He disappeared into his office but came back a minute later with his laptop. “Sydney’s a very cosmopolitan city. There’s always something going on. I’ve got a couple of sources in Sydney looking for me.”
He sat on the bed, leaned back against the upholstered leather headboard, opened his laptop, and began to type. Cordie wasn’t sure what she should do. She wanted to be casual about it all, to convince herself that there wasn’t anything wrong with being in bed with the man she desperately wanted to get away from.
Oh, he looked good. His hair was messed, a lock falling down onto his forehead. He impatiently brushed it back and continued to read the message he’d pulled up. He was very relaxed. His long legs stretched out, one ankle over the other. He definitely was comfortable in his own skin. Did he know how handsome he was? His appearance probably wasn’t even relevant to him. She doubted he ever felt self-conscious or insecure. She, on the other hand, was a jumble of nerves. Okay, she decided, she could be casual about this. All she had to do was go back to thinking that Aiden was just her friend’s brother. Nothing more. She would forget all about the way he’d held her and kissed her.
Giving herself a lobotomy would be easier.
“Here are a couple of events.”
She crawled up the bed to sit next to him. He put his arm around her and pulled her closer, then angled the laptop toward her so she could look over the guest list.
“The Rayburns are scheduled to attend the Gallery Ball on the twentieth and a university fund-raiser on the twenty-seventh. They’re both formal events. You choose. Unless . . .”
“Unless what?” she asked. She looked up into his eyes and promptly lost her train of thought. She could stare at him the rest of the night. With his strong jawline and his lean, hard body, he could have been a model. She forced herself to look at the screen.
“Unless you decide to walk up to their door and introduce yourself,” Aiden said.
A shiver of dread went through her. “That’s not going to happen.”
“What are you hoping to accomplish?”
“I just want to make sense of it, to understand how she could have done it. How she could have discarded her life with my father. She threw us away.” She closed her eyes for a moment and then said, “I want Simone to know she hasn’t gotten away with her deception, that there are people who know who she was and what she did, that she can’t run away and erase the past. But most of all I want her to know . . .” She paused, finding it difficult to say the words.
“What’s that?” Aiden asked.
“She can’t erase me.” She dropped her head back against the headboard and sighed. “I’m still not sure how I’ll let her know. The idea of talking to her makes me nauseous.”
“Then don’t talk to her. There will be around three hundred people at the Gallery Ball. You could see her there without her knowing.”
She nodded. “I could blend in.”
“No, you could never blend in,” Aiden said, a smile in his voice. He didn’t tell her that every eye would be on her. She could attend wearing jeans and a T-shirt, and she would be the most beautiful woman there. Oh hell, he had it bad tonight. He hadn’t slept in more than twenty-four hours, and that was probably why he was having so much trouble controlling his reaction to her. That and the fact that every time he looked at her he remembered how she’d responded when he’d kissed her, how her scent had aroused him, how she’d tasted, and how she’d felt in his arms. She sure as certain had rattled him.
There had been a mound of work to get done before he left Chicago. Sydney wasn’t on his schedule for another month, and yet on the spur of the moment he had made the decision to take Cordelia there. He didn’t like the idea of her going by herself. Yes, she was a capable adult and usually levelheaded, but she’d lost her father and had found out some damning information about the woman who had given birth to her. Besides, she would be walking into a hornet’s nest. Simone and Craig Rayburn and Simone’s father, Julian Taylor, were considered upper crust in Sydney society, and Julian abhorred scandal. In all the photos taken of them at various events, he was standing with Simone and Craig, but he was never smiling. He appeared to be a real prick. Aiden realized he was jumping to conclusions, but where Cordelia was concerned, he wasn’t taking any chances. If and when she met the family, he would be by her side. He probably should tell her what he had decided, knowing full well she would argue fiercely, but it wouldn’t matter. He would get his way.
Alec had enlisted Liam Scott to look out for Cordelia while she was in Sydney. Aiden had done a little research on him, too, and he didn’t like what he’d read. There was very little actual information, but there were photos, and in every one of them Liam had a pretty woman on his arm. He was obviously a player, and that was the last thing Cordelia needed now, someone trying to get her in his bed. Aiden knew he was being extremely territorial. She didn’t have to answer to him. It didn’t matter, though. As long as she was in Australia, she sure as hell did belong to him.
“How about the Gallery Ball on the twentieth? I’ll be invited, and you’ll be my guest. What do you think?” he asked her.
She didn’t answer him. Her head was on his shoulder. He nudged her chin up and then smiled. She was sound asleep. Yawning, he asked softly, “Was I that boring?”
He put the laptop on the table and eased her down on the bed so that her head could rest on the pillow. He started to pull away, then changed his mind. Reaching up, he turned the light off and pulled her into his side with the top of her head nestled under his chin. He rubbed his jaw against her silky hair. The wonderful fragrance of peach shampoo mingling with her own feminine scent aroused him. It was odd to feel strangely content when he was with her. Too tired to try to figure it out, he wrapped his arms around her and went to sleep.
ELEVEN
Cordie knew she would like Sydney, but as it turned out, it was love at first sight. She had done quite a lot of reading about the beautiful city and the friendly people who lived there, and she’d seen countless photos of the special attractions. The Sydney Opera House, a performing arts center and one of Australia’s proudest icons, was featured in many of the photos Cordie had seen, and she’d thought it was pretty, especially with the lights at night bringing it to life, but the photos really didn’t do it justice. Seeing it in person, Cordie was in awe. It was magnificent. And so was the Harbour Bridge.
It was closing in on midnight when they circled the city and landed. A car was waiting to take them to the new Hamilton, which overlooked the harbor. Even though she was determined to avoid Aiden whenever possible, she felt it would be disloyal to stay at any other hotel.
She had made her reservation for a single room, but when they arrived at the hotel, she wasn’t given a choice. She was about to check in at the desk when Aiden grabbed her hand and pulled her in the opposite direction. As they passed through the lobby, every member of the staff smiled, looking genuinely happy to see their boss, and, from the bell captain to the front-desk clerk to the concierge, Aiden greeted each of them by name. Cordie tried to pull away, but he merely tightened his hold and continued on toward the bank of elevators. Unwilling to make a scene, she decided to wait until they were alone to give him a piece of her mind.