Chapter Three #5
He glanced at the watch on his wrist and said, ‘The car will be here shortly to take us to the airfield. Can you make sure you have your passport? Don’t worry about packing—that’s all been taken care of. We’ll get ready at the apartment in Paris and stay there tonight.’
Hope stood up and resisted the urge to salute. ‘Yes, of course.’
Axel walked away and, after standing in a kind of stupor for a minute, Hope scrambled to find her way back to the bedroom so she could pick up her handbag. This new job was going to take some getting used to.
* * *
It was only when they were approaching the sleek private jet across the tarmac a little later that Hope thought of something. She turned to Axel, who was on the other side of the car. ‘Will George be here?’ She quailed inwardly at suddenly appearing like this, with their boss.
‘No, he won’t.’
Hope gasped. ‘Did you fire him?’
Axel’s mouth twitched. ‘No, I didn’t fire him. He asked for leave. It turns out he wasn’t well.’
‘Oh, poor George, he did have a migraine that day. I hope it’s nothing serious.’
Hope caught Axel’s slightly dumbfounded expression and asked defensively, ‘What?’
But Axel just shook his head and now they were stopping near the steps leading up to the plane.
Hope’s door was opened and she got out to see someone carrying bags onto the plane.
Axel came and met her and put out his hand for her to precede him.
She felt very conscious of her high-street clothes as she climbed the steps.
The plush interior was the same as she remembered. There was a new air steward, a smiling young man. Hope felt like a fraud, or that at any moment someone would pop out from behind a curtain and say, ‘Ha! Fooled you, now get back to work!’
But no one did. She was led to the back of the plane to where Axel had been sitting only…yesterday? It felt like a year ago.
‘Make yourself comfortable.’
Axel’s voice from behind her. Hope chose to sit opposite where he’d been sitting the day before. She felt stiff. Awkward.
Paul, the steward, appeared. ‘Can I get you anything?’
Hope had to force herself not to jump up. ‘Um, just some tea, please?’
‘I’ll have coffee, thank you,’ Axel added.
Paul disappeared and the plane readied for take-off. Soon they were airborne and England was dropping away beneath them. Hope sipped some tea, hoping it would make her feel more settled.
Axel was looking intently at a small tablet. As if sensing her attention, he lifted his head and then put the tablet down and said, ‘Sorry, I’m being rude.’
‘No, don’t be daft, it’s not as if you need to pretend this is a real…date.’
And then his gaze narrowed on her and he said, ‘You look…good. Did you do something to your hair?’
Hope felt giddy for a second that he’d noticed her post-spa treatment glow.
But then she felt self-conscious at the thought that he’d be comparing her to all those sleek women she’d seen in the photos.
She touched her hair. ‘No, it’s just some make-up and a conditioning treatment.
’ She wouldn’t be telling him about the intimate parts of her that had been waxed and buffed.
In an effort to avoid his forensic gaze, she asked, ‘Is this what you normally do? Fly someone to an event to be with you?’
Axel shrugged minutely. ‘It depends if I’m seeing anyone. I might call up someone who lives in whatever city I’m going to.’
‘These are women who you also see for…’ Hope’s voice trailed away. She was losing her nerve.
Axel supplied, ‘For sex?’
Hope nodded, cursing her big mouth and endless curiosity, but she had to admit that everything about Axel Drakos’s life was so fascinating to her. It was so far removed from her own.
‘Yes, if I find them attractive. I enjoy sex, Hope. And I especially enjoy it with a willing, experienced partner who knows that sex is just sex.’
Well, that ruled her out for ever. She wasn’t experienced and she had a sneaking suspicion that even if she were ever to know this man on a more intimate level it would be like taking a wrecking ball to defences she’d built up over her whole life.
Not that anything like that would ever happen in a million years.
This man didn’t see her like that. And she didn’t want him to, she assured herself hurriedly.
The thought of all that tawny-eyed focus on her and those big hands exploring her— She suddenly felt hot and flustered.
She stood up abruptly. ‘Excuse me, I need the bathroom.’
She went towards the front of the plane and Axel said, ‘The bathroom is the other way.’
Hope stopped and turned around. She’d been going for the toilet near the cockpit. ‘I forgot, I’m part of the one per cent now.’ She didn’t look at Axel but she thought she heard a small snort. She made her way to the back, where there was a bedroom and a sizeable bathroom that also had a shower.
She looked at herself in the mirror and cursed softly. She had to get it together. There were two spots of bright pink in her cheeks and her eyes were huge and too bright. This was no post-spa glow. It was an Axel glow.
She splashed water on her face and once she looked slightly less visibly flustered she went back out and noted with relief that Axel was on his phone, speaking what sounded like Italian.
She sat back down, buckled up and grabbed an available magazine and buried her face in it.
* * *
A few hours later Axel was staring out of the window that took in a view of the Eiffel Tower nearby. His apartment was at the top of one of Paris’s iconic Haussmann buildings, on the corner of a wide boulevard.
He barely noticed the view though—it had been a long time since a view had caused him to stop and take a breath.
But he couldn’t deny he’d enjoyed watching Hope’s reaction to the apartment as she’d walked around, hands clutching her bag to her as if afraid she might reach out and sully something with her touch.
He’d seen it through her eyes. The neoclassical design with slim, elegant modernist furniture.
Open spaces. Parquet flooring. Sculptures dotted around the main living space.
Tasteful art on the wall but nothing too showy. No vivid colours.
She’d stopped at the window where he stood now and she’d gasped. ‘You have a view of the tower. That’s so cool.’
It was cool. He hadn’t thought of it like that. He’d purchased this apartment because of the view but not to enjoy it. He didn’t have time.
He heard a rustling sound behind him and turned around and for the first time in years he was facing a view that blanked his mind of everything else.
Hope stood a few feet away…transformed into a vision of such elegance and beauty that he couldn’t speak.
He could only look, and take in the gold dress that hinted at high firm breasts, a tiny waist, and then fell to the floor in silken folds.
All the way to where perfectly manicured toes peeped out from matching sandals.
He’d noticed the difference in her earlier, but now her skin looked more luminous. Her eyes even bigger. She looked visibly self-conscious. ‘I hope I’ll do.’
Axel shook himself out of his stupor and managed to string some words together. ‘You look beautiful, Hope.’
Her face went pink and it had a direct effect on Axel’s body.
‘Thank you, you look…um, nice too.’
Nice. That word again. He put out a hand. ‘We should go.’
Hope turned around to precede him from the room and Axel nearly tripped over his own feet when he saw the expanse of her bare back. Graceful and curving out at her buttocks. He felt an irrational need to ask her to put something else on. Something more concealing, which he knew was ridiculous.
He hovered his hand about an inch away from touching her as they got into the elevator and descended to the ground floor, where the concierge rushed to open the door and let them out into the warm late summer evening.
Hope sat in the car and Axel had to tense his jaw when he saw a flash of sleek, toned thigh through a slit in the dress. Was this the most provocative outfit he’d ever seen on a woman? No! He had to get it together.
* * *
Hope was close to hyperventilating and she had to force herself to take deep breaths, but she hadn’t been right since she’d walked into that apartment earlier.
It was the kind of place you saw in movies.
When she’d spotted the Eiffel Tower through one of the windows she hadn’t been able to hide her delighted response.
But seriously…the freaking Eiffel Tower!
It glittered in the distance now as they crossed the river. Hope was also not right after seeing Axel in his tuxedo. He’d been gorgeous before…but in a classic black tuxedo that had to have been made specially for him, the way it hugged his powerful frame, he was simply breathtaking.
He looked even taller, broader. More powerful. Sleek. Achingly sophisticated and suave. He oozed with the privilege of his illustrious background and the pride of his ancestors.
Bizarrely, it made her want to prod a little to see what it would take to ruffle that very civil and cool surface. She’d had that impulse the very first time she’d seen him on the private jet.
His hand rested on his thigh and she couldn’t help but notice how masculine it was. Hope could imagine him getting his hands dirty. Doing manual labour.
He looked at her and she cursed the way heat crept up from her chest to her face. ‘So what is this event we’re going to?’
‘A banquet in aid of different charities. I’m patron of several.’
Hope absorbed this. ‘Is there anything I need to be aware of?’
‘Not really. Just stay by my side and follow my lead.’
Hope had a slightly anxiety-inducing feeling it wouldn’t be that simple. ‘What if someone talks to me?’
‘Talk back. They’re just human beings.’
‘But what if I say something…wrong?’
Axel shook his head. ‘You’ll be fine.’