Chapter Two #3
Axel frowned. ‘Yes, that’s another way of putting it.
’ But he’d never thought about children in the sense of having them for any reason other than to inherit the Drakos legacy, as he’d done.
He had, however, always vowed to do better by his children than his own parents had.
At least foster a sense of unity and cohesion.
He certainly wouldn’t value any child less for having a learning disability.
‘The woman I was going to marry, we were due to announce the engagement very soon, which would have coincided with the event I will be attending in a little under two weeks hosted by the man I’m interested in doing business with.
He’s notoriously conservative. He values stability and family and sees that as an indicator of someone worth investing in. ’
He continued, ‘Personally I think he’s stuck in his ways. We all know that there are many forms of family and that sometimes the ones that appear most perfect on the surface are the most rotten.’
‘How do you even know if I’m single?’ Hope asked.
Axel looked at her. The question had been light, almost offhand, but he sensed something underneath.
Something spikier. He had made an assumption and she was calling him on it.
He also didn’t like to acknowledge how the thought of her having a lover or boyfriend made him feel a strong sense of rejection.
‘I’m sorry, I should have thought to ask.’
She looked mollified, and then, something else, self-conscious. ‘Well, I am actually single. I don’t have a partner. Or anyone, for that matter. No parents, brothers or sisters.’
Axel absorbed this. But before he could respond she was adding, ‘That’s not entirely accurate. I could have lots of family out there somewhere, but I have no idea. You see, I was left on the steps of a hospital by my mother as a newborn baby.’
She said this with such matter-of-factness that for a second Axel didn’t even take in the magnitude of what she was saying. She wasn’t looking for sympathy. She was just stating a factual situation.
Also, for some reason the image of her as a tiny baby being just…dumped…made him feel slightly winded.
Then she went pink. ‘I’m sorry, I don’t know why I told you all that—when you mentioned how important family is to this guy I thought maybe I’m not so appropriate. If he found out, it could negatively impact your chances of impressing him.’
Axel was surprised at the surge of forceful desire to protect her from anyone’s judgement. ‘But you didn’t choose that situation.’
* * *
Hope couldn’t quite believe the conversation she was having with this man.
And that she’d just told him of her very pathetic start in life.
But she’d felt the need to say something to shock him out of this…
crazy notion that she could somehow pretend to be…
his. It was a dangerous notion because he’d just told her he didn’t believe in sentiment and yet the idea of being aligned with him was sending all sorts of roller-coaster sensations to her gut. And making her heart pound.
‘We’d look ridiculous,’ she blurted out. Surely at any moment she’d wake up and this would have all been a very surreal dream?
He was frowning now. ‘Why do you say that?’
Hope unfolded her arms where they’d been welded across her chest and threw a hand out in his direction. ‘Because you’re…ridiculously good-looking and tall and…all that and I’m very very ordinary.’
She glared at him now, irritated that he was here invading her peace and saying all this nonsense and making her think of things she’d never thought of, like being with this man in a way that would give her permission to walk beside him. Maybe even touch him.
‘My name is Axel.’ He might as well have said my name is Gandalf.
She wouldn’t be using it. As if the ignomy of her birth weren’t enough—she knew very well where her lane in life was.
She had come from nothing, literally, and she was proud of the fact that she was supporting herself and saving for her dreams, modest as they were.
She wanted to put down roots and have a home to call her own, where she wasn’t at the mercy of outside forces.
She’d never shown any great academic aptitude, which might have offered her more options, and she was OK with that. She most certainly was not the type of woman who inspired men like Axel Drakos to take a moment out of their day to—
‘Why do you say you’re ordinary? Do you think I’d be here if you were?’
Hope felt a little jolt deep inside and it scared her, because she recognised how easy it would be to let this man’s attention fool her into believing she was somehow special. If she was so special then why had her mother abandoned her and why had she bounced around foster homes all her life?
She looked at him suspiciously. ‘I’m not being funny, Mr Drakos, but are you sure you didn’t get a knock on the head earlier? Maybe from the vase?’
She cursed her stupid idea to put a flower in a vase on a tray for his lunch. She should have listened to George.
But he was shaking his head and looking mildly amused. Lord. That didn’t help the roller-coaster sensations in her belly. ‘No, I can assure you my head is perfectly intact.’
She pointed out a little desperately, ‘You’re extremely tall, and I am much smaller. We simply don’t match.’
He looked around him then, as if searching for something, and he asked, ‘Do you have a mirror?’
Hope had decided to give up trying to keep a hold of her sanity at this point. ‘Sure… In the hallway between the bedrooms.’
She walked around him and turned on the overhead light in the small hallway. She pointed to the chipped and mottled mirror that she and her flatmate, Claire, used. ‘Here you go.’
Maybe he was really vain and he had to check his appearance and then Hope could realise that actually he wasn’t remotely attractive—
‘Have you got a pair of high heels?’
Hope stuck out her foot with its court-heeled shoe. He glanced down and back up and said, ‘Higher than that.’
Hope didn’t have a huge array of shoes but her flatmate did, so she went into her bedroom and picked out a pair of eye-wateringly high stilletos. She held them out. ‘Will these do?’
‘Can you put them on for me? I want to demonstrate something.’
Hope slipped off the court shoes and lifted each foot in turn to put on the high heels. She stood in them and almost felt dizzy, they were so high. Axel Drakos came and stood beside her and said, ‘Look in the mirror.’
Hope did and what she saw gave her another jolt.
With the shoes she came up to Drakos’s shoulder so she didn’t look so minute in comparison.
She looked very blonde and pale next to him but she didn’t look…
totally out of place. In fact, next to him she seemed to stand straighter.
They were light and dark but it was a contrast that made her wonder what her skin would look like next to his.
She shook her head to dislodge such disturbing ideas and addressed Drakos’s reflection in the mirror. ‘I’m not sure where you’re going with this, Mr Drakos.’
‘Axel.’
‘I can’t call you that. It feels way too inappropriate.’
‘It’s not inappropriate at all. And as you can see, we match up better than you think. I’m hoping that next time you’re on that plane it’ll be as my guest.’