The Complete Boardroom Collection. Yvonne Lindsay

      ‘Then here’s a suggestion. Let’s see where our feet take us. No particular direction or destination. Just free to go where we want. Then back to my very favourite place for dinner. And yes, hot food is on the menu.’

      Toni gave his hand a squeeze. ‘Somehow I suspect a map will be involved but that’s okay. Lead the way, oh, great explorer.’

      * * *

      If someone had asked Toni to describe where they had walked and how long it had taken and what they had seen, she would not have been able to. Westminster Abbey was involved at one point and possibly Trafalgar Square because she did recall roaring with laughter about feeding bananas to the lions in London Zoo.

      What mattered were the shared experiences of growing up in the same city. Their parents and their lives were so very different and yet the more they talked movies and music and the fun things they enjoyed the more connected she felt.

      It was hard hearing Scott talk about his parents’ divorce and how he and Freya had to struggle to keep in contact with their father when he’d remarried so quickly to a woman with a grown-up son.

      With each step she felt that he was opening up to her, sharing his life and his love of the natural world. And all the time his hand kept a tight hold on her, taking her with him on the journey.

      Scott was talking about his team of sled dogs and how he loved to watch them tug at the traces and take off on the trail across frozen forests and lakes. She looked up into his face and it was so alive and intense she could feel the heat and the passion for what he did burning in every word.

      Maybe that was when a vague sense of unease started to creep into her thoughts.

      What was she doing here? Sled dogs? Frozen lakes?

      She didn’t know whether to feel privileged that he felt able to talk to her about the precious things that mattered to him or overwhelmed by how quickly her fun birthday dinner stroll had turned into something much deeper.

      He wanted her to know about his life, which was wonderful. But, if anything, it only made her feel inadequate and ill prepared for the new world she was facing in the coming months. She had never travelled or done any of these exciting things. The biggest challenge she faced every week was dragging Amy out of bed and now even that was gone. Lifting a camera might exercise a few arm muscles but that was it.

      Their lives were so very different it wasn’t funny. He had been to university and studied with the best in his field and she had barely survived college. She’d had Amy to take care of. But it didn’t make it any easier.

      It was foolish to compare her life with Scott’s. They were such different people.

      Problem was—she liked him more than was healthy.

      A sudden flash of light snapped Toni out of her dream and she smiled at Scott as they strolled up to a road crossing. Suddenly a group of tourists ran across towards them and as she stepped left, Scott moved right and her gloved fingers slid from his. And she immediately missed that simple connection with the man.

      Inhaling sharply and cursing her ridiculous crush, Toni quickly plunged her hand into her coat pocket so that Scott would not reclaim it, casually glancing from side to side.

      Big mistake. Because in one step he had closed the gap between them and pressed his hand into the small of her back and then around her waist, holding her to him as they crossed the busy London road, which was a whirl of traffic and cyclists who apparently took red lights to mean go faster.

      Her foolish heart relished that contact with the muscular body that was so close to the surface of his relatively thin all-weather short jacket and how his hand felt on her back.

      Crazy girl! It was madness to get her hopes up that they could ever be more than the casual friends that they had become.

      The reality of their situation hit her like the cold wind blowing in from the river.

      A fling. That was what he was offering her. A short-term, time-limited relationship.

      Of course she was tempted. She had done nothing but think about his offer for most of the afternoon.

      Stupid, really. She would be back at work in a week, and she knew that the diary would be filling in with lots of overseas trips. Scott was only here for six months and then he would be gone and she would probably never see him again.

      But whenever she was within touching distance of Scott there was this tantalising tingle of something in the air that seemed to toss logical thought out of the window and replace it with the idea that maybe he was the boyfriend that Amy had imagined that New Year’s morning.

      Decision time.

      She could enjoy her hot dinner and thank Scott for a lovely evening with a polite kiss on the cheek and then tell him that her time at Elstrom had run its course. She had given him a week. So thank you very much but she needed to work on his painting and the house now. Be in touch when the plumbing was all sorted out and he could move in. Goodnight.

      She glanced up into Scott’s face as he cheerily chatted on about the time he’d tried to make a map of London at junior school out of tape and glue and poster paint.

      He was a great man and it would be only too easy to fall and fall fast. She was already halfway there!

      Or there was the other option. Take a huge risk and follow her feelings and play the fun friends with benefits card and live with the consequences. That was what she had promised Amy that she would do. Just another single girl having a good time with a great man while she had the chance.

      Toni shivered deep inside her coat. This could be her only chance.

      After what had happened with Peter she had struggled with her colleagues. Not one of them looked at her as a professional who could be their equal and over these past twelve months she seemed to have been offered projects where she was always going to be the assistant.

      A strange idea crossed her mind and she pressed one hand to her forehead. Had she deliberately been accepting work where she knew that she would be in the background? That was all part of her training, wasn’t it? To be the apprentice learning her trade from the experts.

      Just as she had done with...her father.

      Toni exhaled slowly as that thought rattled around inside her head and made her feel sick. She had slipped into the old pattern and not even realized it.

      Worse. She had actually looked for those jobs, afraid to put herself forward as already trained and ready to work alone. Just as she had done with the paintings.

      Scott chose that moment to laugh out loud and grin down at her.

      She was a coward! Scott had given up the work he loved to come back to London to try to save his family business and his relationship with his father. He wouldn’t let the Elstrom name go down without a fight.

      A man like that was worth taking a risk on, no matter what happened.

      Decision made.

      Toni tucked her arm tightly into his elbow so that their hips touched as they walked but she didn’t mind one little bit.

      ‘Of course you do realize that your terrible secret is now out in the open, Scott Elstrom.’

      Scott looked around as though shocked by the very suggestion and swallowed hard. ‘Which one? I have so many.’

      ‘No doubt. I was, of course, referring to the route march we have been following for the last few hours.’ Toni counted out the vices on her fingers. ‘Mr Scott Elstrom, Company Director.’ She waved her fingers around. ‘Not averse to a little travel on foot. Does not use a GPS, or at least I’ve never seen him use electronic mapping devices but, from what I saw this evening, he knows every highway, street and lane in this city like the back of his hand. Yes, Scott, I realise that you have walked me back to the same street as the Elstrom building. So that only leaves one question: how many maps of London have you drawn up over the years?’

      He