Page 53 of Suddenly Desired
Blake paused, his head cocked to one side. Ellie called his nickname again and he turned around. The old woman who he had been standing next to the stage was right behind him, trying to usher him inside the building, but he steered her gently to the side and scanned the crowd.
“Here!” Ellie shouted. “Here, behind Shrek!”
He found her, and a sad smile appeared on his face.
“Billy, I’ll be out of your hair soon. Can you please just let me past?” he said, and the security guard stood to one side.
Blake strode up to her, stopping when they were merely inches apart, a great smile crinkling his eyes. It took all her strength to not throw herself on him and start kissing him, but that would be a mistake, especially in front of this crowd.
“Hi,” he said, fighting to make himself heard, his smile growing bigger.
“I had to find you,” she said, breathless. “Blake, I know who did this. Michelle and David—” She took his arm, gripping it as if she could physically keep him from walking away. “They’re together.”
Blake blinked, his forehead creasing. “I know. They were kind enough to show me.”
“And that means . . .”
“That David’s been lying to me from the start,” Blake finished.
“Yes,” Ellie confirmed, her voice thick with frustration. “I saw them together at the café, the day your posts went viral. He must have been with her this whole time. And that means he set you up too. Blake, you don’t have to do this. You don’t have to step down. You can fight.”
“I can’t.” His gaze flicked past her, towards the crowd pressing in around them, security struggling to hold them back. His expression was unreadable, warring emotions flickering across his face.
“Why, Blake? Why didn’t you just tell the truth to the reporters?”
“Because I made a decision.” Tears glistened in his eyes. “I could either save myself, or I could save Heartbook. I chose the company. I chose the people.”
Something exploded on the ground by Blake’s feet, what might have been strawberry milkshake splattering both of them. He looked up, alarmed, and the security guards started closing in. One took Blake’s arm, but he shrugged them away, his eyes locked on Ellie’s. “I’m sorry,” he said, his voice raw.
“You don’t have to apologise for being a good person,” Ellie said, her voice steady even though her heart raced with everything unsaid between them. She hesitated for a second,then the thought hit her like a flash of lightning. Before she could overthink it, the words spilled out. “Come away with me. Right now. Let’s just get away.”
“What?” Blake’s brow furrowed, the surprise clear in his eyes. “Where?”
“I’m going to my mum’s farm tonight. It’s in Devon,” she said, her words rushing out like a flood. “The fresh air will do us both good. Forget about all this, just for a little while. You need to breathe, Blake. I want you to come with me. We can escape together.”
For a brief, breathtaking moment, his face softened. The light returned to his eyes, and Ellie thought he might actually say yes. She held her breath as the silence stretched between them, the chaos of the crowd fading into the background.
But then another object whizzed past, smashing on to the pavement a few feet away. This time it was a cup of coffee, the dark liquid splattering dangerously close.
Blake flinched, instinctively pulling back, and the fleeting hope in his expression dissolved. “I can’t,” he said, shaking his head. “I won’t do that to you. You mean too much to me to be dragged through the dirt. This is what I meant when I said I can’t see you anymore. Don’t you understand? It’s not because I don’t want to, it’s because of what happens to the people around me.”
“Blake . . .” Ellie’s voice wavered, her hand still outstretched. She wanted to grab him, to shake him, to make him understand that she didn’t care about the dirt or the chaos or the crowd. All she cared about was him.
She opened her mouth to say something else but another security guard appeared and between them they dragged Blake through the doors. Blake looked back once, his face barely visible between the men. His eyes met Ellie’s and they were the saddest eyes she had ever seen.
Then the doors closed, the men steered Blake around a corner, and he was gone.
Chapter 27
BLAKE
“You did the right thing, Blake.”
Agnes hovered in the corner of Blake’s office, pretending to study the books that lined his extensive shelves.
“It’s the first rule of business,” she went on. “The company must come first. Today may have been the result of your blatant stupidity. I mean, why anyone would make their innermost feelings public is a mystery to me, let alone somebody whose innermost feelings are as unpopular as yours. But you saved Heartbook. The share price is already recovering. Because of what you did today, seventeen hundred people will most likely keep their jobs. Including me, I should say. So, I’m sorry it has come to this, but thank you.”
Blake didn’t reply. He was staring out of the window at the campus that stretched as far as the eye could see, right up to the glittering, sun-drenched river. It was a landscape of memories, and each one hurt like a wasp sting. He felt as if he’d built this place with his own two hands, brick by brick, and now Michelle and David had led a rebellion against him. He grieved for the loss, calm on the outside, but a hurricane of anger raging within.
