If he was wise, he would forget any further contact with Eloise until the day Tori could explain how he had acted as an advance scout in her search for her twin—and, short of DNA testing, he was convinced they were twins—and they could have a good laugh about the way Daisy had engineered their meeting.
Apart from that, he wasn’t in the market for a serious relationship. Not now. Maybe not ever. And Eloise had commitment and permanence written all over her beautiful self. How could he possibly fool around with Tori’s sister? Tori might have been adopted into an Italian family but those Italian expectations of family loyalty she held were real and ran very deep in her. If he dated her sister, she would expect nothing short of a proposal. No. He would be wise to keep a very, very wide berth from this gorgeous woman.
They reached Eloise’s car, a vintage Scandinavian sports car circa 1962, a collector’s item in immaculate condition. A woman with a cool car. His admiration for her rocketed even higher. Eloise turned to face him, car keys dangling from her hand.
‘Thank you. Dinner was an unexpected surprise and I enjoyed it very much.’
‘I hope we can keep in touch,’ he said. They had swapped numbers that morning in the park.
‘I’d like that,’ she said. Her voice was cool and contained and gave him no hint as to whether she really wanted to see him again or was being polite. It was just one date and they both knew it.
He would urge Tori to get in touch with Eloise soon, and give her the sister she’d sketched all those years ago. And let Eloise give Tori her imaginary friend for real.
‘Next time you come to the States for one of your celebrity clients, perhaps you can swing by Boston,’ he said.
‘It’s a thought,’ she said, again polite and non-committal.
She stood half in shadow but as she looked up at him the movement took her into the warm glow of a street light. Her eyes shone incredibly blue and the rich red lipstick gleamed on her luscious mouth. ‘Goodbye, then,’ she said.
‘Goodbye,’ he echoed.
But he couldn’t break the irresistible pull of her gaze. He had felt it in the restaurant when he had first noticed she had arrived, an attraction so powerful it had transcended the space between them. Now she stood so close he was aware of her warmth, her tantalising scent. There were no further words to be said. The silence that hung between them could only be broken in one way.
He lowered his head to kiss her as she stepped closer to accept his kiss. He realised he had wanted this since the moment she’d laughed up at him in the park, had wanted to push his fingers through her thick hair. He did that now and she gave a little murmur of pleasure. Then he kissed her on her mouth. After an initial start of surprise, she kissed him back wholeheartedly. What started as a sweet and tender goodnight kiss flamed into something urgent and passionate that overtook him with its intensity. For minutes, or it could have been hours, all he was aware of was Eloise—her taste, her warmth, the excitement of having her in his arms.
But then, with a little sigh of regret, she broke away from the kiss, stepped back from him, her face flushed, her lips swollen, her hair in delicious disarray. ‘That...that shouldn’t have happened.’ Her voice wasn’t steady as she tried to control her erratic breathing.
His voice was hoarse. ‘I’m glad it did.’ He put his hand on her shoulder, suddenly unable to bear the loss of her touch.
She gave a shaky smile. ‘I don’t do one-night stands—’
‘I didn’t expect—’
She put a finger across his lips to silence him. ‘We both know what we’ll want if we keep on kissing like that. We both know what would happen if I invited you into my car and back to my flat.’ She paused to drag in air, and her breasts rose in a way he found almost unbearably alluring. ‘Not a good idea,’ she said.
She was so beautiful.
‘No,’ he choked out, while his body screamed yes. She wriggled out of his reach. Reluctantly, he let her go.
‘Thank you, Josh, for a wonderful evening—I enjoyed every minute.’ She flashed him a mischievous smile. ‘Especially the last few minutes.’
He laughed and any awkwardness evaporated. ‘Goodbye, Eloise.’
She swung her long, shapely legs into her car. It suited her, its era, her style. With just one backward glance and a fleeting smile, she drove away with a throaty roar of the engine. He watched the sleek, small white car until it turned a corner, raising his hand in a final, farewell wave he knew she couldn’t see.
CHAPTER FOUR
DESPITE HIS RESOLVE, Josh could not get Eloise out of his mind. When had he ever met a more enchanting woman? Her lovely face, her warm laugh, their sensational kiss all haunted his thoughts. Why did it have to be so damn complicated?
Boy meets girl. Girl is most likely boy’s friend’s long-lost twin, but boy is honour-bound not to reveal his connection. Girl lives on the other side of the world. Boy does not want to be distracted by girl while he still has goals he has to fulfil. But boy is distracted no matter how he tries not to think about girl.
Man, was he distracted.
Josh particularly found his thoughts turning to Eloise while at the most important of his Melbourne meetings—with Courtney and Shawn, the people behind the phenomenally successful digital graphic design platform he had invested heavily in as a start-up. It had been one of his best decisions, as it had also brought him two good friends.
They were a couple, deeply in love and planning their wedding. He recommended Eloise Evans Atelier, only to be told by the delighted bride that she was already on the waiting list and his wedding invitation was in the mail. ‘Plus one, of course.’
‘Just keep it at me,’ he said. ‘No plus-one.’
Despite her not so subtle questioning, Josh did not enlighten her to the state of his love life. Nor did he allow Courtney—or Tori for that matter—to set him up with any of her single friends. His love life—or lack of it—was his own business.
His ex-father—what else could he call him?—and his ex-brother—ditto—had written him off as a future asset to the family firm from an early age. He had not fitted the mould. All the men in the family went to Harvard and Josh had had no desire to be a lawyer. His interests had lain in the digital world and a degree in computing. Then the truth of his parentage had come out and suddenly there had been no college fund, no support. He had been so shocked when the issue of his birth identity had erupted. ‘But Dad—’ he’d protested.
His father hadn’t let him finish. ‘Don’t ever call me that again. I’m not your dad. You are nothing to do with me. You’re the result of a sordid liaison between a deadbeat and a woman of dubious morals. I wipe my hands of you completely.’
His mother had gasped at that. But she hadn’t tried to defend herself. Or him.
Even his high school girlfriend had dumped him when he’d been booted from the big house on Beacon Hill to live with his mother in his widowed aunt’s apartment in the North End. He’d thought she’d been as in love with him as he’d been in love with her. Seemed it was the wealth and lifestyle he’d lost that had been the attraction.
That was when he’d started to grow the cynical shield around his heart that had now hardened into a barrier he liked to consider impenetrable. And he’d found truth in that old saying, He who travels fastest, travels alone.
‘Perhaps you just haven’t met the right woman yet,’ Tori had been known to say.
But it wasn’t that. His energy had to be put into proving to his ex-father and half-brother that, in terms of the material success their world judged people by, he not just matched but also exceeded them. He didn’t want long-term relationships—and the emotional fallout that came with them—to get in the way.
Despite the cramped quarters at Aunt Lil’s apartment, the enforced move had been a revelation. Boston’s Little Italy neighbourhood, with its crowded old buildings dating back to the very early days
of the city, was lively and convivial. He’d met Tori and her brothers, Ty and Tate, at his new high school and found both a warm welcome and income-producing gigs as a waiter at the Italian restaurant Tori’s parents ran.
He still considered their trattoria to be a home from home. It had been a welcome escape from his mother’s misery and depression. Looking back, he realised how much it must have hurt her to lose her home and contact with her older son. Back then, Josh had thought she’d blamed him—or the accident of his birth—for it all. He’d been at the trattoria more than he’d been at home.
Today, Tuesday lunchtime, he was eating with his Melbourne friends at a small, family-run Thai restaurant in one of Melbourne’s famous laneways. It had the same kind of casual warmth and excellent food as the trattoria—as well as off-the-beaten-track privacy. As far as Josh was concerned, the good thing about being successful in the digital world, as opposed to something more ‘glamorous’, was that he tended to fly under the radar when it came to media attention.
Lately, however, his rocketing wealth and single status had been getting him unwanted attention—and he didn’t like it. He’d complained to the publications about his inclusion in puerile ‘eligible bachelor’ lists—which had only excited them into asking for interviews. What did his relationship status—or lack of it—have to do with anything?
But here, he could enjoy his anonymity with his friends. While the food was good and the company excellent, he couldn’t help but be aware of the conspicuously empty chair at the four-person table. How would it be if Eloise sat there next to him? He’d never before met a woman he’d want to introduce to his friends.
Four successful young entrepreneurs would have a lot to chat about. He could imagine the spirited conversation, the laughter, the strong opinions tossed back and forth. The thought conjured up an image of her sitting there, smiling at him, holding his hand under the table. It almost seemed real. But the empty chair glared back at him.
The long lunch over, he farewelled his friends with promises of seeing them again at their wedding. Then he headed back to his luxurious suite in one of Melbourne’s most stylish Southbank hotels. For several hours, he attended to the necessary phone and video-call catch-ups that being in a different time zone entailed. He had no more appointments for the day after those were complete though and now he was on his own.
Usually he valued time to himself. But this afternoon he only felt restless. And, unusually for him, lonely. Perhaps seeing Courtney and Shawn so happy together was affecting him. Making him think thoughts he usually pushed far to the back of his mind, to keep company with other repressed thoughts of love and family and the security of shared lives. Not for him, he reminded himself. Not now. He was only twenty-nine. Perhaps later. Much later.
He found himself looking out of the floor-to-ceiling windows over the winding Yarra River and the staggered skyline of a city that wasn’t home. He flew back to Boston tomorrow. But he would be flying back to loneliness too, packing it in his bag and transporting it with him to his empty apartment. Being alone was the price he had willingly paid for the freedom to build his staggering wealth that disproved, dollar by dollar, that he hadn’t been worthy of the family he’d been born into.
Boy could not forget girl.
Eloise intrigued him. He wanted to see her face again, hear her magical laugh. Just a friendly meeting. Not a date. No physical contact like kissing, which only complicated things. It made sense, didn’t it, to act on that impulse when he was in the same country as her rather than half a world away?
Thoughts of her flashed through his mind: her uninhibited joy in her scruffy little foster dog; the sensual sway when she walked in high-heeled shoes; the understanding in her eyes when he’d told her some of his past.
He started to text:
I find I have to be back in Sydney on Thursday. Would lunch be out of the question? Josh T
He pressed send and stared at the screen. She’d be busy in her workshop. Perhaps fitting a client. Maybe even dreaming up a spectacular dress for Courtney. But within seconds, the phone pinged a reply.
Nice to hear from you. Thursday is a busy day for me, but I’d like to catch up. A quick lunch would be great. Suggest a café near my atelier.
She texted the address of the café and a suggested time, to which Josh agreed.
He put down the phone and realised, to his surprise, that his hand wasn’t quite steady and his heart was thudding.
But he had no time to think about what that meant. He had to reroute his flight home via Sydney. If he had to, he would hire a private jet.
CHAPTER FIVE
ELOISE COULDN’T HELP checking her watch every few minutes. Josh should be here very soon. She’d got to the café early, a favourite lunch spot for her just diagonally over the road from work. Her usual waitress, a lovely girl named Mara, had shown her to a table outside under the shade of an umbrella—it was another perfect, sunny autumn day.
She was excited at the prospect of seeing Josh again, while also filled with a healthy dose of trepidation. That unexpected kiss had aroused long dormant appetites and emotions. It was true what she’d told him—she wasn’t a one-night stand kind of girl. Yet once her car had turned the corner and he’d fallen out of sight, she’d had to fight the urge to turn it around with a screech of tyres, speed back and tell him to jump in the car. Her place or his hotel—it wouldn’t have mattered once they’d got hot and naked.
She had to fan her face with her hand at the very thought. Obviously she’d been too long without a man to be having fantasies like that about someone she hardly knew. Yet Josh had not been far from her thoughts since she’d driven away from him. She found him hotter than hot—especially after that kiss—but she had also really enjoyed his company.
There was a straightforwardness to him she found refreshing. And she’d liked his kindness to Daisy, which she was convinced was genuine. Dogs didn’t lie and Daisy had approved of him. She had been surprised and pleased when he’d texted on Tuesday. But he still lived in a country that was, at best, a twenty-one-hour flight away. Hardly conducive to dating.
However, dating and all the drama that went with it wasn’t at the front of her mind right now. Since she’d had that text from Josh her world had imploded.
She really should have cancelled the lunch and concentrated on trying to put the social media fires out. But she wanted to see him, and who knew when lunch with Josh would happen again, if ever? For that reason, she decided not to share the story of the disaster that had erupted yesterday. Rather she would push it down under a cheerful façade to be the trouble-free woman he had dined with just a few days ago. She was used to solving her own problems. Although this particular nightmare might not be easily solved—and the impact on her business could be considerable.
She looked up, saw him striding towards her table and caught her breath. Josh in a dark charcoal, perfectly tailored business suit rocketed his degree of hotness to blow the top off the thermometer. She used to think tech people, no matter how wealthy, hung out in hoodies and sneakers. Josh was the sartorially splendid exception. She couldn’t remember when she’d last found a man so attractive.
He got to the table and she rose to greet him on legs that felt suddenly shaky. She looked up at him, his lean, strikingly good-looking face seeming already familiar. His nose, slightly crooked, saved him from being pretty-boy handsome, and his dark brown hair cut short seemed to resent being tamed, going off in rebellious spikes. And his mouth, his sensual mouth, his top lip slightly narrower than the bottom... A shiver of desire ran through her at the remembered pleasure of his kiss.
But she didn’t trust that kind of instant attraction. Handsome Craig had hidden so well what kind of man he really was. She’d been like an insect, lured by the sweetness of honey, only to find herself sinking in a heavy, suffocating mass. Thank heaven she’d found the strength to struggle to the top and then fly away. When
she next got into a relationship it would only be after a long getting-to-know-him process. She needed to embrace her feelings of mistrust towards men, not fight them. Only time could build trust.
But that kiss had happened and it seemed to make a handshake in greeting redundant. She looked up at Josh for a long moment, not sure what to do. He had no such hesitation. He claimed her mouth for a quick, warm kiss of greeting. ‘Glad you were free for lunch,’ he said.
She had to fight the temptation to raise her fingers to her lips, tingling with the pleasure of his touch. Even a simple kiss sent a shiver of awareness reverberating through her.
Then Mara the waitress was there again. She looked from Josh to Eloise and back again. ‘Good to see you here again, sir,’ she said to Josh with a big smile. ‘So it was her you were waiting for.’
Eloise wasn’t sure what Mara meant. Had Josh got here before her then gone again? It was possible.
Josh was quick to explain. ‘I’m staying near by at the same hotel I stayed at last week. I came here for coffee then. When I got here, I was surprised to find it was the same café.’
‘I see,’ she said, not sure it was a full explanation but shrugging it off as nothing to worry about. She had enough real issues to worry about without angsting over imagined ones.
She sat down and he sat down opposite her. It was a table for two, so that wasn’t far between them. She had to purposely angle her legs not to come into contact with his legs. When they accidentally brushed together, jolts of awareness reminded her of how she had felt when he had kissed her in the street outside the restaurant.
‘How was your flight up from Melbourne?’ she said.
From Bridal Designer to Bride Page 5
