Carter. Taking another large gulp of her wine and feeling its warming effect steady her nerves, she leant forward in her chair and said, ‘To be honest, it was a love-hate relationship for a long while, but we met again recently and worked things out and we’re a strong couple now.’
‘I guess that’s what makes powerful men so exciting to be with,’ Brie said with a glimmer of recognition in her eyes. ‘The unpredictability of them.’
Elena smiled. ‘Yes, I’ve always had trouble working Caleb out. He keeps his emotions close to his chest and can come across as a bit of a prickly character, but he’s actually an intensely kind, passionate and caring man.’
It wasn’t just the alcohol warming her veins now, but also the recognition of the truth in her words. She’d never met anyone else like Caleb and she suspected she never would again. He was one of a kind.
‘That’s good to hear,’ Brie said with a thoughtful nod.
Sensing an advantage in convincing Carter’s wife about Caleb’s suitability for a working relationship with her husband, she took the opportunity to endorse him some more.
‘He’s the most brilliant, focused and hard-working person I’ve ever met and he’ll be the best business partner your husband’s ever had,’ she said, throwing the older woman a conspiratorial smile. ‘He never fails to excite and inspire me, both in a business sense and on a personal level. Always has.’
She felt Caleb shift next to her as he slid his arm across her back to rest gently on her shoulders. She nearly jumped out of her seat as she felt his fingers brush against the exposed skin of her upper arm, sending little electric currents rushing across her nerve endings. Turning her head, she saw he was looking at her with that dark intensity in his gaze again and her cheeks flooded with heat as panic rose in her chest. Had he heard what she’d just said about him?
If so, did he realise she was telling the truth and not just putting on an act for the Americans?
But his expression gave nothing away, his attention seemingly focused on the complex business discussion he was involved in as he asked her to qualify an answer to something about the market for rechargeable batteries in the UK. She forced herself to relax her rigid posture and answer as clearly and succinctly as possible while her pulse raced and her palms grew hot with worry that he’d overheard her gushing admiration of him.
But when she’d finished he nodded his thanks, removed his arm and turned back to Carter, as if he’d not noticed a thing.
It seemed he hadn’t heard what she’d said about him and he was just playing the part of attentive boyfriend.
Thank goodness.
It could put them both in a really difficult position if he knew how she really felt about him, especially as their relationship was such a tangled mess. Her stomach lurched as she allowed herself to consider how it might feel to pursue a real relationship with him. It was a disconcerting yet also unnervingly exciting idea, but she’d be a fool to even entertain it. She’d come to Barcelona in the hopes of being his partner in business only—which, of course, she’d thoroughly messed up—and to hope, even for a second, that anything of a romantic nature might develop with Caleb now, when he couldn’t remember what had happened between them, was completely reprehensible.
Pushing the notion to the back of her mind, she made sure to keep the conversation focused on Brie after that and they spent the rest of the meal chatting happily about her daughters and the wedding that she was helping to plan, which was taking place in Boston that August.
Elena tried her best to concentrate on what Brie was saying but she couldn’t help but tune in to what Caleb and Jonathan were discussing, especially when their voices became more animated. Thankfully, it seemed it was just friendly rivalry, and the two men became more and more relaxed with each other as more wine was consumed and the evening wore on.
Despite her worry about Caleb struggling due to his head injury, he’d coped admirably with the questions that Carter fired at him. It seemed he’d done it; he’d kept his cool and turned the American’s opinion of him around. In fact, to Elena’s delight and relief, he appeared to have returned to the man she remembered knowing all those years ago at university.
The idea of it made her heart flutter.
She’d become increasingly aware of him sitting only inches away from her throughout the end of the meal, his heady, clean scent in her nose and the heat from his body warming her side, so it was something of a relief to her addled senses when Jonathan pronounced it time for them to go back to their hotel.
The four of them stood and the two men shook hands firmly, Carter’s initial wariness nowhere to be seen now as he clapped Caleb jovially on the back.
‘Good to meet you, Caleb. I’ll get my team to contact you about moving forward with this partnership as soon as we get back to the States.’
Brie leaned in to give Elena an elegant air-kiss near each cheek, then drew her close on the pretext of giving her a hug to whisper in her ear. ‘It’s wonderful to see how Caleb inspires such genuine loyalty in you. I can tell by the way you look at him how much you care about him.’
She drew back to look Elena in the eye. ‘It’s heartening to see, especially after the rumours we’ve heard about what a hard character he is to get on with,’ she murmured. ‘But, after meeting the two of you tonight, I sincerely think my husband’s going to find working with him a positive experience.’
Jonathan Carter turned from listening to Caleb’s assurances he’d be primed for the next point of contact to give Elena a dazzling smile. ‘It was wonderful to meet you too, Elena. Caleb here’s a lucky man.’ He slapped Caleb on the back again and Elena had to hide her frown of concern when she noticed him wincing in pain from his injured rib.
‘Thank you for preventing my wife from dying of boredom with all our business talk,’ Carter went on, not seeming to notice Caleb’s physical discomfort. ‘It looked like the two of you had a lot in common, no doubt swapping tales about the two of us!’ he boomed, gesturing between himself and Caleb, then sliding his arm around his wife’s waist and giving her a hard squeeze which made her gasp and slap him gently on the chest in retaliation.
Elena’s breath caught in her throat as she felt Caleb slide his arm around her waist and pull her closer to him, as if wanting to mirror the American’s loving behaviour.
As part of the act, Elena reminded herself fuzzily.
Heart thumping in her throat, she watched the couple as they weaved away through the tables towards the stairs leading to the ground floor, then carefully extricated herself from Caleb’s hold on the pretence of grabbing her jacket from the back of her chair.
‘Well, that went well, I think,’ she said, looking up into Caleb’s face to find him frowning, as if perplexed about something.
Because she’d moved away from him so deliberately?
Probably.
She felt pretty sure he wasn’t used to women rejecting his touch.
It made her wonder again whether he’d heard her gushing praise of him.
‘You did a great job, Caleb; it sounds like a partnership is in the bag,’ she said, shrugging her jacket on awkwardly. She couldn’t quite look him in the eye now. Not after she’d seen the way he was looking at her a moment ago.
As much as she wanted him to know she was sorry for the way she’d treated him in the past and wanted to make amends, she also didn’t want to give him the wrong impression here tonight.
She needed to be more careful.
‘Yes, he seemed to be on board,’ Caleb said, his voice a low, seductive rumble that sent a shiver of unwelcome longing down her spine.
‘Shall we go?’ she asked, her voice sounding prim and strained as she overcompensated for her body’s inappropriate reaction.
‘Sure. Lead the way,’ he said,