‘Thank you,’ she said simply, too shaken to say anything else.
The scarf was scented with something spicy and woody—cedar perhaps?—and distinctly male. Him. The scent of Lukas Christophedes—the man she needed to get to know by this time tomorrow evening. The man she would have to fight crazy stirrings of attraction for. There was too much of a fairy tale feel about all this—she couldn’t allow herself to believe any of it could be real.
‘But now you’ll be cold without your scarf,’ she said.
‘I’ll have to walk really, really fast then,’ he said, taking an exaggerated deeper stride.
She laughed, surprised at the unexpected touch of humour. Otherwise he seemed so serious.
‘Does it get cold in Greece in winter?’ she asked. ‘I always think of it as a summer place, all blue skies and even bluer waters.’
‘Even the islands get snow in winter,’ he said. ‘I live in Athens where it does get cold but not bitterly so. Then we have unexpected warm days—halkionis meres—halcyon days when the sun is shining and winter is temporarily banished.’
They were talking about the weather. She’d need to know more than that if she were to fool the astute businesswoman they’d be dining with tomorrow. But where to start without seeming to interrogate him?
They walked to the end of his street, turned into The Vale and then right into the King’s Road, heading west. Far from walking really, really fast, Lukas kept his pace to hers. As if they actually were a couple. At this time of evening Chelsea was buzzing. Trees were strung with thousands of tiny lights, the shops decorated for Christmas, snatches of festive music greeting them as they walked by the buildings. London at Christmastime was magic—she was so glad she had decided to stay here.
‘Where shall we say we met?’ she asked, having to raise her voice over the sound of a red number eleven bus rumbling by. ‘We can’t say Greece, because I’ve never been to your country. I did a whistle-stop European bus tour when I was a student but we didn’t go there.’
‘We’ll rule out Greece, then. I believe my potential business partner has vacationed on the island of Santorini many times and would immediately sniff out any fraud.’
‘Have you ever been to Australia?’ she asked.
‘No. Although it is on my bucket list.’
‘So “no” to Australia, then. Seems our common ground is England. We’ll have to say we met somewhere on British soil.’
‘But not in my bathroom.’
Was there a hint of teasing in his expression? Ashleigh couldn’t see to be sure. She squirmed at the memory of their first meeting. ‘No,’ she said. ‘Definitely not.’ Maybe she would tell Sophie about that incident but no one else. She would never live it down.
‘When were you in Manchester?’ Lukas asked.
‘When I was fifteen. Twelve years ago. And Sophie tells me the city has changed a lot.’
‘Manchester won’t work either.’ He paused. ‘So you’re twenty-seven now?’
‘You sound surprised.’
‘I thought you were younger. Perhaps twenty-three, twenty-four.’
Ashleigh gritted her teeth. She couldn’t let him know how much that assumption irritated her. ‘People often take me for younger—and treat me as younger.’ Especially her family—right now refusing to believe she knew how she wanted to live her own life. ‘I’ll be twenty-eight in March and am quite grown up, thank you.’ She couldn’t keep the tart edge from her words.
‘I’ll keep that in mind,’ he said with that trace of a smile that lifted his somewhat severe face.
‘How old are you?’ she asked. If there’d been time, she would have looked him up on the Internet. As it was, she was flying blind. He was a total stranger.
‘Thirty-four.’
‘So you were okay with thinking I was more than ten years younger than you?’
‘In my family it is not uncommon for the men to be much older than their women. My father is considerably older than my mother.’
‘I see,’ she said. She’d only ever dated men around her own age. It might be interesting to get to know a man six years older—even if they weren’t really dating. ‘There’s so much I need to know about you if we’re to appear authentic as a couple.’
‘That is true. Ask me anything you need to know.’
‘And you ask me anything too,’ she said. Not that there was a lot to discover. Her life had been anything but exciting. Until now.
They walked in silence while Ashleigh wrote herself a mental memo of questions. She fired off the one at the top of her list. ‘I probably don’t need to ask this, but I’m assuming you’re not married?’
‘I have never been married,’ he said. ‘I never will marry.’
His vehemence surprised her. ‘That answers that, then,’ she said. ‘I’m...uh...sure you have your reasons.’ He didn’t rush to enlighten her as to those reasons. ‘What about serious girlfriends?’
‘Not recently. And none that should concern you.’
‘Not married. No serious girlfriends. Okay.’ This wasn’t going well.
‘My friends tell me I’m married to my work.’
‘Really? That doesn’t sound much fun.’
His laugh was short and cynical. ‘One thing you would be expected to know about me is that I took over the family business when it was on the verge of bankruptcy. I was aged twenty-one when I set myself the goal of turning it around. There hasn’t been much opportunity for fun.’
‘That’s quite a story. You must be proud of such an achievement.’
‘Yes,’ he said shortly.
‘But what’s the point of being a billionaire and not having any fun?’
Lukas stopped so abruptly she nearly crashed into him. ‘What?’ he said.
‘I said...I said... Well, I think you heard what I said. I mean, life’s all about laughter and love and...’ Her voice dwindled away. ‘Forget it. On to the next question.’
He stared at her in what she could only describe as astonishment that she should be so impertinent. ‘My life is about responsibility and hard work and righting the wrongs of the past,’ he said.
She didn’t dare ask what those wrongs might be. Not yet, anyway.
‘I get that,’ she said, even though she didn’t. They came from different worlds. She forced her voice to sound bright and cheerful. What the heck had she got herself into?
‘Moving on to my next question. You speak such perfect English. Did you study here?’ His voice was deep and steady, with that hint of an accent to add to its appeal. She could close her eyes and just enjoy hearing him talk.
‘I went to university here in London for a while. But I was already fluent. I had an English nanny from birth and studied the language all through school. My family considered it important that I spoke good English. There is another reason so many young Greek people speak English—American and English music and movies are not often dubbed into Greek.’
‘That’s a powerful incentive to learn a language. I wish I’d had something like that to inspire me.’