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Astrid smiled and felt a flush that came with knowing she’d done a good job. That was it, she told herself. It had nothing to do with the fact that Henry had leaned in close to her and had his arm around her shoulder.
“I want to hit one more club before calling it a night,” Henry said. “You up for that?”
She thought about her after-Daniel routine—evening television programs followed by a cup of chamomile tea and bed by eleven. For the first time since she’d lost her baby she felt alive. Really alive.
“Yes, I am.”
“Good. Let’s go,” Henry said.
They talked a little more about what he wanted on their way to the next club, and Astrid was careful to listen to what he said. Throughout the rest of the evening he didn’t push anymore to find out why she’d left Mo Rollins’s organization, and she was glad of it.
She knew, though, that it was a temporary reprieve. Henry was going to get the answers to his questions. He was simply biding his time and letting her get to the point where she was finally comfortable.
She thought she’d have weeks to get to the point where she’d casually mention Daniel and the fact that over the eighteen months she worked for him their relationship had progressed from professional to personal, but that all changed when they left their third club of the evening and she stepped out into the night air and nearly collided with a tall, broad-shouldered man.
“Sorry,” she said, glancing up into eyes that were very familiar.
“Astrid? What are you doing here?” Daniel asked.
“Working,” she said.
“For me,” Henry said, stepping behind her and putting his arm on her elbow as he drew her away from Daniel.
Four
Henry didn’t like the way the other man was looking at Astrid. It was more than the way an ex-boss should. Over the course of the day he’d started thinking of her as his. Not in a sexual way … well, not completely in a sexual way. And he could tell from the frozen expression on her face that this man wasn’t a friend of hers.
“Henry Devonshire,” Henry said, offering his hand to the man.
“Daniel Martin.”
Suddenly a lot of things fell into place. Astrid’s old boss was more than her boss. No wonder she’d been reluctant to talk about him.
“I’ve heard a lot about you.”
“You, as well. Steph Cordo was quite a coup for you. A lot of producers are envious they didn’t get the drop on you.”
Henry smiled affably. His time in the spotlight taught him how to conceal what he really felt about others. And he didn’t like the brash American Daniel. He rubbed Henry the wrong way.
“Henry’s got an eye for talent.”
“Let’s hope he can also spot the slackers,” Daniel said.
Astrid flinched and drew her handbag closer to her body. “I’ve always known how to build winning teams. There’s our car. Good evening, Daniel.”
Daniel nodded, and Henry led Astrid to the valet stand where his car waited. She was eerily silent for someone he’d come to expect to be sassy and spunky. Was the cheeky girl he’d come to know just a façade, and was this introspective woman the real Astrid?
“Daniel was the reason you left your last job,” Henry said.
“It was attendance, like my record stated. I know that Daniel wouldn’t have given me a recommendation.”
“He didn’t.”
“Figures.”
“How long were the two of you involved?” Henry asked.
“Why do you think we were?”
Henry gave her a shrewd look. “Ex-lovers make everyone react differently than ex-bosses. So … how long were you two involved?”
“Too long,” Astrid said. “I … I’m not normally like that. I really thought that Daniel was a different man.”
Henry sensed that about Astrid. She was funny and outgoing, but he had noticed earlier in the evening that she kept a barrier between herself and others. He’d recognized that trait mainly because he always did the same.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Henry asked.
She shook her head and clenched her hands tightly on her lap. He knew that she was trying to control her reaction to seeing her ex-lover.
Henry said nothing, just kept driving. He didn’t know where Astrid lived, and he didn’t want to interrupt her in the middle of whatever she was going to say.
“I always thought … Well, that hardly matters. Where are we going now?” she asked.
“Home. But I’ll need your address.”
“You can drop me at the nearest Underground.”
“No, I can’t. They’ve stopped running at this hour.”
She glanced at her watch and then shook her head again. “You’re right. I live in Woking.”
He put her address into his Sat Nav system and then followed the directions of Mr. T’s voice. As he expected, Astrid laughed a little the first time the recorded voice told him to “turn around, fool.”
“I can’t believe you have that rude voice on your Sat Nav.”
“It’s Mr. T. That’s his persona—big tough guy.”
“I don’t get it. But then Americans are very different, aren’t they?”
“Some. They don’t get rugby, which makes no sense at all to me.”
She smiled again, and he felt good for having made her smile. “I guess they are just daft.”
“Must be. Do you follow rugby?” he asked.
“Some,” she said, blushing the slightest bit. He could only see the rise in color as he braked to a stop for the traffic light. “I used to when I was younger.”
“Which teams?”
“England, of course, in the 6 Nations.”
“Have you been to any games?” he asked.
“A few. I used to be really into going to the games at Madejski Stadium to watch the London Irish play.”
“Why’d you stop?” he asked. His old team was still a contender.
“My dad got too sick to go. And it was always something I did with him.”
“Your family must be very close,” he said.
“Why do you say that?” she asked.
“You had lunch with your sister, went to games with your dad.”
She shrugged. Something he noticed she did a lot when she was evading answering a question. “I suppose we are. What about you? Your mum is Tiffany Malone. That had to be exciting.”
“She’s still my mum,” he said. “We’re quite close, actually. She loves being a mum and smothers my brothers and I with her mothering.”
Astrid smiled again. “Are you a bit of a mummy’s lad?”
“What do you think?”
She tipped her head to the side as she studied him and, having lightened her mood, he felt as if he was seeing the return of Astrid. Not that tight-lipped stranger whom Daniel Martin had evoked.
“I think you are a man who knows very much what he wants and probably doesn’t look to anyone for approval.”
He nodded. “Damn straight. Now which place is yours?”
She pointed to a modern block of flats and he pulled into the parking lot. She reached for her door as he turned off the car. He got out and met her as she exited the car. It had started to drizzle on the drive, and the rain made her hair curl.
She stared up at him for a minute, chewing on her lower lip. “Thank you for the ride home. And for … well for being so nice about everything. You made seeing Daniel again bearable for me.”
“You’re welcome,” he said. He cupped her elbow and led her to the entrance of the building.
“Well, good night, then,” she said.
“Good night, Astrid,” he said. But instead of doing the smart thing and letting her enter her building, he touched the side of her face and lowered his head to kiss her.
Astrid leaned up into Henry’s kiss. He didn’t put his arm around her, but kept one hand on her face. His lips rubbed lightly over hers, and she stood on tiptoe to get closer to him. His lips were soft and provoked a slow burn.
The reaction of his mouth on hers sent tingles down her body and she opened her mouth on a sigh. She tasted the minty crispness of his breath before his tongue brushed over hers. Forgetting everything, she felt only his mouth on hers.
The hand on her face slid to the nape of her neck, and he held her firmly as he took complete control of their kiss.
She couldn’t think.
She didn’t want to. She’d watched Henry all day and night wondering what it would be like to be in his embrace, and now she knew. It was intense.
He smelled earthy and masculine. His cologne was expensive and crisp—she suspected it was custom-blended just for him. She closed her eyes to focus her senses in the experience.
He pulled back, and she opened her eyes to see him staring down at her. He said nothing but rubbed his thumb over her bottom lip and then stepped away from her.
“Good night, then,” he said.
She watched him walk back to his car and realized she was still standing there like a ninny. She unlocked the lobby door to her flat building and walked in without looking back at him.
Danger loomed—real danger of falling for Henry Devonshire. A man who would never see her any differently than Daniel had. How could he? His mother was a pop star, his father was a billionaire entrepreneur and she was the daughter of a schoolteacher and a taxi driver.
When was she going to learn?
Why did she have a weakness for men who were …
“Not good for me,” she said out loud.
She kicked off her shoes as she entered and dropped her keys on the kitchen counter. It took her fifteen minutes to get ready for bed, but once she was there she couldn’t sleep. She just kept reliving, not the encounter with Daniel, which she’d expected, but the kiss with Henry.
She’d never been kissed like that before. It had been too intense. Her vows to herself about not getting involved with men she worked with melted away.
She drifted off to sleep and woke early for work. She dressed in an ultraprofessional suit that she’d worn to her interview with Malcolm Devonshire’s assistant Edmond. That suit was her armor when she needed to be professional. Bethann called, but Astrid let it go to voice mail because Bethann could always tell when something was going on in Astrid’s life. Her older sister had known her affair with Daniel had gone wrong just from the way Astrid had said hello.
The train was busy, but that was normal for the morning. She knew she was going to have to figure out an alternate way to handle her commute once she started going out at night with Henry. She tried to fill her mind with to-do lists and other meaningless tasks, but the one thought that kept circling around was what would happen when she saw Henry.
How was he going to treat her today?
Her mobile rang again and she hit the quiet button. The part of the train she was on was a quiet zone, so she couldn’t talk to Bethann even if she wanted to. A minute later she received an instant message on her Smartphone. They each had a BlackBerry so could use the Messenger on that.
Bethann: Stop ignoring my calls.
Astrid: I’m on the train, Bethann. I can’t talk just now.
Bethann: Where were you last night?
Astrid: Working.
Bethann: I left you a voice mail at home … I’m worried about you. I think you should have taken a job in my office.
Astrid hadn’t even seriously considered working with her sister at the law office where Bethann was a solicitor. She loved Bethann, but the other woman was demanding and very bossy. If they worked together, Astrid was afraid she’d lose it and say something that would hurt her sister’s feelings.
Astrid: I like working in the music industry. My stop’s next. Daniel contacted me and threatened to tell Henry awful things about me.
Bethann: I’m going to contact his office today. We filed a wrongful termination.
Astrid: I know but the fact that I settled makes it seem like there was something untoward between us.
Bethann: There was.
Astrid: Stop being a cow about that. I need you to just tell me everything’s going to be okay and the one mistake I made falling for that man isn’t going to ruin the rest of my life.
