‘I’m so glad to see things are progressing with sexy Alex,’ Violet murmured huskily into her ear. ‘It’s amazing what a bit of rivalry and a sprig of mistletoe can incite.’
Flora drew back to raise an eyebrow at her. ‘Was it you who hung it above his door?’
Violet shrugged casually, then smiled. ‘I thought the two of you could do with a bit of encouragement.’
‘Yes, well, we’re still just friends, Vi. Neither of us are in any kind of emotional state for a relationship right now. And anyway, I’m back off to New York soon.’
‘Uh-huh,’ Violet said, looking and sounding completely unconvinced. ‘Look,’ she said, her expression becoming serious now, ‘I know I’ve been a selfish cow in the past, Floor, but I genuinely want you to be happy.’
Flora became aware of her eyes filling with tears and blinked them back quickly. ‘Thanks, Vi. I want you and Evan to be happy too. You’re good together.’
Her sister appeared to be blinking back her own tears now. They had one more tight hug before Flora extricated herself and gave both her mother and father one last kiss on their cheeks.
‘Thanks so much for having us. Merry Christmas.’
‘Come back and see us again soon, darling,’ her mother said, hugging her hard. ‘We really miss you, you know.’
Flora nodded and said, ‘I know. I miss you too. I’ll be back soon.’ Then she quickly walked out of the door before she began crying in earnest.
Alex was leaning against the car, waiting for her.
‘Ready to go?’ he asked with concern in his voice as he clocked her strained expression.
‘Yes, I am,’ she said, getting into the passenger side and clicking on her seat belt.
‘Are you okay?’ he asked as he got in beside her, turning to fix her with his bright, intense gaze.
Her stomach swooped as she gazed back at his handsome face, her eyes dropping to those firm lips she’d been kissing less than an hour ago. ‘Actually, yes, more okay than I’ve been for a long time. I think Amy would have been pleased to see me getting on with my family so well. Pleased and relieved,’ she added, flashing him a wobbly smile.
Alex grinned back with genuine warmth and pleasure in his eyes, then turned the key in the ignition, put the car into gear and set off back to Bath.
CHAPTER TEN
THE NEXT NIGHT Flora was kicking off her heels, desperate to give her poor aching feet a break after an intense day back at work, when her phone rang. Picking it up, she saw Alex’s name on the screen and accepted the call with a swell of nerve-tinged pleasure. They’d texted a couple of times during the day about random things—clearly he’d been bored at home on his own, Flora had mused as she’d juggled emails and calls and demands from her staff and clients—but they hadn’t actually spoken since he’d dropped her at home late on Boxing Day night.
‘Hey, how was your day?’ he asked without preamble. She really appreciated that. She had little enough energy as it was for conversation without being drawn into an awkward egotistical dance to see who could be the most aloof after a break from each other’s company.
‘A bit of a pig, if I’m honest,’ she said, letting out a long sigh as all the tensions of the day came flooding back to her. Despite her hope that a break over Christmas would help her boss thaw to her a little, he still seemed determined to keep her right under his thumb.
‘Still giving you trouble, is he?’ Alex asked and she felt a rush of relief that he understood without her having to spell it out—and that it felt okay to complain to him about it. He’d been so lovely when she’d told him about how much she’d been struggling to keep her composure at work when they’d travelled back down to Bath the night before. He’d been both attentive and kind. Much like his sister had always been whenever she’d needed a pep talk.
‘Yeah,’ she said glumly. ‘He’s still treating me like I’m an idiot.’
‘Okay,’ he said, ‘I’m coming over.’ And he ended the call.
She stared at her phone for a good few seconds, wondering whether she was so tired she’d just imagined that happening.
Her fears were allayed, however, when there was a ring on her doorbell a few minutes later. She opened the door to find Alex standing on the doorstep holding a chocolate cake in one hand and a bottle of wine in the other.
‘Now there’s a sight for sore eyes,’ she said, ushering him inside and taking the bottle and cake from him so he could shrug his coat off.
‘It sounded like you could do with some company, but if you’d rather I just handed over the refined sugar and alcohol and left you to indulge in peace I’ll understand,’ he said, following her into the kitchen.
‘No way,’ she said, putting the offerings onto the work surface. ‘You’re most welcome too.’
And he was. It was lovely to have someone to talk to about what had gone wrong with her day. Before Amy died it would have been her that she’d call—though only if it had been a particularly taxing day. Most of the time she just kept all the stress to herself, locked away deep inside her.
As she turned to face Alex he flashed her one of his alluring smiles and her insides swooped with pleasure. ‘Well, good, because I could do with a friend tonight too,’ he said.
‘Really?’ she asked, worried that he’d had a bad day as well and in her self-centred state she’d totally neglected to ask him about it.
‘Yeah,’ he said, moving slowly but very deliberately towards her. ‘I missed your friendly company.’
Ah, now she got it.
She grinned at him, feeling a little shiver of excitement race down her spine as she took in the look of desirous intent in his eyes.
‘And, as your friend, it’s my duty to take your mind off work,’ he said, starting to undo the buttons on her blouse.
She let out a long hiss of pleasure as he dipped his head to kiss her throat, then pushed the blouse off her shoulders.
‘Hmm, how very altruistic of you,’ she mumbled, drawing in a sharp breath as his nimble fingers made short work of unhooking the clasp of her bra, which he then removed in one swift movement.
Taking a step backwards, she realised he’d manoeuvred her against the kitchen island. She gasped as he slid his hands under her bottom and lifted her onto it, moving his body between her legs to lean in and kiss her hard.
He was less gentle with her this time, which was exactly what she needed. She soon forgot all about her horrible day, allowing herself to sink into the passion and intensity of his lovemaking.
Not that they were ‘making love’ per se, she reminded herself hazily.
No, they’d agreed that this was nothing like that.
* * *
For Alex, the next few days passed by in a blur of intensely pleasurable time spent with Flora in the evenings and intensely focused days of composing new songs, which seemed to flood into his head as soon as she’d closed his front door behind her on her way to work.
He’d thought a lot about what Flora had said about how he was handling his music career and had come to the decision that he was going to make things happen for himself this next year, even if it killed him to do it. She was absolutely right—he couldn’t just stay within the safe confines of the band in the hopes they’d have a breakthrough soon. He wasn’t going to give up on his dream of going solo, no matter how hard that might be.
He wanted to play his own music.
Luckily, the band had agreed to take the week between Christmas and New Year off as a break in order to recharge their creative batteries so he was able to dedicate that time to working on his own material.
Near the end of the week he was confident enough in what he’d written to record it for a demo, so he called a friend in London who part-owned a recording studio and arranged to use a spare studio on the Friday. He didn’t say anything to
Flora about the new songs, wanting to surprise her with them at some point in the future. For now, he just wanted to keep the momentum of his creativity going.
To his utter surprise and great delight, his friend knocked on the studio door at the end of his session and introduced him to a music producer who was working in the room next to him. After an involved discussion about the state of the music industry, the guy asked to sit in and listen to what he’d managed to record.
After hearing the songs Alex played him, the producer was hugely complimentary about the material. He asked to take a copy of the demo away with him to pass on to a colleague, who was apparently looking for an artist like him to complement his growing client list.
In Alex’s adrenaline-fuelled creative haze it seemed entirely meant to be. Not that he was going to get too excited about it. He’d had enough knock-backs by now to know not to hope for too much to come out of it. Still, he was pleased with what he’d achieved that week and had a solid demo to send to other labels off the back of it.
Maybe this year would be his year.
Not wanting to go home to Bath on his own after finishing in the studio, he looked up the address for Bounce soft drinks and went to meet Flora after work.
He spotted her coming out of the building alone, her shoulders a little slumped and her brow pinched into a tired-looking frown.
That idiot boss of hers had a lot to answer for.
The flash of pure anger at how she was being treated propelled him forwards in a surge of protective indignation. He marched up to her, scooped her into his arms and planted a hard kiss on her mouth, wanting her to know that not everyone was oblivious to her charms.
‘Alex!’ she said, once he’d pulled back from the thoroughly intensive kiss he’d given her. ‘What are you doing here?’
He loved that she looked so ridiculously pleased to see him and his chest gave a peculiar throb of pleasure.
‘I’ve come to escort you home,’ he said, linking his arm though hers. ‘I thought we could go straight back to your place tonight to celebrate you finishing work for the year,’ he said, grinning at her.
She nodded in a pseudo-sombre manner. ‘I guess if we’re going out to celebrate the New Year tomorrow with friends, a quiet night in might be just the ticket,’ she said, snuggling closer to him.
‘Who said anything about quiet?’ he teased, his whole body flooding with desire at her responding look of unconcealed enthusiasm.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
SATURDAY NIGHT WAS New Year’s Eve and, on Alex’s insistence, Flora turned up to his place for a meal before they hit the pubs in town with Pete and Des from the band, who were going to be out with their partners.
She walked into his kitchen to find him cooking up a storm.
‘Did you have a relaxing morning?’ he asked as he turned away from the stove to drag her to him for a welcoming kiss.
She’d been at a spa all day, pampering herself with massages and beauty treatments galore—a suggestion of Alex’s after she’d complained last night about how much her whole body was aching from sitting at her desk and on the train.
‘Yeah, your magic antidote suggestion seems to have cured me. I no longer feel one hundred and ten years old.’ She leaned against the work surface and watched him stir some seasoning into the food, wishing his talented hands were on her instead of the spoon and pan. ‘I’m really not looking forward to going back to work after New Year,’ she said, sighing. ‘But at least I’m only there for another couple of weeks.’
‘Is that when the project’s due to end?’ he asked, turning away from her to throw a couple of empty tins into the recycling box. Was it her imagination or was his body language a little tense?
‘Yeah. Then I’m back off to my position in New York,’ she said stiffly, moving closer so she could peer into the pan, feeling an uncomfortable urge to change the subject. She really didn’t want to think about leaving right now. ‘Hmm, is that chicken stew?’
‘Coq au vin,’ he said with a nod.
‘Well, it smells delicious.’
‘It’s going to taste delicious too,’ he said, with a cocky confidence that made her smile. ‘I happen to be an excellent cook.’
‘You’re full of surprises,’ she said, leaning back against the kitchen work surface again to give him an assessing glance.
There was a beat of silence.
‘Is the stress really worth it?’ he asked gruffly, making her wonder where the sudden vehemence had come from.
‘At work?’ she asked, her mind taking a moment to catch up with the meaning behind his question.
He nodded.
‘I used to think so but, I have to admit, some days I wonder. It’s pretty exhausting keeping up with the pace of it and I’m sick of having to work in the evening and weekends to catch up with myself.’
‘Then give it up,’ he said, waving the spoon at her. ‘Make a change. Work for yourself. Break the routine and just do something different—something you feel passionate about.’
She stiffened, discomfort making heat rise to her face. ‘But I’ve worked so hard to get where I am. I can’t just give it up now.’
He studied her with an irritated frown. ‘Of course you could. You just have to adjust your priorities.’
His insinuation that it would be easy to just give up what she’d spent years working for sent a prickle of exasperation up her spine. It wasn’t as simple as that. It really wasn’t. She was too used to the security she enjoyed working for Bounce now. It could take years to get to that same position if she set up her own business. And what if she failed? All her hard work would be wasted.
They glared at each other crossly, the air crackling with barely contained antagonism.
‘I’m just going to use your bathroom,’ she muttered, looking away from his maddening expression. The last thing she wanted right now was to have a row with him. She was here for some light relief, not a life lesson.
She was just about to come out of the bathroom, after taking a few deep, steadying breaths to calm her racing heart, when she heard voices in the hall. She froze on the spot, a sixth sense telling her not to go any further.
‘Look, it’s not a good time,’ she heard Alex say.
‘Okay, you win,’ came the urgent tones of a woman’s reply.
It only took Flora’s brain a second to recognise those gravelly tones.
Tia.
‘What are you talking about?’ Alex asked, sounding exasperated.
A little voice in Flora’s head cheered him on.
‘It worked, Alex. You wanted to make me jealous and I am.’
‘Tia, what—’
‘Don’t pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about,’ she cut in. ‘Give me some credit at least.’
‘Are you talking about Flora?’ The incredulity in his tone sent a cold shiver rushing down her spine. So that confirmed the fear she’d been pushing to the back of her mind ever since that morning in bed in her parents’ house. He hadn’t been feigning nonchalance about what she meant to him; he really did only see her as a friend.
‘Look, I know you were upset when I got together with Zane, but I was having a really hard time. He was there for me when you weren’t!’ Tia whined.
‘My sister was dying,’ Alex stated in a cold voice.
‘And you just pushed me away when I tried to support you. You wouldn’t even let me come and meet her. It was like I didn’t even exist any more.’
‘So you gave up on me and moved straight on to the next band member in line.’ There was a break in Alex’s voice that made Flora’s breath catch.
‘I’m not proud of how I handled it.’ There was a long pause. ‘I want you to know I’m sorry.’ Another pause. ‘And that I regret it.’
Flora’s heart was beating so fast
now she felt dizzy as she waited for Alex’s response.
‘You regret it?’ Alex asked in a voice that seemed to have lost all its anger now.
‘Yes. I want you back.’
There was a long pause. Flora was aware of her pulse thumping painfully in her throat.
‘What about Zane?’ he asked eventually.
A wave of nausea rose through her at the discovery that he could be so easily persuaded to give in to Tia’s will, even after the callous way she’d acted towards him.
‘He’ll get over it,’ Tia said in that cooing voice Flora had heard her use the first time they’d met and she’d thought she’d have to break up a fight between her two lovers.
‘I... I don’t know what to say,’ Alex said gruffly.
There was a pause, then a strange oof sound, followed by a low moan of pleasure.
Flora felt her breath whoosh out of her. She took a couple of stumbling steps backwards, aware of her shoulder banging hard against the bathroom cupboard but not feeling the pain of it.
They were kissing, she was sure of it.
With heavy dread sinking through her, she crept forwards again to peek around the doorway into the hall. Alex and Tia were standing there with their arms twined around each other and their mouths locked together in a deep kiss.
Flora felt strangely spaced out, as if she was watching what was happening from afar, her emotions disconnected from what she was seeing.
Well, that’s it then, she thought in a weirdly detached way. Alex was kissing Tia, which must mean he wanted her back.
But what about me? What about us?
She shook her head jerkily, pushing the dissenting voice out of her head. She was his friend. They’d agreed that whatever this thing was between them, it wasn’t going to be serious.
Her hands had begun to shake. She crossed her arms and stuffed her hands under her armpits to calm the tremble in them.
It was Alex’s life and his decision. She just wanted him to be happy. If that meant him getting back with Tia, then that had to be a good thing.
His Mistletoe Proposal Page 13
