Page 46 of The Romance Library

What a day.

I’d just got back from the theme park and I was drained. Not physically—mentally.

Turned out that trying not to look at someone you’re attracted to for hours was exhausting. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d felt like this. And it was just my luck that the woman I was drawn to was the one woman I absolutely could not have.

Jessica was off limits for so many reasons.

Despite the crap Edwin said about there being no competitors in this town, the bottom line was that Jessica was standing in the way of me fulfilling my lifelong purpose: becoming CEO of Eaves Enterprises. That meant she was the enemy. Pure and simple.

I’d spent my whole life working towards taking over from my father. I couldn’t let my goal get derailed because I was attracted to her.

Secondly, even if she wasn’t my rival, which she most definitely was, we came from two completely different worlds, so we could never have a relationship. Father had made it clear that he expected me to settle down with a woman who came from the same background—like Penelope. Which reminded me, I was supposed to call her.

Penelope was the kind of woman I should be with. But if that was true, why couldn’t I get Jessica out of my head?

I blamed that stupid roller-coaster ride. Up until that point, I had things under control. Sort of. Whilst I’ll admit that things had steered slightly off course with that email exchange, I’d reined it in. It was all going well until I saw the look of pure terror across Jessica’s face.

Competitor or not, I couldn’t just sit there knowing she was petrified. Despite what she thought of me, I wasn’t an arsehole. Which was why I did what any gentleman would do: tried to calm her down by reaching for her hand.

It wasn’t planned. I didn’t even realise I’d done it until I felt an electric sensation shoot through me. And then it was too late. She’d grasped my hand tightly like she was falling off a cliff and gripping my palm was the only thing that would save her.

Jessica’s hand was so cold too. It was like the fear had sucked all the warmth from her body and she needed my heat to revive her. So I couldn’t exactly pull away.

And if I was being perfectly honest, I didn’t want to.

I liked the feeling of her hand in mine.

I liked knowing that in some way it helped to calm her down.

I liked that for once I’d done something useful. Made a nice change from the constant criticism from my father.

Just mentioning him turned my blood cold and snapped me out of my thoughts.

What the fuck was wrong with me? If he knew I was thinking about how nice it was to hold my competitor’s hand, he’d kick me out of the company. And then where would I be?

I couldn’t afford to have these thoughts about Jessica. I had to keep my eyes on the prize.

After reaching for my phone, I selected my youngest brother’s number. I needed a distraction.

‘Brother!’ I smiled at the screen. I always preferred to video-call him so I could see his face. He had tanned skin and dark hair that was slightly shorter than mine, and whilst my eyes were blue like Mum’s, he’d inherited Father’s brown eyes. ‘How are you?’

‘Mr. T! I’m good, bro, can’t complain! Enjoying life here in LA, you know how it is!’ Ben grinned. It must be early afternoon over there, and in the background I could see clear blue sky and palm trees.

‘Actually, I don’t. What are you up to over there?’

‘Bit of this and a bit of that. Mainly that.’ He flipped the screen and I saw a woman stood beside the pool in a rather revealing bikini.

That was typical of Ben. He was always enjoying himself. Usually with multiple women and as far away from London as possible.

After getting his degree, he’d gone travelling around Asia and Australia for a few years.

When he’d returned to London, he’d never managed to hold down a job, much to our father’s dismay.

Then last year, when he’d started getting pressured to join the family business, he’d jetted off to the US—allegedly to study, but I wasn’t entirely convinced he spent much time in a classroom.

‘How’s the studying going?’ I asked.

‘Careful, you’re starting to sound like Daddy Dearest. Where are you anyway? Looks like you’re trapped on some awful 1970s film set.’

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