“What about Mum and Dad? I can’t disappear on them like this. They’re elderly and I’m the only one they’ve got.”
With another foray into the inside of his suit jacket JP produced a passport and handed it to her.
“Who do you think gave me this?” he explained gently. “I went to see them last week, after you’d refused a transfer away from me. I was sure that if you didn’t care for me you would have jumped at a move. But I also knew you wouldn’t want to leave your parents without their blessing, even for a short time. But they support this Alex. They both agreed it would be a great opportunity for you to live your own life for a while. Ring them if you like, they’ll tell you that themselves.”
Alex studied the passport in a daze. It was hers. Of course it was hers. But she was having trouble believing anything at that moment.
“I can’t believe Mum and Dad are happy about me taking off like this,” she murmured.
“I think the clincher may have been when I told them I’d loved you from the first day we met and I couldn’t stand to leave the country without you.”
Alex smiled at JP. “You said that?”
He grinned back. “I did, Alex,” he whispered and taking her face again in his hands he leaned in to kiss her tenderly and slowly, driving her pulse wild and prompting her to burrow her hands inside his jacket, laying them against his warm chest. Was it really possible that she could snuggle up against him anytime she wanted from now on?
But then she broke away, the awful possibilities of that night surging through her. “But you left our entire future in my hands. What if I hadn’t come tonight? What if I hadn’t known you were going?”
“I took out an insurance policy,” he smirked wryly. “I phoned Sophie.”
Alex shook her head. “I don’t understand.”
“I told her I had a job for her. She was to phone you and let you know I was flying home tonight. It was risky. I couldn’t be sure you’d turn up but I had to take that chance. Our flight’s not until 9.30 by the way, in case you’re thinking I was cutting things a bit fine.”
“And Sophie agreed to do that? No questions asked?”
JP nodded.
“I can’t believe it. It’s not like Sophie to be such a dark horse. She didn’t let on at all, although she got off the phone in a big hurry.”
“Well that would be because I told her to ring me back as soon as she’d reached you. You’ll have to put her out of her misery soon. I could tell she was desperate to know what was going on.”
Alex gave JP a serious look. “What is going on JP? Why didn’t you tell me you were leaving?”
He raised a hand to push a strand of dark hair away from her cheek. “I needed to know that choosing me was entirely your decision. Your parents and Simon have been steering your life for a long time and you’ve let them do that. I have no intention of taking over that role.”
“I would never feel …” Alex interjected but JP lay a finger on her lips to silence her.
“You said it yourself, the night I drove you home from your parents. Remember? You said I was laying down the blueprints for your life, just like your father and Simon.”
“I didn’t mean you.”
“You did and you were right to say it. I can be pushy. All those years protecting my mother had a big impact on the way I run my life. Sometimes it spills over to the people closest to me—just ask Adam and Justin; they often tell me to pull my head in when I start to take over. You’ll have to keep me to heel on that too.”
“I will,” Alex breathed, a rush of happiness coursing through her as she listened to him talk so easily of their future.
“I meant what I said about that first morning we met,” he murmured seriously. “I watched you for a while before I approached you on that street; you were so serene and so still in all that weather and chaos. I was glad you were going to be my PA because I desperately wanted some of that serenity in my working life, but I had no idea how much I would come to want it in every part of my life.”
“All I know about that