CHAPTER NINE
KATEWOKETO the most delicious sensation of Leander covering her face in featherlight kisses.
‘Time to wake up, sleepyhead,’ he murmured, gently biting her earlobe.
Flinging her arms around him and trying to hook her legs around his waist, she was chagrined to find his arousal contained beneath a pair of shorts, and opened one eye to scowl at him.
His smile was knowing and seductive before he kissed her deeply. He tasted of toothpaste. He smelled clean.
‘You had a shower without me,’ she accused when he pulled his mouth from hers.
‘That’s because you were snoring so loudly I thought you needed the sleep,’ he teased.
‘Oh, no, was I doing my warthog impression?’
‘You were. It was torture to my ears.’ He kissed her again then shifted out of her arms and out of her reach so quickly she was forced to scowl her disappointment at him again.
Grinning, he whistled as he walked to the other end of the bedroom.
Kate lifted her head and her mood perked up to see him pick up a breakfast tray and carry it over to her. Catching the scent of bacon sent off a hunger pang and she quickly decided to wolf down the food and then get those shorts off him.
He lifted a silver lid to reveal a mound of bacon sandwiches.
She beamed her pleasure and scrambled to sit upright, holding the bedsheets under her arms so she didn’t get crumbs over herself. A bacon sandwich was her all-time favourite breakfast food.
He placed the tray on her lap with a flourish and perched on the edge of the bed beside her. Along with the sandwiches were two flutes of what looked like diluted fizzy orange juice and two cups of coffee.
‘Before you start...’ he said, raising one of the flutes. ‘To your health.’
Bemused, Kate tapped the other flute to his and, thirsty, tipped the contents down her throat. The last thing she expected was for it to contain alcohol. ‘What is that?’ she spluttered.
‘Bucks Fizz,’ he said smugly.
‘Bucks Fizz for breakfast?’
He simply grinned, helped himself to a sandwich, and took a huge bite.
Biting into her own, Kate had another of those sensations like she’d had in the café the day before, where she’d felt she might actually burst with happiness.
Between them, they demolished the mound, and when they’d finished their drinks, Leander took the tray back to the table on the other side of the room.
Flicking the stray crumbs away, Kate threw the sheets off her and leaned back to welcome him into her arms.
That knowing, seductive gleam she so adored in his eyes, he stalked towards her but, before she could grab at him, he stopped and dug into his shorts pocket.
Her mouth fell open when he produced a square gift-wrapped box that fit perfectly in the palm of his huge hand.
Heart suddenly thrashing, she looked from the box to his gorgeous face and scrambled upright.
‘Happy birthday, agápi mou.’
Utterly gobsmacked, she could only stare at him.
‘Go on,’ he chided, sitting beside her. ‘Open it.’
She shook her head, not in refusal but disbelief. ‘How did you know?’ She’d been so caught up in the magic that was Leander that she’d barely given her birthday a thought. The times it had crossed her mind, she’d determined not to tell him, thinking it would sound needy to casually drop it into the conversation, like she was angling for a gift.
‘When you mentioned being the youngest in your school year it reminded me that Helena turned down a night out with me for your birthday last year. She wouldn’t let me gate-crash.’ Leander had to force a smile at the memory; force it because now that he was thinking of it, it came to him all the different turns his life could have taken if he’d met Kate a year ago, before Helena had needed to get her hands on her inheritance. There would have been nothing to stop him and Kate—
Blinking the errant thought away, he added, ‘I got my PA to go through my schedule for when I visited London last summer.’
She shook her head again and tucked a lock of hair behind an adorable sticky-out ear. ‘Is this why you disappeared yesterday?’
‘Well detected,’ he said with forced lightness; this time forced because it had just dawned on him that he’d never bought a gift for a lover before. Not personally. Usually he got Sheree to do it for him.
It hadn’t crossed his mind to get Sheree to organise Kate’s present for him. He’d wanted to go into the stores and choose the perfect gift for her himself. He’d already had in mind what he would get her. It had been sheer luck that he’d found it so quickly.
‘Are you going to open it or were my efforts for nothing?’
If Kate had thought she was happy before, it had nothing on the joy zipping through her veins now. Plucking the box from his hand, she tugged at the ribbon wrapped around it and carefully laid it on the bedside table. She would take it with her as another memento. Then, carefully peeling at the tiny heart-shaped sticker holding the beautiful gift-wrapping in place at its base, she flattened it out to reveal a black jewellery box.
Her heart punched into her ribs and suddenly she found herself as terrified to look at Leander as she was to open the box.
Pulses racing madly, she pinched the tiny clasp on the box with shaking hands and had to snatch a breath before she could bring herself to open the lid.
She had no idea if it was relief or dejection that slammed into her when she caught sight of the sparkling contents.
Nestled snugly in the box was a pair of diamond stud earrings.
Leander could hardly breathe as he waited for Kate to respond. He was used to lovers being profusive in their thanks and adoration of his gifts. Too profusive. As if that was what they thought he expected. And maybe he had expected that kind of response. Become so used to the monetary value being praised—he was always generous with what he told Sheree to spend—that the lack of meaning behind any of the gifts hadn’t mattered in the slightest.
Kate was different. This gift was different.
This gift mattered.
‘I remembered you saying you didn’t think it would be safe to wear anything but ear studs in your new job,’ he said into the silence.
Her eyes lifted to his.
His chest tightened to see the sheen in them.
‘You should be able to wear these all the time. If you want,’ he added.
‘Oh, I want,’ she whispered. Blinking back tears, Kate gazed again at the diamonds shining so brightly under the morning light then leaned into him and palmed his stubbly cheek. ‘Thank you. They’re just beautiful. Perfect. I’ll wear them always.’
Emotion threatening to explode out of her, she pressed her mouth to his, sliding her hand round to cup the back of his head and deepen the kiss, fighting even harder against the encroaching tears.
Kate replied to the message from the head of the plane’s cabin crew and then messaged her mother.
Her heart felt so heavy she could feel its weight all the way down to her toes.
Putting her phone on the ledge, she carefully applied the mascara and lipstick she’d dug out from the bottom of her handbag and stepped back to look at herself properly.
It was for the best that they were going out, she thought morosely as she attempted a smile for the bathroom mirror. She would still be with Leander but with a new setting and probably people to help distract her from the dread that had been steadily growing in her that day. Since the messages with the flight crew started, the dread had accelerated.
Go out on a high, she told herself, giving her hair one more brush and tucking one side behind her ear. The diamond studs sparkled in her lobes. Under certain angles and lights the diamonds gave the illusion of being shaped like roses.
The earrings were simple, practical and utterly exquisite. She would cherish them for the rest of her life and try to forget that brief moment when she’d held her breath in a combination of dread and excitement that the box contained a ring.
She stepped from the bathroom to the bedroom at the same moment Leander entered the room, dressed for their night out in a tailored dark blue suit with a pale blue shirt unbuttoned at the throat.
Just the sight of him lifted her weighted heart. Kate had only seen him wear a suit once, her second night in California when she’d still believed he loathed her and had been coming to terms with her mushrooming attraction to him. She’d acknowledged to herself the suaveness of Leander in a suit but, being so intent at the time on not letting her feelings for him show, hadn’t fully acknowledged the full sexiness of Leander in a suit. In truth, Leander was just sexy, whatever he wore and whatever he didn’t wear. He was even sexy in his sleep.
She was going to miss him desperately.
His gleaming dark eyes slowly looked her up and down. He gave a low whistle. ‘Theós, Kate. You look wonderful.’
All she needed was a crown to sit on her blonde hair and she’d be his pixie princess come to life, Leander thought, although he was quite sure pixies weren’t famed for being irresistibly sexy. He could laugh. Of the three dresses from the boutique, she’d chosen to wear the least revealing of them. Created with large black and red embroidered roses interlinked with red lace, the long-sleeved dress scooped across her collarbone and fell to just above her knees. On her feet were sandals held together with a thin black strap across the toes and another around her ankles. The heels were high enough to elevate her so the top of her head almost reached his chin. Without them, she barely reached his shoulders.
The least revealing dress and already his loins were tightening with anticipation of stripping it off her.
Kate could wear sackcloth and she’d still be irresistible to him.
About to haul her into his arms and show her just how irresistible she was, he caught a bleakness in her stare. ‘What’s wrong?’
She gave a tight-lipped smile and a small shrug. ‘I need to leave earlier than I thought tomorrow.’
‘When?’
‘I need to be in the air by eleven.’
There was a sinking sensation in the pit of his stomach. ‘In the morning?’ They’d made loose plans to leave for Europe simultaneously late afternoon.
She nodded forlornly. ‘I’d forgotten to factor in the time difference between California and England. I’m being collected at ten. If my flight leaves here by eleven, I’ll land around five Monday morning British time. I’ll be lucky to make it home before six. I’ll only have a few hours left to sort myself out before I head back to the airport and I’ve got so much I need to do and people to say goodbye to.’ Another forlorn smile. ‘I knew all the travelling I did coming to find you had screwed my sense of time but hadn’t realised how badly.’
Finding his lungs had tightened, Leander stroked her soft cheek and grazed a kiss to her sweet mouth, inhaling the scent of her skin to loosen his airways. They’d known from the outset that their time together was limited so it was futile to waste the hours they had left envisaging the moment they had to say goodbye. ‘It is only a few hours earlier. If we forget about sleeping tonight we won’t lose any time.’
Her lips relaxed into a smile against his. ‘I like your way of thinking.’
He slid a hand around her slender back to clasp a peachy buttock. ‘And I like that you like it.’ Not wanting to ruin her lipstick, he restrained himself to another light kiss before taking her hand and stepping back. ‘Come on, birthday girl. Let’s go and celebrate while the night is still young.’
Leander sat in the back of the car with Kate’s hand clasped in his, her head resting against his shoulder and her sweet scent filling his senses, trying to tune out that this was their last night together. Trying but not succeeding.
The healing wound on her knee was a reminder of how close he’d come to escaping her. If she hadn’t tripped, he would have got in his car. He would never have experienced the hedonistic joy of making love to her.
Someone else would have shared her first time with her.
As some point in her future, someone else would take his place.
He wanted that for her, he told himself firmly. Kate had an earthy, sexual side to her nature and now that it had been unleashed, it was unreasonable to imagine she would leave California and be satisfied with a life of celibacy.
For all that he tried to make himself sound reasonable in his own thoughts, Leander didn’t deny that knowing she’d be living and working in such a remote location and so would have limited opportunities to meet potential lovers made it easier to have his reasonable thoughts, but that only set his mind racing to her colleagues, the people she would live and work with. What if one of them swept Kate off her feet? A likeminded colleague she could have not only as a lover but build a life with. Maybe marry. Have children...
‘You’re hurting my hand.’ Kate’s murmured voice cut through his thoughts.
Realising he’d been squeezing too tightly, he immediately loosened his hold and kissed her delicate fingers in apology. ‘Sorry.’
Concern shone in her eyes. ‘Are you okay? You’ve been very quiet.’
He forced a smile. ‘Just exercising my brain cells...and we’re almost there. Look.’
Figuring that he’d share what was on his mind in his own time, not daring to think that time might have run out for them before that happened, Kate followed his stare. Excitement pushed much of the melancholy out of her and she opened her window to see more clearly, taking in the enormous fairground on the pier they were passing far to her left, the high rides aglow in neon colours illuminating the dark. She could almost hear the screams of the thrill-seekers, practically taste the scent of doughnuts and candyfloss.
Exactly twenty minutes after they’d set out from Leander’s home, the driver took a right turn onto a wide street lined by high buildings with architecture that made her think of Spanish cities and soon they were crawling down what was obviously a theatre district, the pavements packed with people in various guises of dress, from haute couture to wacky, a smorgasbord of visual delight.
The car stopped.
‘We’re going to watch a show?’ Kate asked.
He tapped her nose lightly. ‘In a way. You’ll see.’
Stepping out of the car and breathing in the energy of the place was enough to zap the last of the melancholy out of her.
This was her last night with Leander. It was her birthday. What kind of masochist would she be if she didn’t make the most of every last minute with him?
Grinning, she raised herself onto her toes and planted a kiss to his mouth. ‘Thank you.’
‘Don’t thank me yet—you don’t know where we’re going.’
‘I don’t have to know that to know I’ll enjoy it.’ Leander had taken her to a variety of places during her time on his family’s Greek island and she’d loved all of them. Loved them because he’d been with her with his infectious good humour. Leander could take her on a date to an academic library and she’d still adore every moment.
‘No pressure for me then,’ he observed with a flash of his teeth, taking hold of her hand.
With a giggle, she happily let him lead her to a narrow arched door that, in comparison to the other doors along this street, was nondescript, a simple non-neon flashing sign above it in italics: Trevis. Leander had his phone ready and showed whatever was expected to a burly bouncer who nodded them through with wishes for them to have a good evening.
There was nothing nondescript about the interior.
There was a fleeting moment when Kate thought she’d travelled back in time and that Marilyn Monroe or Audrey Hepburn or Bette Davis would sashay down the golden cantilevered stairs, a sense that if she breathed in hard enough she’d be able to smell decades-old cigars and Scotch.
Around them, treading on the thick maroon carpet, were dozens of people dressed so glamorously she could believe they were at a movie awards ceremony. Everything in this reception room screamed glamour, from the golden chandeliers to the art deco artwork to the waiting staff hovering semi discreetly with trays of canapés and champagne.
Catching Leander’s stare, she laughed. ‘What is this place?’
‘A private theatre.’
‘So we are watching a show?’
He grinned, caught the eye of a waitress and plucked two flutes of champagne from her tray. After tapping their glasses together, he led Kate through the milling crowd and down wide marble steps into a vast auditorium. Where rows of seats would normally be at the front of the stage were dozens and dozens of tables already filled with yet more glamorous people.
An official greeted them. After Leander again showed his phone, they were taken to a table for two only feet away from the stage.
What followed was the most surreal yet entertaining show Kate had ever been to, an immersive mystical acrobatic cabaret like nothing she’d ever seen, with black magic and comedy that made her gasp and laugh and hide behind her hands, often all at the same time. Throughout it, course after course of beautifully presented and delicious-tasting food, champagne and cocktails were served to them. Kate was so enthralled with what was happening both on the stage and above them that she could have been eating cardboard for all the attention she paid to it.
By the time the finale came, she was giddy with the joy of it all and so at first didn’t realise that the acrobat dressed as a water nymph swinging on a giant gold hoop suspended from the ceiling held a cake in her nimble hands, not until the hoop was lowered and the nymph, to loud screams of delight from the audience, swung upside down and expertly dropped the cake on their table. She had barely clocked the iced Happy Birthday Kate inscription and array of candles before the pièce de résistance came. For as long as Kate lived, she would never work out how she did it but the nymph exhaled and lit the candles with her breath of fire.
To see the awed wonder on Kate’s face made the hours Leander was forgoing that could have been spent in bed with her worth it. To have those jade eyes lock with his and feel the emotion shining from them...
She kissed him on the mouth. ‘Thank you,’ she said reverently, squeezing his fingers threaded through hers.
He kissed her back. ‘My pleasure. Blow your candles out.’
Smoothing her hair away from her face, she extinguished the candles with one long breath then beamed at him and shook her head. ‘How did you do all this?’
He gave a modest shrug that made her laugh. ‘However you pulled it off, thank you.’
‘I don’t sleep as much as you,’ he teased by way of explanation.
Her eyes gleamed. ‘Then you must be running on no sleep at all.’
‘The time we’ve had together has been worth any lost sleep.’
‘I’ll drink to that.’ She lifted her cocktail to him.
Clinking his champagne to it, they finished their drinks in unison.
Glasses placed back on the table, Leander covered her hand and leaned his face close to hers. ‘I wanted to give you a night to remember me by.’ As he spoke, the sinking sensation in his stomach of earlier returned and it took all his control not to let his fingers tighten their grip on her delicate hand the way they reflexively wanted to.
Soon, this delicate hand would be working on giant apes and the hardworking, learned brain in Kate’s beautiful head fully focused on her orphaned orange patients, and he, Leander, would be nothing but a distant memory to her.
He’d never felt the need to create memories with anyone before.
The lightness of her features dimmed a touch before she laughed. ‘Then consider your plan a success because this is easily the best night out I’ve ever had and hands down the best birthday.’
All around them, the crowd rose, clapping and whistling enthusiastically as the performers took to the stage for the adulation and applause they’d worked so hard for, and Kate rose with them. Putting her fingers in her mouth, she wolf-whistled loudly and grinned widely at Leander’s admiration, her grin almost splitting her face when he put his own fingers in his mouth and followed suit.
The giddy joy of the evening had turned into a fizzing sensation in her veins, and when Leander asked if she wanted to check out the private nightclub on the top floor and she glanced at the time and saw they still had a maximum twelve hours left together, she happily clutched his hand and walked with him back into the reception and up the cantilevered stairs.
The top floor was a warren of corridors and doors but the nightclub was easy to find by following the throbbing music.
Kate could feel the throbs deep in her fizzing veins and when they entered the darkened room with its glamorous maroon and gold sensual vibe, and they both drank a glass of champagne before heading onto the hardwood floor, she wound her arms around Leander’s neck and thought that if she hadn’t had that minor panic attack before her final exams and begged off that night out with Helena and so met Leander back then, her life might have taken a very different direction.
He wouldn’t have been promised to Helena then. Kate would have met him safe in the knowledge that Helena was playing cupid. Her time at university almost over, she would have looked at him with her mind already open to possibilities, and she’d have been sunk. She saw that clearly. If she’d met Leander back when Helena had tried to fix them up, she would have found him irresistible from the off. She saw clearly, too, that if he’d fixed those dark brown eyes on her the way they were fixed on her now, she would have fallen for him. He would have filled her opened mind to the point where he was all she could think about and she would have failed her finals.
And if he’d taken her dancing and held her the way he was holding her now, with the scent of his warm skin and cologne darting through her senses, she would have fallen in love with him and given up her dreams of Borneo to be his for ever.