Bait

It makes my heart soar.

Soon.

That’s all it says.

I get ready on Saturday morning with high spirits and a smile on my face. I style my hair in curls with Sarah’s help and slip on my beautiful new dress, only sighing once in the mirror at the pity he won’t get to see me like this.

And then I go.

Lauren and the girls are already on Castle Green when I get there. The wine is flowing freely, the smell of charcoal is in the air and the weather is holding.

Everything is great.

Jack takes great pleasure in introducing me to all the people I’ve yet to meet from the other office. I shake hands and smile and struggle to assign names to faces, scouting the crowds for any clients I should be recognising but haven’t yet met.

“Stop bloody working,” Lauren giggles in my ear as I’ve introduced myself to the fifth person at the salad table in a row. “Kick back, get drunk, have fun.”

“You’re such a slacker,” I tell her, and stick my tongue out.

“No,” she says. “You’re such a bloody professional. You’re giving the rest of us a bad name.” She nudges me in good humour.

She has got a point. For all the enjoyment I’ve come to find in the position I grabbed hold of during my crazy relocation effort, I’m beginning to think it’s time for more of a challenge.

It amazes me that I feel ready. Hell, it amazes me that I’m back up from my knees with my head held high.

Because of him.

I crush that thought.

Not just because of him.

Because of Lauren, and Kelly, and Jack. Because of Sarah. Because of stupid nights at Divas and learning to enjoy phone calls home again.

Because of me, too.

I’m chowing down on a burger when my skin prickles, happily tipsy enough on two large glasses of white that I brush the sensation off as nothing.

I convince myself I’m imagining things when I catch a glimpse of a familiar silhouette weaving through the crowd at the raffle table.

No.

It can’t be.

But it is.

Kelly’s voice shrieks in my ear before Lauren’s. “You didn’t say you were bringing him!”

I turn to stare blankly, even though my heart is thumping.

She points to a huddle of clients by the bandstand. “There. Look.”

I don’t see a thing, until I do.

And there he is. Large as life at my work barbeque. Looking thoroughly at odds with everyone else here, even though he’s wearing a tux.

He’s wearing a fucking tux.

Fuck.

He looks fucking magnificent.

Better than magnificent.

He looks like a perfect nightmare. Darker than I’ve ever seen him, even in the glaring sun.

“You could knock me over with a feather,” Kelly says. “That man is fucking delicious.”

“He really is,” I tell her, and then I grin. “Hung like a donkey, too.”

I leave them with open mouths as I abandon my burger on a trestle table and head straight for the beast himself.

He meets me halfway, as though this is the most natural thing in the world.

“What are you doing here?” I whisper-hiss, before he can even speak.

“I said soon,” he tells me. “This is soon.”

“And this is my work barbeque.” I can’t hide the smile. “Technically for employees, suppliers and clients only.”

My tummy flutters as he leans over and presses his lips to my ear. I love the sound of his breath.

“And technically I’m a client. I ordered some filing cabinets, you can check the records.”

My eyes widen and his are laughing.

“You’re a client?! Of Office Express?!”

“Like I said, you can check the records.”

He lets out a low laugh as I grab my phone from my handbag. My fingers are shaking with a strange jittery excitement as I call up my work login.

Filing cabinets… Malvern… past ninety days…

I get a few hits. Names I recognise. A few clients I’ve seen today already.

And then him.

I know it.

Scott Brothers Logistics. Enigma business park, Malvern. I call up the order details. Leo Scott. Managing Director.

No. Fucking. Way.

My mouth drops open.

“That night…” I begin and he smirks.

“I told you I found one of your shoes under a truck. I omitted the fact that it was my truck. I thought I’d keep that little detail to myself.”

“I came looking…”

“And you found me. You just didn’t know it. I was right there, I drove past you on your way back to the car park.”

“And you followed me,” I finish.

“Yes,” he says. “And how the pieces fit so snugly together when they all come into view.”

“That was your building…” I whisper. “You grabbed me by your own building.”

“And deleted the security footage after. I enjoyed watching that back, I can tell you.”

The wine makes me heady. My legs feel like jelly. “Leo Scott.”

“Pleased to meet you,” he says and holds out his hand. It feels so ridiculous to take it, but I do. I stare at his inked fingers in mine. The rose I recognised on the fuel station counter. “So now you know some of my secrets.” He smirks. “How does it feel to know the monster for real?”