Page 9 of Single Dad Christmas

Louisa was used to being known and recognized, but so far Sydney had been a haven for her. Even after Ares’s unexpected visit the week before, she’d still been able to fly under the radar. The local papers hadn’t even run the story about his visit—thank heavens for small mercies—though anyone who went online would be able to find all the sneaky long lens photos and the conjecture about Ares’s reason for coming to see her.

“I was explaining your advertising vision to Rose,” Noah supplemented, and when Louisa glanced across at him, there was a look in his features that she could have sworn mimicked embarrassment.

But that made zero sense.

“Shall I show you through to your command centre?” Rose offered.

“I like the sound of that,” Louisa said with a smile of her own. “That would be?—,”

“That’s okay, Rose. I’ll do it,” Noah’s voice came over the top of Louisa’s. “Don’t trouble yourself.”

Rose glanced at him with obvious surprise, before lifting one shoulder in a shrug. “Okay. I have more than enough to be getting on with, anyway.” She turned back to Louisa. “But I’m here if you need anything. My extension is number forty-seven. Just pick up any phone and dial it to be put through to me.”

“Thank you,” Louisa said with a sigh of genuine relief. She was sure she was going to be relying on Rose a little more than the other woman potentially realized.

“This way.” Noah’s hand in the small of her back came as a total surprise—and not an unwelcome one. It was the barest brush of his hand to her jacket, simply to guide her away from the reception desk, but it was also moving them closer and closer to the fantasy that had flooded her mind in the elevator, so she almost groaned.

“My office is through there,” he gestured to two wide doors. “And you’ll be in here.” He pushed open a door just down the hallway from his own, to reveal a spacious office with views that rivaled those of the boardroom, on the floor beneath them.

“Wow,” she said, taking a moment to appreciate the outlook, striding across the carpeted floor and putting her hands on her hips, oblivious to the way the sun silhouetted her figure in a way that Noah couldn’t help but notice. “This is so beautiful.” She turned to face him. “Do you still see it, or are you so used to it you don’t notice?”

He walked towards her, and her heart leaped into her throat. “I see it,” he said, his eyes on the view. That didn’t matter, though. He came close enough to her that she could smell the subtle hint of his cologne and her whole body throbbed in response.

“Have you lived in Sydney long?” she asked, surprised by her sudden interest in small talk and recognizing it for what it was. Nervousness, but also, a desire for him to stay with her a little longer.

“We moved here about eighteen months ago.”

Her heart skidded into her throat.We.

Ofcoursehe was a ‘we’. As if someone like Noah Fox would be single. What was she thinking? She nodded quickly, dismissively. “Well, thank you for?—,”

“My daughter and me,” he interrupted to clarify, and now her heart leaped from her throat into her brain and mouth and fingertips and knees. It seemed to be everywhere in her body, all at once.

“Oh,” she said, looking up at him and feeling as though she were sinking into quicksand. She couldn’t look away, and nor, apparently, could he. There was only one reason he’d clarify that the ‘we’ in question had been his daughter, and not a partner.The answer, unfortunately, opened a whole can of worms that Louisa knew they should keep closed.

“She’s fifteen. It’s a whole thing. Teenage girls. I’m woefully ill-equipped to deal with it.” His smile was lopsided and utterly charming. Every part of her seemed to melt in the face of it. Even more so when she perceived the genuine look of stress around his eyes.

“Can her mother help?” Okay, she was being nosy. Or perhaps she was being cautious. The last thing Louisa wanted was to find herself in the middle of a marital dispute.

“No.” The answer was stern, a whip-like inflection, almost like a curse. He made a visible effort to relax. “Taylor’s mother is dealing with her own issues right now. She’s not really in the picture, for the moment.”

Louisa’s heart twisted for the teenager. “That must be hard on both of you.”

“My marriage ended a long time ago,” he answered, his eyes boring into hers. Like he needed her to understand that. As though it was vitally important, on some level. “I had no problems walking away from Amy. But Taylor is her daughter. She’s a child, who doesn’t understand the very adult reasons I had for doing what I did, and I want to protect her mother as much as possible, because one day, I hope they can have a relationship. Which means Taylor sees me, right now, as the devil.” He pulled a face and laughed a little awkwardly. “I’m sorry. You came here to work, not to be my therapist.”

“It’s fine,” she rushed to reassure him. And it really was. She liked hearing him talk. She would have happily listened to him reciting a recipe book, in fact. But hearing him talk about something as important and private as his family life was a whole other level of addictive. “I know a thing or two about teenage girls myself.”

He arched a brow, in silent enquiry.

“I was one, once upon a time,” she said with a smile.

“And were you a handful, Louisa?” He had moved a little closer, without her realizing it, and the inflection in his question hinted at a double entendre, or at least a yearning to learn more about her than she had shared.

“Actually, I was pretty much a poster child,” she said with an apologetic smile. “But I have a twin sister who definitely delighted in giving my parents the runaround. Grace spent from around fourteen to seventeen bending every rule we had, until they broke, and then refusing to clean up the mess afterwards. She was a nightmare.”

He wasn’t touching her, but the way he was looking at her face warmed her all over, in the same way she might have felt if he’d reached out and stroked her.

“And now?” he asked, the words soft, so she had to lean forward a little to hear what he was asking.

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