‘Okay, Theo.’ She smiled. ‘As I was saying, this meeting is very important to Ash. I came here hoping to persuade you to change the venue...’ if only he’d stop looking at her so intently ‘...to split the difference, time-wise. Ash doesn’t want to postpone or cancel. He said this was the only window you had.’
His eyes narrowed. ‘So, what are you proposing?’
She swallowed hard. ‘Greenwich.’
‘Greenwich...?’
‘Ash’s train is coming in a stone’s throw from there, so going to him will save time, and...’ She took a deep breath. ‘I thought you’d like it because there’s a planetarium.’
For the first time he broke her gaze. He shifted on his feet, pressed a hand to the back of his neck and when he looked at her again his eyes were cooler, guarded. ‘What makes you think I’d like the planetarium?’
Her heart clenched. She’d unsettled him somehow, just when she needed to keep him onside. She considered his hotel. Small. Exclusive. Discreet! There’d been no photographs of him online... He was a private person, intensely private. Maybe he was made that way, or maybe he was hiding something...
Hal had been good at that. Hiding. Stealing from the business to fund his gambling habit. Throwing her off the scent with expensive weekends away paid for out of a bogus inheritance. Ash had been the one paying...and when he’d started noticing discrepancies in the balance sheets, when he’d raised his doubts about Hal with her, what had she said? She’d said that Hal would never do such a thing, that he was too smart, too honest, too much in love with her ever to hurt her or their little family.
But she’d been wrong—catastrophically wrong! Was Theo Molenaar hiding something too? Was he another Hal?
He was looking at her intently, green eyes full of complications. Maybe it didn’t matter what he was. The only thing that mattered was securing Ash’s chance to pitch to MolTec.
She smiled, gave a little shrug. ‘I saw an article about you having your eye to the telescope and I thought—’
‘That I like the stars?’ The tension faded from his eyes. ‘That article was going with a metaphor about business expansion.’ He hesitated, eyes fixed on hers, and then his face took on a boyish shyness. ‘But, as a matter of fact, I do like astronomy. The big bang theory, the expanding universe...’ He smiled. ‘The oldest planetarium in the world just happens to be on the ceiling of a canal house in Franeker—can you believe that? I went when I was a boy, and ever since I’ve been fascinated by the stars; I even have my own telescope. So, actually, you weren’t too far off the mark.’
He’d trusted her with something private. The touch of colour at his cheekbones gave him away, or maybe it was that tiny glimmer of vulnerability she could see behind his eyes. She searched for some moisture in her mouth, something to swallow so she could speak. ‘I just want to help my brother, Theo...and the planetarium seemed like a happy compromise.’
He shifted on his feet. ‘Your brother’s lucky you’re willing to go the extra mile for him.’
She was close, she could feel it. All he needed was one last nudge. ‘Actually...’ Her fingers tightened around the strap of her bag. ‘The observatory’s six miles from here.’
He lifted an eyebrow, a smile touching the corners of his mouth. ‘Six miles? In that case, I’ll order us a car.’
Theo pressed the phone tightly against his ear as a police motorbike weaved through the nearby traffic with its siren blaring.
‘See if you can fix something for Wednesday and, if that works for Thorne, change my flights.’ He pictured his assistant’s face. ‘I’m sorry, Trude.’
Trude laughed. ‘I’ve no doubt your gratitude will be reflected in my imminent pay rise!’
A smile tugged at his lips. ‘If you can reschedule the meeting without ruffling Thorne’s feathers, I’ll consider it.’
‘Leave it with me.’ She lowered her voice. ‘I’m dying to know why you’re postponing Jason Thorne—it must be something very important!’
He glanced at Mia then turned to watch the view unfolding through the window of the luxury saloon. Trude never stopped trying to prise him open but it wouldn’t work; he was a clam. ‘Let me know how you get on with Thorne, okay?’
‘Okay, Theo. Bye for now.’
He slipped his phone into his pocket. Disruptions usually annoyed him, but instead he was caught somewhere between admiration and bemusement. That Mia had gone out on a limb to help her brother resonated with him deeply. She was clearly the kind of person who couldn’t sit on the sidelines if she could do something to help, and he understood that impulse all too well. He felt the dark stirrings of a memory... His father... His older brother, Bram... Hard fists... Purple bruises... He’d learned at an early age the intolerable frustration of powerlessness.
Perhaps Mia’s fighting spirit on its own would have persuaded him to reschedule his afternoon appointments and head across London to meet Ash Boelens, but there’d been something else too: the way she’d looked at him; that glimmer of vulnerability woven through the steely threads of her determination. She’d had him from the start, and he wasn’t used to being had. He didn’t know what to make of it.
He turned to catch her eye, but she was gazing out of the window. Her shoulders were rigid, her chin lifted. Tenderness bloomed in his chest. She was only pretending to be confident...
‘I just want to help my brother.’
He sighed softly and studied the back of her head. Her light-brown hair was wound up chaotically, speared with a pointy thing, and there were strands hanging loose against the side of her smooth neck. He pictured her face—the clear, brown eyes, the constellation of tiny freckles across the bridge of her nose, the perfect fullness of her lips.
He dropped his gaze. Her outfit was rather boho: black patent shoes, loose grey trousers,
