Romantic Escapes. Julie Caplin

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       Chapter 2

      PARIS

      ‘Here you go.’ Nina slid the coffee cup across the table towards Alex and handed him a plate with a gorgeous looking confection on it. ‘On the house. I want your opinion, it’s my latest idea. Raspberry Ripple Éclair. It might cheer you up,’ she added with a smile that was underpinned with a smattering of sympathy.

      Alex felt a touch of regret. Nina was lovely. His plans to get to know her better had been well and truly scuppered by a prior claim. Sadly, she’d been in love with his mate Sebastian forever and he had to admit as he looked at her now, requited love had put a gorgeous bloom on her cheeks. You couldn’t begrudge anyone that shiny happiness. He took a bite of the éclair and groaned.

      ‘Wow, that’s good, Nina. Really good.’

      ‘Excellent, now are you going to tell me what’s wrong?’

      He rolled his eyes, as she pulled up a chair and sat down ignoring the outraged glare from Marcel, the manager of the patisserie. Nina might officially run the place, but Marcel definitely wore the trousers in this business partnership, ruling the roost with silent, stern officiousness.

      ‘Who said anything was wrong? asked Alex, trying to sound blithe.

      ‘I have brothers. I have a Sebastian. I know when the weight of the world is bowing those broad shoulders. You have a distinct droop about you,’ she declared with a knowing grin.

      He glanced left to right at both shoulders and she gave a peal of laughter.

      ‘I’m a wee bit pissed off. The new hotel opening is delayed and the manager lined up to take over from me has already rocked up.’ Alex was due to take over the running of a brand new, minimalist, uber trendy boutique hotel on the other side of Paris any day now, except during the renovations the builders had discovered bones in the cellars. Human bones. Thankfully they were at least two hundred years old but it had still caused a humungous delay.

      ‘You can take a holiday then,’ said Nina.

      ‘You’d have thought so but my boss in his infinite wisdom has decided to give me a temporary posting.’

      ‘You’re not leaving Paris, are you?’ Her pretty mouth pouted and Alex felt another one of those little pangs of regret. Nice guys did finish last. He’d well and truly missed the boat with her.

      ‘Only for a couple of months. Quentin wants me to go and check out a hotel he’s planning to buy. He wants me to assess the viability of the place and put together a report on my recommendations to turn it into one of our boutique hotels.’

      ‘Where are you going?’

      ‘Iceland.’

      Nina’s mouth dropped open into a little ‘o’. ‘I thought you meant somewhere else in France. Not another country. Well that doesn’t sound so bad. Isn’t Iceland supposed to be beautiful with all sorts of amazing natural wonders? Bubbling geysers, hot springs and glaciers? Being Scottish I’d have thought you’d like the idea.’

      ‘No problem with going to Iceland. It’s the job Quentin wants me to do, which isn’t that great.’

      ‘I thought you said you had to put together a report.’

      ‘Yes, but it includes reporting on the current general manager and how the place is being run without telling them who I am. It doesn’t sit right with me. The last thing I want to do is be a spy.’

      ‘James Bond,’ said Nina, sitting up straighter. ‘You’ve got the Sean Connery accent.’ She launched into a dreadful impersonation of his Edinburgh accent. ‘Ah Moneypenny.’

      ‘Well, that must mean I’m qualified,’ Alex quipped, amused by Nina’s enthusiasm, his spirits temporarily lifted.

      He was still rattled by the meeting and the conversation with his boss when he’d raised a certain disquiet about not telling the manager why he was there. His boss’s response to that had stung. ‘Thing is Alex, nice guys finish last. This is business. Pure and simple. I need someone to report back, warts and all. Without anyone sugar coating it. It’s far easier if the staff don’t know who you are. I’m not hearing great things about the management of the place. The recent TripAdvisor reviews have been shockers. With you on the ground, I’ll get a much better picture. You’ve got a good eye and you’ll be able to tell me what needs doing to sort the place out, what the staff are like and whether I can keep them or fire their sorry arses.’

      The ‘nice guys finish last’ bit kept going around in his head. What was wrong with being a nice guy? Besides, he could be tough when a situation needed it. Last week he’d thrown a customer out of the hotel’s a la carte restaurant for pinching one of the waitress’s bums, faced down a belligerent delivery driver, who reversed into the hotel gates leaving a hole big enough to drive a herd of cows through, and fired the pastry chef he’d caught hurling a frying pan at the young, barely out of school, bus boy.

      ‘Alex is going to be James Bond,’ announced Nina as Sebastian walked in and put his arm around her placing a confident, lazy kiss on her lips, completely ignoring Alex.

      ‘Hi gorgeous, mmm you taste of raspberries and deliciousness.’ He went back for a second longer, lingering kiss, which had Alex rolling his eyes.

      At last Sebastian drew back from Nina and turned to face him. Alex’s mouth twitched, he’d got the message loud and clear.

      ‘Bond, James Bond?’ Sebastian lifted a perfect Roger Moore eyebrow.

      ‘No, Nina’s exaggerating my undercover credentials. I’ve been asked to do some recon work. Quentin Oliver is looking at buying a place in Iceland and as I’m between hotels at the moment, I’ve been asked to go and survey the place. On the ground as it were.’ Sebastian would laugh his head off if he mentioned he was thinking of going undercover as a barman!

      ‘Sounds like a great idea,’ said Sebastian with a sudden grin, which Alex could guess had a lot to do with how far away Iceland was. Although he needn’t have been worried, Alex had backed right off when he realised that Nina had been in love with Sebastian since she was eighteen. For a second, he wondered what might have happened, if he’d put up more of a fight for her, if he’d really thought he had a chance. Had he bowed out because it made it easier on Nina?

      As he thought about it, he gave Sebastian a broad smile, maybe the best man had won. Nina adored Sebastian and she was good for him. Possibly too good. But Alex had never seen Sebastian so settled and happy.

      ‘I have no problem with going to Iceland. Like Nina said, I’m used to a northern climate. It’s the undercover element of it I’m not so keen on.’

      ‘Why not?’ Sebastian shrugged. ‘You need to remember it’s business. It’s easy to be ruthless when something you really want is at stake.’ Was there a knowing look in his eye as he stared at Alex?

      And then he flashed Alex a warm, approving smile. ‘There’s no one else I’d rather have on the team, mate. I know why Quentin Oliver’s СКАЧАТЬ