The aquiline features looked to have the same carved symmetry of the internet version, though it was hard to tell as the previously clean-shaven lines were heavily dusted with facial hair that stopped just short of being a beard and gave its owner a look that could only be called menacing.
Looks, his mother always said, could be deceptive. Alex really hoped so because this man’s appearance alone would have made any person with an ounce of common sense cross the street to avoid him, and he considered himself very sensible.
‘Roman...!’
Alex registered the genuine warmth in the pilot’s voice as the older man stepped briskly forward, skirting the plane and moving towards the new arrival, and comprehension finally dawned.
So this man was actually Rio Bardales’s brother, the identical twin who, the carefully worded website blurb had explained, did not at this point take an active part in company operations. It had gone on to list the several innovations and successful financial ventures that this currently absent Bardales twin had been responsible for, before briefly mentioning his new career as a bestselling author.
Well, it wasn’t exactly a secret. Alex had still been at school when Roman Bardales had been outed as the author of the bestselling thriller series that had taken the popular literature world by storm. Since then Hollywood had expanded the audience for the exploits of the enigmatic flawed hero of his books—Danilo, a man of few words with a taste for fast cars, extreme sports and beautiful brainy women, though the only permanent fixture in his life was his Czech wolf-dog, who was the canine version of his enigmatic lone-wolf master.
The publicity machine claimed Roman Bardales cared deeply about realism and that he never had his hero perform a feat he hadn’t already mastered himself. Shots of him clinging, not a rope in sight, to the sheer rock face of a mountain with a dizzying drop below suggested this might not be all hype.
Alex had not read any of the books but he was a massive fan of the films—his friends were going to be so jealous when he told them. Maybe he would get to shake his hand? Or even—
‘No, don’t ask for his autograph.’
The youngster spun around. ‘I wasn’t—’ he began, his voice fading and his blush blooming as the senior steward gave him a knowing look and then suggested, not unkindly, that he might like to do some work.
It took a few moments for the sound of the familiar voice to penetrate the zone Roman had occupied for the entirety of his drive. It was a technique he used when he climbed. You didn’t think ahead, you just lived in the moment and focused on the next move, because if your mind wandered, if you allowed yourself to be distracted, the consequences could be life-threatening or, at the very least, life altering.
Today the danger was not an unforgiving two-hundred-foot drop below his dangling feet, and it was not a rock face he was clinging to by his fingernails, it was his rage. The moment he started thinking more than one move ahead the red mist threatened to consume him all over again and he had to stop thinking again... His eyes slid to his clenched right fist and the broken skin on his knuckles.
He flexed his hand, and rubbed it against his thigh. He and his twin had had any number of arguments before, some more heated than others. It was inevitable when two strong-minded individuals were involved—the clash of the alphas, their mother called it.
The thought of their remaining parent lifted one corner of his mouth, softening his expression for a second or two before it flattened again. This time, his and Rio’s argument had been different; it had been...visceral.
It wasn’t just the punch he had landed on his brother, it was the fact he had not wanted to stop hitting him, but Rio, damn him, wouldn’t defend himself and he... Roman took a deep breath and let it out slowly, his thoughts drifting back to their recent encounter, a memory that would take a lot more than time to heal.
When his twin had begged him to hear him out, Roman had acquiesced, sprawling in one of the chairs, trying to hide his smile as he’d resisted the temptation to tease his twin a little. At that point he’d still been assuming his brother’s confession had something to do with the cosy domestic scenario he had walked in on. It seemed Rio had a kid he’d not known about...and the kid’s mother appeared to be in his dedicated bachelor brother’s life too. Roman could see why that story might necessitate the deep breath his brother took before he’d started to speak.
He had allowed his brother to get to the end of his story. As it turned out, it wasn’t a story about Rio’s own domestic arrangements, but there was a secret child involved. Only it wasn’t Rio’s daughter, it was Roman’s son.
Roman’s smile was long gone when he’d got to his feet, and it had been replaced by a ferocious scowl as he’d moved across the room until he’d stood toe to toe, shoulder to shoulder, with his identical twin.
‘Marisa...’ His Marisa, except of course she wasn’t his, she was someone else’s Marisa and she always had been, even while she’d been in his bed, while she was making him feel... Roman shook his head fiercely. It had all been a lie; even his own feelings, feelings that had felt real at the time, had been only an illusion, but the child was definitely real. ‘She came to you?’
‘It wasn’t easy for her.’
The sympathy in his brother’s eyes had only added insult to injury, and the feral sound that had escaped his compressed white-edged lips had risen up from some deep
