Chapter Seven
Hope tried to push back against the feeling that she’d been dropped into a real-life fairy tale but, in this location and in this dress and with Axel by her side in a classic tuxedo, it was almost impossible.
They were in one of Manhattan’s grandest buildings, which was more akin to a cathedral inside, with huge vaulted ceilings and ornately lavish interiors.
Marble floors and a grand staircase leading up to the first level.
A profusion of plants made it look as if a garden had been transplanted inside and dozens of glittering chandeliers sent out golden light.
Not to mention the crowd, men in suits and women in glittering evening gowns with enough blinging jewellery to take Hope’s eye out. She couldn’t stop gaping but was careful to keep her mouth closed.
Not helping her sense of being in a fairy tale was the fact that she still wasn’t on an even keel after they’d arrived by helicopter into Manhattan earlier, landing on top of Axel’s office building where an entourage of staff had been waiting for them.
Axel had gone to his office and Hope had been whisked to the apartment with a glam squad who’d primped and preened her for this event.
Her dress was a very light pink colour, strapless, with a ruched bodice and tulle layers over silk falling to the floor from her waist. The material was studded with tiny crystals and so it shimmered when she moved.
The stylist had given her a pink diamond cocktail ring that Hope was terrified might fall off, even though it sat snugly on her finger.
Axel squeezed her hand. ‘You look beautiful, Hope.’
She made a small face. ‘Thanks, but I can’t help feeling security are about to appear to take the imposter from the room.’
‘Hope, look at me.’
Hope did and had to lock her knees at Axel’s sheer magificence. Thick hair swept back from his hard-boned face. He’d been waiting for her in the foyer of the seriously impressive apartment with its rooftop views over Central Park. But he’d eclipse any view.
He said, ‘You have as much of a right to be here as anyone else.’
Something deep inside Hope bloomed into life before she could stop it. The cold, hollow part of her that had always worn her abandonment like a scar. ‘Thank you. You don’t have to say that.’
‘It’s true.’
Hope commented dryly, ‘I’m under no illusions that my presence here is down to a very serendipitous set of circumstances.’ She stopped there, not wanting to think about how having sex was muddying the waters even more. That was something she wanted to talk to him about but she shelved it for now.
Axel handed her a glass of sparkling wine and said, ‘Let’s go in.’
They followed everyone else going up the grand staircase and on the next level Hope couldn’t stop her mouth falling open. It was a vast ballroom with French doors open onto terraces that showcased the view of Manhattan.
A steady stream of people came to Axel and fawned over him. Hope watched with amusement. He always took pains to introduce her but the people, naturally, were more interested in him.
Hope tugged on his hand when there was a lull and he looked down at her. She said, ‘I’m going outside for a minute to get some air. Is that OK?’
‘I’ll come with you.’
But before Hope could remonstrate someone had approached him and she took her hand out of his and said, ‘I’ll be fine.’ She needed a moment of respite, if she was being totally honest, to try and untangle the way her thoughts just seemed to congeal around him and not make sense.
She stared out over the cityscape with its soaring buildings and the dark smudge of Central Park in the distance.
Helicopters with blinking lights traversed the clear night sky.
No doubt transporting more billionaires to their destinations.
She shook her head at her imagination and a small smile played around her mouth at the sheer magic of being here.
‘Excuse me, are you Hope Smith?’
Still smiling, Hope turned away from the view to see a tall, formidably elegant grey-haired woman addressing her. It was her eyes, though, that Hope noticed, a distinctive golden brown. And cold.
Hope’s smile faded.
A man was with her, silver-haired, striking. They both had golden skin. Amazing bone structure. The woman’s hand was through the man’s arm. She wore a long straight column of a cream dress. Pristine. Discreet jewellery. Hair to her shoulders and perfectly styled.
She frowned. How did they know her?
‘Yes, I am, can I help you?’
At that moment she felt her skin tingle and a presence by her side. She looked up. Axel. He slid an arm around her waist and pulled her into his side.
The man said, ‘Axel.’
Axel said, ‘Christos.’
The couple looked explicitly back to Hope and Axel turned to her and said, ‘Hope, I’d like you to meet Christos and Daphne.’
Hope smiled and held out her hand. ‘Nice to meet you.’
After a moment they both shook her hand, not smiling, barely lingering long enough to make contact, as if she might taint them. Hope’s smile faltered a little. The iciness emanating between them was palpable enough to make her shiver.
The man—Christos—looked at Axel. ‘Are you in town for long?’
‘Just a few days. I’ll be in Athens in a week or so.’
The man nodded. The woman leant forward and pressed a very brief kiss against Axel’s cheek and then they were gone, leaving behind that frosty atmosphere and a lingering overpowering perfume.
Hope watched them get swallowed up by the crowd. ‘Who were they?’
‘My parents.’
Hope’s gaze snapped back to Axel in shock and her eyes boggled as she realised he wasn’t joking. ‘Your parents?’
He looked down at her, a muscle twitching in his jaw. ‘Yes.’
‘Oh, wow…and I thought I was the unfortunate one.’
Axel didn’t react for a second and then he did, throwing his head back and letting out a spontaneous guffaw of laughter that kept going.
As if he hadn’t laughed in a long time. Hope’s eyes widened even more.
She’d never seen him like this. People were looking at them.
Hope felt self-conscious. ‘Axel, it wasn’t that funny. ’
He stopped laughing and looked down at her, eyes full of mirth. ‘Thank you for that.’
‘For what?’
He just shook his head. ‘Do you realise that they are considered to be at the very pinnacle of what success is in this life and yet you can see them exactly for what they are and pity them. They, who were born with everything, and—’
‘Me who was not,’ Hope finished for him. She pulled away from Axel’s side. ‘You’re laughing at me.’
She couldn’t believe how hurt she was. Before Axel could see it, she turned and put her hands on the wall to steady herself. She felt angry and it unnerved her because not much angered her.
‘Hope.’
She didn’t look at him.
He said, ‘I’m sorry. I wasn’t laughing at you, at all.’
Then, ‘Please, look at me.’
Hope wanted to ignore him but she couldn’t. She turned her head. ‘You mean you weren’t drawing a comparison between me, a poor foundling, and a couple who rub shoulders with the elites?’
Axel shook his head. ‘No, and self-pity doesn’t suit you. What I was going to say was that they might have been born with everything but, standing next to you, they’re worth nothing at all. You eclipse them, Hope.’
She felt a little mollified. She knew that Axel wasn’t cruel. ‘OK, maybe I misread you. That’s a nice thing to say. You know, you’re not like them.’
‘I’ll take that as a compliment.’
Hope shivered again lightly. ‘They are…dead inside.’
He started to take off his jacket, clearly misunderstanding her shiver, but she stopped him. ‘I’m not cold.’
And then she said, ‘I’m sorry, that was a cruel thing to say. No matter what, they’re your parents. They didn’t abandon you to your fate on the steps of a hospital.’
Axel’s mouth tipped up on one side. ‘The location and circumstances might have been different but the sentiment was the same. They did pretty much abandon me and my siblings to our fates.’
To Hope’s surprise she felt a moment of affinity. Axel wasn’t wrong—they’d left their other son at the mercy of kidnappers!
She felt a surge of compassion for Axel. Her, the definition of pitiable. ‘Maybe having no parents isn’t as bad as having terrible parents.’
Axel put his hands on her waist and tugged her towards him. He said, ‘Enough talk of parents.’
Hope put her hands on Axel’s chest. Her heart started thumping faster, an inevitable reaction in close proximity to him. It felt like so long since she’d been with him but it had been only hours ago, on the plane.
He said, ‘As much as I’d like to leave right now and take you somewhere far more comfortable, we have a dinner and an auction to get through.’
That reminded her. ‘There’s something I wanted to say…’
Axel’s mouth quirked. ‘Do you know how refreshing it is to be around someone who I have no idea what they’re going to say from one moment to the next?’
Hope scowled at him but he brushed a knuckle against her jaw. ‘That’s a serious compliment, trust me.’
Hope’s heart skipped a beat at the small but seismic gesture. But that only made it more imperative to say to him now, ‘You can’t keep paying me. Not now that we’ve…’ She trailed off, not sure how to frame it.
‘Slept together?’ Axel supplied helpfully.
‘Yes,’ Hope said a little tersely, feeling disgruntled by how easily he seemed to be able to assimilate this new development in their arrangement.
‘You signed a contract,’ he pointed out.
‘Yes,’ Hope whispered, mindful of guests mingling nearby, ‘but this was not in the contract and if you pay me now it’ll be like paying me for…sex.’ Her face was burning now.
‘That is,’ she inserted before he could respond, ‘unless this…’ she gestured between them ‘…is already over…in which case maybe we can just work out that you don’t pay me for the last couple of days.’
‘Do you want it to be over?’
It throbbed in the air between them, making a lie of her words. Hope’s insides clenched at the thought of never knowing that kind of pleasure again. She couldn’t not be honest. ‘No.’
‘Neither do I. It’ll burn out soon enough.’
His confident assurance rubbed up against where Hope’s head was still spinning just to be here in this beyond glamorous location, and in the aftermath of meeting his parents and finding them so awfully sterile, and wondering if she’d just seen the ghost of Axel’s future self.
It made her feel sad and spiky all at once.
‘You’d know more about this sort of thing than me. ’
Axel’s eyes narrowed on her.
She said, ‘Sorry, I didn’t mean that to sound bitchy…but it’s kind of true.’
‘I can see the dilemma now that we’re…intimate. In lieu of monetary payments, then, perhaps you’ll accept gifts?’
Hope frowned. ‘Gifts?’
‘The clothes…any jewellery. Consider it yours to do with as you will. And in the meantime, if we decide that the physical intimacy has run its course, we can go back to the original arrangement.’
Hope knew very well that the wardrobe of clothes she’d been provided with would fetch a small fortune on the reselling sites. Claire, her flatmate, was always putting stuff online after wearing it once.
She shifted a little. ‘I don’t know, it still makes me feel a bit uncomfortable.’
‘You could give the proceeds to charity, Hope.’ He glanced at her hair. ‘You’ve made more dramatic gestures.’
She brightened at the thought of that. ‘OK.’
A gong sounded inside and Axel made a face. ‘We should go in.’ He took her hand. ‘Are we OK?’
Hope nodded. She was glad she’d asserted herself.
But the only worrying thing now was the realisation that she was prioritising the physical relationship with Axel over their deal to pay her a certain amount, which would have advanced her dreams considerably.
They were crossing so many boundaries now that it was too late to turn back.
And yet, she had to admit that she wasn’t even sure if she was still here for the dreams she’d always harboured.
She had a sense of those dreams morphing and changing and she wasn’t even sure what she wanted any more.
Or maybe she did know and she was too terrified to name it, because it was Axel and he could never be hers.
She was a momentary blip in his life. A novelty, to help him look a certain way so that he could get another step closer to securing his precious legacy.