Tom looked at Stephanie in horror. Her father’s newspaper? Hamilton-Brown, the multimillionaire was Stephanie’s father! Why hadn’t she told him? Damn it, why couldn’t she just have a regular father? He stood up suddenly and grabbed Stephanie by the arm.
“Excuse us for a moment. We need to talk,” he said to Pippa and Simon, pushing Stephanie into the kitchen and closing the door behind them.
He leant back against the door and crossed him arms, frowning at her. “So, Hamilton-Brown is your father.”
She nodded and bit her lip nervously.
He had so many questions for her he hardly knew where to start! “Why didn’t you tell me...no wait, more to the point, are you married or something? Divorced? What?” He stared at her angrily.
“I’m not married or divorced. I made up the name White,” she replied.
“Right.” He felt surprisingly relieved to hear that. “Why?”
She sighed. “Because I didn’t want anyone to know that Hamilton-Brown is my father.”
His expression softened a little then. “Why?”
She leant back against the kitchen table. “I just wanted my work to be appreciated for what it was and for people to see me when they look at me and not Hamilton-Brown’s daughter,” she said with feeling.
He sighed and stared at her, at a loss for words. What she had said made sense but the fact that she was Hamilton-Brown’s daughter did make a difference. For a start there was no way that their relationship could go anywhere. He hadn’t really thought about a future between them until now, now that there couldn’t be one. There was no way on earth that Hamilton-Brown would accept him as Stephanie’s boyfriend or more, not with his background.
She saw the uncertainty on his face and the look that so many people had given her before when they knew who her father was and it cut her to the core. Not Tom too.
“Do you have any idea what it’s like to have people treat you as somebody’s daughter and not yourself? I never got any credit for the work I did before. As far as everyone was concerned I had just got ahead in the job because of my father but I’m a bloody good reporter!” she said defensively.
“I know that. Calm down,” he said, approaching her and taking hold of her hands. She went to pull them away but he kept hold of them and pulled her towards him. He put his arms around her middle and looked down at her. “That’s why you are so desperate to write this story isn’t it?”
She nodded. “You know even my own father doesn’t see my talents. I thought that if I could pull this story off at last I’d get some recognition as a reporter in my own right.” She stopped and considered him for a moment before continuing. “But you may have been right. I may have been selfish. I didn’t mean to be Tom and I’m really sorry for that.” She looked to the floor. “I’ll stop with the story,” she said quietly.
“No you won’t,” he said, lifting her face to his. She looked surprised. “I never said anything about stopping the story. I know how much it means to you. I just wanted us to wait,” he laughed, “I was concerned about you losing your job, how ironic.” Her eyes filled with emotion and he smiled at her. “We’ll start on the story again tomorrow, eh,” he winked. She gave him one of her heart stopping smiles that lit up her whole face and made him feel wonderful. He hadn’t got a clue how their relationship could progress but he suddenly realised that it was too late to worry about that now. He just couldn’t forget about her. He’d already fallen for her, well and truely.
A sudden knock on the door reminded them that they’d left Pippa and Simon in the lounge.
“We are going to leave now,” Pippa said, popping her head around the door.
Stephanie walked around Tom towards Pippa. “You don’t have to go. We were just coming back in there now.”
“It’s okay. We are tired now anyway and we both have work tomorrow. But I tell you what, let’s meet up again really soon and at the weekend so that we can make a night of it.”
Stephanie nodded. “Okay, that would be great,” she said, kissing Pippa and walking back into the lounge to say goodbye to Simon.
While Stephanie was at the door waving goodbye to Simon and Pippa Tom searched the cupboards for another bottle of wine. He found one, it wasn’t cold but he wanted them to share another drink together so he took it into the lounge and opened it with the corkscrew. Stephanie closed the front door and strolled back into the lounge. Tom was sat on the sofa and he reached out for her hand, pulling her down next to him.
“Come and sit here for a bit. I topped your glass up too,” he said, pulling her to lean back against him and wrapping his arms around her middle.
She smiled and took the glass, sipping the wine.
“So, I suppose you’ve been staying in some huge mansion with your father then,” he said reluctantly picturing it.
“Hmm.” She didn’t really want to talk about her father.
There was a small silence and Tom was thoughtful. She glanced sideways at him and realised then how close he was. Their faces were inches apart and she became suddenly very aware of him as he searched her eyes. She turned her head slightly to avoid his scrutiny and he studied her face in detail. His eyes flitted up and down, taking in her cheekbones, nose, eyelashes as her eyes moved nervously around the lounge, and finally her glossy lips. They lingered there.
His face was so close that she daren’t look at him. He was making her extremely jittery with his scrutiny.
“So what did this guy have then to make you so smitten with him Stephie?” he finally said, breaking the silence.
She was surprised by his sudden question. “Oh I don’t know Tom, it was rather a long time ago. I can’t really remember.”
He laughed. “Come on Stephie, you had the hots for him, admit it.”
“Well… he did have a rather cheeky grin and a lovely pair of brown eyes.” She became increasingly aware of the intimacy of the situation, as well as his intense looks, and to her mortification she found herself blushing furiously. He noticed this, laughing again loudly. She looked at him aloofly out of the corner of her eyes.
“So did you kiss this guy then, with the brown eyes?” he pushed.
“Tom, come on you can’t expect me to tell you that,” she replied.
“Why not?” he said as his hand started to stroke up and down her arm. She bit her lip and her breathing quickened. “Come on Stephie, did you kiss him?” His hand travelled up to her collar and his fingers slipped underneath her blouse, touching the bare skin of her collarbone and shoulder.
“Oh okay, yes I kissed him,” she said, hoping that that would make him stop. Her blush deepened.
“Was it good? What you’d waited for?” His eyes were fixed on her lips. She turned to look at him and held her breath at the look on his face. His fingers were stroking circles on her shoulder.
She was torn. She couldn’t think properly. She had wanted more than anything to see him that night but if he kissed her then she was under no illusions that things would go a lot further and she wasn’t ready for that.
“Tom,” she began with a warning in her voice. “We have work tomorrow. I think it’s time for us to go to bed.” His eyes widened with excitement and she laughed. “No, you know what I mean, not together.”
“Ah,” he sulked. “So I guess it’s the spare room for me again then.”
“You don’t have to stay here, I’ll be fine.”
“I’m staying. You’re not getting rid of me that easily,” he said, putting a hand in her hair and stroking her cheek with his thumb. “I’ll be waiting impatiently for our morning cuddle underneath the bedclothes too so don’t disappoint me,” he grinned.
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