LITMIR.BIZ

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he went to university. My parents were devastated, but they had me, and I had no plans for moving out. I commuted to university for my first year and then...’ She trailed off and cleared her throat. ‘And now I still live there.’

      Her words made him want to ask so many questions. He wanted to break through whatever barrier she’d put up and find out why she hadn’t continued with her story. Instead he settled for one of his many questions.

      ‘Alone?’

      She looked at him, and the pain in her eyes nearly stole his breath.

      ‘Alone.’

      Silence stretched between them while Blake tried to find words to comfort a hurt he didn’t know anything about. But words failed him, and all he could do was wait helplessly.

      ‘Come on—there’s a lot more to show you,’ she said, after what felt like for ever, and he followed her back to the cable car.

      Somewhere in the back of his mind he was reminded that they were there for business, and as soon as the thought registered he took his phone from his pocket. He opened a memo and recorded Table Mountain as an approved place for the investors to see.

      ‘This must be a really popular place for your tours,’ he said as the cable car began its descent.

      ‘It is.’

      Was that relief he heard in her voice?

      ‘I usually begin here or end here. Ending here usually works when the tour starts in the afternoon and we can make it up the mountain for sunset.’

      ‘I’d love to see that.’

      She smiled. ‘It’s definitely something to see. Maybe some day I’ll take you.’

      They were simple words, but Blake felt them shift something inside him. An emotion he hadn’t experienced until he’d met her jolted him. Hope. He hadn’t hoped for anything in a long time. Nor had he thought he would want to watch the sunset on top of a mountain with a woman who made him feel things he didn’t want to feel.

      ‘Where to next?’ he asked when they reached the car.

      ‘That, Mr Owen, would take all the fun out of today.’

      She grinned, and he felt himself smiling back, despite what he was fighting inside.

      * * *

      ‘If Table Mountain is included in a morning tour I usually schedule it for about ten. We’d usually end there at about twelve, and then either have lunch at the top of the mountain or take a drive down to Camps Bay to have lunch.’

      She nearly purred at the way the car was handling the curves of the road.

      ‘I usually prefer driving down, because then our guests get to experience this amazing drive. And once there they can have lunch at one of the many upper-class but affordable restaurants.’

      ‘I can’t fault you on that,’ Blake said, and she glanced over to see he was looking out of the window. ‘This view is amazing.’

      ‘I know.’

      She smiled, and thought that her tour wasn’t going badly. She hadn’t shown him much yet, but she wanted to take him to the places she knew would provide opportunities to market the hotel to his investors. And she hadn’t been able to resist showing him the best attraction—Table Mountain—first.

      ‘If they like it, I tell them they can stay at the beach for the afternoon and we’ll send a shuttle to fetch them when they’re ready.’

      ‘Sounds like a tourist’s dream.’

      ‘It is,’ she agreed. ‘Although, to be fair, it’s a resident’s dream as well.’

      ‘The grateful ones.’

      He looked at her and smiled, and she had to force her eyes back to the road.

      ‘If you live here, you must drive this road every day?’

      ‘Mostly, yes,’ she said, and thanked her heart for returning to its usual pace. ‘But I live further up, so I wouldn’t take this part of the road. It leads to the beach,’ she continued, when she realised he was probably just as much of a tourist in Cape Town as her guests were.

      ‘Do you often go to the beach?’

      She slowed down as they turned onto the road along the beachfront. ‘Probably once a week. Never to swim or tan.’ She smiled and drove into an underground car park. ‘I usually go in the evenings for a run or a walk. It helps clear my head.’

      They got out, and she suddenly realised that she hadn’t told him she thought they should have lunch. Self-doubt kicked in, and she said nervously, ‘Um...there isn’t really much to do here unless you have your swimming trunks hidden under your suit.’

      She flushed when she realised what she had said. Even more so when she thought about him in swimming gear.

      ‘But I can introduce you to the management at some of the restaurants the hotel guests usually frequent during the tours. And we can grab lunch on our way to the next stop.’

      She didn’t wait for his response but instead led the way to the beachfront, where the line of restaurants was. The idea of sitting down and having lunch with him was still slightly terrifying to her, so she was taking the easy way out.

      As she introduced Blake to the different restaurateurs she watched him slip into a professional mode that oozed charm and sophistication. He asked the right questions, said the right things, and ensured that everyone respected him. Which meant that many of them—whom Callie knew quite well—were now even more interested in the Elegance Hotel, having met its CEO. And they genuinely seemed to like him.

      She grudgingly admitted that it made her like him a little more, too, but told herself that she was talking about her boss—not the man she’d met in the elevator.

      Desperately trying to distract herself, she asked if he’d like to eat and then took him to one of stores that did takeaway wraps and salads. They ordered, and stood in silence. Callie waited for him to say something—anything—about all the people they’d spoken to, but instead he sat down at one of the tables and stared out at the ocean.

      She joined him, and yet the silence continued. When she couldn’t take it any more she asked, ‘So, do you like the beach?’

      Callie knew it wasn’t her best shot, but the silence had made her observant, and the more she observed, the more she responded to Blake. She felt the movement of her heart, the heat in her body, but she refused to succumb to them. She just wanted to talk, to take her mind off what being in his presence did to her.

      ‘Who doesn’t?’

      His eyes didn’t move from the ocean, but she could see a slight smile on his lips.

      ‘I didn’t go nearly as much as I would have liked to when I was younger. And when I took over the hotels there just wasn’t time. I don’t know when I was last at a beach like this.’

      ‘You should make the time.’ She offered a tentative smile when he glanced back at her. ‘At both our stops so far you’ve seemed...I don’t know...at peace with the world.’ She blushed when he turned his body so that he was facing her. ‘I just think that if something makes you feel at peace, makes you happy, you should make the time for it.’

      He didn’t respond for a while, and Callie bit her lip in fear that she might have said the wrong thing. His eyes lowered to her lips then, and the heat she’d felt earlier was nothing compared to what flowed through her body at his gaze. If he had been anyone else she would have leaned forward and kissed him. But he wasn’t anyone else, and she couldn’t look away when he looked back into her eyes.

      ‘What do you make time for, Callie McKenzie? What makes you happy or makes you feel peaceful?’

      The question would have been innocent if he hadn’t still been looking at her as if she was the only woman on

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