Page 29 of Must Have Been Love

Ayda comes out right as I open my mouth to tell Skyler that I’ll pay for her to stay away.

“Thank you for the invitation,” Skyler says to Ayda, who’s staring up at her like she’s some kind of queen. “I’d love to come to your party. I can’t wait to choose an outfit.”

Ayda jumps up and down excitedly, then throws her arms around Skyler. And I feel that weird twinge in my chest again. I need to make an appointment with my doctor. I’m clearly having heart issues.

My phone starts to buzz and I see that it’s our London office calling back. A deal we’ve been working on for months is on the verge of collapse and the head of investment needs my go-ahead to up the offer.

“Excuse me,” I say, but neither my daughter or the woman who’s driving me up the wall are looking at me. Skyler is leaning down, whispering something in Ayda’s ear. And Ayda nods, her eyes wide, like Skyler’s just suggested they go to Disneyland.

“Fitzgerald,” I croak into the phone.

“They rejected it,” Damien, the head of our London office says.

“Then go for the final offer,” I say, because we all know they can’t do it without my say so.

“What if they reject that?” he asks.

“Then we walk away, but you call me right away and we’ll work out how to fuck them over good and proper,” I growl. “But they won’t because they know they have no other choice.”

It’s only when I look up that I realize both Skyler and my daughter heard me.

“Sorry for swearing,” I say quickly.

“It’s okay,” Damien says, even though that wasn’t meant for him. “I’ll keep you updated.”

“You do that.”

I take a deep breath. “Come on, sweetheart,” I say to my daughter. “Let’s go home. Autumn’s taking you to see the horses this afternoon.”

Instead of listening to me, my kid looks up and sees Eileen outside the guest house and snatches another invitation out of my pocket before I can point out what a bad idea that would be.

She runs past Skyler, who watches her open-mouthed, before she turns to me.

“Eileen and Mylene?” she says. “In one place?”

I pinch my nose between my fingers. Skyler is new and already knows what a bad idea this is.

“I fucking hate parties,” I mutter. Her laugh is so breathy it sends a shot of desire right down to my dick.

“Well if I wasn’t going to come before, I definitely am now,” she says. “It’ll be the party of the century, how could I miss it?”

“Maybe it’ll rain,” I say. She smells of damn flowery glades and it makes me want her even more.

“What you said about maybe staying a while, you were kidding, right?” I ask her.

She rolls onto her tiptoes until her mouth is close to my ear. I automatically reach out to steady her, my palms curling around her waist.

“In your dreams,” she whispers. I turn to face her and her lips are so close to mine I can feel the warmth of her breath on my mouth. It takes all the restraint I have not to close the fucking gap and kiss this woman in the middle of the street. Because I want to kiss her. I want to dominate her. I want to show her she’s playing with fire.

Thankfully she rolls back, pulling out of my hold and my hands hover in mid-air like they miss her already. I let out a sigh. Near miss averted.

“I’ll see you at the party,” she says, flicking her hair over her shoulder. “I’ll be the one dressed as a slutty princess.”

Yeah, I’m almost certain she will, just to drive me out of my mind.

Weirdly, it’s the only part of the party I might actually look forward to.

nine

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