Page 11 of Filthy Rich Temptation
‘That’s my niece you’re talking about.’
‘And? I’m simply stating a fact.’
‘So, she’s okay, she’s getting out with Lottie, doing stuff?’
‘Like?’
‘I don’t know, normal stuff, the kind of stuff you do with a kid.’
I think back over the week, and it’s always me saying goodbye. Leaving on business, going for a run, meeting up with Axel…
Guilt starts to worm its way in. She could have gone out while I was out, though. But somehow, I suspect she hasn’t. She’s always around, either grappling with Lottie, or tapping away on her phone or her laptop.
I guess I could have asked her. Shown an interest.
Hell, I could have taken them out, done something with them, made them feel more welcome. Instead, I’ve been too focused on running the other way. Running from my guilt, the attraction, and a seven-year-old memory I can’t seem to bury. A kiss that was as wrong back then as it would be now. But every replay of those innocent lips moving over mine and it’s hello jack!
‘Theo?’
‘I don’t know,’ I admit, staring up at the clear blue sky outside and recalling how yesterday had been just as nice. The perfect day to get out. And I’d told her just the same. To forget the cleaning and go. But had she? No. ‘It’s only been a week, she probably just needs time to settle in first, get her bearings again…’
‘A week stuck inside a penthouse, shit. Lottie must be climbing the walls.’
Now that I could answer a hundred times over. ‘I’d say so.’
‘You can’t keep a kid cooped up like that.’
Guilt morphs into the defensive. ‘I did tell you my place was hardly ideal.’
‘It beats her worrying about bringing trouble to my door.’
‘So, it’s okay for her to bring trouble my way?’ I quip, then instantly regret it.
Where the hell’s my famed cool?
Apparently, it packed up and left the day Sadie moved in.
‘Of course not. But Danny’s too self-absorbed to know you exist. And at least you’re at home. I’m away so much and I don’t want her on her own. Not right now and not while that prick is still out there somewhere. I sleep easier knowing you’re keeping an eye on her.’
Yeah, I’m doing that all right.If the narwhal could squeak, it just did.
‘She needs to get out though, Theo. He kept her caged long enough. She needs to start living her life again…’
‘She can’t be afraid of running into him here. He’s back in Ireland. She’s in London. She’s safe. Free to come and go and do whatever makes her happy.’
It comes out tight as I reel with the truth. She hadn’t been any of those things. Free. Safe. Happy.
‘I hope so, but—’ She breaks off as another woman’s voice comes down the line, muffled, distant. Her PA? ‘Give me one sec, Theo.’
‘Sure.’
I turn away from the view, my need to see happy-smiley, very safe Sadie overriding any sense of self-preservation as I leave my study and seek her out. I follow the faint sound of toddler to her wing of my apartment, half-expecting trip hazards or plastic landmines, but everything’s oddly… neat.Tooneat.
Had she really taken myinvasionjoke to heart?
Her door is open just a crack, so I tap lightly. No answer. Just Lottie’s voice carrying through in a sing-song ramble only a three-year-old could invent.
She can’t need privacy if the door’s ajar, right?
