Starr Fated (33 page)

I watched as
she sat on the sofa, then slipped them on before standing up. Yes,
her sexy legs looked fantastic in them, just as I’d imagined.

“They’re a
perfect fit. How did you know what size I was? You didn't get that
from my personal details form,” Seraphina asked.

“I have my
sources,” I replied enigmatically. I’d emailed Abbey to ask
Seraphina’s shoe size, and her somewhat overly enthusiastic
response to what I had in mind left me in little doubt that I was
on the right track.

“Do you like
them? Do they look alright?” she asked shyly, as she paraded up and
down in them for me. “They must have cost you a fortune. You really
shouldn’t have.”

“They look
amazing on you,” I loved the way they made her legs look, and was
immediately turned on by her little show. “The cost is irrelevant.”
One day before too long I hoped I'd get to see her wearing just
those shoes and nothing else as she paraded for me.

The next thing
I knew, Seraphina had run over and flung her arms around my
neck.

“Thank you. I
love them. Not because they must have been hideously expensive, but
because it shows you were thinking about me while you were away if
you picked out something like this for me.”

I held her
tightly in my arms, savouring how she felt.

“Of course I
was thinking about you. All the time, to the point of obsession,” I
whispered, as I bent down to gently nuzzle her soft neck and drink
in her sweet unique scent, glad she wasn’t wearing overpowering
perfume.
She smells so good.

“Mmm, you
smell nice.”
She feels the same
. “I missed you, Liam,” she
murmured as she started planting soft little kisses along my jaw
line. She continued with her kisses until she reached my mouth. She
planted a very soft kiss full on my lips, then stared into my eyes.
It felt as if she could see right into me, in a way no one else
ever had - that was what this connection between us meant.

“We have to
make this work, Seraphina. I don’t think I can contemplate the
alternative, that’s how much you’ve got to me. And it’s not just
because you’re an incredibly beautiful woman. I've given this a lot
of thought while I’ve been away, while I’ve had some distance, and
I want you to know how much I respect you. I hold my hands up and
admit that for the most part up to now, I've regarded women purely
as sexual objects. No doubt a shrink would put it down to my male
dominated upbringing, but that’s no excuse. I’ve already told you I
need you to make me a better person, and that’s why I'm so relieved
you agreed to come back to London.”

“I guess we
all carry baggage from our past, Liam. I admit I hate having to
rely on anyone else. Abbey says I shut people out to avoid being
hurt and I guess she’s right. You know you don’t have the best
track record with women, so if I let you in, if I start trusting
you, you won’t let me down, will you?” she whispered as she looked
into my eyes again.

“If you just
give me the chance, I’ll prove that you can rely on me,” I
promised. “I’ve never lied to any of the women I've been with, and
I’ve never promised something I couldn’t deliver. I've never two
timed any of them either. I may be many things, Sera, but I am not
a liar or a cheat.”

I reached down
to kiss her on both cheeks as I held her lovely face in my
hands.

“We can make
this work. We can be good for each other in so many ways,” I
murmured.

“I hope so,
Liam. Because I'm scared. This is all happening so fast.”

“Don’t be,
please.”

We started
kissing again, and I loved the feel of her fingers raking through
my hair, as I let my hands wander over her enchantingly soft
body.

“I hate to be
the one to break things up, but we have a table booked and Greg
will be waiting to take us,” I said as I managed to tear myself
away.

“Oh, okay. So
where are we going that needs Greg to drive us?”

“You’ll see,
but it’s not far. Greg lives close by, and it’s easier this way
because I can have a drink.” I plan on us having some champagne
tonight to celebrate the start of our relationship, and I never
drink and drive.

As we sat
together in the back of the car, I took her hand and threaded my
fingers in hers.

“You know,
after the way you ripped into me in your email about how you didn't
need anything from me, I kind of expected you to reject the present
I brought you back from New York,” I admitted as I raised her hand
to kiss it.

“Well, part of
me very nearly did throw it back in your face, because I’ve no
doubt they were obscenely expensive,” she admitted. “But I’m trying
to be more gracious about accepting your gifts when I know you’re
trying hard to be kind and thoughtful. I just have to get used to
the scale of things that you find normal.”

“Actually, I
was being very selfish, because I wanted the pleasure of seeing how
incredibly sexy those shoes would look on you,” I whispered in her
ear.

“Liam!”
Seraphina glanced over at the back of Greg’s head.

“Don’t worry,
he has selective deafness. That’s one of the essential skills of
being a good chauffer,” I teased. Then I pressed the button to
raise the privacy screen. “Better?”

“I don't know.
That seems rather rude to Greg.”

“He’s used to
it - business men don't want their deals overheard. I'm sure he
doesn’t take it personally.”

“I hope not,
because I like Greg. Anyway, I bet it was Abbey, wasn’t it? She
told you what shoe size I was,” Seraphina figured it out.

“Yes, it was,
and she also told me to buy a half size larger. Apparently Jimmy
Choos come up small, so she informed me. She was a veritable font
of knowledge and seemed to know all about these things.”

“Well of
course she did. It would be like asking you about stocks and
shares, or any of that financial stuff you deal with in your
business. Don’t forget Abbey is a very talented fashion design
student. Her goal is to set up her own label, and I truly think she
could be a top designer one day.”

“That’s your
prediction is it?” Somehow, I could also see that happening with
Abbey – there was definitely something about the girl that made her
stand out from the crowd.

“Yes, it is. I
confess I'm surprised that you’ve been in cahoots with her. I mean,
another lowly and very whacky arts student for you to have to deal
with,” Seraphina said dryly.

“Well, maybe
I'm looking at things slightly differently since you’ve shown me
how essential artistic skills are in the business world, having
seen for myself the impact of your new designs in my recent
meetings.”

“You should
never underestimate the power of a strong visual image,” Seraphina
lectured me with a smug smile.

“Indeed. And
I’ve done some research and discovered that it’s very hard to get
onto the course you’re studying at Central St. Martins, and it’s
very highly regarded. So if you come out with a first, as I’ve
little doubt that you will, the world will be your oyster. That’s
one of the reasons I'm delighted that I’ve managed to snap you up
for my Creative Team. Speaking of which, have you signed the
contract yet?”

“No, I haven’t
got around to it. And there’s no guarantee that I'm going to get a
first, although that is what I've been aiming for of course. Art is
very subjective, there’s no right or wrong,” she sighed. “Now I'm
wondering if I did enough. That’s another problem with a subject
like Graphics – you can always do more, there’s no definite
finishing point.”

“I’m sure
you’ll have done just fine,” I reassured her. “When do you get your
results? And when is your Graduation Ceremony?”

“Results will
be posted on 17th June, and then Graduation is 17th July, a month
later.”

“And have you
withdrawn your application for the Exchange program as we
agreed?”

“No, I haven’t
got round to it yet, but I wouldn’t worry. The chances of me
getting a place were always slim to zero in any case.”

“So, do you
have any of your own original art work to hang in your apartment?”
I asked.

“Not as such –
I wouldn’t feel happy with any of my paintings on the walls as they
aren’t up to standard in my opinion. But I might hang some of my
photographic work, if that’s okay with you? I have to admit I hate
the bland generic type of pictures that are hanging in there at the
moment.”

“I told you –
you can make any changes you want. So you like photography?”

“Oh yes, I
love it, that’s why I chose to do a photography module as part of
my degree, and actually it’s come in really useful for several
aspects of my course work. I always have a camera in my bag, just
in case something catches my eye. Not my big camera, of course, I
only take that with me if I’m planning to take some specialist
shots.”

“I’d like to
have some nice photos of you. All I had when I was away in the
States were those couple on my phone that I took of you at the last
minute in Ireland.”

“That’s more
than I’ve got of you. I’ll have to take some tonight with my new
iPhone, which I love, by the way, so thanks for that,” she smiled,
as she squeezed my hand. “But I’d really like to do a whole series
of you. I think you have a photogenic face.”

“I don’t think
so,” I scoffed. “That’s much more Jamie’s domain.”

At the mention
of his name, the atmosphere in the car plummeted.

“Seraphina,
there’s something you should know about Jamie…” I started to
explain.

“It’s okay; I
know he’s already moved on.” Seraphina stared resolutely out of the
window.

“Have you seen
him then? You haven’t been round to the student house have you?” I
didn't like the idea of them meeting up behind my back.

“No, Abbey
told me. She thought it best I heard it from her. She’d heard
gossip, and then she saw Jamie with this other girl for herself
when she collected my things from the house in her car for me.”

“I’m sorry if
that upset you.” I appreciated Abbey’s thoughtfulness, and agreed
it was best to tell her outright as I’d been about to.

“I’m not upset
so much as angry with myself for being so gullible and believing
that he actually cared for me. That was why I came so close…” she
closed her eyes and sighed. “What a mess I’ve made of things.”

“So, how close
did you two actually get to…?” All I knew was that Seraphina had
fought my brother off, none of the gory details, and it kept
niggling at me. He’d insisted that he’d hardly done anything, but
then why had she been screaming at him to stop?

“You really
want to hear this?”

I nodded, as I
studied her face and gripped her hand.

“We kissed a
lot. I practically ripped his shirt off, and helped him take his
trousers off, so he was down to just his boxers. I took off my
dress and let him look at me in my underwear. But the second he
tried to touch me…intimately, I freaked out. I just couldn’t let
him go any further.”

“So Jamie
never got as far as actually attempting to…?”

“Fuck me? You
might as well just come out and say it Liam. No, thanks to the
security guard coming along and interrupting things when he did, I
managed to break away from him. Look, I know it sounds bad, but I
don’t think Jamie is such a terrible person, because I really did
give him all the wrong signals.”

“But that
still doesn't excuse his behaviour towards you…”

“Please Liam,
can we let this drop now, and just put it all behind us? No great
harm was done, and we’ve both managed to come out of it unscathed.
So please, just go back to how things were with him before all
this. Are you seeing him for lunch on Sunday as usual?”

“I don’t know,
I haven’t arranged anything yet. I'm not sure I want to see him.” I
was still angry and disappointed in my brother.

“I really
think you should. As I told you in my letter, the last thing I
would ever want is to come between you, not when you’re the only
family he has. For my sake, Liam, ask Jamie over to lunch. And I've
been thinking, perhaps it would be best to tell him that you’ve
offered me a job at your company, because I don’t see that you need
to keep that part of things secret from him do you? And then maybe
it won’t be such a shock to him when he eventually learns about
us.”

“I’ll think
about it,” I sighed. “But you’re right. For now let’s put it behind
us and not let it spoil our first date, especially as we’re here
now.”

Greg was
pulling up in front of The Shard. London’s newest high rise
building had just opened their new glass atrium Oblix restaurant on
the thirty second floor, and I’d managed to pull a few strings to
get us a prime table right by the full length glass windows, even
though the place was supposed to be fully booked for the first
couple of months. The views should be spectacular, and would
hopefully help to create a memorable first date for us.

“Are we going
in here?” Seraphina asked, as she looked up at the stunning modern
building, shaped like a shard of glass – hence the name.

“That’s right,
” I grinned, as Greg opened the door to let us out. I offered
Seraphina my arm, and headed into the reception area of the
building.

“Oh, it’s on
the thirty second floor is it?” she asked as she saw which button I
pressed in the lift, seeming rather nervous. Of course I had to
remember that she was more used to dining as a hard up student
rather than enjoying the more top end restaurants of London.

“Don’t worry,
it’ll be fine,” I leant down and whispered, to try and put her at
her ease.

She just
nodded and nervously licked her lips as the express lift
effortlessly took us up in seconds. The doors opened and we exited
along a dark corridor, which led into the restaurant. It was floor
to ceiling glass everywhere, just as I expected.