‘Ladies and gentlemen—friends.’ The dazzle of his confident smile traversed the crowd, landing here and there in recognition and greeting. ‘Thank you all for coming tonight to the launch party for Able-Active. Many of you—business associates, mates from uni, partners in crime—know me well.’
His genuine smile made an appearance. Not the reserved, polite one that lent him an air of authority, but the wider, unrestrained version that deepened the grooved dimple in his cheek and showed his playful side.
Libby felt her belly flutter, remembering that smile trained on her this morning in the jet boat.
‘You know what this charity means to me, but most of you don’t know why.’ He indicated a framed photo of a teenage girl on the dais beside him. ‘If Jenny, my sister, was alive, she’d be thirty-five years old now.’
The room fell deathly silent. Libby’s pulse thrummed in her throat.
Alex sobered, his chin dipping and his voice deepening to a reflective rumble. ‘I often wonder what kind of adult life she’d have had. Would she have fallen in love? What kind of job would she have enjoyed?’ A pause, his eyes scanning every member of the audience. ‘Did she dream of being a mother? Have aspirations to help others, or want to run the London Marathon?’
Alex glanced again at the photograph, his eyes dimming.
‘I was fifteen when eighteen-year-old Jenny died. I don’t recall her goals, her passions, her ambitions, aside from the fact that she wanted what the rest of us have. Opportunity, choice, equality.’
He touched the edge of the frame holding his sister’s image.
‘Jenny’s short life was good. She laughed a lot, she smiled all the time and she loved to dance.’
He gave a small smile—intimate, as if he were alone in the room.
‘But it could have been better. The only employment opportunity open to her when she left school was a few hours a week volunteer work. She required help and support to do many of the things other teenagers take for granted, and many things, due to lack of trained carers or simply lack of facilities, weren’t an option for her and others like her.’
His throat worked, Adam’s apple bobbing.
‘I could have been a better brother.’
A long silent pause filled the room with skin-crawling discomfort.
‘I want a better future for teens like Jenny, and with your help, your support, Able-Active will be a starting block towards a level playing field and opportunities for all. Thank you.’
Libby’s gaze, glued to Alex, travelled the room with him as he became swallowed up into the crowd, accepting handshakes and back-slaps. He’d mesmerised her—mesmerised everyone in the room, no doubt—with his heartfelt and humbling speech.
She wanted to find him. To kiss him just because her mouth missed his and she couldn’t think of a single reason not to. But Molly touched her arm, reminding her of her own presentation.
She dragged her eyes away from Alex, handsome in his dark suit, smiling and working the room with practised skill.
Molly spoke first. ‘Ladies and gentlemen. Can we please have a round of applause for the waiting staff this evening, who are all participants on the Able-Active programme and have been trained by the staff here at The Ritz?’
Libby’s palms stung as she joined the applause, her cheeks aching with the depth of her smile.
‘And now I present Libby Noble, from the New York firm Noble and Pullman, to tell us a little more about Able-Active and Mr Lancaster’s vision for the future.’
Libby swallowed, flicking the remote to begin her presentation, which would be projected onto the screen behind her. Following Alex’s speech was going to be daunting, and she had no hope of matching the impact he’d had on the room. Her goal was to add to it, to complement the picture he’d painted with her own impressions, throwing in a sprinkling of marketing jargon and creating a buzz among the assembled potential supporters.
She glanced down at her notes, stomach churning. The careful, measured words she’d prepared were dancing on the page, as if mocking her with their caution and their detachment.
She cleared her throat. ‘Able-Active isn’t a unique charity.’
A photo of kids enjoying a kayaking trip that Libby had lifted from the website appeared on the screen.
‘Worthwhile? Yes. Rewarding? Yes. Essential? Yes. But what is exceptional is the vision, passion and motivation of Alex Lancaster as their CEO.’
The image changed to a photo Libby had taken of herself on the hot air balloon. Her smile shone from her eyes, against a backdrop of the rolling green of Oxfordshire and the distant views of the city spires.
‘This is more than outward bound. This is real life opportunity. The chance for meaningful training, employment and recreation for vulnerable members of society who often get overlooked, pigeonholed as having nothing to contribute.’
The picture changed again to a shot of their trip power boating on the Thames. Libby’s eyes were scrunched closed as a blast of water sprayed her and Alex in the face, and Alex’s delighted grin was firmly on her.
Lifting her eyes, she homed in on his watchful stare across the room. She folded her notes in half, her throat tight but her chest expanding with words that came from her heart, not her head.
‘I came to London to work, with recreation the furthest thing from my mind. It’s been many years since I participated in anything that carried an element of risk or provided that slam of adrenaline.’
Her insides quivered, her breath stolen by his continued intense focus. The same focus he offered in the bedroom.
‘But I haven’t felt more alive, or had so much fun since I myself was a teenager.’
She looked away from him, feeling the slow boil of desire now circulating where her blood should be.
‘I’m certain that we all know someone who would relish the current Able-Active recreation experiences as much as I have enjoyed sampling some of them this week. And I’m sure we all know someone who would love the chance to have a proper job—one they can take pride in. There are many families who need support—a break from caring for their loved ones with extra needs. Able-Active, with your support, hopes to meet all those challenges. Thank you.’
She moved from the podium to a round of applause, her legs shaky. Molly guided her towards Alex, whose stare still devoured her from across the room.
Halfway there, she found her progress interrupted by Jeremy Wells.
‘Great speech.’
He snagged a flute of champagne from a passing waitress, his dismissive and slightly aggressive move surprising the girl so that her whole tray of drinks wobbled.
Libby hadn’t liked Jeremy the first time they’d met. She liked him even less now as he derailed the fledgling waitress’s carefully woven path through the partygoers.
Libby accepted a glass and thanked the girl. Reluctantly she turned her attention back to Alex’s financial director. His suit, whilst clearly expensive, erred on the too-small side, and his paunch obscured the waistband of his trousers and stretched the buttons on his shirt to bursting point.
Tingles—the bad kind—snaked up Libby’s spine.
‘I’m sure the funds will come rolling in now.’ His eyes gleamed, dipping to Libby’s chest.
Creep.
‘I hope so.’ The hairs on the back of her neck prickled