Unlocking the Tycoon's Heart

look at the skylight. ‘I always get my coffee beans from Koffiemeester’s on Van Baelerstraat. That’s good coffee.’
She’d turned away to hide her smile. She knew Koffiemeester’s. It was where she bought her coffee too, but something had stopped her saying it. For some reason she didn’t want him to know that she lived in Amsterdam. It seemed safer to let him believe that she was based in London...and it wasn’t entirely untrue. She stayed at the mews house frequently enough when she was covering events or interviewing designers in London. It would always be part of her—the family home—but after ‘Halgate’ she’d needed a fresh start and she’d always loved Amsterdam. Her grandparents had given her their houseboat. They preferred to stay in Texel all year round these days and they knew how much she’d always loved the barge.
She looked along the water towards the bridge. The trees beside the canal were pushing out leaves, and in the pots crammed onto the deck of the boat green tulip tips were nosing through the compost. Spring! The season of beginnings. She sipped her coffee again. Somewhere in the city, perhaps nearby, Theo might be drinking his coffee too. Perhaps he had a view of the trees and the canals. Perhaps he was thinking about her.
Cleuso twisted onto his back, stretching his limbs, spreading his toes. She touched her finger to the plump pads of one paw and felt his claws flex in a gentle warning. Beware!
Warning signs were everywhere. You just had to tune in to them. Like Hal saying, ‘We’re going to Paris this weekend... I’ve got tickets for the opera...’ ten minutes after Ash had told her he thought there was something amiss with the business accounts. Like Theo’s face turning ashen when she’d told him she was a writer. Why? She sighed. Hal’s actions had made her hyper-alert to any kind of shadiness but, still, something about Theo’s intent green eyes was tormenting her. She’d tried to put him out of her head, yet here she was again, thinking about him—the way he’d looked at her when they’d said goodbye.
She drained her cup, set it down on the deck. So, they were both coffee snobs—what of it? It didn’t mean there’d be other things they’d have in common. Besides, now that Ash was going to be working closely with MolTec, giving Theo a wide berth was absolutely the right thing to do. Her feelings for Hal had blinded her to things she should have questioned and nearly driven a wedge between her and Ash. She couldn’t go through that again, dividing her loyalties between her brother and a lover. She couldn’t protect Ash from the past but, after everything that had happened, falling for his new business associate would be utter madness.
Cleuso writhed suddenly and sprang from her lap. He stretched his hind legs then jumped onto the rail, teetering for a moment before springing upward onto the barge roof. He paused to wash his face, then trotted off to the far end of the boat and disappeared from view. She gazed after him. It had been the right decision not to tell Theo that she lived in his city, yet somehow she couldn’t get him out of her head. The way his face had brightened when he’d spotted her at the observatory; the way he’d smiled as he started walking towards her. There’d been openness in his smile, a feeling of connection, as if the stars had already settled into a new alignment.
She pushed him out of her head. The first trams were moving, and she needed to get moving too. She had her Dilly and Daisy article to finish, a blog post to write for a sportswear client and after that there was the big charity event for the women’s refuge. All in all, there was more than enough to keep her mind off Theo Molenaar.
It was hard not to see traces of Mia in her brother. Their eyes were the same shape, although Ash’s were a clear blue, and Ash’s hair was a shade or two lighter than Mia’s. Theo wondered if Mia had inherited her brown eyes from her mother, and then he wondered why he was even thinking about that when he was supposed to be concentrating on what Ash was saying. He refocused.
‘We need to make sure that the software doesn’t become a prophet of doom.’ Ash was leaning forward, his eyes narrowing. ‘What I really want is for it to be used in a positive way, to demonstrate how small environmental changes can make a significant impact.’
Ash’s environmental-impact modelling software was still in development but Theo could see many potential applications. He’d been so impressed with Ash’s presentation at the planetarium that he’d jumped at the chance to get involved. Now it was a question of putting a strategy in place, providing Ash with the technical support he needed to put the prototype through its paces.
He rocked back in his chair. ‘We’re definitely on the same page, Ash. The world needs creative thinking tied to practical applications and that’s exactly what your software is going to deliver.’ He smiled. ‘We need to get you to Amsterdam soon, to meet my technical team.’
‘No problem. I could come the week after next.’ Ash’s eyes were merry. ‘Mia will be very happy—she’s always telling me I don’t visit often enough.’
The words were plainly spoken but Theo couldn’t make sense of them. He pressed a finger to his temple. ‘She likes you to visit Amsterdam?’
Ash was powering off his laptop. ‘She likes me to visit her.’ He looked up. ‘Mia lives in Amsterdam—didn’t she mention it?’
His heart bumped. ‘No...she didn’t.’ He opened his briefcase and slipped his notes inside, keeping his eyes down. Why hadn’t Mia told him that she lived in his city? They could have talked about it, the places they liked and didn’t like. For some reason it stung that she’d kept it to herself. Sensing Ash’s gaze, he looked