‘That game I gave him was designed for five-year-olds and he didn’t even know where to start.’
‘He may not know much about computers, but he knows about life. Real life.’
Sarah stalked to the other end of the DVD shelf so she could put her back to him and ignore the disturbing niggle he’d kicked off in her brain.
‘I’m sure you do a fine job as a mother, but don’t you want Daniel to have options? Options that a proper education can give him.’ She felt him come up behind her. ‘Surely you don’t want him to work at the Sanctuary his whole life.’
‘And what’s wrong with that? It’s been good enough for me.’ She hammered out the first sentence, but her voice backslid on the second. So it wasn’t her ideal life, but it was important, worthwhile. The work she did was more essential than one individual’s happiness. It supported so many. But Daniel, when he was old enough, could be whatever he wanted. Somehow, she’d make sure he could live his dreams.
‘Has it?’ The gentleness of his voice had her throwing up defences. ‘When I met you, you were full of dreams of travelling the world, photographing and writing about nature . . . discovering and documenting the wonders of the world. What happened?’
Her breath tripped and tumbled down her throat. She held her fingertips to her temples. Stop. Stop. Stop. Every word peeled off part of the protective story she’d given herself. Her work was vital in saving a species from extinction. Her work kept a whole community alive. Very few people achieved their dream life. If she didn’t carry on her mother’s pioneering work, who would? She’d promised . . .
‘I do good work,’ she whispered.
‘And so do I.’
Blake pulled a disc from the shelf and placed it in her hand.
‘We export educational programs all over the world. This is an education package we developed for the Australian School of the Air.’
Sarah took the disc and quickly scanned the back blurb. It sounded impressive. ‘I suppose —’
‘I want to know about Daniel’s schooling.’
She shoved the DVD back into place with such force the plastic cover cracked. ‘You can’t barge into our lives and think you can take over.’
‘Barge?’ Blake took her around the waist and pulled her close. A flush of heat raced up her chest.
‘Sarah, I thought about you every day since you disappeared from my life.’
His body moulded with her own with such perfection, she couldn’t fight him. God, she wanted to believe him. But they were words. Just words. She placed her palms on his chest and pushed. Just words in a sea of inaction.
‘That was a lifetime ago. Things can never be like that again.’
‘Why not?’ he said, reaching for her again.
She stepped away and walked to the door.
‘We live and work on the other side of the world.’ She pointed in the direction she thought Brunei might lie. And you broke my heart. She couldn’t risk that again. She couldn’t risk Daniel’s happiness on this man she barely knew. The men in her life always left. She pulled on the door handle, but a sea of touch-screen technology prevented her escape. She pulled again and again at the door. Humiliation, hot and obvious, flushed her cheeks.
Blake walked slowly to her side. He reached across her, his arm brushing her breast. A tingle washed all the way to her toes. He hit a series of buttons on the screen embedded in the wall. Click.
‘See,’ he said, stepping back and holding open the door. ‘Everyone needs a basic level of technological understanding to operate in this world.’
‘Your world.’ She held her head aloft and walked past him into the corridor.
‘Blake.’ A man in his early thirties hurried towards them. He looked like a stereotypical computer geek. All glasses, ruffled clothes and an intense but pleasant face. ‘There’s an issue . . .’ He glanced at Sarah. ‘We need you up on twelve.’
Sarah didn’t miss the anxiety etched around the man’s eyes.
‘Thanks, Tom,’ said Blake. ‘I’ll be there in five.’
Tom walked briskly back the way he’d come.
‘Sorry, business calls.’ Blake led her to the lift. ‘I’ll have some magazines, books and snacks delivered to the boardroom. Hopefully, I can take you out for lunch.’
‘You plan to keep us locked up all day?’
‘You haven’t given me much choice.’
‘What if I promised not to run again?’
The lift opened. He stood back to let her enter, then followed. He waited until the doors closed and pinned her with a look filled with disappointment.
‘You lied about staying at the Imperial Hotel in Brunei all those years ago. You lied by omission when you failed to mention I had a son.’
The lift doors opened and he walked out. She followed him, wanting to explain but coming up short. The steel doors slid shut like a guillotine behind her, as though confirming the magnitude of her guilt.
‘And this morning, you tried to disappear to the other side of the world, taking my son with you.’ He walked her to the door of the boardroom, where Daniel sat, still engrossed in his game.
‘It’s going to take more than a few words to ever trust you again. In fact, the three words that spring to mind are deceitful, dishonest and deceptive.’ The words slid like knives across her heart.
He left her standing there, shattered by the callousness of his onslaught.
An hour later, after his meeting with Tom, Blake sat back in his office. He hammered his pen on his desk. One of the manufacturing plants had failed its quality-assurance test. There was still time to increase their orders from their other contract factories, but it would mean some orders arriving late. He flung his pen across his desk and paced in front of his floor-to-ceiling windows. His prowling brought no relief.
The production timeline was tight and any deviation would mean two things. One, they wouldn’t hit their global launch date and two, it gave the competition more time to discover what they had planned. And what they had planned would be the biggest thing to hit the games industry this decade.
He stared across the vista of London’s Tech City. He’d been one of the first to invest in the area as it had developed into one of Europe’s biggest technology clusters. Some of the top names in technology were his neighbours: Google, Facebook, Amazon, Intel. Hunt-F’s new game, codenamed Everest, would catapult his company from a mid-tier player to a global computer-game leader. Soon Hunt-F Tech’s brand would be synonymous with leading-edge technology.
Linda appeared at the door. ‘Henry’s here to see you,’ she said.
‘Send him in.’
His private investigator walked into the room, closing the door behind him.
‘Henry,’ Blake said, indicating the seat across his desk.
Henry was dressed in his usual uniform of nondescript but smart clothes. He never drew attention to himself and never looked out of place. He had an uncanny skill of fitting in anywhere. A chameleon. He was the best investigator in the city. That was why he worked exclusively for Hunt-F Tech. He was loyal, he was discreet and he was efficient.
‘What’s up?’ Henry asked. ‘I’d have called if we had a leak.’
‘I need something else,’ Blake said.
Henry sat forward. ‘Let’s hear it.’
‘I discovered yesterday I have a son. He’s nine. His name’s Daniel Walker.’ He kept his voice calm and even, but his insides twisted. Telling Henry made it suddenly seem much more real.
Henry nodded, but beyond that, didn’t react. Nothing rattled Henry.
‘He’s the result of a one-night stand I had in Brunei when my father and I worked on that internet project in early 2000.’ Two parts of the sentence seriously stretched the truth. It definitely hadn’t been a one-night stand; Sarah had been unlike any other woman. As for working, well, he’d basically spent the entire time by the pool pursuing Sarah. While his father finalised the internet deal, Blake had acted every inch the spoilt rich kid out for a good time.
‘They’re here now. In the boardroom. His mother, Sarah, tried to sneak out of the country with Daniel this morning.’ He clenched his fists under the desk then slowly released them. Every discussion about Daniel brought up unwelcome and complicated feelings. Feelings that brought up too many issues he wanted to keep buried. ‘I want a court ruling to keep him here.’
Henry pulled a notebook from his top pocket. ‘Tell me everything you know.’
‘Right.’ Where would he start? What did he really know about Sarah? About Daniel? ‘Sarah runs the Hope Orangutan Sanctuary in Brunei, and has done since her mother died. I believe it’s an hour or so from the capital, near the south-east border with Borneo.’
Henry asked a few questions. Blake told him what he knew, which wasn’t much. The facts he had about Sarah’s life, his son’s life, wouldn’t fill a post-it note.
‘If she gets him back to Brunei, things will be much trickier with regard to custody,’ Henry pointed out.
‘I figured as much. She won’t be going anywhere in the immediate future.’ Blake rubbed his fingers over his left temple. ‘Go to Brunei and find out everything you can that’d help in a custody battle, and get me the best family lawyer in the country. Have him call me this afternoon.’
Henry stood. ‘No problem.’
Blake walked the investigator to the lifts, making sure Henry got a good look at Sarah and Daniel on his way past the boardroom.
‘Obviously, she can’t know,’ Blake said, holding the lift doors. An uncomfortable sensation of guilt nudged his conscience, but he pushed it aside. He’d have worked with Sarah to move forward on the Daniel issue, but she’d erased any possibility of cooperation with her absconding stunt. No, now she’d be treated like any other competitor – ruthlessly.
‘There won’t be a trace,’ Henry said. ‘I’ll have a report in,’ he paused, ‘a week.’
‘Excellent.’
Blake left his investigator and made his way down to the boardroom. Sarah’s voice floated out the open door. ‘. . . So we’ll have to stay in London a little longer. Hopefully, I’ll have the ticket problems all sorted in a few days.’
‘I don’t mind if we stay longer,’ Daniel said.
Blake knew it was probably the excitement of London, but hearing those words flow from his son’s mouth quickened his pulse. Daniel wanted to stay. In Blake’s house. With him.
‘I know, darling,’ Sarah continued, ‘but I’m worried about the Sanctuary. They’re two hands down without us. You know how sick Sultan is.’
Sultan. Who the hell is Sultan? Blake looked through the glass into the room. Daniel sat close to his mother.
‘Don’t worry, Mum, it’ll be okay. We’ll work it out. We always do.’
Blake walked back to his office. That monkey centre had a hold over both of them; one he was determined to break.
‘Daniel’s asleep.’
Sarah walked into Blake’s penthouse living room. Blake sat casually on the couch, work papers in hand.
‘Excellent.’ Blake put aside the papers and stood.
Damn. The man could rock a T-shirt and jeans better than James Dean. Her eyes swept quickly over every inch of his body. She remembered when they’d been skin to skin. She diverted her attention to the night-time view of London to distract herself from her X-rated thoughts.
Dancing lights surrounded the dark void of Hyde Park. The traffic glowed like a luminous snake down the wide streets. The thick glass prevented any urban sounds from invading the space. So different to home, where the nights were so black and the jungle noises wild.
‘Drink?’ Blake asked, crossing to the well-stocked bar.
‘No thanks,’ she said, keeping her eyes on the view and her mind well away from naked nights.
The clink of glasses sounded behind her. Blake came over and held out a crystal tumbler.
‘Gin and tonic, if I’m not mistaken?’
He remembered? She took the drink, but the cool glass did nothing to quell the slow luscious burn in her stomach. Being alone with Blake was a complete cookbook of danger.
‘Thanks,’ she said, not giving him any credit for his impressive memory.
He sipped his drink. She couldn’t help breathing deeply of the intoxicating smell of freshly showered man and whisky.
‘I can’t keep you locked up in my boardroom while we sort this out,’ he said.
‘Oh, I don’t know. I’d give you a gold star in kidnapping.’
‘You only have yourself to blame for that.’
She wanted to argue, but what was the point? She had no money, no power and no way of escape.
‘So? What’s your plan? Turn on the TV and chain us both to the sofa each morning before you leave? Leave milk and cookies just out of our reach to add to our torment?’
He tilted his head to the side as if to consider her proposal. Infuriating, impossible man.
‘An attractive suggestion, but no.’ He took her hand and led her to the sofa. ‘I have a proposition for you,’ he said, sitting down next to her.
Sarah’s eyes widened. He thought . . . ‘I’m not going to sleep with you.’
Blake’s eyebrow arched higher than the Sydney Harbour Bridge. His amused smile turned seductive.
‘What?’ she demanded. What was it about this man that made her want to periodically kill him?
‘It wasn’t going to be that sort of proposition, but I’d happily consider sex as part of the deal.’
Heat roared like a bonfire into her cheeks. Oh, hell. Her errant thoughts had put sex front and centre and it wasn’t even on his agenda. She wanted to storm off, get away from this maddening man. Instead, she glanced at the array of crystal tumblers within nice, easy reach. Smashing every one at his feet would surely wipe away that smug expression. Then those pretty porcelain lamps that were probably worth as much as the crown jewels. Smash. Smash. Smash.
He followed her gaze. ‘Be my guest,’ he said. ‘Break them all if it makes you feel better.’
She crushed her lips together. She couldn’t even imagine her own dramatic acts without him being one step ahead.
She took a seat on the sofa opposite him. Increasing the distance between them helped her equilibrium.
‘What’s your proposition?’ she demanded.
‘Fifty thousand pounds for the Sanctuary and you stay in the UK for the next three months,’ Blake said.
She stole a sharp, shallow breath. She’d planned to hold her face in a mask of indifference to any proposition he’d dealt, but she knew her expression betrayed her shock. Fifty thousand pounds! Half the Sanctuary’s annual budget.
‘But there are conditions,’ he added.
She narrowed her eyes. Of course there were conditions.
‘I’m sure they’re very reasonable,’ she said, heaping on the cynicism.
‘You’ll receive the money in instalments and you and Daniel will live with me.’
She opened her mouth to object. He held up a hand.
‘Wait, I’m not finished.’ He paused to ensure he still had her attention. ‘Daniel will go to school with my nephew, Tom, and if there’s even a hint that you’re planning to leave, you can expect the full force of the law.’
She held her body rigid to stop herself from doing something foolish.
‘Finished?’ she asked, her voice gritty.
‘I’ll wait until I hear a yes from you.’
She wanted to fight, to scream, to crumble his tower of supremacy, but with what? She was in no position of power. She had to negotiate. Negotiate to get all she could. ‘I have some conditions of my own.’
He threw her an I’m-listening-but-don’t-expect-anything look. ‘You’re not in a position to bargain.’
She lifted her drink to give herself time to think. She needed to work this to her advantage. If she could solve the Sanctuary’s funding problems then that would eliminate one of his points of leverage.
‘The income from the Trust your father established ten years ago is the r
eason we’re in so much trouble now.’
‘And how do you figure that?’
‘If we hadn’t had the guarantee of those funds each month we’d have been forced to develop fundraising experience . . . skills. After your cash injection’s gone, we’ll have no money, no skills and we’ll be in the same position we’re in now.’
He laughed. ‘And you’re laying your ineptitude at my door?’
Ineptitude. That stung. She grazed her teeth across her lip to stop a sharp retort.
‘Yes. Your money lulled us into a false sense of security.’ She knew this audacious argument was more ridiculous than sensible, but it was the only thing she could think of. ‘After three months I’ll be back where I started. No sustainable income for the Sanctuary. And how can I trust that the money will come? You could cut and run like you did last time.’
‘We didn’t cut and run. The Trust was established for a ten-year term. The term was up.’
‘Hang on . . .’ A logical progression of events ran through her mind and ended with a worrying scenario. ‘You want the Sanctuary to fail. If it fails, you think there’s nothing to keep us in Brunei.’ She shifted forward in her chair. ‘But you’re wrong. I’ll start from scratch and build it again.’
‘Do you really think I’d destroy a valuable animal-rescue project to get what I want?’
‘The thing is, Blake, I don’t know. I don’t know what you’re capable of. But I need to develop a sustainable funding stream for the Sanctuary, and you’re going to help me.’
‘Really?’
‘Yes. If I’m going to be stuck here for three months, you can . . . help me with a business plan. I’ll come to work with you every day and you can hook me up with your marketing and financial experts. And . . .’ Her mind raced. What did she really want? Time. Time to think. Time to plan. Time to get to know the man she was dealing with. She’d never been good at making quick decisions and years of routine in the jungle had only further dulled that skill. ‘And, we don’t tell Daniel about you until the Sanctuary’s financial position is safe. He knows all about the trouble we’re in and landing a missing father on him will be too much.’
Billionaire's Pursuit of Love: Destiny Romance Page 6