Of all the technology conferences in the entire world she had to walk into this one.
He could hardly believe it! But there could only be one tall, curvaceous, elegant blonde-haired woman called Kate O’Neill, and it had taken a single brief glance to confirm it. Katie was back in his life.
He had not even realised that she was working for the same international IT company that was sponsoring his project until an hour ago, when he had finally managed to get through to Andy and her name had echoed down the line like a bolt from above.
Andy Parsons was his contact, his friend, and his longstanding connection to the outside world from the remote rural village in the Volta area of Eastern Ghana where Simon had made his home. Andy had been a keen supporter of his work right from the first time he had met him with his dad all those years ago. Only now Andy was back in England with his new babies, and judging from the telephone conversation they’d had that morning he was so thrilled and stunned that Simon could not begrudge him one single moment of that happiness. Andy had earned it with years of dedication and hard work serving the same people Simon was trying to help now.
Of course Andy had wished him well for his presentation on the pilot study they had worked so hard together to make reality. He believed that Kate O’Neill would be an ideal replacement for him at the conference, and well able to back Simon up in the technical questions.
What Andy did not know—and what he could never know because Simon had not told him—was that Simon and Kate had a history together. Andy had been replaced by the only woman who had every reason to hate his guts. The same woman he needed to be his most avid supporter.
Just fantastic!
Simon ran one hand through his hair, which was freshly coated with a layer of dry red dust from the long road trip from the village. They were late—he was late—and the village of several hundred people had placed its economic future in his hands. He could not let them down—he would not let them down.
He needed a shower and to change, and most of all he needed to persuade Kate O’Neill to take him seriously before the media circus arrived and the pressure really started.
Of course this was only about the work.
The lump in his throat and the thumping of blood in his head had nothing at all to do with the fact that in three years his Katie had grown into the beautiful woman he had always known she would become. Only this time he needed her to be the best friend he had in this world.
That meant she would have to put aside the fact that after three years at university together, where they had shared their lives, dreams and hopes and every waking moment, he had dumped her only days after they’d graduated.
Apart from that …
Time to get to work. He could only pray that she was ready to do the same.
Simon sighed out loud and sniffed.
He was doomed.
Kate stood on the terrace looking out towards the ocean, with her fingers clasped hard around the smooth wooden rail, willing herself to be steady, resolute and professional and failing on every count.
She had never expected the sight of Simon Reynolds to destroy her composure like this, but it had—in every way possible. And it had nothing to do with the past few exhausting days and everything to do with how much she still felt about this man.
Which made her so angry she clenched her nails even harder into the wooden railing.
He had been the one who had walked out on her.
He had been the one who had been full of promises and not kept one of them.
He had been … He had been the love of her life, who had left her behind just like all the other men in her life who had abandoned her when the going got tough. If it had not been for her stepfather, Tom, she would have given up on the whole sorry lot of them a long time ago. Now Simon was here, in this stunning country, and she was going to have to deal with him.
A peal of happy children’s laughter rang out from the beach below, interrupting her thoughts, and Kate blinked hard in the dazzling bright morning light to focus on the stunning view before her.
The hotel terrace faced the ocean, and the beautifully kept lawns stretched out to a wide strip of glowing white sand, where her view of the lapping waves was broken only by the thin trunks of tall palm trees.
It was like a poster of a dream beach from the cover of a holiday brochure, complete with a long wooden canoe on the shore and umbrellas made from palm fronds to protect the professional sunbathers from the heat of the African sun in January.
Palm trees. She was looking at real African coconut palm trees. The sky was a cloudless bright blue, and the warm breeze was luxuriously dry and scented with the salty tang from the sea blended with spice and a tropical sweet floral scent.
A great garland of bougainvillea with stunning bright purple and hot pink flowers wound its way around the handrail, intertwined with a wonderful frangipani which spilled out from a blue ceramic pot, attracting nectar-seeking insects to the intensely fragrant blossoms.
Kate spent most of her life in small air-conditioned computer rooms surrounded by office equipment and machinery. It was only natural that she should bend down to appreciate the frangipani flowers close up. Only the biggest insect she had ever seen in her life was inside one of the flowers at the time, and decided to leave just as she bent her head to sniff the blossom. Insect and cheek collided, and the insect was just as unhappy about that fact as she was.
Ouch! ‘Oh, no, you don’t,’ Kate mumbled as she stood up and wafted the offending creature away. ‘No wasp stings. Not on my first morning in Africa.’
‘Hello, Katie,’ came a voice as familiar as her own. ‘Talking to yourself again?’
CHAPTER TWO
‘WELL, this is quite a surprise,’ Simon said, in that educated formal voice which could only come from a lifetime of privilege and expensive private schools. And it was still as amazingly, jaw-droppingly able to light a match under her fire more than any other voice she had ever known.
Her heart and body leapt to attention at the sound of his voice, so fast and so loudly she was surprised that he had not heard it. Speech was impossible, and it maddened her more than she could say that he still had the power to unsettle her so badly.
But she was determined not to let him see that he had got to her. Those days were long gone.
‘Hi, Simon,’ she said through a dry throat, in as casual and controlled a voice as she could imagine. ‘Likewise. I had no idea that you were still in Ghana.’
‘Oh, yes,’ he answered. ‘Still here, still working, still unpaid and still a volunteer. I’m even in the same village. Unlike some people I could mention. It seems like you have come up in the world, Katie.’ He tilted his head to one side and grinned. ‘Congratulations. The company must have a lot of faith in you to suggest you take over from Andy at such short notice. That is quite an achievement.’
Simon pushed one hand deep into his trouser pocket as he leant his other elbow on the railing and towered over her, blocking the blazing sunlight from blinding her, but also shading her with his shadow.
To her unending shame Kate felt her neck flame red in embarrassment and delight that Simon should take pleasure in her promotion—or was it just the impact of that killer grin of white teeth against his unshaven deeply tanned skin?
‘Thank you,’ she whispered, ‘although I certainly hadn’t planned to be here. Yesterday morning I was in Mexico, expecting to fly home to a grey London for the weekend. Instead of which …’ Kate waved her right hand in the air towards the rolling waves under the azure blue sky. ‘Andy Parsons’ little boys arrived ahead of schedule, so the company asked me to take his place for a few weeks.’
And then she paused, lifted her head, and looked deep