Free His Until Midnight by Nikki Logan Page B

remember any of those things.
    And her mouth opened.

EIGHT
    Baked scallops, smoked eel with capsicum salsa and a Parmesan and dill crust.
    ‘Stop.’
    She wasn’t inviting him in. She was locking him out. Of course she was. This was Audrey.
    Oliver drew his hands back into his own personal space and stepped away from her, more towards the wall-that-would-be-a-window. The soothing, ancient presence of the mountains far behind Victoria Harbour anchored him and stopped his heart from beating clear through his chest and then through all that glass into the open air of the South China Sea.
    ‘Shorter than I’d hoped,’ he murmured at the vast open space. Yet so much further than he’d ever imagined he’d get.
    ‘We’re in a public restaurant, Oliver.’
    ‘I have a suite just upstairs.’ As if that were really what stopped her.
    But she ignored the underlying meaning. Again, because she was Audrey. The woman had more class than he could ever hope to aspire to.
    ‘I thought we were on the top floor?’ she said, smoothing her skirt and keeping the conversation firmly off what had just happened. All that...touching.
    ‘The top public floor. There’s a penthouse.’ Technically part of the sixtieth floor but a half-dozen metres higher.
    ‘And you have it?’
    He turned and faced her. And the music. ‘It came with the restaurant.’
    Her brows dipped over slightly glassy eyes. He loved that he’d made them that way. But then they cleared and those fine brows lifted further than he imagined they could go. ‘You bought the restaurant?’
    ‘I did.’
    She shook her head. ‘What’s the matter? No good restaurants closer to Shanghai?’
    ‘I like this one.’
    AndQīngtíng had the added advantage of being saturated in echoes of his time together with Audrey. And when she didn’t come last year he began to believe that might be all he’d ever have of her.
    Memories.
    ‘Clearly.’ And then her innate curiosity got the better of her. ‘What did it cost?’
    God, he adored her. So classy and yet so inappropriate at the same time. Absolutely no respect for social niceties. But he wasn’t ready to put a price tag on his desperation just yet. Bad enough that his accountant knew.
    ‘More than you can imagine. It wasn’t on the market.’ He’d just kept offering them more until they caved.
    Understanding filled her eyes. ‘That’s why you seemed so familiar with the dragonfly keeper. And why they bow so low for you.’ And why he got to call the chef Gerard . ‘You’re their boss.’
    ‘They treat everyone that well,’ he defended. Badly.
    ‘Why did you buy it?’
    Uh...no. Not something he was going to admit to the woman who’d made it clear she wasn’t after anything more with him. In words and, just moments ago, in deed.
    He cleared his throat. ‘It’s a fantastic investment. The return is enormous.’ As much an unexpected bonus as the big, luxurious, lonely suite right above their heads. ‘Do you want to see it?’
    She turned her confusion to him.
    ‘The penthouse. It’s pretty spectacular.’
    ‘Is it...? Are you...?’ She took a deep breath. ‘Will you be sleeping there tonight?’
    Was that her subtle way of asking whether there was a bed up there? ‘You’re safe with me, Audrey.’
    Heat flared at her jaw. ‘I know.’
    Though, hadn’t he been the one to instigate the touch-a-thon just now? ‘It’s so much more than a bedroom. It’s like a small house perched atop this steel mountain.’ She didn’t have a prayer of hiding the spark of interest. So he went for the kill shot. ‘Every window gives you a different view of Hong Kong.’
    She was inordinately fond of this city, he knew. In fact, pretty much anything oriental. It made him wonder what she’d thought of Shanghai; if she’d liked it as much as he did.
    And why, exactly, was that important...?
    Indecision wracked her face. She wanted to see it, but she didn’t want to be alone with him away from the security of a