Eyes now determinedly fixed on the papers on her desk, she rubbed the nape of her neck, cleared her throat and tried again. ‘We need to discuss the kitchen’s layout. Do you still want to consult a professional chef about it?’
She knew the moment she said it that she’d made a mistake.
Something sparked in his eyes. He leaned forwards a little, a satisfied smile spreading over his face. ‘You do remember.’
‘Only that neither of us can cook.’ She quickly fixed her gaze back on her notes, aware her face was flaming with colour.
‘But you asked—specifically—if I still wanted to consult a chef about the kitchen... What else do you remember?’
She tucked her hair behind her ear and wrote something nonsensical on her notepad. ‘Have you a chef in mind to consult?’
‘Answer my question.’
Her hand was shaking too much to write anything else.
‘Helena.’
‘What?’ Helena intended for her one-syllable question to come out as a challenge. She might have succeeded if her voice hadn’t cracked.
‘Look at me,’ he commanded.
Heart thrashing wildly, she breathed deeply before slowly raising her face. ‘What?’
His voice dropped to a murmur. ‘What do you remember?’
Trapped in his stare, she found herself unable to lie. ‘Everything. Now can we move on?’
A weekend at his Agon home gave Theo the perfect backdrop to glory in the fact that he was not alone in remembering everything he and Helena had shared. It had bothered him more than he’d admitted to himself that he might be the only one who remembered every detail.
Leaving her to her own devices for her first weekend on the peninsula was as calculated a move as leaving her to her own devices every night had been. He knew his nightly absences would drive her crazy. Let her think he was respecting her request for professionalism by day, but let his absence unleash her imagination by night. Helena had an incredible imagination. She’d shown it in so many ways. Her increasingly inventive imaginings of lovemaking. The riddles set as poems she’d loved to write for him. Her ability to imagine he’d slept with every woman they’d come across...
He planned to torture her slowly, keep her guessing and slowly reel her back into his snare. And it was working! Every casual invitation to join him for an evening of fun was met with a refusal that sounded less emphatic than the last.
And now he had proof their time together had left its mark on her too.
For three years he’d kept distant tabs on her career. Part of him willed everything she touched to turn to gold, the other half hoped everything she touched turned to dust. During those years he’d never listened to a voicemail without first thinking it might be Helena, having come to her senses and begging him to take her back. He had his response ready for this eventuality: a deep chuckle followed by a firm, ‘No,’ and then him terminating the call.
In his heart he’d known his fantasies weren’t worth the effort he put into making them. Helena wasn’t sitting around pining for him and regretting her foolishness in throwing their future away. She was working hard and living her focused life. The hidden side of her that had bloomed for Theo had been packed away again, unwanted. She’d packed the love she’d once held for him away with it.
But she did remember!
The tight control she’d kept herself under was on the verge of unravelling. All it would take was a little tug and the veneer of control would be gone...and Helena would be his for the taking.
Helena knew the gentle knock on her office door belonged to one of the housekeepers rather than Theo. For a start, Theo never knocked, and if he did she was quite sure it would be with the force of a battering ram.
‘Come in,’ she called.
Elli poked her head around the door. ‘Are you ready for lunch?’
She forced a rueful smile. ‘Thanks, but I’m not hungry.’ Not quite a lie. It wasn’t that she wasn’t hungry but that her stomach was so knotted she didn’t think she’d be able to get any food into it.
Where was he?
‘You are sure?’
‘I had a massive breakfast.’ That was true. She’d woken after a welcome good night’s sleep with a real spring in her step. She had no idea why she’d woken in such a good mood but it felt as if the sun’s rays had penetrated her heart. She’d been ravenous too and eaten everything Elli and Natassa had offered.
The sunrays beaming in her heart had slowly seeped away as the morning stretched out.
‘Okay. Well, if you get hungry, just call.’
‘Thank you.’ Then, because she had to ask, ‘Have you heard from Theo?’
‘No, but I wouldn’t expect to. He only tells me when he won’t want an evening meal.’
Which had been every night since Helena’s arrival.
When he’d sauntered off for his weekend sailing, or whatever he was doing, he’d thrown a casual, ‘See you Monday morning,’ over his shoulder. He was yet to return.
Alone again, Helena removed her glasses and rubbed her eyes. She supposed she should have called Elli over to look at the draft plans she’d created for the kitchen. After that excruciating moment where she’d admitted remembering everything, she’d looked away from him and broken the brief silence to ask, again, if he had a chef in mind to consult about the kitchen. She’d been afraid to look at him, the memory of them laughing in agreement that the odds of either of them using the kitchen to cook food being pretty much zero, surprisingly painful.
His reply had been to consult Elli and Natassa, which she had done over a shared lunch with them during the weekend.
His beautiful housekeepers, who both
