Chapter 6
ALEX
Moves | Suki Waterhouse
‘Sorry, Larsson, am I keeping you from something more important?’
When he looked up from his phone, Alex’s least favourite co-worker was glaring at him from the other side of the conference room.
Pete.
Known scumbag in and out of the office, Desmond Peterson regularly kept him from things that were more important than his thin, punchable face and reedy voice.
Currently, the thing in question was that, for the first time, Sarah was texting him. Which meant she’d been thinking of him. Even if it was only to help with the engagement party. Even if she was as dismissive of him over text as she was in person.
Sarah: Fine.
The thought of her last text made him smile, even as Pete continued to wheeze his way through his proposal to secure the business of a company looking to go public. It was a wonder anyone let this clown deal with clients. He had all the charm of an oil spill oozing into the ocean, poisoning the happiness of everyone he encountered. In theory, Alex was part of a group intended to give him feedback that would hone his pitch. To Alex’s mind, there was no saving it. Pete was unlikely to take their advice anyway. Despite being the least productive member of their team in the previous quarter, he still somehow thought the place would fall apart without him.
After what felt like an eternity, they were free, and Alex groaned when he saw that the inbox he had cleared before the meeting was back to over seventy unread emails. At least half of them probably didn’t require any response from him, but about a tenth would almost certainly demand immediate action. He’d have to sift through them to figure out which.
The watch on his wrist beeped, reminding him it was lunch time, and he considered running out to his favourite sushi place. If he called his order in, it would be ready by the time he got there. Twenty minutes out of the office, max. But at a glance, he could see five emails bearing the name of the company in the States he was working with in their pursuit of a major UK pharmacy chain. Lunch could wait another hour.
L unch did not wait another hour.
Emails bled into research, which paused when he was pulled into a second presentation, and after the next round of emails and a long, unplanned phone call with a start-up who wanted to raise yet another round of capital, it was past eight, and he was beat. He wanted to go to the gym, wanted to work out the stress and kinks of the day, but it had been twelve hours since he’d put anything more solid than coffee into his body, and he’d long since burned through the benefits of that protein shake.
Maybe just an after-dinner walk with Celine to take the edge off.
***
The rest of his week passed similarly, and by the time Friday came, the last thing Alex felt like was thirty people traipsing through his house.
He was normally up for a good time—even more so in his own environment, where he could control things—but the acquisition he was currently advising on was worth upwards of a billion pounds, and after a full day of analysing assets and turning on the charm in meetings, he was beat.
But even if he hadn’t been hosting, he couldn’t exactly miss his only brother’s engagement party. To his credit, Erik would understand. He had his own aversion to social gatherings. Abby might never let him hear the end of it though.
Besides.
There were perks.
Said perk stood on his top step when he wrenched the front door open, and his mouth went dry at the sight of her, her body encased in the same dress she’d been wearing that night, the deep purple satin clinging to every soft curve. Her perfume drifted towards him, a spicy, woodsy mix that had haunted him since that night. Images of his hands pushing at the smooth fabric flashed through his mind. Her eyes were slits when he returned to them, her full lips pinched at the corners, and even like that, she was astonishing.
She pushed past him without a word, tensing as her bare arm brushed against his shirt. By contrast, the small contact ignited some long-forgotten part of him.
Alex knew what women saw when they looked at him. Money. A pretty face. A good body. That was enough to sway most of them. And for a good portion of his adult life, if he’d met them in a bar or a club, they’d got some introduction to what he could do with that body. It had been a long time since someone had made him work for it. And Sarah, who knew exactly how good he could make her feel, was doing exactly that.
Things were going to be so much fun with her.
The first words she said to him, dripping with disdain, were, ‘Where do you want me?’ He heard the innuendo a second before she did, and as the beginnings of a smirk appeared on his face, she rushed to add, ‘For party prep.’
‘Freudian slip, Princess?’
‘I told you to stop calling me that.’ Her mouth pulled into a flat line.
‘And I told you that wasn’t going to happen.’ He leaned against the doorframe to the living room, crossing his arms to make his biceps pop. Her eyes lingered there for a moment before flicking away.
‘How does Celine feel about you giving me a cute pet name and flirting with people incessantly?’
What the fuck did his dog have to do with this?
‘I’m sure she’d be fine with it. She’s wary of new women, but she’ll probably like you once she gets to know you. As long as I give her plenty of attention, I can’t imagine she cares who I sleep with.’
Her lips thinned. ‘Right. No judgement, but polyamory is like, super not my thing, so if you could stop—’
That made him pause. Polyamory? Was that why she’d been so off with him? She thought he had a girlfriend? ‘Princess.’ He uncrossed his arms, stepping towards her. ‘Who exactly do you think Celine is?’
Sarah crossed her arms and took a step back towards the sofa, arching an eyebrow. ‘Your girlfriend?’
A full, loud laugh, so different to the contained chuckles he normally allowed, broke free, causing Sarah’s face to pinch further in annoyance. When he’d finished wheezing, he took one more step towards her. This time, she didn’t retreat. ‘Would you like to meet her?’ He didn’t bother to hide the amusement in his voice as he cocked his head back towards the stairs. ‘Follow me.’
‘If this is just an excuse to get me into your bedroom—’ Sarah began, as they neared his office.
‘Will you calm down?’ He opened the door to reveal Celine sleeping soundly on her bed. She stirred when he walked in, sleepy face lifting then flopping back onto her paws. ‘This is Celine.’
Sarah’s mouth opened. Closed. Opened again. ‘That’s a stupid fucking name for a Rottweiler.’
‘I’m aware, but the shelter had already named her when I adopted her. They were doing a music theme with her litter.’ Among his other options had been Freddie, Madonna, and Cher. ‘I thought about changing her name, but she’d been through so much already. I just wanted to make her transition as smooth as possible.’
‘What happened to her?’ Sarah asked, stepping past him, into the room. Her voice had never been so soft when speaking to him. Celine tensed as Sarah walked closer, her glossy head turning to Alex to determine if their new visitor was safe. When he nodded, she turned her nose to Sarah’s outstretched hand, sniffing gently before she slumped down again. Not overly enthused, but less fear than she’d shown the first time she’d met Abby, Maggie, and his mum.
‘Her previous owner was…not great. When the litter was born, she basically left them to starve in filth. She beat them too.’ His throat tightened. The shelter hadn’t managed to take any real legal action against her, but at least the whole litter had been rescued. Last time he’d checked in, they’d all been homed too. ‘When I adopted her, she was tiny. So scrawny. Flea-ridden. And terrified of people, women especially. So I’ve stocked the room to keep her comfortable and entertained, and when I’m going to have company’—he inclined his head towards her—‘I let her hang out here so she doesn’t get spooked. Maggie eventually got her to trust her using food, but I was the only person she’d let near her for the first few weeks.’
‘Is Maggie your girlfriend?’ Sarah raised an eyebrow.
God, she really thought he was an asshole, didn’t she?
‘She’s fifty-five,’ he said dryly.
‘I don’t know what you’re into.’ Sarah slid her hand closer to Celine, who twitched.
‘Yes, you do.’
In the low lighting of the club and his dining room, he’d thought her eyes merely brown. But golden light streamed through the window next to her, and even across the room, he could see what it was doing to the colour. They were so fucking pretty like this, shades of molten honey shifting in the setting sun as they widened. Narrowed.
Silence stretched between them, gaping and dangerous.
‘We should finish setting up for the party,’ Sarah said, rocking back onto her heels with a slight wobble.
He let her get back to the living room. Waited until she was about to cross the threshold to the dining room to say it. ‘Oh, right, Maggie—my housekeeper, by the way—did pretty much everything before she went home.’
Sarah stiffened as she walked towards the table, already laden with food, the sideboard covered in alcohol, ice buckets, and mixers. He wondered if she’d taken in the tasteful congratulations banner above the fireplace, or the board in the corner of the living room, covered in a patchwork of Abby and Erik’s quarter century of memories together. If the roles were reversed, he’d have been too distracted by her to notice the garlands of Polaroids in the front hall.
‘Why am I here, Aleksander?’ She sounded tired. Frustrated.
‘A miscommunication.’ That was true, even if she wouldn’t believe it. He’d asked Maggie to ensure all the food and decor was ready to be laid out when he got home at six. And because she was an angel who had known him for years, when he hadn’t been home by six, she’d taken it upon herself to set everything up, anticipating that he’d lost track of time. He hadn’t—not too badly, at least—but her thinking hadn’t been without precedent. And of course, he hadn’t told her he was expecting help in the form of a gorgeous brunette. ‘Is it so bad being alone with me?’ Alex asked, strolling nearer, hands in his pockets. ‘Are you…nervous?’
Her hands were twitching, and a second before, she’d pulled her bottom lip between her teeth, the even, white edges leaving tiny indents in her lipstick. Those would be front and centre of his mind for a while.
‘You don’t have to be uncomfortable with how attractive you find me.’ His grin was genuine. He’d noticed her stares at dinner. Felt her eyes on him at the stationery shop the week before. And you didn’t approach someone with the intention of making an ex jealous if you didn’t think they were at least passably hot.
And just like that, she transformed, any trace of nerves vanishing before his eyes. ‘I am not attracted to you, you gormless prick. I’m sure you’re used to women falling all over themselves for a shot with you, but unfortunately that doesn’t mean my heart is fluttering whenever you walk into a room.’
‘Keep telling yourself that, Princess. And I’ll keep letting your body tell me exactly how much you want me.’
She might have cut a more convincing figure without the flush spreading across her chest. If she hadn’t been shaking slightly, the tip of her tongue darting out to wet her lips. Yes. She may not have liked him, but there was no pretending she wasn’t into him.
‘Tell me you don’t think about that night.’ He stepped closer, crowding her against the table. ‘My hands on your thighs.’ Her eyes fluttered shut. ‘My lips on your jaw.’ Her breath hitched when he dipped his face towards her neck. ‘My—’
‘Alex?’