Sable took the envelope from the fridge and handed it to Rafe. “You do the honours.”
Breathing deep, his big chest rising and falling with emotion, Rafe gently tore the lip of the sealed paper.
“So,” Sable said, “if it’s a girl, Mercy, if it’s a boy, Stan?”
“Not for all the oil in the Middle East.”
“Carleen or Bear?”
Rafe shot her a look that made her knees go weak.
Sable grinned and said, “Fine.”
“I don’t trust that word a jot.”
“Mmm. Smart man. You ready for this?”
“Hell, yeah. But are you?”
“More than ready.”
She leaned over and placed a kiss on Rafe’s beautiful mouth. The kiss deepened near as soon as it began. She hooked her fingers into the front of his sweaty T-shirt, the scent of him, the taste of him, filling her senses until she was drunk with it.
Rafe groaned as he pulled her into him.
In the back of her mind Sable heard the sound of paper hitting the floor. The envelope. The news inside it unread.
The baby’s gender... They’d get to that.
They had time.
All the time in the world.
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Unlocking the Tycoon’s Heart
by Ella Hayes
CHAPTER ONE
‘A SIGNALLING FAULT?’ Mia’s heart caved. She turned away from her laptop, swapped the phone to her other ear. ‘Bloody hell, Ash! Have they said how long?’
‘No...but I’ve got a bad feeling...’
She glanced at her watch. One-fifteen! No wonder her brother sounded tense. After an early-morning business meeting in Kent, he was now stranded on a train on the outskirts of London when he was supposed to be on his way to a two o’clock meeting with Theo Molenaar—in the city centre!
The opportunity to pitch to the CEO of Dutch IT giant MolTec was a massive deal for Ash. If the pitch was successful, it would boost his software development business into the stratosphere, and after everything he’d been through with Harold Kogan it was a boost he sorely needed.
Cheating Hal!
Mia pushed away her pain and refocused. Ash needed solutions, not regrets.
‘I know... What about offering to meet Molenaar in Amsterdam on Monday?’ She tried to sound upbeat. ‘Come back with me on Friday! Stay the weekend! It’s ages since you’ve been over and... Cleuso misses you.’
‘Cleuso’s the stupidest cat alive! He wouldn’t recognise me if he fell over me which, let’s face it, is quite likely.’
She stifled a chuckle. ‘That’s harsh.’
‘The truth often is. We both know that.’
Mia’s momentary lightness evaporated. ‘Halgate’ had blown up eighteen months before but the bitterness lingered. She could hear it in Ash’s voice, could still taste it in the back of her own throat.
Ash had thought that Hal Kogan was going to be the perfect business partner, and she’d thought so too. Smart, articulate Hal—full of energy and confidence. He could hold a room, steer a conversation, handle people without them knowing they were being handled. In business, he was magnetic. In private, he was irresistible. When he’d trapped her in his steady blue gaze, she hadn’t wanted to free herself. He’d filled a space in her heart, and after everything she and Ash had been through it had felt like destiny: Ash and Hal building a business; Mia and Hal building a life. They were a little family. Perhaps she’d wanted it so much that she hadn’t been able to see anything else. Guilt squirmed inside her belly. Perhaps she hadn’t wanted to see it.
‘Besides,’ Ash was saying, ‘much as I’d love to come to Amsterdam and share a cramped cabin with Clueless, Monday’s no good for Molenaar. He’ll be in the States by then. This was the only window he had... Hang on! They’re saying something...’
Through the earpiece, Mia could hear a crackly announcement playing over the speaker in her brother’s carriage. She held her breath.
‘Up to an hour’s delay... Damn it! I’m going to have to cancel.’
The anguish in his voice was tearing her apart.
‘No! You need this. There has to be a way...’ She eyed her laptop. ‘I’m putting you on speaker, okay?’ She propped the phone against her coffee mug and typed ‘Theo Molenaar’ into the search bar. The screen filled with MolTec stuff: bulletins and business reports. Nothing about the man, until...
MOLENAAR HAS HIS EYE TO THE TELESCOPE!
She clicked the link and scanned the article, waiting for words to jump out: pioneering IT solutions; environmental interests; satellites; black holes; the expanding cosmos.
‘Bingo! Molenaar’s a star-gazer.’ She retrieved the phone. ‘He’s into astronomy.’
‘And that helps how?’
‘I’m not sure... Let me think...’ She got to her feet, drifted to the window. A white van was parked in the mews. Southeast Satellite & Broadband Services was written on the side of it in big purple letters. In her head the words clustered around the grain of an idea. ‘Ash, you’re coming in from the south east, aren’t you?’
‘Yes.’
‘The observatory’s in Greenwich.’
‘So?’
She felt a smile coming. ‘Tell Molenaar you’ve been delayed but can make it to the planetarium in an hour. If he meets you there it’ll save both of you a lot of time and, if you are held up for longer, then at least he’s in his happy place among the stars. Everybody wins.’
‘For pity’s sake, Mia—you’re talking about the CEO of MolTec! I can’t ask him to trek across London on my account. I’ll just have to postpone.’
Something inside her snapped. ‘No! I’m not letting
