Chapter Four #2
Hope forked some of her salad starter into her mouth and then she made a sound of appreciation and when she could speak she said, ‘This is amazing.’ And, ‘Wow, I’m hungry.’
Axel couldn’t help smiling. Her reactions were so spontaneous and genuine.
When they’d finished the starters in a surprisingly easy silence, Hope asked, ‘So, do you come from a big family?’
Axel’s insides tightened as if to ward off an attack but Hope’s face was entirely innocent. She’s just making conversation like a normal person, a little voice told Axel.
He sat up as their mains were delivered and said brusquely, ‘I have a younger brother and two younger sisters.’
‘Oh, that’s so nice. I really missed having siblings. I’ve always wanted to have a big family so my children won’t feel alone.’
Axel was a little horrified by that easy admission, and also because he knew she meant ‘big family’ in the kind of way he’d never experienced.
He and his siblings had been pushed apart from the moment they’d been born.
The girls had gone to exclusive Swiss boarding schools and once it had become apparent Ares wasn’t able to keep up academically, he’d been sent to a school in Athens, and Axel had gone to a different, more academically inclined school.
Oblivious to Axel’s reacton, Hope speared a piece of steak and put it into her mouth and, after chewing and making more appreciative noises that had a direct effect on Axel’s blood supply to parts of his body that he was usually in far better control of, she asked, ‘So what was it like growing up with your brother and sisters? I bet you had fun together.’
Fun? The notion was slightly preposterous.
Axel had a flash of memory to seeing his brother being returned to the family home in Athens by the police, white-faced.
Thinner. Eyes huge in his head. Axel had reached out to touch him, not knowing what to do or say, and Ares had just flinched and looked at him as if to say, Where were you when I needed you?
Hope’s eyes widened and Axel realised he must be scowling. She asked, ‘What did I say?’
Axel forced his mind away from the past and pushed down the cauldron of emotions evoked by the mere mention of family.
‘There’s really nothing to tell. My parents live in New York. My sisters are married with young families and my brother and I…are not in touch.’
* * *
Hope could read the frosty vibes a mile away. As soon as she’d mentioned family. Axel was avoiding her eye, focusing on his food. Even making eating look sexy.
She said sympathetically, ‘That’s a shame you and your brother aren’t in touch.’
He made a sound like hmph.
‘Did you have a fight?’ Hope knew she should probably be reading the signals but she was just so endlessly curious about people who had brothers and sisters.
Axel put down his fork, wiped his mouth with his napkin and took a big sip of his wine. She fully expected him to tell her to mind her own business but then it was as if his shoulders dropped a notch and he sat back and said, ‘Ares had the misfortune of being my younger brother.’
Hope frowned. ‘What does that mean?’
‘He was the spare from the moment he was born. He had dyslexia so he always struggled at school and even though my parents invested in private tutors, he couldn’t keep up. They weren’t hired to help with his dyslexia—that was seen as an embarrassing handicap.’
Hope was outraged on his behalf. ‘Some of the most successful people in the world have dyslexia. That’s such an outdated way to view it.’
Axel shrugged. ‘My parents didn’t tolerate any kind of weakness. I was the eldest anyway and I didn’t present with any kind of complications…’
She shook her head. ‘I always think everyone who grew up with both parents were so lucky but I know that’s not always the case.’
‘Don’t feel sorry for me, Hope. That’s how it is in my world.’
She changed the subject. ‘So you were good at school?’
‘I got top marks, yes.’
Hope felt a little heat of embarrassment creep into her face. ‘I was never very academic. Too dreamy.’
‘That’s nothing to be ashamed of.’
‘I’m smart in other ways. And I work hard.’ Hope went on, not wanting Axel to think about the disparities in their mental abilities too much. ‘So, your brother, you were kept apart, then?’
‘Something like that.’
Hope waited. And then Axel said, ‘And something happened, when he was ten and I was twelve.’
‘What?’
‘He was kidnapped.’
Hope’s hand went to her mouth in horror. She took it down. ‘Kidnapped? How? Where?’
Axel’s face was tight. ‘I’m only telling you this because it’s public record.
We were at the port of Piraeus, about to go on a sailing trip on the family yacht.
Ares and I had been bickering. I was still in the car, looking for something, and when I found it, he was gone.
He was snatched. I presumed he was on the boat, but he wasn’t.
They had him for two weeks. On a boat. Locked in a cabin.
My parents refused to pay the ransom because they were afraid that the gang would target me, and I was of more value to them. ’
Hope’s mouth dropped open in shock. This put his parents into another league than merely cold. ‘But that’s…’
‘Awful. Yes.’
‘How did he escape?’
‘He didn’t. The police tracked the gang down and rescued him from the boat. No thanks to my parents. From that day on he wasn’t the same. He kept to himself. Wouldn’t talk about it. He left home at seventeen, joined the army and turned his back on his inheritance.’
And turned his back on Axel, Hope could see. ‘Where is he now?’
‘He’s a security consultant and he’s made his own fortune.’
‘I’m glad he has survived.’
Axel looked at her and she caught a glimpse of such abject pain that she understood immediately that, for some irrational reason, Axel blamed himself.
But they’d just been kids badly let down by their parents.
She had the sense of him having a deeply ingrained sense of responsibility from a young age.
She would love to know more but she knew she’d strayed too far already and said, ‘I’m sorry you and he had to go through such an awful experience.’
The waiter returned to take their plates and Axel said, ‘We’ll take the bill, please.’
* * *
Hope shouldn’t be surprised Axel wanted to end the evening. It wasn’t as if this had been a date. Outside, the car was waiting at the corner. Hope shivered slightly as the breeze skated over her bare skin. Summer was on the wane.
She felt a warm weight settle on her shoulders and realised Axel had given her his jacket. His scent surrounded her and she was touched by the gesture. ‘Thank you.’
Axel opened the door of the car and Hope sat inside. The journey back to the apartment was silent. Hope soaked up Paris at night, bars lit up and people relaxing over drinks.
In the reception area of the apartment Hope said, ‘So I guess there’ll be pictures in the papers tomorrow?’
Axel nodded. ‘Yes, and there’ll undoubtedly be some speculation about you but my people will do their best to minimise it.’
Hope’s insides tensed at the thought of people looking at her image and wondering about her. But it wasn’t as if they’d find all that much of interest. ‘OK, well, goodnight, then, and I’m sorry again about your brother.’
‘Goodnight, Hope.’
She started to leave but then realised she was still wearing his jacket and stopped and turned around again, intending on giving it back, but she collided with a wall.
She looked up. Not a wall. Axel, who had obviously been heading for the bedrooms too, right behind her.
His hands came to her upper arms to steady her.
They were pressed together and all Hope could feel was heat and steel.
And for someone who’d never been really aware of the opposite sex before and how they could make her feel—as if she were all soft and gooey inside—it was seriously disturbing.
But not in a bad way. In a dangerously exciting way.
She found her voice. ‘Sorry, I, ah, meant to give you back your jacket. I wouldn’t want you to think I’m nicking it.’
‘Nicking?’
‘Stealing.’
He wasn’t moving back. Why wasn’t he moving? But Hope couldn’t seem to care all that much when all she wanted to do was press closer.
Axel’s gaze was on her mouth. It tingled under his look. She licked her lips in an entirely innocent move and his hands tightened on her arms and his eyes widened.
‘Is there something wrong?’
He shook his head. ‘No…just…you are distracting. Your mouth…and the words that come out.’
Hope’s pulse thudded at the thought she had the power to distract him. ‘I’m sorry, I don’t know when to shut up. I’m too nosy.’
He shook his head. ‘It’s fine. Not much about me or my life is a secret.’
Hope dragged her gaze up from his mouth. She would have to argue that his mouth was far more distracting. She really wanted to know how it would feel against hers.
‘Except maybe that you really miss your brother?’ Hope couldn’t help but still feel the ache inside when he’d spoken of his brother.
She’d sensed his pain as palpably as if it had been a physical thing.
She’d always been a bit too much in tune with others’ feelings.
A necessary life skill for a foster kid who had to fit into new situations.
Now Axel’s hands dropped from her shoulders as if scalded and he took a step back. ‘It’s late, Hope, we have an early flight back to London and another event tomorrow evening.’
He hadn’t lied when he’d told her the schedule would be busy. Hope gulped. She really didn’t know when to shut up. Why had she said that? Because she’d been mesmerised by his proximity. She slipped his jacket off her shoulders and held it out. ‘Thanks again. Goodnight, Axel.’