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What are you doing, Hastings?he asked himself.
He wanted to have another day with her tomorrow. And it didn’t seem as if it would be enough.
Alex swung his legs off the bed, too much on edge to get any sleep. Work was always a welcome distraction. Pulling on his jeans and shrugging his shirt back on, he picked his phone off the nightstand and quietly left his room.
After pouring a measure of whisky into a glass, he replaced the stopper on the crystal decanter, setting it back on the bar, and stood by the large window overlooking the sea.
The shrill cry of his phone punctured the silence. He answered quickly, and the screen filled with his father’s face.
‘Dad.’ Alex placed his glass down on the coffee table and eased himself onto the couch upon which, a few short hours before, he’d had Emma panting his name.
He shoved the image aside.
‘Alex. How are you, son?’ asked his father.
Judging by the dark wood bookshelves behind him, it looked as if he was in his study at the family manor Alex so rarely visited.
‘I’m well. Looks like you’ve taken a trip.’
‘A bit of country air does you a world of good.’
‘So you always say.’ Alex smiled.
‘I do.’ Robert chuckled. ‘Besides, there was a soirée...’ he rolled his eyes at the word ‘...that I just did not have the patience for. A bit of peace and quiet is what I need.’
Alex knew what that meant. His mother Catherine would have been there. That was the only reason his father would miss a society event that would have undoubtedly required his presence.
‘We are the Hastings family. We have obligations we cannot turn our backs on,’he had said to Alex when he was growing up.
His mother was the only reason his father would have ignored such a commitment. But Robert would never want to speak of it, so neither would Alex.
‘I know why you called,’ he said. ‘I’ve been looking through the reports. My projections for the Australian expansion are on track.’
‘That’s what I like to hear.’
Alex and his father had always had a cordial relationship, if a somewhat stiff one. It was just the two of them. A team. Even though as a child he’d sometimes felt like the benched teammate. That hadn’t stopped him from growing into his power. He knew where his father’s boundaries lay, and Robert trusted his son immensely. So much so that when Robert had stepped down, there was no question of who would take his place with the family legacy.
Even though he didn’t need to, Alex liked keeping his father included in the running of Hastings International. It was a company that dealt with major construction, engineering and architecture amongst other things. A company meant to build, not tear down. He could tell Robert appreciated it, and discussing business felt good.
It was a bit of normality after being trapped in a lust-filled haze. And yet even though this was what he lived for, Alex wanted nothing more than to end the call, march back into his bedroom, strip the covers from Emma and take her again. Alex was always in control. Never ruled by his hormones. He valued logic over emotion, and it was driving him insane that when it came to Emma he seemed to be a slave to his baser urges.
Alex was about to end the call, but his father stopped him. ‘Before you go...are you okay, Alex?’
‘Fine. Why?’
‘I get the feeling you have something on your mind,’ his father said.
Alex ran a hand through his hair. ‘There’s a risky proposition on the table. I’m debating the merits of pursuing it,’ he said.
He had no intention of explaining that the proposition was Emma.
‘Son, the bigger the risk, the bigger the reward.’
‘Not always,’ he said under his breath.
His father clearly knew he was talking about something else.
‘No, not always,’ he said. ‘And that’s why it’s a risk. But you’re a lot more careful than I was at your age, Alex. Trust your gut. You’ll figure it out.’
