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‘That’s no problem. I’ll call you at eight, and if I don’t get through to you I’ll try again tomorrow.’
‘Yes. Good. Thanks.’
The line cut before Leo could say anything else and he looked up into Alex’s gaze.
‘What do we do now?’
He smiled. It was so easy to smile into her honey-brown eyes, and when he did so he always saw some spark of a response. ‘I’ll wait and call her back in an hour.’
‘Is that going to be okay? You’re not meant to be anywhere else, are you?’
Actually, he was. The solution which presented itself curled its way around his mind, beckoning him to at least ask. ‘I have a drinks party in Hampstead but if I go home now and change, then I can call Carys and then leave straight away. If you’d like to come back with me, we can talk to her together. If you’re not busy tonight.’
‘No... No, I’ve got nothing on. Are you sure that’s okay?’
‘It’s fine. And it’s starting to get cold in here anyway.’ The encroaching chill of the evening was finally making itself felt, despite the portable radiator. ‘I’ll drop you home afterwards; it’s not far out of my way.’
‘If it’s no trouble... It sounds as if Carys wants to talk.’
‘Yeah, it does.’ Leo rose from his seat, stretching. ‘Let’s go then.’
* * *
His car was parked outside the office on a meter. Alex was no connoisseur of cars, but this one had the kind of shine that made the paintwork seem almost liquid under the streetlights. And she recognised leather seats when she saw them.
‘This is where you live?’ He drove into the entrance to an underground car park, beneath a glass-clad tower block, less than half a mile from the radio station.
‘Yes.’ He slid into a parking bay and switched off the engine, leaning towards her slightly. ‘Fast-track. You wonder why I came all the way to your place last night and then back again and I point out that we had some unfinished business to talk about and that the car was the best place to do it. You see my point, but think I’m an idiot.’
When Leo was in this mood, he couldn’t fail to make her smile. ‘I don’t think you’re an idiot.’ Alex got out of the car before she could betray what she really did think.
The flat was gorgeous. On the top floor, the city lights spread out behind floor to ceiling windows. The seating area was designed to impress, with a huge glass-topped table between black leather sofas that were long enough to lie down, stretch right out and still not be able to touch both ends.
Red leather armchairs gave the room a pop of colour. Diamond-shaped bookshelves, where the books were stacked in a zigzag pattern, a touch of class. A huge abstract painting on one wall, swirling blues and greens, was the only thing that didn’t seem to conform to rigid straight lines.
He helped her out of her coat, throwing it down on an armchair and dropping his own jacket next to it, then dumping his keys on the coffee table. Clearly the almost obsessive tidiness of the place had more to do with whoever cleaned it than it did with Leo.
‘This is beautiful, Leo. What a view...’
‘Yeah. I took one look out of the window and knew I had to have this place. The view’s different every day, and I never tire of it.’
Alex wandered over to the window, drinking in the panorama of London at night which lay beyond the roof terrace. ‘It’s wonderful. Very tidy.’
He grinned. ‘I don’t get much time to make a mess. I only stay here during the week, when I’m in town.’
‘And at weekends?’
‘I have a house down in Surrey, but it’s a long drive after working in the evening. Make yourself at home.’
It wasn’t that easy to make herself at home in a place that so obviously wasn’t one. ‘I’m torn between the view and the sofa.’
He chuckled, moving one of the red leather armchairs over to the window. ‘Here. Best of both worlds. Would you like something to drink?’
‘Do you have any juice?’
‘I expect so. I’ll look.’ He turned, trekking across the enormous room to a doorway which lay at one side of it. Alex flopped down into the armchair. Leo’s apartment had told her nothing about him that she didn’t already know. Beautiful, well thought out and sophisticated, it betrayed no clue as to the real nature of the man who lived there.
* * *
