had ignored his advice.
He felt a surge of irritation. Not with Alicia. He knew she didn’t live in the real world. But he did. And it was bad enough having led the wolves to his door once. Now it turned out that he’d failed again by not insisting she cut all ties with Mimi.
The tension in his shoulders was inching down his spine.
He knew exactly how it would play out if the media ever found out that his sister was BFF with the stepdaughter and niece of the men who had looted the Caine employees’ pension funds. It wasn’t going to be hard for them to find it out if Alicia made Mimi her maid of honour—and that was why he’d just had to tell his sister that it couldn’t happen.
His jaw tensed.
Hearing her so upset had hurt. But the alternative—having Mimi centre-stage at the wedding and in the photos—was just not an option. So he’d used his father’s ill-health and the potential damage to the family name to get her to change her mind, and it had worked, but he’d had to come up with something to soften the blow.
He’d done that too, only it was not ideal—far from it. For it would mean letting Mimi Miller back into his life. But he was going to see it through for his sister’s sake.
Easing back in his chair, he felt his heart kick against his ribs.
This time there would be no lapses—momentary or otherwise. No loss of control nor lowering of his guard. No having to live with the knowledge that he had come close to putting his family in jeopardy for a second time.
This time it was going to be different. He would be pulling her strings, and he was going to enjoy every second of it.
Mimi Miller was running late.
Literally running.
Although, thanks to the heels she had unwisely chosen to wear, it was more a stumbling dash than a full-on sprint, and already her lungs were begging for mercy.
Oh, thank goodness.
This was the street. Slowing down to an unsteady walk, she caught sight of her reflection in a shop window and breathed out shakily.
It was her own fault she’d had to rush.
Not because she’d been dithering over what to wear. Clothes weren’t really her thing and she only owned two dresses—one of which she hated because it was so tied up with love and dreams and heartache. Her other dress, a navy and white polka dot one, had looked sweet when she’d tried it on at home, but then she’d seen the state of her waist-length blonde hair and, panicking, walked straight into the nearest hair salon for a last-minute and eye-wateringly expensive blow-dry.
But it had been worth it, she thought, her skin tingling with excitement and happiness. Today was the first time she’d seen her best friend in nearly two years and she wanted to celebrate.
Stepping inside the restaurant, she glanced down at her legs, feeling suddenly self-conscious. Jeans and a T-shirt, preferably several sizes too large, was her usual outfit of choice, but Tenedor was a super-exclusive Argentinian eatery, popular with celebrities for its discreet staff and the tinted windows that made life hard for the paparazzi. It was definitely not the kind of venue you turned up to wearing faded denim.
Her breathing lurched. Should she even be here? It was a long time since she’d moved in these circles—two horrible, hopeless years since Charlie and Raymond had been sent to prison and her life had changed for ever.
But she was being stupid. Nobody was going to connect her with that haunted-looking girl outside the courtroom.
Above the diminishing drumroll of her heart she gave her name to the unsmiling maître d’ and followed him through the restaurant, her excitement at seeing Alicia overriding her panic at being so conspicuous.
She still couldn’t believe that it was two years since she’d last seen her friend. After Charlie and Raymond’s arrest they had spoken on the phone—a short, unhappy conversation, with her apologising over and over for what had happened and Alicia tearfully repeating that it changed nothing between them.
Since then they had talked and texted, but after moving to New York Alicia had been busy working for her family’s charitable foundation, and then she had met and fallen in love with Philip Hennessy, heir to a restaurant empire, and that had obviously taken up most of her time.
Now she and Philip were engaged, and according to the save the date card she’d received the wedding was going to be in May—less than three months away.
In other words, Alicia was effortlessly hitting all the milestones of adulthood.
Mimi’s chest tightened. Whereas she was working as a barista in a coffee shop at Borough Market, her youthful ambitions to become a film director having stalled before they got started.
And as for her love-life…
It wasn’t even a case of the less said the better—there was literally nothing to say. Her one bungled foray into the world of sexual relationships had left her with her virginity intact and her confidence so battered that she’d decided to put that part of her life on hold indefinitely.
She sighed. Early spring made being single seem so much harder. London’s parks seemed to be full of pairs of ducks and deer all cosying up together, and it didn’t help that the scent of spring flowers reminded her of Alicia’s birthday party.
And Alicia’s birthday party reminded her of Bautista.
Her breath caught in her throat.
Bautista Caine.
Her best friend’s older brother—her first crush. The man who had broken her heart and then walked away without so much as a backward glance.
Bautista…with his curving, lazy smile and steady dark gaze.
She hadn’t been alone in fantasising about him. Practically every girl in their school, and probably some of their mothers too, had drooled over him whenever he’d turned up to collect his sister, and it only took the briefest of glances at him to understand why.
He was smart, successful, and so charming that birds didn’t just fly off the trees, they dropped like overripe fruit. Not that he was interested in schoolgirls or their mums. His girlfriends were all long-limbed, pouty-lipped models. Hardly surprising, then, that he’d found it so humiliatingly easy to turn down a night with his sister’s gauche friend.
Her stomach tightened—only this time not with excitement.
It had been a long time since she’d allowed herself to think about Bautista and the night they hadn’t spent together. But ever since Alicia had announced her engagement it had been getting harder and harder to hold back the memories and ignore the fact that at some point she was going to have to see him again or forfeit her friend’s wedding. Because Alicia worshipped and adored her brother, and he adored her right back.
Unfortunately his feelings for Mimi were somewhat cooler—if complete indifference even had a temperature.
She shivered. It
