CHAPTER EIGHT
‘WHEREAREWEGOING?’ Kate asked as she climbed into the leather passenger seat of the small sports car. She had no idea how Leander had been able to fit his body into the driver’s side. She supposed it helped that the roof had already been folded back. She didn’t know why he bothered opening the door—his legs were so long he could have just stepped over it.
After two days spent barely surfacing from his bed, Leander had announced as their breakfast was being cleared away from the balcony of his bedroom that he was taking her out.
‘Shopping,’ he now told her.
‘That’s the big surprise? Shopping?’
‘You don’t look impressed.’
‘Well, you did big up the surprise aspect.’
He grinned and leaned over for a kiss. ‘I assumed you were bored with my wardrobe—you seem reluctant to wear any of it.’
Heat flushing through her, she gave a knowing smile and lifted her feet onto the dashboard, deliberately letting the black shirt of his that she was wearing fall to her thighs.
‘Behave,’ he growled, putting the car in gear.
‘You’re the one who insisted we go out. I was happy mooching around your house...’
‘Mooching?’
‘You can work it out.’ She opened a button on her shirt—and it was her shirt. Kate had determined to take every one of the shirts she’d borrowed since her arrival in California with her as mementoes—and exposed her naked breasts. ‘Is it me or is it hot here?’
Two days of near constant lovemaking had completely opened Kate’s eyes to pleasure. If Leander was a willing teacher in the art of sensuality then she was a very enthusiastic, committed student. Who wanted to waste time browsing through shops when they could be in bed? There was little enough time left as it was...
He kept his gaze on the road in front of him. ‘If you are trying to distract me, it’s not going to work. I am taking you shopping, Kate, whether you like it or not.’
‘I thought billionaires brought the shops to them,’ she sulked.
‘I’m not buying for me, I’m buying for you, and there isn’t time to have you fitted and clothes made bespoke for you, not without employing an army to work around the clock on you, which will take up even more of our valuable time than going into Marina Sands and buying off the peg.’
She sighed and closed the shirt back up. ‘Leander, that’s very generous of you but I don’t need any clothes.’
He turned off his private driveway and onto the main road, changed gear and put his hand on her thigh. ‘Believe me, I prefer it when you don’t wear any clothes.’
She pushed his hand away and primly said, ‘Behave.’
Laughing, he captured her hand and brought it to his mouth so he could kiss her fingers. ‘I’m taking you out tomorrow night and as sexy as you look in my shirts, you will feel uncomfortable wearing one where we’re going.’
Her happy mood dimmed. ‘I don’t want to go out.’
‘Trust me, you’ll want to go where I’m taking you.’
‘But it’s...’ She couldn’t say it. Couldn’t say that it would be their last night together. To vocalise it would make it real. Instead, she said, ‘What if you’re recognised? You’re supposed to be on your honeymoon.’
It was the first time either of them had mentioned the elephant in the room since she’d agreed to stay. There had been no talk about either of their immediate futures at all. Kate’s only communication with Helena had been a message she’d sent soon after Leander had made love to her a second time, in which she’d been able to tell her friend truthfully that Leander had promised to return to Greece on Sunday. She’d received some praying emojis in return. Her only other communication had been to her mother, apologising that she wouldn’t be home until Sunday. That this would give Kate barely twenty-four hours with her family before her flight to Borneo was something she couldn’t bring herself to think about because since then it had been just her and Leander cocooned away from the real world, making love and just...being.
They had been the best days of her life and now, leaving the sanctuary of his home only brought home how fleeting the time they had together actually was.
‘Kate...’ It was his turn to sigh. ‘We’re safe here, I promise. The only local people I’ve become friendly with are surfers. No one here follows European tabloids. I’m just another rich guy.’
Accepting defeat, Kate closed her eyes and enjoyed the sensation of the breeze on her face. If they couldn’t be in bed together then just being with him was a perfect second best.
‘How did you get so rich?’ she asked idly as they rounded a sweeping bend. ‘Did you have lessons on it at school?’
He laughed. ‘Lots of components. Luck and timing played a big part.’
‘My dad always says people create their own luck.’
‘Your father makes a valid point. I’ve always had an aptitude for technology and I knew it was the most likely route for me to earn my fortune. When I launched the instant payment app there were three other similar apps in development that I knew of,’ Leander explained of the first app he’d created and developed. Its launch had launched his career and founded his wealth. ‘My product was better and the security aspect unsurpassable, but if I had made one wrong move or my rivals a better move I would have had to return home.’
‘It was all or nothing for you?’
‘I invested the entirety of the lump sum my parents gave me in it.’
‘So if it had failed you’d have lost everything?’
‘It made it easier to take the risk, knowing I had my family to fall back on.’
‘Would they have let you join the business seeing as you’d already walked away from it?’
‘I wouldn’t have joined the business. Shipping bores me. I’d have moved back into my childhood bedroom and found the money to open my own cocktail bar.’
Expecting her to laugh as most people did when he revealed his adolescent fantasy, a warmth filled his chest when she musingly said, ‘I can imagine you doing that.’
He pulled a face. ‘For real?’
‘You make excellent cocktails and you’re so outgoing and gregarious that people would flock to your bar.’ He could feel her eyes on him. ‘To be honest, I think it would suit you better than being a tech gazillionaire, and as you now are a gazillionaire, aren’t you ever tempted to just sell up and buy yourself that cocktail bar?’
‘I have wild moments when I fantasise about it,’ he admitted, turning into the main Marina Sands car park.
‘What’s stopped you? Surely you’ve proved everything you need to prove?’
He reversed into an empty bay. ‘I’ve never been out to prove anything.’
‘If you didn’t have something to prove you’d have used your parents’ money to open the cocktail bar and become one of those people who doodle their clever ideas on napkins in quiet times with reggae music in the background rather than make their clever ideas a reality.’
He turned the engine off. ‘There’s no money in cocktail bars. That’s why I went into technology.’
She unbuckled her seatbelt and leaned her face into his. ‘That’s my point, Mr Gazillionaire. You’re rich enough to live thousands of lives without running out of money. Retire. Open your cocktail bar. Doodle your clever ideas on napkins...’ Her eyes glittered. ‘Unless I’m right and you really are still set on proving that your decision to go your own way was the right choice.’
Astounded at her wild observation, Leander responded to the kiss Kate planted on his mouth automatically.
‘Let’s get this over with,’ she declared before flinging her door open.
She’d skipped round to his side of the car before he’d closed the door.
Shades on, hands tightly clasped, they made the short walk to the boulevard, their footsteps leaving indentations in the fine layer of sand covering all the roads and pathways. The breeze would wipe the indentations away by the time they returned to the car, he thought with a stab in his chest. Everything about him and Kate was impermanent, and he strongly suspected that it was the impermanency that made everything between them feel so intense and allowed him to fully commit the whole of himself to what they were sharing. Saying goodbye to Kate would be hard, he did not doubt it, but life was hard and he’d have the sweetest memories to remember her by. No regrets.
What they were sharing was perfect and their ending would be perfect too.
He could not bring himself to contemplate what came after they’d said goodbye.
They’d reached the wide tree-lined boulevard.
Kate’s eyes widened in amazement at the array of shops and cafés and the richly dressed people, many of them carrying or walking tiny dogs of a host of varieties, wandering in and out of them. ‘Is everyone who lives here rich?’
‘Not everyone. The surfers I’m friendly with share a one storey home on the beachfront that was inherited from Danny’s grandmother. They work the local bars and restaurants to pay their bills and spend the rest of their lives in the ocean.’
‘Was it the surfing that made you buy a property here?’ she asked as Leander stopped to check out the name of a boutique, remembering his complete mastery of the board he’d surfed the enormous waves on.
‘The surf and Marina Sands being only a short helicopter ride to San Francisco. I usually surf every day when I’m here.’
She adopted an innocent expression. ‘Then why has your wetsuit stayed dry these last few days?’
He caught her off-guard by hooking an arm around her waist and burying his face in her hair to whisper, ‘Because the competition between catching the surf or staying in bed with you is no competition at all.’
‘Then stop wasting time here and take me back to bed,’ she whispered back, gripping his hip and pressing herself into him. For the first time since they’d become lovers she was in the frustrating position of having to wait to act on her desires. And she wanted him all the time. Probably it was the strict time limit on what they had together at play, combined with her body making up for twenty-five—nearly twenty-six—years of chastity, together with the fact that Leander was a walking hunk of testosterone. She just could not believe how she’d spent that week in Greece with him, oblivious to how ruddy sexy he was...or wilfully ignoring it as she now accepted she’d done. The more they made love, the more she wanted to make love, her desire for him an ever-expanding hunger that could only be satisfied for short periods of time.
He growled quietly into her ear then brushed a kiss over her mouth. ‘Choose a dress and anything else you want and then we can go home. This is the shop I wanted to bring you to.’
In moments Kate was plunged into the alien world of what looked to her inexperienced eyes to be bohemian haute couture. She was quite sure she would normally be in raptures to be brought into a shop like this and told to choose anything she wanted, but right then she was having trouble keeping herself upright. The worst bit was the gleam in Leander’s eyes that told her he knew exactly the state he’d put her in.
The shop manager came to them. Leander gave his instructions—let Kate have anything she wanted—and then excused himself.
‘Where are you going?’ she asked, startled that he was leaving her.
‘Not far. I’ll be back before you’re finished.’
The plunge her heart made to see him walk out of the door...
In two days that walk out of the door would be permanent, a thought that made her heart plunge even deeper.
Breathing deeply to expel the sudden distress nibbling at her and telling herself firmly not to think beyond Sunday, Kate let the manager guide her through the array of beautiful clothes and lingerie. In the end it came down to three dresses that she couldn’t decide between, a handful of bras and three pairs of shoes to choose from, and the manager carried the items past an opulent waiting area and through to a dressing room that was like no dressing room she’d ever been in before. No dressing room she’d been in before was this private and plush and spacious and equipped with its own coffee machine with pods, bottles of water and a velvet sofa.
‘Shall I stay and help you dress?’ the manager asked.
‘I’m good, thanks.’ And also stark naked beneath the shirt, which wasn’t a problem as it practically reached her knees but still meant there was no way she was getting undressed with a stranger in the room.
Starting with the bras, each of which she guessed must cost what she’d spent her whole lifetime on bras, Kate was dismayed to find they all fit her perfectly and all felt glorious to wear. How on earth was she supposed to decide? She’d choose one of the dresses and then make her mind up. The first dress, a silk navy number with a plunging neckline, showed way too much flesh for her liking and didn’t need a bra but wanting to see it fully done up and unable to pull the zip all the way up by herself, she pressed the assistance buzzer.
In moments there was a knock on the door.
Opening it, she found Leander standing there.
His eyes locked onto hers. A sensuous smile playing on his lips, he took in the whole of her in one long sweep that sent her pulses surging. His tone one of the utmost deference and politeness, he said, ‘You rang for assistance, madam?’
She had to swallow a mouth filled with moisture to say, with equal politeness, ‘I need someone to do the zip up for me.’
‘May I help you in this matter? Or shall I call for the manager? I’m afraid it will be a few minutes before she can attend to you.’
She cleared her throat and raised her chin. ‘I’m afraid time is money and I don’t have the time to wait for her.’
A knowingness gleaming in his eyes, he stepped into the dressing room and locked the door.
Giving her another long, desiring sweep, he took a step towards her and straightened. ‘Turn around.’
Trembling with excitement and anticipation, Kate obeyed.
Her skin danced as his fingers plucked the zipper and slowly pulled it up.
A shiver she was helpless to do anything to stop raced up her spine. Somehow she managed to stay on her feet and turn back around to face him. ‘What do you think?’
Leander didn’t know what was the most beautiful aspect of the sight there before him. The melted jade of desire in Kate’s eyes, the heightened colour on her cheeks, or the skimpy dress that revealed more flesh than it covered.
Lightly slipping his fingers beneath the flimsy material barely covering her breasts, he pinched the erect nipple with the exact amount of pressure guaranteed to make her moan with pleasure.
‘I think,’ he said huskily, kneading the whole of her breast with his palm, ‘that if I take you out wearing this I’m going to be arrested for gross indecency.’
Eyes glazed, she made another mewing moan.
Placing a finger to her lips, he gently walked her backwards so her back was to the wall and rubbed his cheek against hers. ‘Don’t say another word,’ he whispered, reaching down to her thigh and skimming his fingers under the silk and up her inner thigh to cup her naked pubis.
Theós, she was already hot and sticky for him.
Without a single word being exchanged or item of clothing removed, he used his hand and fingers to bring her to the orgasm her body was telling him she was in desperate need of. He didn’t care that he would have to wait until they returned home for his own pleasure and release. Watching Kate climax was a hedonistic pleasure all in itself. Being the one to bring her to that climax...
Never had he been so fully attuned to another’s needs and desires. For the first time in his life, Leander understood the pleasure that came with giving without the expectation of receiving, and as she convulsed against him, mouth pressed into his neck to stifle her moans of ecstasy, he knew he could spend the whole of his life searching and never find another Kate.
After dissolving for Leander in the dressing room, Kate had been in no fit state to try the other dresses on and so Leander had firmly insisted on taking all three of them, along with the shoes, bras and their matching knickers. After arranging for them to be delivered to the house, he then insisted on stopping for a coffee before returning home, telling her that to travel all this way without experiencing anything of life in Marina Sands was criminal.
Now, seated on the terrace of a smart little café, looking out over the ocean that was such an intrinsic part of Marina Sands, feet pressed together, they sipped coffee and spooned slices of chocolate torte.
Kate couldn’t believe how happy she was. Ridiculously happy. So happy she was in danger of doing an injury to her cheek muscles.
‘It’s so peaceful here,’ she observed.
‘It is,’ he agreed. ‘Of all my homes, this location is one of my favourites.’
‘That’s a high accolade, considering the ruddy number of them.’
He grinned.
‘So which one is your favourite?’
‘Hmm... Impossible to decide. Marina Sands has the best surfing, New York has the best nightlife, Milan has the best shops. The Seychelles has the best snorkelling, Switzerland the best skiing—’
‘Switzerland wasn’t on my list of your properties,’ she interrupted.
‘I sold my original chalet last winter and only completed the purchase of the new one ten days ago.’
‘Klosters?’
‘Gstaad.’
‘Loads of the girls at my school used to have second homes in Klosters and Gstaad.’
‘Did you ever go?’
She shook her head. ‘My parents hated me being at boarding school. They wanted me home every weekend and the holidays. Not that I was ever asked to go.’ Only Helena had invited Kate places.
Helena’s name had barely been mentioned since they’d become lovers.
‘I remember you saying the school was in the next town to your home. Why did they let you board if they hated you being away from them?’
‘Because it made practical sense. The school days were long. My mum worked shifts so it would have been Dad doing all the running around.’
‘She’s a nurse?’ Leander remembered.
‘Yes.’
‘And your father’s an electrician?’
‘Yes. By the time he’d finished work and fought through rush hour traffic, the chances of him collecting me and getting me home before seven were slim. He’d have done it gladly and we’d have made it work if I hadn’t been awarded the full scholarship and had my boarding fees included. None of us expected that. The most we hoped for was to have my day fees paid for.’
‘Your parents sound like amazing people.’
‘They’re incredible. They’ve supported me in everything and in so many ways. “My brothers too, even though George teased me chronically about it when we were growing up.’
‘He’s the brother closest to you in age?’
‘An elephant would be jealous of your memory. George is three years older than me. He was always winding me up and telling me I was too thick to get the grades I needed and that I’d be lucky to get a job feeding animals. I swear, every time I opened any test or exam results, I’d imagine him laughing at me and saying I told you so if I’d failed.’ She sniggered. ‘Luckily, I was always able to wave my results in his face.’
‘Luck you created with your own hard work,’ he pointed out.
‘But with their support, and they all made sacrifices. There is no way on this earth that I would be flying to Borneo next week if not for the sacrifices they made. I mean, I only got a full scholarship because they paid for extra tuition so I could reach the needed standard and when I was there, there were always extras that needed paying for, and then more private tuition when I was struggling with my chemistry A level. All the money to pay for that came from Mum working extra shifts and Dad taking on extra clients, and my brothers accepting without any complaints that I was being given opportunities they hadn’t even dared to dream of having. They could easily have resented me but they never did. They just loved and supported me.’
‘Did you become so focused on your studies because you were afraid of letting them down?’ Leander asked. He just could not wrap his head around the lengths the entire Hawkins family had gone to pull together and help make the dream of a seven-year-old child come true.
She sighed and looked up at the sky. ‘I think,’ she said slowly, clearly thinking aloud, ‘that it was fear of their sacrifices going to waste that stopped me from throwing the towel in when things got really hard. They helped keep me motivated. I suppose my dream became their dream too.’
‘Do you ever think you would have chosen a different path if you weren’t so scared of letting them down?’
She looked back at him with surprise at the question. ‘Gosh, no. Honestly, I’ve never come across anything else where I’ve even wondered what it would be like to do. Apart from motor racing.’
He raised an eyebrow.
She grinned. My brothers are motor racing fanatics. Occasionally I’d have a wild daydream of getting behind the wheel of a Ferrari and leaving them all to dust but considering I’m a slower driver than my grandad, that’s a fantasy that’s never going to happen even if the opportunity arose.’
He grinned back and took her hand. ‘I suppose your family is already accustomed to the day you move continents?’
‘Oh, yes. They’ve had nearly twenty years to get used to the idea of me going. It’ll still be a wrench, I know that, but we’ll video call regularly and I get a return flight home for Christmas each year as part of my contract, so it’s not as if I’m completely disappearing from their lives. And they can come and visit me too. We’ve always managed to work it out.’
‘That’s good.’
But it only served to remind Leander that he’d left Greece and moved continents having given his twin only a week’s notice. He’d left knowing that taking his freedom would compromise their relationship but not the extent that compromise would take.
He hadn’t known it would end with him losing Leo. Losing the other half of himself.
Memories suddenly flooded him from nowhere, of all the times they’d switched identities in their childhood, in the days before Leander had grown to resent not having an identity that was entirely his own...
Kate’s toes prodded into his foot. ‘Earth to Leander.’
He caught her eye and smiled ruefully. ‘I was just thinking about your family having all those years to prepare for you leaving. It made me think of my parents when I took the cash and their lack of surprise. Looking back, I think they already knew what I’d do.’
‘It was just Leo who hadn’t known?’
Frustration had him shaking his head. ‘Of course he knew. We come from the same egg. He knew me better than anyone in the world. He just refused to see or acknowledge it.’
‘He might have suspected but if you didn’t actually tell him...’ Her words trailed off with a light but sympathetic shrug.
He drained his coffee. ‘He knew but he didn’t want to see.’ And in truth, he had gone to great lengths to hide his real intentions from Leo, doing everything to delay the day when he would have to loosen the bond between them and break his brother’s heart.
‘And you knew but refused to say, and then when it came to the business being in trouble the roles were reversed, with Leo refusing to accept your support and you refusing to accept that he needed you to force it on him. For twins who have absolutely nothing in common, I’m getting the feeling that you both suffer from a huge dose of too much pride and stubbornness.’
For the first time since they’d become lovers Leander felt a kernel of anger unfurl at Kate. But then he saw the soft understanding in her eyes and the anger evaporated as quickly as it had formed. He’d brought the subject up, not Kate and if her observations felt a little close to the bone...
‘I’m not judging you,’ she said quietly, reaching over the table for his hand. ‘I just think it’s sad that you’ve lost so many years together.’ Pulling his hand to her mouth, she pressed a kiss to it before a spark rang out in her stare. ‘Ready to take me home, Mr Gazillionaire?’
That was better. Desire was much easier to handle than talk of ancient history, and his desire for Kate was seemingly limitless.
Kate’s relief when Leander leaned over the table to kiss her and murmur, ‘More than ready, my pixie princess,’ was physical in its intensity. She’d seen his flare of anger at her comment over something that was, when all was said and done, none of her business.
All the same, walking back to the car, hands clasped, easy conversation flowing, she couldn’t help thinking about how much courage it must have taken for Leander to pick up the phone to his brother to ask for his help last Saturday.