The Best Of The Year - Modern Romance. Annie West

be a while. Lily’s coming over in an hour, then I need to pack warmer clothes.’

      He smiled and reached out to caress her nape. ‘Keep those risqué jeans, cherie. I’ve grown quite fond of them.’

      She laughed. ‘I’ll consider it,’ she replied, then leaned in to him for a deep kiss.

      That niggling voice rose again, cautioning her against falling harder without hope of having her feelings returned. Feebly, she pushed it away.

      When he pulled back his eyes were dark and his expression intense. ‘You have three hours, then I’m coming for you.’ He thrust the door open and helped her out.

      Stepping into the frigid air, she pulled her coat around her and held her smile till Bastien’s limo was out of view. Dragging her suitcase behind her, she unlocked the front door, dread eating away at her stomach as she entered the flat.

      Simone sat cross-legged on the sofa, with Ana’s laptop—which she’d bought solely for working on her lessons—balanced on her legs. She was so engrossed in whatever she was doing that it took her a moment to notice Ana in the doorway.

      Shock rounded her eyes. ‘Ana—I had no idea you were coming back today!’

      Ana propped her case by the door and dropped her handbag on the coffee table in the small living room. ‘How do you know the password to my laptop?’ she asked, her throat drying. The combination was the date she’d met Bastien, known only to her.

      Simone shrugged. ‘You must have told me when I borrowed it before.’

      Heart hammering, she stepped closer and noticed Simone’s overbright eyes and agitated breathing. ‘No, I didn’t. I’m sure of it.’

      Her roommate laughed but the sound was skewed. ‘What are you saying? That I’m a liar?’

      Ana clenched her fists and breathed deep. ‘I know, Simone.’

      Simone’s eyes narrowed. ‘Know what?’ she demanded, shoving the laptop aside to stand up.

      ‘The drugs. I know it was you.’

      Several expressions chased over Simone’s face before it settled into pure malice. ‘You can’t prove it.’

      Ana sighed. ‘Yes, I can. You made sure you were out of sight of the nightclub’s cameras when you put the drugs in my bag but you forgot that it was your birthday—everyone wanted a picture of you, whether you were aware of it or not.’

      A flash of fear widened the other woman’s eyes but the malice remained. ‘You’re lying! I was careful...’

      ‘Not careful enough. What I want to know is why?’

      Simone rolled her eyes. ‘Oh, get off your high horse! Everyone does drugs—but you’re too good for the rest of us. You won’t even take painkillers when you have a headache. Truthfully, I didn’t want to do it. Top-class drugs like that are expensive. But I was warned there might be a raid and—’ She froze. ‘Are you recording this?’

      ‘Excuse me?’

      Simone bared her teeth and snapped her fingers. ‘Oh, yes—you wouldn’t know how, would you? Because you can’t read.’

      Ice dredged Ana’s insides and her gaze went to the laptop. Sure enough, the file holding her lessons was open, along with the phonetic program that went with it.

      Anger overcoming the icy dread, she rushed to the sofa and snatched up the laptop. ‘How dare you—?’

      ‘Don’t bother denying it, Ana.’

      Ana stared at her. ‘Were you going to let me go to jail for something you did?’

      Simone shrugged. ‘Why not? Everything comes so easy to you—the contracts, the private jets, the billionaire boyfriend. Does he know, by the way?’

      That disturbing thread of doubt reared its head again. ‘Yes, he knows. He’s okay with it.’

      Surprise mingled with fear on Simone’s face but she quickly regrouped. ‘Yeah, keep telling yourself that. I’m not owning up to the drugs thing. I’ll tell everyone you were in on it. It’ll be your word against mine. You think his company will survive another scandal? Especially if you remain his girlfriend?’

      ‘Forget it, Simone. I’m not going to jail for you,’ Ana said, despite her heart thundering with a different kind of fear as Simone backed towards the door.

      Her roommate ran out of the room. A few minutes later Ana heard the front door slam. She wasn’t worried about Simone getting away. Bastien had told her that the police had been alerted and his own investigators were tracking her.

      Bastien...

      The knock on the door made her jump.

      Her stomach twisted at the thought that it might be Bastien even as her heart thrilled at seeing him again. Swallowing, she opened the door.

      Her mother was dressed from top to toe in white vintage Chanel, her face perfectly made-up and her hair twisted in an impeccable bun.

      Mingled desolation and pain scythed through Ana. Stepping forward, she let her mother in. ‘Hello, Lily.’

      Everything she’d thought she’d heard in her mother’s voice recently was reflected in Lily’s face, albeit warily.

      ‘You look distressed. What’s wrong? Is it...? Do you want me to leave?’

      Ana shook her head. ‘No, it’s not you. I’ve just found out who planted the drugs.’ She quickly summarised her conversation with Simone, then glanced at her mother as she accepted her halting commiserations. ‘What’s going on, Lily? You seem...different.’

      Her mother’s laugh was strained as she followed Ana into the living room. ‘You mean less of the nightmare you grew up with?’

      Ana shrugged. ‘Your words, not mine.’

      For the first time in her life Lily seemed nervous. ‘I...I started a drug rehabilitation programme last month. One of the steps in the programme is making amends. I wish I could say that I didn’t need a bullet point on a piece of paper to make me realise I’ve been the worst mother in the world to you. I just... Once I started down that destructive path I didn’t know how to make things right.’ She stopped and firmed her trembling mouth.

      Ana closed her own gaping mouth and stared at her mother, hope spreading its wings again. ‘I...I don’t know what to say.’

      ‘Please say you’ll give me a chance? That you won’t write me off completely?’

      Ana’s heart squeezed and she blinked back tears. ‘I won’t write you off.’

      Her mother’s sigh of relief was audible. ‘I don’t deserve it, but thank you.’ She fidgeted, glanced around, then eyed the suitcase by the door. ‘Are you going away again?’

      ‘Yes, Bastien will be here in an hour. What?’ Her insides jerked at the wary flicker in Lily’s eyes.

      ‘I spoke to Philippe two days ago.’

      ‘Bastien’s father?’

      Lily nodded, her blue eyes darkening with pain. ‘Part of the making amends process... Couldn’t be avoided. Ana, he told me about Bastien’s visit.’

      ‘Yes, Bastien went to see them. I think we’re all ready to put the past behind us—’ She stopped when her mother shook her head.

      ‘I really hope for all our sakes that’s true, but Philippe is worried about Bastien. He thinks he’s carrying a lot of hurt from sixteen years ago. I’m sorry, I know you have feelings for him, but I want you to be careful.’

      Don’t confuse love with sex or duty...

      The voice was a loud clamour in her head and in her heart. And, try as she might, Ana couldn’t stem the growing fear that she