“The way I nearly fell off the stool, you mean?”
“No, I mean the way you flirted and teased me and made me believe you liked me.”
“I did like you! You’re gorgeous. All the women at the ball would have killed to get your attention, Caesar. I’d just had an awful breakup, and been called—amongst many other things—vanilla. Even Brielle said, ‘Nobody’s going to recognize the quiet little mouse tonight,’ when we parted.”
“Jesus, really?”
“Yeah. My self-esteem was, like, an inch high. And then the inimitable Caesar Ashford started talking to me. And not just talking—he was flirting with me. I had stars in my eyes. I thought we had real chemistry.”
“So did I,” I murmur.
She swallows hard. “Don’t say that.”
“Why?”
“Because it makes all this harder.”
“All what?”
She just shakes her head.
After thirty seconds or so, when it’s clear she’s not going to reply, I look out of the window.
We’re well on the way to Lake Wanaka now, and the hills are rising around us, the brown peaks brushed with green and interspersed with isolated farmsteads. It’s unforgiving farmland, so I can see why Maddie chose a farm like Blackridge to test Verdant on.
I had stars in my eyes, she said. It warms me through, and even though I tell myself firmly not to be flattered by it, it’s impossible not to be.
Could it be true that our connection was real? That she didn’t seek me out? I did approach her first. I’m so cynical that it’s impossible for me to see our meeting as anything other than engineered, but honestly, what’s more likely? That her grandfather told her to do her best to soften me up at the ball, and so she constructed a plan to fall over on purpose in the hopeI’d leap in and save her? It would’ve been risky; she could have fallen down the steps and broken her neck.
The alternative is that she truly didn’t recognize me until we’d talked for a bit. And then, as she said, she was enjoying herself and knew I wouldn’t stay if she admitted who she was.
Is it possible that she was just recovering from a breakup, and was lonely and flattered by the attention? That she did like me? That the chemistry I felt was real?
My heart lifts like a leaf on the wind… and then slowly drifts back down. It doesn’t matter whether she was lying or not. She’s Tom’s granddaughter, and I have no doubt he’s instructed her to close the deal this weekend. She’s admitted being excited at the thought of getting her hands on the Ashford technology, and I’m sure she’ll pull out all the stops to make sure I agree to the partnership. I still have to be on my guard. Maybe now more than ever.
My mood sours again. I wish we were heading out to the hills for a Valentine’s Day romantic break, but that’s not what this is. It’s a business trip, and not a nice one. I need to find all the flaws in her system, so I have something concrete to use in my rejection of Tom’s proposal. My father will listen if I provide evidence. That has to be my focus.
Not the girl with the white hair and violet eyes. I mustn’t think of her as anything else but the enemy.
Chapter Eleven
Maddie
We don’t talk much for the remainder of the journey. Caesar falls quiet, looking out of the window, and I decide not to interrupt his thoughts. I have enough of my own to contend with.
I can’t believe that when I said I thought we had chemistry, he said, “So did I.” And that he said he’s been looking for me. My head is still spinning. I’ve convinced myself he saw our one-night stand as a fun, hot evening, and that he didn’t give me a single thought after I’d left. But his words suggest maybe it was meaningful to him.
That fills me with joy… but of course, it changes nothing. I’m still a Rutherford. He’s still an Ashford. And never shall the twain meet, according to Kipling.
Does it still count if the twain have already bumped uglies?
“Not far now,” I say, signaling as we approach the turnoff, even though I can’t see anyone for miles. I slow the car and turn onto the gravel drive, which winds slowly up through the undulating ground.
“It’s very bleak,” Caesar says.
“Wait till we crest the hill.” I drop a gear and head over the rise, then follow the curve of the road back toward Shepherd’s Cottage.
“Fuck,” he says.
