A Royal Wedding(69)
He was unshaven, he was trailing a line of red dust along the floor as he walked, and he looked tastier than hot bread straight from the oven.
Mouth-watering. Hot. Bread.
Perhaps he was more country Sourdough than buttery brioche, but Simon Reynolds still looked just as delicious, and her treacherous heart yearned for a taste.
Her whole body prickled to attention, aware of every move that he made.
Kate sucked in a breath, dropped her gaze, and pretended to gather together her papers on the table, trying to ignore the hot pulsing of the blood in her head as her fingers fumbled and trembled.
Then Simon took another step forward, pausing to greet a delegate on the way, and the air seemed to catch in her lungs in the form of her old nervous cough. The one she had thought she had got rid of.
She couldn’t do it.
She couldn’t talk to him like this in front of the other people in the room. Her emotions were too open and exposed. And her failure to control herself had hit so hard that she knew she would have to escape until she could steady herself.
A minute. That was it. She needed a minute to get her head straight before she went back to work. This time she would be the one running away from him.
Simon watched from the other side of the room as Kate quickly gathered together her paperwork and strolled out onto the hotel terrace, her back straight and her shoulders high with tension.
Kate O’Neill!
Of all the technology conferences in the entire world she had to walk into this one.
He could hardly believe it! But there could only be one tall, curvaceous, elegant blonde-haired woman called Kate O’Neill, and it had taken a single brief glance to confirm it. Katie was back in his life.
He had not even realised that she was working for the same international IT company that was sponsoring his project until an hour ago, when he had finally managed to get through to Andy and her name had echoed down the line like a bolt from above.
Andy Parsons was his contact, his friend, and his longstanding connection to the outside world from the remote rural village in the Volta area of Eastern Ghana where Simon had made his home. Andy had been a keen supporter of his work right from the first time he had met him with his dad all those years ago. Only now Andy was back in England with his new babies, and judging from the telephone conversation they’d had that morning he was so thrilled and stunned that Simon could not begrudge him one single moment of that happiness. Andy had earned it with years of dedication and hard work serving the same people Simon was trying to help now.
Of course Andy had wished him well for his presentation on the pilot study they had worked so hard together to make reality. He believed that Kate O’Neill would be an ideal replacement for him at the conference, and well able to back Simon up in the technical questions.
What Andy did not know—and what he could never know because Simon had not told him—was that Simon and Kate had a history together. Andy had been replaced by the only woman who had every reason to hate his guts. The same woman he needed to be his most avid supporter.
Just fantastic!
Simon ran one hand through his hair, which was freshly coated with a layer of dry red dust from the long road trip from the village. They were late—he was late—and the village of several hundred people had placed its economic future in his hands. He could not let them down—he would not let them down.
He needed a shower and to change, and most of all he needed to persuade Kate O’Neill to take him seriously before the media circus arrived and the pressure really started.
Of course this was only about the work.
The lump in his throat and the thumping of blood in his head had nothing at all to do with the fact that in three years his Katie had grown into the beautiful woman he had always known she would become. Only this time he needed her to be the best friend he had in this world.
That meant she would have to put aside the fact that after three years at university together, where they had shared their lives, dreams and hopes and every waking moment, he had dumped her only days after they’d graduated.
Apart from that …
Time to get to work. He could only pray that she was ready to do the same.
Simon sighed out loud and sniffed.
He was doomed.
Kate stood on the terrace looking out towards the ocean, with her fingers clasped hard around the smooth wooden rail, willing herself to be steady, resolute and professional and failing on every count.
She had never expected the sight of Simon Reynolds to destroy her composure like this, but it had—in every way possible. And it had nothing to do with the past few exhausting days and everything to do with how much she still felt about this man.