Lara had wanted him last night.
Just like he’d wanted her.
The mood, the atmosphere, the surroundings, the way she’d looked, everything had been perfect. If you could plan the perfect evening, that would have been it.
So why had it ended with him sleeping in an empty hotel room?
Because after he’d kissed her, after his hormones had threatened to sweep him away, she’d called him on it. She’d asked him what this was. And he’d been unable to answer. All he’d been able to do was step back. Step away.
Because Reuben Tyler didn’t have a clue.
Everything about this was alien to him. A crazy little thought was starting to spin around in his head. Was this what things were like when you started to fall for a person?
How could people live like this? How could they function?
One hand didn’t know what the other was doing. Should he kiss her? Shouldn’t he? How could he walk away from Lara the next morning and carry on as normal? Because that’s what he’d normally do. But every instinct in his body, every cell was crying out and telling him that this time he couldn’t do that.
Caleb. That’s the only person he would talk to about any of this kind of stuff. And Caleb would probably laugh him out of the room, because Reuben would never bring up this kind of thing. He just wasn’t built this way. Or so he’d thought.
He could remember a few years ago Caleb bursting into his flat to tell him he’d met her. He’d met the one. Addison. The woman who’d seemed to hate every single thing about him. The woman that Lara seemed to hold in high regard.
He hadn’t got it. He just hadn’t. It wasn’t that Addison wasn’t beautiful and charming, because she was—or at least she could be if she wanted to. And what had been crystal-clear was the love and devotion in her eyes for Caleb. He had never doubted for a second how Addison felt about his friend.
There was a quiet confidence about Addison that made her different. She’d never scream. She’d never shout. Reuben had experienced a few of Caleb’s previous girlfriends. At one point he’d asked him if he shopped in Tantrums-R-Us.
And it didn’t matter that Addison didn’t really like him. What mattered was what he saw when Caleb and Addison were in a room together. The way their eyes could find each other across a crowded room. The way Caleb would stop in mid-sentence just to catch his wife’s eye and send her a smile.
A special kind of smile that made you wonder what it meant.
All of this had been in some silly cosmic cloud above Reuben’s head. He’d never got it. But more importantly he’d never wondered. And now he did.
He’d certainly never witnessed it at home. His parents could barely stand to be in the same room together. They had been hateful to each other—more obsessed with money and prestige. It hadn’t been an environment to bring a child up in. He could testify to that.
* * *
But Reuben always knew how to play a deal. Years of being a sports agent had made him able to read people and know how to deal with them.
Now, for the first time, he’d no idea what to do next.
And it unnerved him. Lara Callaway unnerved him.
He’d thought that nigh on impossible.
* * *
She was ready. She was ready to face the world and come out fighting. Bree had a good eye. The white Capri pants and pink printed shirt covered in flying birds was knotted at her waist. She pulled her blonde hair into a ponytail and finished with a slick of pink lipstick. All she needed now was her wedges.
She flung open the bathroom door and stepped straight into Reuben’s broad chest. This suite wasn’t really as big as it needed to be.
‘Owf!’
He held up his hand. Her wedges were dangling from his finger. ‘Thought you might need these.’
She stared up at his face. He was smiling. There was no trace of last night. He’d changed into a short-sleeved shirt and trousers. It was clear he was ready to go to Château d’If. Where on earth had he been?
She sniffed unconsciously—trying to find the smell of another woman on him. But there was nothing. All she got was a huge whiff of Reuben Tyler’s pheromones. The thing that drove her nigh on crazy.
‘Have a good night?’ she snapped.
It was stupid. Even though she was still mad with him, he was here. Here, with her.
He gave a nonchalant nod. Or he tried to. She could see the glimmer of worry behind his eyes. ‘I checked into a hotel in Monte Carlo. Didn’t want to upset you any more.’
Her stomach flipped over and unwanted tears brimmed behind her eyes. That made him sound considerate. As if he’d actually thought about what had happened between them last night. As if she wasn’t quite as unworthy as last night had made her feel.