Chapter 14
Tallulah crept quietly into the flat, making an effort to be silent, so as not to wake Kyle, but the sofa was unoccupied. She glanced at her watch again, wondering if she’d mistaken the time, but it was definitely after eleven.
Where is he?
He hadn’t been home the night before either, and she hadn’t seen him before she went to bed. He hadn’t been there in the morning, and she didn’t believe he’d already left for work. It was a work night, and he wasn’t eighteen yet.
She cleaned her teeth and went to bed, convinced she wouldn’t be able to sleep, but the last thing she remembered was the feel of Aiden’s lips against hers.
At six-thirty in the morning, she woke and rushed out into the main room to check on her brother. He wasn’t there. She chewed the end of her finger and picked up her towel and washbag before heading for the shower.
Maybe we can have lunch together . . . if he’s at work. Surely if he hasn’t been turning up, Human Resources would have told me.
She dressed in her batik dress and multi-coloured sandals and headed to the bus stop, arriving at work just before eight. Before going to her office, she ran down to the basement post room, but the door was still locked.
Aiden walked through the main entrance as she headed back to the foyer, and her heart immediately picked up pace. It was impossible to tell what he was thinking, but when they reached his offices, he trailed one finger along her bare arm. She met his eyes.
“I enjoyed last night.” He took out his key card, still holding her gaze.
Tallulah chewed on her lower lip, unable to look away. “It’s not professional. I have rules.”
“Rules?”
“No mixing business with pleasure. No getting involved with people at work.” She didn’t add that she had no desire to get involved with anyone at all. Not for a while.
“Rules are there to be broken.”
“You’re not my type.” She couldn’t remember what her type was.
“And you’re definitely not my type,” he said. “But I can’t stop thinking about you. Why don’t we just break a few rules and see what happens.” He ran his thumb down her cheek and pushed open the door.
Tallulah wavered. “Not at work.”
“Fine.” Aiden’s smile was laced with triumph. “We’ll see where we go, outside work.”
She tossed her bag onto her chair.
“Can you pull the details of that small development we completed last year,” he asked. “I think it was the one near Brentwood. We’ll look at them tonight if you’ve got time.”
Tallulah nodded. “I can do that.”
He gave her a slow smile that heated her blood before going into his own office. She took a deep breath and started the coffee.
The morning passed slowly while Tallulah’s mind veered between worry about Kyle and worry about her own behaviour. She knew she was overreacting about her brother and forced herself to concentrate on what she was doing. Kyle was seventeen; he could have stayed with friends, met a girl, anything. He was used to being independent. He could have called. It’s just a matter of common courtesy. How am I to know he hasn’t met a serial killer? She wanted to bang her head on the desk.
At a quarter to twelve, her phone rang.
It was reception. “We have a visitor for Mr Marlowe.”
Tallulah glanced at the diary. There was nothing in it. “I’ll check. Who shall I say?”
“Sasha Dooley.”
Tallulah knocked on Aiden’s door. “Someone’s in reception to see you. Shall I tell them to send her up?”
Aiden frowned. “Who is it?”
“Her name’s Sasha Dooley.”
“Shit.” He stood up and walked to the window. “I don’t . . . I suppose you’d better.”
Tallulah looked at him, surprised, but he was still staring out of the window, so she returned to her phone. “I’ll come and get her.”
The woman waiting in reception was glossy and perfectly groomed. It was impossible to tell how old she was. The receptionist nodded towards her. “That’s your visitor.”
She rose to her feet as Tallulah walked towards her. Her silky chestnut hair was cut to curve beneath her chin, her eyes were subtly made up, and her eyelashes had to be false; no-one had real lashes that long and curly. She wore a black suit that emphasized her curves, and when she stood up, her heels gave her at least eight inches on Tallulah.
“Sasha Dooley?”
“Yes. And you are?”
“I’m Tallulah Becks, Mr Marlowe’s assistant.”
Sasha Dooley made a bad job of hiding her disbelief as she examined Tallulah. “Nice dress” was all she said.
“Mr Marlowe’s office is on the seventh floor.” Tallulah led her towards the lifts and pressed the button as they stepped in.
In the office, she tapped on Aiden’s door. “Your visitor’s here.”
As soon as she opened the door, Sasha rushed through as fast as a woman with five-inch heels on her feet could manage. Tallulah lingered long enough to see her throw her arms round Aiden and pull his head down to kiss him.
She closed the door behind her with an assertive click and sank down behind her desk. She remembered the name Sasha. Isn’t that his fiancée? Or ex-fiancée? She didn’t look very ‘ex’ to Tallulah, and she wondered why Aiden was kissing her if he still had a fiancée. Their kiss had been more than friendly.
And what was he suggesting this morning? It was all very well to talk about breaking a few rules, but which ones?
She knew she should have kept her distance. Turning the facts over in her mind, she told herself that it didn’t do to jump to conclusions and, just because Sasha Dooley made her feel like an alley cat in the presence of a sleek Siamese, didn’t mean she had to feel inferior. She wasn’t; she was as good as anyone else. Maybe he’s bored. Maybe he’s playing with me to pass the time. She knew Aiden didn’t like the work but was stuck with it until his father recovered.
She logged off and decided to go down to the basement and look for Kyle. Only two of the older staff were present in the post room.
“Everyone’s gone for lunch,” one of the men told her, wiping the sweat from his face. “Your Kyle went with them.”
Tallulah heaved a sigh. At least he was coming to work. He wasn’t dead in a ditch somewhere. She knew how ridiculous the thought was, but she still couldn’t help worrying. Hopefully he’ll come home tonight. I really need to talk to him.
She headed out to a café and ate her soup and bread alone, sitting at a sidewalk table. It was still oppressively hot, and she picked up an ice cream cone to eat on the way back to the office. Licking the last of the cream from the cone, she sat down at her desk. The connecting door was open, and Aiden was back at work.
He glanced up. “You should have brought me one.”
“Sorry.”
There was no sign of Sasha, and Tallulah put her out of her mind as she concentrated on her work.
At four-thirty Aiden left. He stopped in her office on the way. “I’ve got a few things I need to do. And something’s come up tonight, so I won’t be able to stay. You could go early if you like.”
Tallulah couldn’t look at him. “I’ll get through some of the files. Get it out of the way. I’m interested anyway.”
Aiden hovered over her desk, and she finally looked up. He stared down at her. “I’m sorry to mess you about like this, but it’s only tonight.”
He left Tallulah staring after him. What’s he mean by that? Mess me about at work? Or just mess with me? She wasn’t going to agonise over it. She’d seen too many women, including her mother, waste their lives trying to comprehend the incomprehensible working of a man’s mind. She sealed her disappointment away in a corner of her brain. There would be time to examine it later, when the sharp immediacy had worn off, and in the meantime, she’d go through the files she’d extracted earlier. She wanted to know if the first one had been an outlier.
At six thirty, she went out and bought a sandwich before returning to her desk. What she was working on was much more interesting than most of the work she did, and it was certainly focussing her mind. She had an amusing thought that maybe she should become a PI rather than a graphic artist. She smiled as she opened the file again.
~ ~ ~
Aiden sat across the table from Sasha, listening to her explain how she’d made a mistake. A month earlier, it would have mattered to him. Now he didn’t care. He’d rather be analysing accounts sheets with Tallulah.
Sasha wore a beautifully cut, navy silk dress that clung to her breasts and swirled around her knees. The jewellery she wore was tasteful, and individual; she wore a leather thong around her neck with a small heart pendant on it. She was beautiful, and he thought how lucky he’d been that she was interested in him. Sasha was exactly his type. Ambitious, glossy, charming; just what he had thought he wanted. He knew he should be thrilled. He wasn’t. He was uncomfortable and wondered how he could stop her embarrassing them both.
“You must see, Aiden,” she said. “I’m thirty-one now. If I want children, it has to be soon.
He nodded, not really paying attention to what she was saying. “I never realised you wanted children.”
“I can’t leave the decision any longer. And you’re thirty-two,” she added. “It’s the right age to think about settling down.” She propped her elbows on the table and leaned towards him, her subtle perfume drifting across. The neckline of her dress revealed a hint of cleavage. He didn’t feel even slightly tempted to look.
“You want children, don’t you?”
Aiden shrugged. “Maybe. But not yet.”
“Don’t you see how selfish you’re being?” She picked up her wine glass and swirled the contents. “It’s different for men. If you decide in ten years that the time is right, then it’ll be too late for me.”
“Sasha . . .” Guilt made his stomach churn. He wished the waiter would hurry up and bring their food. Sasha had dumped him, so why, he asked himself, should he be the one to feel bad. For a very short while, he’d been devastated, but he’d recovered much more quickly than he’d thought possible.
“What?” Her voice broke into his musings, and he realised he’d let his voice trail off.
“You should find someone else,” he said. “Someone who’s ready to settle down. Someone who deserves you. I don’t. You told me that. It’s true.”
The waiter arrived with their main courses. Some sort of salad for her and a large steak for him. He wondered what Tallulah was eating. Had she stayed late to work? Was she still there? He glanced at his watch. It was eight thirty, so probably not.
He pulled his thoughts back to the present.
“What are you doing in London, anyway?” he asked her. “You said something about work?”
“I’ve been seconded to a firm here for six months,” she said. “Longer if I want. It’s a sister firm of the one I work for.”
“A promotion?”
“Yes. Sideways and a step up. So, I can stay here as long as you’re here.”
Aiden pushed his steak around his plate. The conversation was more difficult than he thought it would be. He realised how shallow it made him appear, the fact that he’d got over her in such a short time.
“Sasha, I don’t know what I want at the moment. I don’t know whether I’ll ever want children. You were right to break up with me, and you should do what you need to do.”
She smiled at him in a slow sultry way, and he closed his eyes.
“If you insist,” she said. “But I know what I want. I want you back.”
At the end of the meal, Aiden called a taxi to take her to her hotel.
“I can stay with you,” she said. “Just because I’m looking around doesn’t mean we can’t be friends.” She peered up at him through her long silky eyelashes. “With benefits.”
“I’ve got to go back to work,” he said. “You’ve no idea the state the company’s in.”
Sasha was a professional, and she looked disappointed, but nodded.
He waited until the taxi had disappeared before turning towards Liverpool Street. He’d just pick up a couple of files. He could read them before he went to bed. At least then, he wouldn’t feel that he’d told a lie to Sasha. Guilt had him striding up the stairs with a brief nod at the security guard in the foyer.
Light spilled from his office when he opened the door. Surely Tallulah isn’t still working. It was almost ten o’clock.