Dating the Rebel Tycoon

Rosie’s naked toes curled around the bottom rung of the stool and her eyes blinked slowly. All snug and warm, the past few nights finally threatened to catch up to her.

‘You have a little smudge…’ Cameron said, his voice low and soothing.

She opened her eyes to find him staring at her mouth, a hand hovering so close to her lips that they began to tingle. Her tongue darted out to swipe at the left corner of her mouth.

He smiled, frowned, then gently wiped a half-centimetre lower. Whatever speck of sauce he found there he proceeded to lick off his finger. And suddenly sleep was the last thing on her mind.

She leant her elbows on the bench and leant her chin on her upturned palms. ‘Of all the places in all the world one can be, how is it that a guy like you ended up staying so close to home?’

His eyes narrowed. ‘It’s not that close.’

The edge in his voice had her shifting to face him. ‘St Grellans is five minutes from here,’ she shot back. ‘And your parents’ house is, what, two suburbs over?’

‘The fact that I wanted to live in the finest part of town isn’t reason enough?’

‘Nope. Not for you.’

He picked up his beer and took a slow sip, watching her over the top of the glass. ‘How many days ago did we meet up?’

‘Two,’ she said.

‘But this is our third date?’

She nodded. His cheek twitched, and he took another long sip, his eyes never leaving hers as he let that thought sink in. Her leg began to jiggle beneath the bench.

He put down his glass, but kept hold of it as he looked into the amber bubbles. ‘I grew up in Ascot. Meg’s still at home, though she stays at Tabitha’s bachelorette pad in town half the week. Brendan’s in Clayfield, close to his daughters’ school. Dylan’s place is neck-deep in cafés in Morningside. So you’re right; we are all a stone’s throw from home.’

She crossed her ankles to stop the jiggling and shoved a hand into her hair as she let her upper arm sink against the bench. ‘So why didn’t you move to the other side of the city when you had the falling out with your dad? Or the other side of the country, for that matter? Or the world. I’ve done it, several times over. It’s too easy.’

He tipped his glass and let it fall back upright before pushing it away and giving her his full focus once more. ‘And imagine where you might have ended up had interplanetary travel been on the cards. I hazard a guess that this place wouldn’t have seen you for dust.’

Three dates. That was as long as they had really known each other. She thought she had him figured out, but it hadn’t occurred to her til that moment that maybe he had her figured out too.

She wrapped her hands about her shoulders, her fingers sliding against the white cotton T-shirt and digging into soft flesh. ‘But we’re not talking about me.’

His hand slid along the bench to tap her elbow. ‘How about we do?’

She shook her head slowly. ‘No need. Unlike yours, my life is all figured out. No more analysis necessary.’

He watched her for a few long seconds before sliding his hand beneath her elbow, and turning her on the spot until she was looking out the window at the view of the Brisbane skyline.

His low, rumbling words brushed the hair against her ear as he said, ‘That view of that city is what inspired me to do what I do. I can see almost every building I’ve built from here, and I spend way more time than I ought to admit to sitting by the pool, fantasising about where the next one should go. And that view reminds me that, while I am creating the future of the city, I need to be mindful not to take anything away from the aesthetic created by those who came before me, and hope one day another developer will do the same for me.’

As Cameron’s words came to an end, Rosie felt like she was stuck in a kind of suspended animation. Her eyes were locked on the peaks and valleys of the teeming metropolis glittering brightly in the dark distance. And with his deep words echoing in her ears for the first time she saw the profound beauty he saw. In what he did. And in who he was, the true man deep down inside the fortress.

He swung her back round to face him, one eye closed, his divine mouth twisted in chagrin. ‘Was that the biggest load of egotistical clap-trap you’ve ever heard?’

She shook her head slowly, wondering if he had a single clue how at risk she was to his smiles in that moment. ‘That wasn’t what I was thinking at all.’

‘No?’

‘I was thinking that, no matter how much you might like people to think that you consider yourself to be the centre of the universe, you really don’t. I’m not sure that you ever have.’