Tempted by the Tycoon's Proposal

‘It’s okay.’ He took hold of her arm, bringing her back to him. ‘My team will take care of your luggage.’

He offered out his hand and she tried for a smile, interlacing her fingers through his like she had come to do so often before they had left for Tokyo.

Lily took hold of her other hand and she smiled down at her.

‘We’re going to have so much fun,’ the little girl cooed, her eyes bright and happy.

‘That we are...’ Sophia said softly, her eyes returning to the aircraft as they headed towards it together, the butterflies picking up inside her belly.

She knew she was silly to be surprised by it—the plane, the hangar—but she was. Surprised, awestruck, and deep down utterly unsettled. The opulence was a timely reminder of who Jack was and just how much she didn’t belong in his world.

At least in her home, even in her place of work, she was able to forget all this and see him as Jack—just Jack. Not the billionaire businessman, the successful tycoon, the man in the press. And even though she feared her feelings for him, she had come to accept them. She’d even started to let in hope that he could feel the same, that there could be a future... At least it felt more realistic when they were away from all this.

I missed you...

Even now her lips lifted at his honest declaration from seconds before, one that she had quickly reciprocated and felt to her toes. His words teased her with that future again. But as she looked around her, taking in his private airfield, his staff, his private car that had delivered her, and back to his heaven-knew-how-expensive aeroplane, that acceptance of her feelings, that hope of a future took a hit.

Because this was the stuff of movies. Not real life.

And even Samantha had been cautious when Sophia had opened up to her about how she felt, about this trip and the possibility of there being more. She was her best friend and she actually liked Jack, but still she’d cautioned against getting in too deep, to keep her head out of the clouds and her feet grounded.

She gave a soft laugh as they paused before the steps and Jack eyed her, his own smile cautious. ‘Something funny?’

‘Just something Samantha said. It’s nothing important...’ Nothing important but the exact opposite of what she was about to do as she started to follow Lily up into the plane.

There was no turning back now.

And in truth she didn’t want to.

‘Oh, my, Jack.’ She couldn’t keep the wonder out of her voice as she stepped inside the cabin and took in the plush interior, a mixture of creams and warm wood with inviting sofas, a large TV screen, a dining table, a kitchen one way and a bedroom at the other. It was as impressive as any hotel room and she couldn’t believe where she was.

‘You approve?’ He slipped off his jacket and hooked it over the back of a leather recliner. He looked so at home, so at ease, and of course he would do; this was his domain. But Sophia...she really didn’t know how to feel.

‘It’s incredible,’ she said truthfully.

He smiled. ‘Wait until you taste dinner.’

‘Please tell me it’s pizza, Daddy, and none of that fancy stuff we got last time.’ Lily screwed up her face as she said it and he looked to Sophia with an apologetic grimace.

‘I’m happy with pizza,’ she said quickly, silently pleading, Please let it be pizza. Something normal, to help her feel normal.

‘You are?’

‘Absolutely.’ He hesitated a second longer and then disappeared into the front of the plane as Lily clambered into one of the seats at the dining table and threw her bag on top of it.

‘Come sit next to me, Sphea.’ She patted the seat beside her and started pulling sheets of paper out of her bag. ‘I want to show you my drawings.’

Sophia smiled and did as Lily asked, glancing down at the little sketches she started to spread out over the table.

‘These are of us in Iceland!’ she declared and, sure enough, the pictures were of the three of them doing various different things: sledging, having a snowball fight, building a snowman, lying inside a bubble looking up at the stars...

Sophia’s smile grew, warmth spreading inside her chest and pushing out the unease, the uncertainty. What Lily dreamed of married so closely with what Sophia wanted too.

‘Dinner crisis averted,’ Jack said, rubbing his hands together as he returned to them, his own eyes falling to the pictures and making him pause. She watched his face, watched it flicker with some unguarded emotion and then the shutter fell, his eyes lifting to her. ‘It means a slight delay to take-off, but we’ll still be in Iceland for a decent time this evening.’

‘Lovely.’

He looked back to Lily and gestured to all the sketches. ‘You’ve been busy.’