo down for a year or two if we wanted to do something drastic with the building. ’
‘Yeah. I thought we might. Is that a deal breaker?’
‘I dunno. It’s one hell of a pivot. But honestly, if the curveball of the past couple of years has taught us anything, it’s that doing the same old shit as always won’t work.’
‘Makes sense. We could talk to Evelyn about how she’s managed the membership side of Sorrel Farm. They’ve done a cracking job there.’
‘I’d love to pick her brains,’ he admits. ‘It’s a spectacular outfit she’s running. I’d love to see under the hood, wouldn’t you?’
‘Fuck, yeah.’
We each take a sip of our drinks. I eye my brother up. He’s animated and receptive in a way he isn’t often with me. He’s speaking to me like we’re equals. Like I have something valuable to say. To contribute to The Montague Group.
He eyes me right back. ‘Am I right in thinking this is something you’re interested in running with?’
I suck in a breath. Damn right he is. ‘Yeah. I’ve been stewing over it for a while now.
It’s like a puzzle. So many moving parts.
A lot of crap to deal with. But a lot of potential, too.
So yeah. I’m very interested, to be honest. Obviously as part of an expert team, because the numbers and the execution aren’t my skill set. ’
He examines his glass, rolling it one way and then the other as it catches the evening light.
‘And how does Nora feel about this?’
‘What do you mean? She’s… she’s been really supportive. She’s even helped me with the business plan.’
‘But is she willing to move to New York with you?’
I swallow. Push down the nausea rising from my belly.
‘Come on, mate. We’ve only been dating a month. It’s too early to have that kind of conversation with her.’
She’s not mine. If she gets what she wants out of this, the Atlantic has nothing on the immovable barriers we put up between us.
‘A month for you is like a golden anniversary for most people, mate. I can see you’re serious about this girl. Take it from me. Don’t fuck up what you have with her for the sake of a job opportunity.’
‘Who are you, and what have you done with my brother?’ The old Miles would have said the precise opposite.
Forget the girl. Focus on the opportunity.
It’s so ironic that he thinks he’s looking out for me, when in reality he’s twisting the knife further.
‘Just—leave that stuff to me. Okay? I’ll talk to her. ’
He relents. ‘Fine. Why don’t you put something together in a bit more detail?
Something we can present to Mum and Dad.
It needs enough meat on its bones to reel them in.
Someone on the FD’s team can help you pull together some high-level financial forecasts.
Book some time in with Jonathan Holmes this week.
That’s exactly the kind of thing he’s there for. ’
I freeze.
‘I don’t think—’
‘Come off it, mate. I’m sure you can both be grown-ups about this. He dated her before. You’re with her now. He’s moved on. It’s water under the bridge.’
He can’t possibly know how untrue that is. She wants him back.
She wants him back.
It makes my flesh crawl to think about it. I should be able to walk into a meeting with him and be smug as fuck, because I got her.
But she’s only mine on loan.
He doesn’t even know it, but as far as she’s concerned, she belongs to him.
I told her I’d give her anything she wanted, and if I’m to prove to her that I’m a man of honour, I have to find a way to give her what she wants most of all.
A future.
With that pathetic twat.
Safety.
Or what she perceives as safety, anyway.
Even if it kills me to give it to her.
But she’s mine for now. For tonight, in any case.