Page 69 of Always

“I actually knew that, too,” James admitted.

“What? You did?”

“Yes, I’m the one that bought it.”

“You…how is that possible? Marco said the deal was already done?”

“At the Red Line dinner, your father said Axiom Investing was poking around Bennet Knight. I recognized the name—they buy businesses, chop them up, and sell the separate parts for more than the whole. So I called them and said I wanted to make an offer once the deal went through. I figured Marco wouldn’t just sell it straight to me. But of course, once Axiom had the business in hand, they got greedy. So I flew out here to salvage the deal. I wouldn’t say I got a bargain, but I got the whole thing, the Red Line included. So you won’t lose it, Anika. It’s safe.”

“I can’t believe it,” she said, shaking her head in astonishment.

“It’s true. I signed the papers an hour ago. The Red Line will be yours entirely.”

“I can’t believe you did that for me.”

“Anika,” he said, holding her hand tightly between his. “Everything I’ve done for the last ten years has been for you. The thousands of hours I spent working on my company, day after day, barely sleeping, barely eating, every minute of that was for you. I wanted to build something incredible, something that would prove I was worth something to your family. At first, I’ll admit, it was all out of spite. I was almost in a rage, I resented you, I was bitter. And worst of all, I missed you.

“A hundred times I almost called you: when we got our first investor, when the company went public, when I finally sold it. Each time I wanted to call and say, ‘Am I good enough now?’ like a complete asshole. But I couldn’t call you because I couldn’t say that to you, because I was still in love with you.

“And then I had all the money in the world, so I thought I’d forget about you. I travelled, I saw things, I met people, but none of them were you. I told myself I didn’t care anymore, that I was over you. Liam invited me to come out to New York—it seemed like the perfect opportunity to prove how I had moved on.

“Liam had his own plans. He knew how I felt about you, he was the only person I told. He was trying to fix things between us. I knew what he was up to, but I thought I’d accomplish the opposite, I’d get closure and move on.

“I saw you at the Red Line office and I thought, there. She’s just a person, probably not even the same person anymore. She’s moved past it, I’ve moved past it.

“But I didn’t do what a sane man would do, which is just leave. I had to keep torturing myself. I made excuses to stay in the city, to be at places that you’d be. And of course I started to see that you hadn’t changed at all, not really. You were still as intelligent as ever, as compassionate, as determined. If you had changed, it was only for the better.

“But I’d put myself in this ridiculous, idiotic position. I’d been cold to you, and I was dating your friend. And then fucking Marco turned up, and he did what I should have done from the moment I saw you—he swept you off your feet, told you how beautiful you are, treated you like a queen.

“God, I was so jealous. I thought, that’s why people like him are happy and I’m not, because he went after what he wanted instead of letting it slip away from him. And do you know, Anika, if I thought you were truly happy with him, I would have walked away. Because you deserve to be happy, I want that for you more than anything.

“But I know you. I watched the two of you together. I thought, she likes him, she may even love him a little. But when you looked at him, I didn’t see what I used to see when you looked at me. And that’s why I had hope, just a little bit of hope.”

“Do you see it now?” she asked, looking up at him.

“Yes,” he said.

He kissed her there, in the middle of the hotel lobby, with dozens of people all around.

It was the sort of kiss that obliterates everything outside of it, that creates a perfect sphere of experience through which no sound or motion can penetrate. And time draws out longer and longer, and yet it can never be long enough, you never, ever want it to end.

Feverishly, they gathered up their bags, without taking their arms from around each other. Because now that they were touching one another, they absolutely refused to stop. They couldn’t imagine how they lasted so long without this.

They took the elevator up to the twenty-eighth floor, where James had his room. They laughed as he fumbled to unlock the door with his keycard.

Before the door had even swung closed behind them, they were tearing at each other’s clothing, their lips and hands reaching for every available inch of skin. As Anika unbuttoned James’s pale blue dress shirt and pulled it open, she couldn’t help but say, “Oh my god,” out loud.

“What is it?” James said.

“It’s just...you didn’t look like this before.”

Anika was used to how tall James was, but not how broad he had become, how filled out. She ran her fingertips gently down the muscle of his chest, his stomach, felt how tight and hard he was under the smooth, soft skin.

“Do you like it?” he said.

“Of course I do,” she laughed.

He swept her up, lifted her like she made of feathers and deposited her on the bed. Anika was tall herself, so rarely did she feel delicate, dwarfed by the size and strength of somebody else. It was a thrilling feeling, both arousing and vulnerable.

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