Louise gripped the arms of the seat, hating the moment of takeoff. Hating the moment when the huge jet banked over London. Letting out a sigh of relief as the ping of the seat-belt warning light went off.

A stewardess offered her a drink, but she shook her head. No alcohol, minimum food, lots of water. And sleep. She needed sleep. At least the unexpected upgrade from club to first class gave her all the stretch room she needed.

She even had an empty seat beside her.

No one to disturb her while she laid out her plans for expansion into Australia, she congratulated herself. No one to disturb her, ever again.

It couldn’t be more perfect, she told herself as she bent to retrieve her laptop at her feet.

Then someone took the seat beside her.

She glanced sideways at her new companion, nodding distantly, not making eye contact-the last thing she wanted was a chatty travelling companion-then did the fastest double take in history.

‘Max!’ His name was expelled on what felt like the last breath in her body. Then, ‘What are you doing here?’

‘It’s six-thirty,’ he said. ‘We always meet at this time of day.’

‘But Gemma was going to-’

‘Stand in for you? While I’m sure she’s a perfectly capable young woman, that wasn’t the deal we made. And as I’m sure you’ll recall, Louise, I paid in advance.’

She gasped. ‘I can’t believe you just said that.’

‘Of course you can. You can believe anything of me. The fact that you’d get on an aircraft and run away to the other side of the world to avoid me proves it.’ He opened his briefcase, took out a thick envelope. ‘Not that I don’t appreciate it,’ he said. ‘It has given me an opportunity to demonstrate just how serious I am when I tell you that I’ll never stand you up again.’

‘I’m not running away!’ she said, fiercely. ‘This has nothing to do with you, Max. This is about me. I’ve spent my whole life wanting something just out of reach. It’s time to grow up, move on, live the life I’ve got, not the one I dreamed…’

She applied the brake to her mouth, but not soon enough.

‘Not the life you dreamed of?’ he asked, gently.

‘Not all dreams are good dreams, Max.’

‘No. And not all mistakes are bad.’ He leaned back, closed his eyes momentarily. ‘Not that last night was a mistake. I did what I thought was the right thing, Louise. I can’t change who I am.’

‘I know. I understand…’

‘It was all the other times that I got it wrong. But maybe not entirely wrong.’

Louise swallowed. ‘No?’

Oh, that hurt. For the last sixteen sleep-deprived hours, she’d been too numb for the pain to bite, but suddenly, hearing Max say that one word brought her whole body to agonising life and she had to bite back the cry of pain.

‘No,’ he repeated, then rolled his head to look at her. ‘How else would I have known how it would feel to lose you? How much it would hurt?’

No, no, no…‘Please, Max, don’t do this.’

‘I have to. I have to explain. If, when I’ve done, you don’t want me here, I’ll move to another seat. Go away. Never bother you again.’

That wasn’t what she wanted to hear, either, but she took in a deep breath, let it out. Nodded.

‘I spent most of the night thinking about us. About how, all my life, I’ve been pushing you away. Not just the surface stuff, avoiding each other, making sarcastic comments about the boys, the men who trailed after you like puppies. Deeper than that.’

‘I didn’t know there was anything deeper,’ Louise said. Then shook her head. It was so easy to fall into the habits of a lifetime. Dangerous. Sniping led to anger and anger led to passion. And after passion there was only pain…

‘I thought about the night I was supposed to take you to your school prom,’ Max said, not rising to it. ‘We were short-staffed, I didn’t lie about that, but if I’d said to Dad that I had to go, reminded him that Uncle John had asked me to be your escort, he’d have found someone to cover.’

‘You were more interested in the business even then, Max.’

‘No. The truth is that your father had drafted me in as a safe pair of hands, someone he could rely on not to forget himself with “his little princess”, was the way he put it. I knew just how you’d look. Sweet, innocent, in a demure frock but with that look in your eyes that said everything. A look I’d have to resist or burn in hell.’

‘You were so wrong about that.’

‘Wrong?’

‘Anything but sweet and innocent. I had a killer dress stashed away in my bag and I had designs on you. You were right to run scared.’

‘Really?’ A ghost of a smile lit up eyes that were grey with tiredness. ‘Uncle John nearly scalped me for standing you up. What he’d have done if he’d even suspected…’

‘It didn’t happen.’ She found an answering smile from somewhere. ‘I suppose I should thank you for saving me from myself.’

‘I haven’t finished, yet. There was the time you were flying to Italy. A year older, you were learning to hide your feelings, but I didn’t want you to go. I knew those Italian men would be all over you. That they could have what I wanted.’ He dragged his hand over his face. ‘When you came back, I could see…’

‘What could you see, Max?’

‘One look was all it took. One look and I knew that you’d taken that step away from me. I thought something inside me had died.’

‘Only thought?’

‘When you dropped that slinky dress at your feet,’ he said, with a grin, ‘I realised it had only been wounded.’

‘His name was Roberto,’ she told him, by way of punishment. ‘Six-foot two, short dark hair, blue eyes.’ She shook her head, realising, too late, that she wasn’t punishing him, but herself. ‘I knew by then that I couldn’t have you. Mustn’t want you. He was the nearest I could get.’ Then, desperate to put that behind her, ‘This is ancient history, Max.’

‘But don’t you see, Lou? It established a pattern. Last week’s kitchen flood was just the latest in a long line of similar excuses.’

‘But we were together.’

‘Were we? Hiding away as if we were ashamed of our feelings?’ She waited. ‘This was different, Louise. You’d asked me out on a date and it wasn’t like dinner with Patsy and Derek-something that could be brushed off as a family thing. It would have been just the two of us at a gala where we’d be recognised by half the audience. You were ready to make that statement, say to the world we’re a couple, while my sub-conscious was still programmed to sabotage anything that seemed like a relationship. That was anything more than sex.’

‘Is that supposed to be some kind of excuse?’

‘Yes. No…I’m just trying to explain that this is what I’ve been doing all my life. Running away from you. Unable to commit to anyone else. Telling myself that love is fool’s gold, no more than a meaningless convention to lend the lustre of respectability to baser desires. A lesson I learned at my father’s knee.’

‘So?’

‘So last night wasn’t like that. I was frantic. I couldn’t leave that stupid girl. I didn’t have my cell phone to call you. But I was sure someone would have told you what happened. I only learned today that Jane, the one person who knew the whole story, had been too shaken up by the incident to come to the party.’

‘Oh.’

‘Last night I tried to help someone in trouble. You need to know that I’ll always do that, even when it isn’t convenient. Even when it’s downright inconvenient. Just as you need to know that I will always put you before Bella Lucia. I meant what I said the other night. I love you.’

He produced the ring from his pocket, held it in the palm of his hand. ‘You can stop looking at the horizon, Lou. I’m here. This is yours. Along with my heart.’

When she didn’t take it, he closed his hand around it, took a document from the envelope, tucked the ring inside.

‘Maybe this will convince you I’m serious.’

‘What is this?’

‘A partnership in Bella Lucia.’

‘A partnership?’ For a moment she didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Did he really think that would make a difference?

‘An equal partnership. Take it, Louise, be my partner in everything, or I’m going to quit the business.’

What? ‘You can’t do that, Max. It’s your life.’

‘No, you are my life. And without you…’ she waited ‘…what would be the point?’

Her words. What she’d said to him. When he’d asked her why she’d stopped dating. What would have been the point?

‘What, my love? You think I don’t know? You think I haven’t been there? One woman in my arms and another so deeply ingrained in every cell that nothing I do can drive out the thought of her?’

She searched his face, saw the truth. That he had reached deep, found something within himself. Surrendered himself in a way that she’d never thought possible.

Not that he wouldn’t get distracted, drawn towards some new scheme and forget everything else for a moment. But it would be the normal distractions that everyone lived with. He would never be running from her again.

‘What would you do?’ she asked. ‘If I said no?’

‘Become a beach bum,’ he said. ‘Take up surfing. Cal Jameson promised to give me lessons.’

‘Cal?’

‘He was the one who found out what plane you were on. Organised the upgrade so that I could sit beside you.’

‘You mean it wasn’t just luck? That you paid…’ She frowned. ‘So where were you? Why did you wait until we’d taken off?’

‘Our date was for six-thirty. It was the one time I knew you’d be thinking of me.’

‘Oh.’

‘And I wanted to be sure you couldn’t walk away. And once I’d shown the stewardess the ring, she let me stay in club class until after take-off.’ He picked it up, held it between his thumb and finger. ‘Will you marry me, Louise?’

‘A beach bum?’ she said. Then, laughing, ‘You are such a liar, Max Valentine.’ But she held out her left hand, allowed him to slip the ring onto her finger. Kiss her.