CHAPTER TWO

      SOPHIE STARED UP at the statement building across the frenzied, busy street, a soaring tower of glass and chrome.

      She’d never had any driving desire to live in London and the crowds of people frantically weaving past her was a timely reminder of how ill-suited she was to the fierce thrust of city life.

      But neither had she ever foreseen that she would be condemned to life in the tiny village where she had grown up, out in rugged Yorkshire territory. Her parents had adored living there; they’d had friends in the village and scattered in the big country piles sitting in their individual acres of land.

      She had nothing of the sort.

      Having gone to boarding school from the age of thirteen, her friends were largely based in the south of England.

      She lived in a collapsing mansion, with no friends at hand with whom she could share her daily woes, and that in itself reminded her why she was here.

      To see Javier.

      To try to pursue a loan so that she could get out of her situation.

      So that she and her brother could begin to have something of a life free from daily worry.

      She had to try to free herself from the terror nibbling away at the edges of her resolute intentions and look at the bigger picture.

      This wasn’t just some silly social visit. This was...a business meeting.

      She licked her lips now, frozen to the spot while the crowds of people continued to swerve around her, most of them glaring impatiently. There was no time in London to dawdle, not when everyone was living life in the fast lane.

      Business meeting. She rather liked that analysis because it allowed her to blank out the horrifying personal aspect to this visit.

      She tried to wipe out the alarming total recall she had of his face and superimpose it with the far more manageable features of their bank manager: bland, plump, semi-balding...

      Maybe he had become bland, plump and semi-balding, she thought hopefully as she reluctantly propelled herself forward, joining the throng of people clustered on the pavement, waiting for the little man in the box to turn green.

      She had dressed carefully.

      In fact, she wore what she had planned to wear to visit the bank manager: black knee-length skirt, crisp white blouse—which was fine in cool Yorkshire, but horribly uncomfortable now in sticky London—and flat black pumps.

      She had tied her hair back and twisted it into a sensible chignon at the nape of her neck.

      Her make-up was discreet and background: a touch of mascara, some pale lip gloss and the very sheerest application of blusher.

      She wasn’t here to try to make an impression. She was here because she’d been pushed and hounded into a corner and now had to deal with the unfortunate situation in a brisk and businesslike manner.

      There was no point travelling down memory lane because that would shatter the fragile veneer of self-confidence she knew she would need for this...meeting.

      Another word she decided she rather liked.

      And, at the end of the day, Oliver was happy. For the first time in ages, his eyes had lit up and she’d felt something of that twin bond they had shared when they’d been young but which seemed to have gone into hiding as their worries had begun piling up.

      She took a deep breath and was carried by the crowd to the other side of the road as the lights changed. And then she was there, right in front of the building. Entering when most of the people were heading in the opposite direction because, of course, it was home time and the stampede to enjoy what remained of the warm weather that day was in full swing.

      She pushed her way through the opaque glass doors and was disgorged into the most amazing foyer she had ever seen in her entire life.

      Javier, naturally, didn’t own the building, but his company occupied four floors at the very top and it was dawning on her that when Oliver had labelled him a ‘billionaire’ he hadn’t been exaggerating.

      You would have to have some serious money at your disposal to afford to rent a place like this, and being able to afford to rent four floors would require very serious money.

      When had all that happened?

      She’d reflected on that the evening before and now, walking woodenly towards the marble counter, which at six in the evening was only partially staffed, she reflected on it again.

      When she’d known him, he hadn’t had a bean. Lots of ambition, but at that point in time the ambition had not begun to be translated into money.

      He had worked most evenings at the local gym in the town centre for extra cash, training people on the punching bags. If you hadn’t known him to be a first-class student with a brain most people would have given their right arm for, you might have mistaken him for a fighter.

      He hadn’t talked much about his background but she had known that his parents were not well off, and when she had watched him in the gym, muscled, sweaty and focused, she had wondered whether he hadn’t done his fair share of fighting on the streets of Madrid.

      From that place, he had gone to...this: the most expensive office block in the country, probably in Europe... A man shielded from the public by a bank of employees paid to protect the rich from nuisance visits...

      Who would have thought?

      Maybe if she had followed his progress over the years, she might have been braced for all of this, but, for her, the years had disappeared in a whirlpool of stress and unhappiness.

      She tilted her jaw at a combative angle and squashed the wave of maudlin self-pity threatening to wash away her resolve.

      Yes, she was told, after one of the women behind the marble counter had scrolled down a list on the computer in front of her, Mr Vasquez was expecting her.

      He would buzz when he was ready for her to go up.

      In the meantime...she was pointed to a clutch of dove-grey sofas at the side.

      Sophie wondered how long she would have to wait. Oliver had admitted that he had had to wait for absolutely ages before Javier had deigned to see him and she settled in for the long haul. So she was surprised when, five minutes later,