Chapter Three #3
She raised her eyeline to find Axel Drakos looking at her and as breathtakingly gorgeous as she remembered. More so. Here in his own milieu.
She made her muscles move and stood back. ‘I… Hello, come in.’ To your own guest suite in your own house.
But he didn’t come in. He said, ‘Actually, if you don’t mind coming downstairs to my office? We can discuss the specifics of this arrangement there.’
‘Of course.’ Hope followed his long-legged pace back down to the reception level. His scent tickled her nostrils—the same tantalising scent as yesterday. Leather and musk and something indefinable. Him. He moved with loose-limbed grace and Hope had to trot to keep up.
He didn’t bring her into the room she’d spied before, it was another room tucked down another corridor off the main hall.
Hope gasped again when she walked in. His office had to take up most of an entire ground-floor wing of the house.
Bookshelves lined walls stuffed with books.
Huge French doors opened directly out onto the back lawns.
His desk was massive, and there was a leather couch at the other end of the room with a TV mounted onto the wall showing a news channel on mute. Newspapers were strewn across a coffee table.
Beautiful oriental rugs adorned the parquet floor.
‘Is this your office in London?’ Hope asked as she looked around.
‘No, I have an office in central London. It was more practical to work from home today.’
Hope avoided looking at him directly. It was like looking at the sun.
He asked, ‘Can I get you a coffee? Tea?’
‘Um, a coffee would be great.’ It might help her to wake up from this dream state.
He went over to a cabinet that she could see held a sleek coffee machine and a kettle and then also bottles of spirits and glasses. There was a fridge underneath.
She blurted out, ‘I feel like I should be making you a coffee. This is all wrong.’
He came towards her with a dainty cup in a saucer and handed it to her. ‘You need to get that out of your head, Hope. If we do this, then we’re equals.’
Hope took the cup and saucer at that moment and they trembled in her hands. Equals! She’d never heard anything so ludicrous in her life.
‘Please, come and sit down.’
Axel led her over to a chair on the other side of his desk and Hope sat down gratefully, putting the cup and saucer onto the flat surface before she upended it all over herself. It wasn’t as if she didn’t have form in this area.
‘Biscuit?’ A plate appeared in front of her with little chocolate-covered biscuits.
She shook her head. ‘No, thanks.’ She took a sip of the tart coffee and welcomed the zing of energy.
Axel sat down on the other side of the desk and Hope pointed out, ‘You just said if we do this. Does that mean I still have a choice?’
‘You always have a choice, Hope. We only enter into this as long as it’s to our mutual benefit.’
Hope put the cup back down and it clattered, like her nerves. She gestured to encompass the office and beyond. ‘I won’t lie, this is all seriously intimidating.’
He looked at her steadily and she felt hot under his gaze.
‘It’s all just trappings, Hope.’
* * *
Hope reminded Axel of a skittish fawn on the other side of the desk that dwarfed her petite frame.
The whole room dwarfed her and yet she stood out within it.
Bright, shining. Looking around her with those huge blue eyes.
But no hint of avarice. In fact, he had a strong suspicion that if he said to her right now that this had all been a mistake and that maybe he should just send her home, she’d be gone so fast he’d have whiplash.
Everything about her was delicate and perfectly formed. Slim shoulders. Pale skin. Toned arms. He could see the thrust of her breasts against the silk of her shirt and imagined they would fit in his palms like two succulent peaches.
Blood rushed south and he shifted in his seat, tensing his jaw against his helpless reaction.
It really was most unwelcome. Women didn’t exert this kind of primal pull on him and, while with anyone else he might give into the urge to explore the chemistry between them, he’d picked her precisely because she wasn’t like the kind of women he usually went with and because of the candour between them.
For that reason alone it would be a bad idea. He also sensed that she wasn’t just out of her material depth here, but her sexual depth too. He could tell she wasn’t a practised seductress and he had no intention of initiating an ingénue, no matter how tempting.
This was a simple transaction. No emotions involved, not that he knew how those would fit within a romantic relationship anyway. They would both get what they wanted out of it. He’d do well to remember that.
He pushed a sheaf of papers towards her and she looked at it warily and asked, ‘What’s this?’
‘It’s the contract. I don’t expect you to sign it here and now—have a look at it.’
Hope pulled the papers towards her and leant forward. Axel found his gaze dropping to where he could see the swells of her breasts in the V of her shirt. He got up out of his chair and went to the open French doors. Never had he been so distracted by a woman. She wasn’t even his type.
Appearing in public with a steady partner ahead of meeting Baros, that was the goal here, nothing else.
‘This is way too generous. You’re offering me three times my annual salary and a bonus after a month, if you feel my presence is still required.’
Axel turned around. ‘It’s not too generous, believe me.
My schedule is pretty hectic. The event I need to attend tonight is in Paris.
We will overnight there and come back here tomorrow.
There’s another function in New York next week.
And then the event that I need you for the most is the Baros party, which will take place in Athens… ’
‘Oh.’
‘Yes, oh. It’s a rigorous schedule, Hope, but I’m planning on establishing you as my…companion ahead of the Baros event to get the most out of this union.’
‘Why is it so important? Who is this Baros guy again?’
‘His end-of-season party is probably one of the most exclusive events of the year. Invitation only, and with the understanding that a hefty donation is made to charity. Politicians. A-listers. Diplomats. Royalty. They get to mingle in a uniquely informal environment with their peers. It’s where deals are made.
Baros is a man with connections into every corner of the planet, but most importantly for me, into Asia…
the one area Drakos Solutions hasn’t yet managed to stake a claim. ’
‘And if you manage to get him on side, then you get to conquer the world?’
The way she said it made it sound almost…facetious. Axel gritted out, ‘Something like that.’
She looked at him for a long moment as if assessing his motives and then she shrugged one slim shoulder and said, ‘OK, why not? Do you have a pen?’
Axel couldn’t hide his surprise. ‘You’re going to sign? Just like that? No negotiation?’
Her eyes widened. ‘Why would I negotiate? It’s a generous offer. As I see it you’re paying me to continue to do my job but I’ll just be in a nicer uniform and someone will be handing me the drinks.’
Axel couldn’t really fault her logic. But he had to make sure one thing was clear. ‘This added proximity to each other…appearing in public…won’t lead to anything more.’
‘More?’
‘Like an opportunity for a real relationship. I would appreciate if we can make it look as real as possible in public but once we’re back behind closed doors, this is a business relationship.’
‘You said you don’t want a relationship.’
Yes, he had. ‘That’s right.’
‘From what I can tell you don’t even see a marriage as a relationship, it’s just a step up from what you’re asking me to do. With the benefit of having children, sorry, I mean heirs.’
Axel looked at her suspiciously. ‘Are you laughing at me?’
She shook her head, curls bouncing gently around her face. ‘No way. Some day I do want a relationship and hopefully a family but my vision of that is way removed from yours, so you don’t need to worry about me being seduced by your world.’
Axel’s initial reaction to that was extreme cynicism. He didn’t know a human on earth who wouldn’t be seduced by the perks and trappings of his world and he heard himself asking, ‘This vision of yours, what is it exactly?’
Her eyes were wide. ‘Well, it’s simple really. I want somewhere I can put down roots and have a family. Maybe a nice small town near the countryside. I was moved around a lot in foster care so…’ She trailed off.
Axel cursed his curiosity. He did not need to know more about Hope Smith. She’d already given him her life story. Her willingness to share information was such an alien thing to him. He had the uncomfortable feeling that she really wouldn’t be seduced by the trappings of his world.
He came back over to the desk and picked up a pen and handed it to her, saying, ‘Are you sure you don’t want to get your own solicitor’s advice?’
She shook her head as she took the pen. Axel noticed that her nails were short and clean.
Buffed. He liked that. She really did seem to be totally without artifice but he knew better than to believe a surface image.
Everyone had an agenda. Her agenda is a cottage with a white picket fence and a gaggle of children, mocked a voice inside Axel’s head.
To his consternation, his immediate reaction to that wasn’t derisory, it was something altogether more ambiguous.
‘Um, I don’t have a solicitor. And I trust you.’
‘You do?’ Axel was surprised. Very few trusted him because they knew that if they gave an inch he’d take a mile. And regularly did.
She had the pen poised over the dotted line and Axel said, ‘It’s also an NDA agreement.’
‘A what?’ She looked up.
‘A non-disclosure agreement, meaning that if you were to tell anyone about it or this agreement, I could prosecute you.’
Hope shrank back a bit. ‘I wouldn’t do that. I don’t gossip.’
‘It’s just…a precaution.’ Why did he feel as if he’d just kicked a puppy?