Page 75 of Sexy as Sin
One step at a time.
She also might be quiet, of course, because she’d only been on a private jet once before. That much, he’d got out of her when they’d climbed aboard.
“Not even with Rafe?” he’d asked.
“He’s a regular bloke when he comes home, or as much as he can be. Imagine my uncle Colin if he were anything else. He’s got what you’d call a withering glare, you must admit. Rafe and Jace chartered a jet to bring everybody to Oz for the wedding, but I was already here, wasn’t I? Good job we’re flying to the States in the normal way, or I’d know I was reaching above my touch. Who was that bloke who flew into the sun and melted his wings? That’d be me.”
He sure hoped he’d guessed right on the rest of this.
Was it so wrong to want to spoil a woman?
When the little jet made a circle over the white sails of the Opera House and the heavy iron tracery of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, Willow had to sigh. How could any building be as beautiful from the air as that? The Opera House could look like a series of white shells, or an enormous creamy-white magnolia blossom. Or, most of all, like a ship, its white sails bellying out as it rode across the sapphire surface of the harbor. At night, the golden glow of those lit-up sails was so beautiful, it stung, and on a sunny day like today, it made your heart lift as if the white wings could carry you straight up into the air.
“Can you see?” she remembered to ask Brett, drawing back.
“Well enough,” he said. “I’m fine. You go on and look.”
“You think I’m being unsophisticated. I don’t get to Sydney much, though, and it’s worth looking at.”
“I don’t think you’re unsophisticated at all. I think you enjoy life. It’s the first thing I noticed about you.”
How was he always able to make her warm up like this? “It was?”
“You were putting on your wetsuit,” he said, “so clearly wanting to get into the water, and you were about the most alive person I’d ever seen. You looked like there was nothing more wonderful than getting to have that day. Thatminute.That’s the only reason I saw the shark, was because I was still watching you.”
She knew she was smiling like a fool. “Lucky for me, then.”
“Lucky for me, too. Of course, I was worried for a minute, given the rainbow and sparkly glitter on your surfboard, not to mention the unicorn, that I’d been staring at a seventeen-year-old. Thanks for not being a teenager. And you’re right about Sydney. Most things don’t look as good in reality as you imagine them, but that view’s better than anything you’ve seen in pictures. Takes your breath away, if you’re paying attention, and you’re always paying attention.”
“Did you know,” she asked, wishing she could finally, just once, have the courage to tell him how much she loved him, “that there was an international competition for the design of the Opera House? They only got around two hundred entries, and the winner was a Danish fella who’d never done a design outside his country. Fairly young, and nobody had ever heard of him. I don’t think he’d ever even been to Australia, but he caught it right there, like he held the whole place—” She held out her cupped palms, “in his hands. It’s a sacred site to the Gadigal people as well, so whatever was there had to work for the place, not be just another building. I think the secret is the curve in the sails, and the way they fit into each other. It’s not symmetrical, but it fits all the same, and it’s beautiful from every side. From land and from sea, like they’re not two separate places after all. Building is what you do, so... how did he do that?”
“I don’t know,” Brett said. “I’m not an architect, just the money guy. Sometimes, you get inspired, I guess. And you’re right that buildings—homes, hotels, whatever you’re creating—have to fit into their spot in the world. It’s important. Your eye’s happier when they do, and so is the rest of you.”
“His design was in the reject pile, did you know that?” How sexy was a man wholistenedto you like his mind was tuned to your station? “Too mad, and too hard to build. Somebody picked it out and put it back on the stack, though, at least that’s the story. It was nothing anybody had ever built or even thought of, and it turned out to be heaps too expensive and to take heaps too long, but in the end, it happened anyway. Eventually, the fella won a big prize, whatever the top one is for architects, but he never saw the Opera House finished. And still, he created one of the only buildings almost everybody in the world would recognize and be able to place, other than the pyramids, and one that says everything about the country it’s in.Advance Australia Fair,like the ship is sailing out to meet the challenge, with the song rising up into the wind. Imagine knowing all your life that you’d done something that wonderful. Of course, no pressure on your next job.”
He laughed. “Good point. That would be something, though. That’s a mind that can take a leap. To see beyond what everybody else does, to have a vision and then put all the pieces together... that’s rare. There’s a restaurant in there, by the way. I’ve seen pictures, and it’s as spectacular as the outside. We could check it out on our way back. Have you ever been to an event at the Opera House? I’m guessing that’s not a terrible experience, either. A person could even try an opera for the first time.”
“Brett.” She had to laugh. “Have I told you how rareyouare?”
“No.” His smile was warm, and all for her. “Not me. I’m a property developer. Always looking at the practical angle.”
“I don’t care. You’re rare anyway. You’re always so focused on me, I don’t get enough chance to step back and tell you. And it’s not just that when I tell you I love something, the first thing you think is, ‘How can I give her that? How can I make it happen?’ It’s that when you’re around, you make everybody feel better. They feel safer, somehow, because whatever’s happening, no matter how bad it is—you’ve got it. When I saw you in the water that day, I only thought, ‘What’s that boofhead doing in the sea in a tie?’ for a minute. After that, I started sending people in to you, because I knew you’d go out and get them. And that’s not even mentioning how you makemefeel. Every now and then, I step back and say, ‘Keep your head, mate.’ And then you smile at me again, or you cut me flowers or look at my accounts for me or take the people I love for a special dinner in a gorgeous spot, and I forget to do it.”
Willow went quiet, though, once they descended the stairs to the tarmac and made their way through the private jet terminal to a shiny black Audi sedan with a matching black-suited driver. On the other hand, she’d just told him that he made her feel special, so he was going to keep on with the plan. Once he was in, he was in all the way. When you jumped off the cliff, there was no turning back.
Oddly enough, the thing that seemed to have rattled her most had been when she’d reached into the luggage compartment for their bags and he’d said, “You don’t need to do that. They’ll be brought along. Just grab your purse.” She’d jumped and drawn her hand back like she’d been scalded. He’d said, “Never mind. It’s everybody’s first time once,” she’d laughed, and the flight attendant had smiled and gone about collecting the bags, but he’d wondered. Was he only making her uncomfortable, when what he wanted was to thrill her?
When his assistant, Brenda, had told him over the phone on Friday, “I can get you in two First apartments on Etihad, though not adjoining. Or... I know you wouldn’t normally do it, but you did say to go with the best option, and thereisanother one....”
If he’d been wrong after all—too late now.
At that moment, the driver pulled to a smooth stop outside Terminal 1, and had Willow’s door open before she could reach for it. As Brett grabbed his crutches and followed her out, a perfectly groomed brunette in a chocolate-brown skirt suit came forward and asked, “Ms. Sanderson and Mr. Hunter?”
“That’s us,” Brett said.
“Welcome,” she said. “I’m Yasmine from Etihad. Come with me, and we’ll get you checked in.”
Behind them, a brown-uniformed guy stacked their baggage onto a trolley, and beside Brett, Willow looked more bemused than ever, then murmured, “I thought we were going regular freight. Does everybody get an escort?”
