“It sounds like my sort of place,” she said.
“You’ll have to come and visit.”
She examined his expression from the corner of her eye. “I’d like that.”
“Will you come?” He cupped her cheek, turning her face towards him.
“I—”
He kissed her, a brief touch of his mouth, before pulling back at least an inch, leaving her lips tingling at the abandonment.
She squinted at him, his face too close for her to focus on. He leaned forward again. His mouth lingered on hers until her lips softened and parted, and she kissed him back, letting her tongue tangle with his. His hands moved to rest on her shoulders. Her head sagged against the back of the sofa, and she lifted her arms to bury her fingers in his hair.
He wrapped his arms round her and pulled her out of her corner and across his lap.
“You’re so small”—one of his hands flattened on her stomach—“and so perfect.”
Heat pooled in the skin beneath his palm and leaked down her body.
She drew in a shuddering breath, unable to think properly. How did we get here? I want him. There had been no build up. One moment they’d been colleagues, the next conspirators, and then he’d pounced on her.
“So delicate.” He dropped a kiss on her nose.
“Aiden?” She could feel the thud of his heart beneath her hand.
“I’ve thought about doing this since the first time I saw you.”
She wriggled round so that she could see his face, but his expression was hidden in the dim light. “We can’t—”
He rubbed his cheek against her hair and slid his hand up to cup her breast. “Of course we can.”
A bolt of desire shot through her; she gasped and pressed herself closer to him as he kissed her again. In the back of her mind, she heard a familiar sound, but it didn’t seem important, so she ignored it.
“Hey?” A voice broke into her world of physical sensation. “What’s going on here? Remember my youth?”
Tallulah pushed Aiden away. She sat up, slid off his lap, blinked, and focussed on her brother, who stood in front of the sofa, arms folded, and a very disapproving expression on his face.
“Kyle?” She pulled herself together. “Where the hell have you been? I haven’t seen you for days.”
“Never mind where I’ve been. What do you think you’re doing? That’s your boss.” He pointed an accusing finger at Aiden, who rubbed his face.
“I know who it is.” Tallulah’s mind began to function again. She’d think about her inexplicable behaviour later. “I still want to know where you’ve been.”
“What business is it of yours?” Kyle’s voice was hostile. “You’re my sister. Not my keeper or my mother. And it looks to me like you might need a keeper.”
“You’re staying with me,” Tallulah said. “I’m responsible for you. I want to know where you are.”
Kyle kicked the sofa. “Tough. We’ve had this conversation.”
Aiden opened his mouth. “Don’t—”
Tallulah jabbed her elbow into his midriff.
He grunted.
“I’ll handle this.” She took a deep breath and made herself remember how old Kyle was, and how he’d left his foster home because he felt controlled. She forced herself to keep calm.
“Look Kyle, I was worried. I couldn’t sleep. And you’re right. It isn’t really my business. But please tell me if you’re going to be away?”
Kyle kicked the sofa again. “I suppose I could have called.”
Tallulah hid her sigh of relief. “How’s the job?”
Kyle glanced at Aiden, whose face was blank. “Okay, I guess. That woman in Human Resources told me I could work on one of the construction sites next week. See the buildings the company produces.”
“Sounds good.”
Kyle glanced at Aiden again. “I still want to know what you were doing with him.”
Aiden folded his arms and leaned back.
“Tallie, you shouldn’t sleep with your boss. Even I know that. And—”
“I’m not sleeping with him,” she snapped.
“It looked—”
“And if I have to keep my nose out of your business,” she said, “then I think you owe me the same.”
“You’re my sister. It’s my job to look out for you.”
Next to her, she heard a peculiar snort come from Aiden, and she turned to glare at him. “I think it’s time you left.”
Aiden pushed himself off the sofa. “Show me out.”
Tallulah grabbed his arm. “Come on.”
As they walked down the stairs to the main entrance, Aiden nudged her. “It’s obvious he’s your brother.”
“Why?” Tallulah asked cautiously. Kyle looked nothing like her; his height and mop of hair came from his father, a West Indian who’d lived with Ellie Becks for a few months.
“Same sense of responsibility. How old did you say he was?”
“I don’t think I did. He’ll be eighteen at the end of the year.”
“How long is he staying with you?”
Tallulah shrugged. “I don’t know. I hope he’ll go back to his foster family at the end of the summer. They’ve offered to help him go to university.”
“And—”
“He doesn’t like being told what to do, but at least he’s talking to them again.” She undid the locks on the door.
Aiden paused. “I’ll see you tomorrow.” He cupped the back of her head and pulled her towards him.
Her heart rate picked up. “I don’t—”
He kissed her thoroughly, leaving her standing in the doorway as he ran down the steps. She touched her fingers to her mouth and waited until he vanished around the corner before closing the door and slowly climbing the six flights of stairs to her room.
Kyle was sitting on the sofa eating a chocolate bar.
“That’s mine.” She made a grab for the candy.
He pushed the remains into his mouth, chewed, and swallowed. “So, what’s going on?”
Tallulah shrugged and flopped onto the sofa next to him. “Seriously? I haven’t a clue.”
“I meant it,” he said. “Even I know it’s a bad idea to mix it with your boss.”
“I know.” Tallulah dropped her head, letting her hair hide her expression. “I must be mad. It’s just a temporary job though.”
“Right.” Kyle rolled his eyes.
“What about you? What have you been up to?”
Kyle glanced sideways at her. “You’re not going to nag me, are you?”
“Probably not,” she said. “If you’ve done something really bad, I might drop a brick on you while you’re sleeping, but—”
He laughed. “I’ve been staying with one of the girls from the post room. You met her. She’s called Tanya. She’s really nice.”
“What about not mixing it at work?” Tallulah pushed her hair back and raised her eyebrows. “She’s only seventeen.”
“Eighteen now, and at least she’s not my boss.” He swallowed the last of the chocolate. “And everybody knows most people meet their partners at work.”
“Partners?”
He grinned.
“Why don’t we meet Zoe for dinner tomorrow night?” Tallulah said. She needed to see her siblings, remind herself what was really important. “I’ll ring her in the morning. You could bring Tanya along.”
“Mmm.” Kyle looked dubious. “She’s younger than you.”
“So? So are you.”
“Why don’t you try and find Mia?” Kyle avoided answering. “Get her out with us.”
“She probably won’t be able to come. I’ll ring her.” She stood up. “I’m going to bed. It’s a workday tomorrow.”
/>
Chapter 16
The next morning Aiden arrived in the office earlier than usual, and before switching on his computer, he flicked through the notes that Tallulah had left him. It looked like they were on the right track. It was an old trick and obvious once they knew what to look for. The instigators must have thought they were dealing with a bunch of fools. Aiden sighed and leaned back in his chair, thinking about the senior management team. Perhaps I should just get the auditors in now.
He sat back, considering. Maybe next week’s soon enough.
Tallulah had been right when she told him he should look for the culprits. Now they knew what had been done, it shouldn’t be too hard, and it would be more exciting than the routine work he had to do. With any luck, it would stop him going cross-eyed with boredom. He closed the file and pushed himself out of his chair as he heard the outer door swing closed. He leaned round the door. Tallulah stood behind her desk, logging into her work station. She flushed slightly as she met his eyes.
“How are you? Did you sort things out with your brother?”
“We’re fine.”
Her eyes widened as he came around her desk. “What are you—”
He picked her up and sat her on the surface of the desk before kissing her. Her hands clutched at his shoulders, curling into the cotton of his shirt, as she kissed him back. She smelled of honeysuckle.
After a moment, she slid her hands down his chest and pushed him away. “You can’t do this at work.” She picked up the kettle and headed for the door. “I’ll make coffee.”
She was wearing wide, white trousers with thin blue vertical stripes, a blue camisole and a light turquoise ballet cardigan. Her hair was pulled back into a loose braid that hung down her back, and the thin cotton of the trousers clung to her hips, billowing around her legs as she headed out of the door.
He sat on the corner of her desk and waited for her to return.
“Haven’t you any work to do?” She plugged the kettle in without looking at him and spooned coffee into the pot.
“I’ve a bit,” he said, “but I wanted to talk to you about the financial reports.”
“What about them? Have you looked at the stuff I did last night, already?”
“I was in pretty early, and I’ve skimmed through the lot. It looks like my father was right,” he said. “I really thought he was paranoid. I’ll call the auditors on Monday, but I’d like to find the culprit myself.”
The kettle boiled, and Tallulah poured hot water onto the ground coffee. “How are you going to do that?”
“There must be an email trail.” Aiden joined Tallulah at the counter. “I’m going down to talk to the head of IT. He’s not in until nine o’clock, so I’ve time for coffee.”
Tallulah poured into the coffee mugs and handed him one, before adding milk to hers. She sat behind her desk and sipped at her drink.
“So, you’re going to look through company emails from the last couple of years?” Tallulah put her cup down. “It’ll take forever.”
“You’ll help, won’t you? Overtime rates?”
She laughed. “I sound mercenary even to myself.”
“Charge what you’re worth,” Aiden said. “They teach you that on MBAs. Actually, that’s not quite true. They tell you to charge as much as you can get.”
“I need a pay rise.” Tallulah’s eyes sparkled with laughter. “What do you want me to do? Go through half of the emails?”
“I think this has to come from management,” Aiden said. “It has to be someone in the financial structure of the company, so we’ll start there. We can narrow the dates to a week either side of the costings and completion and just go through the lot.”
“Right.” Tallulah picked up her coffee again and gave him a look that said, “So what are you still doing here?”
He pushed himself off the edge of her desk, leaned forward, wrapped his hand round her braid, and kissed her.
She gave him a ‘rabbit in the headlights’ look and shoved him away, her full lips flattening into a straight line. “Stop it. Remember what I said about work?”
At lunchtime, Sasha turned up again, this time finding her own way up to the seventh floor.
He sighed with exasperation when she walked straight into his office, perfectly dressed in pink gingham capris and a fuchsia-coloured wrap-round cardigan. He thought he’d been fairly clear the night before. He glanced at his watch. It was twelve o’clock.
“I’ve come to take you to lunch.” She removed her movie-star sunglasses and smouldered at him.
Aiden glanced past her, through the open door, to Tallulah, who raised both eyebrows as high as they would go. “I can’t really spare the time. I’m drowning in paperwork, here, and—”
“You can spare the time to eat.” Sasha tapped the toe of one high-heeled mule on the floor. “You’ll get more done this afternoon if you take a lunch break.”
“But I—”
“And you don’t want to end up the same way as your father,” she added.
Aiden closed his eyes and clenched his jaw. She’d always been persistent to the point of annoyance. It was a trait that had paid dividends in her career. How come I never noticed how bossy she was, he wondered, and why did it never bother me before? He opened his eyes again. She was still standing in front of his desk.
He picked up his jacket thoughtfully. Maybe I need to be firmer, to get this over quickly. Sasha isn’t going to go away without considerable encouragement. He hoped things weren’t going to get unpleasant.
“Tallulah?”
She gave him an expressionless look, the sort of look that said he’d better have a good explanation for this.
“I’ll be out of the office for an hour if anyone needs to speak to me. I’ll be back by one thirty at the latest.”
“Okay.” She folded her arms and narrowed her eyes at him. “Remember you’ve the two o’clock meeting.”
He nodded as Sasha threaded her arm through his and led him from the office. The skin on the back of his neck prickled as he imagined the sort of death-glare Tallulah must be giving him.
He suggested they have lunch in a small Italian sandwich shop around the corner from the office and guided Sasha into a quiet corner booth with bench seats.
“Slumming it, aren’t you?” She glanced around the small room with its crowd of office workers clustered in front of the counter.
Aiden shrugged. “It’s convenient, and I’m pretty busy. Haven’t you started work yet?”
Sasha was a workaholic; once she was involved in a project, she wouldn’t dream of taking long lunch breaks. If she’d already been working, he bet she wouldn’t have wasted her energy on him.
“I start next week,” she said. “I’ve been settling into the flat and exploring London. I’ve a few colleagues and friends here.”
“Where are you living?”
“A company flat in Kensington. Small, but it’s a nice area. You must come around for a meal.”
Aiden picked up his panini and took a bite.
“I thought we should get things settled before I start work properly,” she said. “I’m sorry I was so aggressive before you left New York, but I had a moment of panic when I realised everyone else was settling down. I thought I’d be left behind.”
“So—”
“I felt strongly about what I was saying,” she interrupted. “Not the marriage and children bit, or not really. The commitment’s important though. We’ve been together three years, so I think it’s time.”
She had been more than aggressive; she’d been scary. Aiden opened his mouth to say so but, in the name of peace, reconsidered.
“Aiden?” She leaned across the table and grabbed his hand. “I decided it’s more important to me that we’re together than that we’re married. I just
wanted some token of commitment. My insecurities came out big time.” She shrugged and gave him a seductive smile.
Insecurities? Aiden would be seriously surprised to discover that Sasha had any insecurities. What do I know? he thought. I can’t ever have really known her. Her behaviour had taken him completely by surprise. He pulled his hand free.
“Well?” She shifted impatiently.
“There’s someone else.”
She stared at him, her perfectly painted lips hanging slightly open in astonishment. “Already?”
“It was a coup de foudre,” he said with a shrug. He tried to look embarrassed.
“A what?”
“An arrow from Cupid’s bow,” he explained.
“I know what a coup de foudre is,” Sasha said. Her expression suggested she thought he’d gone mad. “I just have difficulty applying it to you.”
“Shows you don’t know me as well as you thought you did.” Aiden spread his hands in a gesture of incomprehension. “Although I surprised myself too.”
“Who is she?” Sasha looked interested rather than upset or angry. She was a strange woman.
“Tinkerbelle.” Aiden had to scramble to come up with a name. “My new assistant.” Tallulah was a helpful sort of person. She’d understand. He was almost sure she would.
“The girl in your office?” Sasha’s eyes widened. “You can’t be serious. Tinkerbelle? You’re in love with a girl called Tinkerbelle?”
“Why not?” Aiden forced annoyance into his voice. “You don’t think I can be sure so soon? You don’t—”
Sasha sat back and folded her arms. “She’s not your type. Not at all. You’re making a big mistake.”
“How would you know?”
“I’d know better than anyone else,” she said. “I was your type for three years.”
“Maybe.” Aiden spread his hands again. “Who knows how these things happen? And when it came down to it, we didn’t last, did we? Anyway, I looked at her and it just happened.”
Better Together Page 14
