Chapter Two #2
But this was different. Hope had no strategic importance to him. And yet she slept in his presence, probably one of the most vulnerable things someone could do with another person.
He found he didn’t dislike it…
As if sensing his regard she stirred now and those eyelashes fluttered and her eyelids opened.
He could see that it took her a moment to orient herself and then she looked at him and those eyes widened and two spots of pink came into her cheeks.
She scrambled upright and looked for her shoes.
‘I’m so sorry, Mr Drakos, I must have been more tired than I thought. ’
‘It’s quite all right.’
She seemed to realise then that the car had stopped. ‘Oh, we’re here, at my apartment.’
It was a quiet, if shabby square. Once elegant town houses were now flats. She put her hand on the door handle and said, ‘Thank you for going out of your way to bring me home, Mr Drakos. I really appreciate it.’
Axel’s driver had stepped out of the car and he came forward now when the car door started to open. As the door opened Axel heard himself saying, ‘My name is Axel.’
She had one leg half out of the car, the tight skirt stretching over her supple thighs.
She was so petite, Axel could reach for her right now and lift her onto his lap, pull her skirt up so she could straddle him.
He wanted to feel the hot slick centre of her body against his aching cock.
He wanted to have her. It was wild and urgent. Unlike anything he’d felt before.
‘I…um, I think I prefer Mr Drakos, if that’s all right.’
Axel watched, slightly dumbfounded, as she got out of the car. His driver shut the door and she was now at the bottom of her steps with her small wheelie suitcase beside her.
Galvanised by a compulsion too strong to ignore, Axel was out of the car and picking up Hope’s case. She looked up at him. ‘Mr Drakos, I can take it from here.’
Axel knew he was behaving totally out of character but he could no more get back into his car and drive away than he could stop breathing. ‘It’s fine, lead the way.’
She hurried up the steps to the front door and had to jiggle the key a few times until it opened.
A sensor light came on overhead, harsh and bright, revealing a wide hallway that had seen better days.
Paint peeling from the walls. Post strewn on a table.
A bashed up pram in one corner. A dubious smell of something like stewed cabbage.
Hope was standing outside a door at the other end of the hallway. Axel noted that she really was extraordinarily pretty.
‘This is me.’
Axel knew that this was the point where he had to leave. He was being weird. And he did not act weirdly. He did not act on compulsions. He did not offer staff lifts home in his car. He did not accompany staff members to their front doors like this.
There was something about this woman that had caught at him the moment he’d seen her. That lack of artifice. The way she looked at him, awed but also not cowed. The way she’d slept in his presence, showing a level of trust that was alien to him.
She was utterly unique and like no one he’d ever been with before. And in that moment he made a split-second decision. He said, ‘There’s something I’d like to discuss with you. A business proposition.’
* * *
Hope looked at her boss. Her big, crazily, outlandishly gorgeous Greek boss. She couldn’t quite believe he was here in her hallway under harsh unforgiving lighting that did absolutely nothing to diminish his appeal. If anything, it made him look even more otherworldly.
She didn’t know this man but she sensed that what was happening was not usual for him.
He wasn’t made for standing in run-down hallways in North London.
He was made for boardrooms where squillions of dollars or pounds or euros were being discussed.
Or glittering ballrooms where people were dressed in beautiful clothes sipping sparkling wine.
Then something struck her and she straighted her spine. ‘I don’t know what kind of impression I might have given you, Mr Drakos—’ no way was she calling him Axel ‘—but I am not available for after-hours services.’
He looked at her for a long moment and then he blinked. And then he seemed to rear back and he said, ‘Do you really think that I’m here to seduce you?’
Hope felt her whole body flush with the heat of mortification. Of course he hadn’t followed her in here to take advantage. There was probably some slinky supermodel waiting for him in a penthouse apartment somewhere. Pride emanated from every rigid line of his body.
She swallowed. ‘Sorry, um, I’m just a bit confused as to what on earth I could possibly do for you.’
There was a sound of a door opening and closing upstairs. Footsteps. He said, ‘Can we talk privately, please? It’ll only take a few minutes.’
Hope nodded and opened her front door and went inside. It was dark; her flatmate must still be at work. She flicked on some lights and the usual sense of pride she felt at her very modest but homely and welcoming flat was diminished somewhat by the great hulking shape of her boss in the doorway.
She stood back. ‘Please, come in.’
He stepped inside, immediately making the flat look tiny around him.
He put her small suitcase down. She noted that he pushed the door to but didn’t close it completely and something about that little consideration for her sense of safety made her feel even more embarrassed at misreading the situation.
And then she remembered her manners. ‘Can I get you anything? Water? Coffee?’
He had been looking around the room and now he looked back at her. ‘No, thank you, I have a dinner to get to.’
He probably didn’t want to risk her ruining another set of clothes. ‘Of course. What is it you’d like to discuss?’
‘The fact is that I need a woman by my side for the next few weeks who can pretend to be my…girlfriend.’
The way he’d said girlfriend would have Hope believe he’d never actually uttered the word before. He said nothing more. Just looked at her. Waiting. And then she seemed to break out of her stasis. ‘Oh my God, you’re serious.’
* * *
Of course, he was serious. Axel Drakos was never anything but serious. That struck him now as something not necessarily to be proud of but he pushed it aside.
Hope’s eyes were wide. Her mouth open. She shut it again as if aware she was gaping. And then opened it again. ‘I…don’t understand, why are you telling me this?’
Axel was reminded again that what he was doing was way out of character for him, but he also knew with well-honed instincts that she was the right person.
She was unknown in his world. He could be pretty certain that, unless she was an Oscar-winning actress in disguise, she wasn’t interested in pursuing him.
Oh, he’d seen the flare of awareness in her eyes, but she’d shut it down again. She hadn’t capitalised on it, as most women did.
‘I’m telling you this because I’d like to offer you the job.’
She blinked. Long lashes screening those huge blue eyes for a moment. ‘But I have a job.’
‘Look at it as a promotion.’
He could see she was struggling to understand. He helped her. ‘The fact is that until very recently I was due to be engaged to a woman and that relationship has irrevocably broken down.’
Axel had a moment of thinking of Callista with her well-honed body, surgically enhanced face and designer style.
He felt not even an atom of remorse. In fact, he felt something like relief now.
As if a burden was lifting. And something else, a frisson of excitement.
Things in Axel’s life rarely deviated from the projected trajectory and it was like a door opening onto an unexpected vista he’d never considered before.
Hope said, ‘I’m sorry to hear that.’
Axel was a little horrified by the genuine compassion in her eyes. He shook his head. ‘Don’t be. The engagement was never officially announced and she’ll have moved on by now, believe me.’
Hope looked as if she was struggling to understand. ‘But you must have felt something for her?’
‘No, I really didn’t. We were promised to each other from a young age. I liked her enough to accept that marriage arrangement, but that was before the full extent of her extracurricular activities became apparent.’
‘But obviously she was your lover?’ Hope blushed. ‘I’m sorry, that’s none of my business.’
Axel wasn’t remotely fazed by her question. ‘We had been together in the past briefly. Enough to know that we could consummate the marriage and have children.’
‘It all sounds so…soulless and clinical.’
Axel shrugged. ‘It’s how it happens in my world. It’s necessary, when there are huge fortunes and legacies to protect and nurture for the next generation. We would have subtly taken lovers on the side if we’d so wished. But after what happened, I know she can’t be trusted to be discreet.’
‘It sounds like legacy and status are more important than anything else.’
‘In my world, they are. And to that end, I have an important deal I want to secure and for that I need to appear…as settled as possible.’
She shook her head. ‘Don’t you have someone else you can call on? A…mistress-type person?’ She lifted her chin. ‘I’m not completely naive. I know how the world works.’
Axel felt his mouth twitch. ‘And yet you were just feeling sorry for me because you thought my engagement was a love story.’
Two spots of pink came into her cheeks. She folded her arms. ‘Believe me, I’m catching on fast.’
That was another reason she was perfect. She was quick and bright and light. An unnerving revelation.
‘There are women I could ask, yes, but they would see it as an opportunity to demand more.’
‘More?’
‘A relationship. Possibly even marriage.’
‘And you don’t want that.’
‘I don’t want a relationship. I will need a marriage at some point. I will have to have a wife, and heirs.’
‘You mean children.’