Page 64 of Fury
I looked over my shoulder again.
“Do you get many people doing business at this time in the morning here?”
“Yeah. International trade deals, I guess. They go on all night in London. London never sleeps.”
“You miss London?” I asked, striding along beside her towards the lifts to the top floors of suites.
“Yeah. I miss my apartment. It’s not big, not much bigger than this suite, but it’s mine. Reckon my plants will all be dead when I get back.” She punched the button on the lift as the doors slid shut.
“Hope you don’t have pets, huh?”
“I’ve never had a pet. I don’t really see the point of them. Something that depends on you, and then dies after a few years, anyway.”
Heidi shrugged.
“Shit, wouldn’t like to be your boyfriend, then.”
“Don’t have one of those, either. Too tying.” She looked at me pointedly when I grinned at her. “Too much effort,” she added, as if she thought I hadn’t taken the hint.
The doors hissed, sliding open onto the corridor of luxury, our footsteps barely making a noise on the heavily cushioned carpet.
“This place must be costing you a fortune.”
Heidi shrugged, “I claim most of it back in expenses. Through my company and my father’s.”
“I didn’t know you had a company?”
“You know nothing about me, Fury.”
I spun her to face me, the door of her suite just within reach.
“I know you’re career focussed, like to be the boss. You think you’re invincible, but when shit gets real, it scares you because you’ve only ever had to deal with arseholes in the boardroom, never those people who might actually want to kill you. How am I doing?”
Heidi bit her lip.
“I know nothing about you either, Fury,” she retorted angrily. “But I didn’t think we were trying to get to know each other.”
“You think all I want is sex?”
“Well, don’t you?”
“I did. I thought that’s all I wanted. I mean, look at you.” I pushed away from her, my eyes scanning down her body, and she crossed her arms over her chest, her tits pushing up under the beige jumper that covered them. “You’re stunning. You’re perfect. But you’re more to me than just a fuck, Heidi.”
Her eyes pinned mine, and now I wasn’t sure what I was looking at. Anger, need, pain. None of the emotions warring inside her I could define.
“You are just sex, Fury. I’m only here at my father’s request. He wants to know where his money is going. It’s all he ever wants. When I’m done, I’m going home. Back to London. Back to my company, back to my life.”
I’d thought her words in the Dog on the Tyne a few hours earlier had hit hard, but these were like a hammer blow. Right to my stomach.
“Well, then. This is you, I guess,” I said, gesturing towards the door.
Heidi bit her lip again, her eyes glossing a little. Or maybe they’d just been caught in a twinkle from the overhead lights. I watched her go inside, then she turned and looked at me.
“Goodnight, Heidi.”
She nodded and closed the door.
I stood outside for a few moments, my heart thundering in my chest, descending deeper and deeper into the pit of my stomach. And then I turned, walking off down the hallway.