Page 6 of Driving the Billionaire Wild

He frowned. ‘Yes. I won it a long time ago…at a masked auction—’

‘In Venice,’ she finished for him.

An odd look darkened his features. ‘How could you possibly know that?’

Astrid stood up, her tablet falling from her shaking hands. Strong fingers caught it just before it hit the floor, and Apollo’s eyes searched hers with confusion. She opened her mouth to speak, to saysomething, but nosound escaped. It was utterly absurd. It was against all reason and logic.

The reality was, the evidence could continue to mount and she would still struggle to comprehend how on earth this had come to be—how she had searched high and low for a stranger who had turned out to be one of the most famous drivers in the very industry she specialised in. Their paths had likely crossed countless times in the years since they’d parted, in the years she’d tried to find him…

The cruelty of it was a strange ache in her chest as she heard his steps crossing the room behind her, his voice warm and husky as he called her name once, then again. She turned, taking in the look on his face and realising he must have asked a question that she had missed.

‘I’m beginning to think I need to call a doctor,’ he said sternly, the back of one hand lightly touching her forehead. She flinched, taking a step back as though burned.

‘I was in Venice too,’ she said quietly.

‘I would imagine so; working in Elite One, you’ve been to every major city in the world.’

‘I’ve been tothatparticular auction in Venice.’ She forced the words out of her mouth, turning so that their bodies faced one another. ‘Almost eight years ago. There was a thunderstorm, the entire city and airports suffered a blackout and the high winds kept rescue busy until morning.’

‘Astrid.’ Her name was a rough whisper on his lips. His eyes widened with disbelief, his mouth hardening into a line as he simply stared. She felt naked under his gaze, her throat dry as she tried to form the words that rushed to escape her lips. How did she even begin to tell him, to explain?

‘I met a stranger at the bar, and we wore masks as part of the auction. He invited me up to his penthouse suite for a drink, in his p-private lift.’ She felt her voice shake, but she forced herself to meet his dark gaze. ‘We got trapped in the lift for a while. We agreed to keep our identities anonymous, but I think…no, Iknow…that stranger was you.’

Chapter Four

APOLLO STARED ATthe beautiful woman in front of him and wondered how on earth he hadn’t seen it before now. That evening, before the blackout, the woman’s face had been obscured by an elaborate Venetian mask—as had his own. But he’d noticed her from the moment she’d entered the room.

She’d made him nervous, despite his façade of bravado as he’d pursued her. It hadn’t been his smoothest attempt at seduction, but he remembered every moment they’d spent together, just as he remembered how she’d made him promise not to follow her when she walked away.

‘Let’s leave the magic here,’ she’d whispered softly in the darkness as they’d heard the rescue crew arrive outside the lift. ‘My life is complicated at the moment.’

In the present, a low laugh of disbelief escaped his lips. ‘This is…surreal.’

She shook her head, meeting his gaze for only a split second before moving away again. ‘You have no idea.’

‘You changed your hair,’ he heard himself say, his own voice sounding rougher than he’d intended as he thought of the dark-blonde curls and crisp British accent that he’d so often fantasised about since that night. Self-consciously, she smoothed her hand over her sleek, brown, shoulder-length cut and he mentally cursed.

‘This is my natural colour. But, yes, I’ve changed in a lot of ways.’

In a telling move, she smoothed her hands along the skirt that clung to her hips, hips that were definitely fuller since that night, but had not proved to be an inch less tempting for him and the roaring attraction he’d been holding at bay over the past year.Dio,an entire year and she’d been right here in front of him, hiding in plain sight.

‘You are even more beautiful than I remember.’

Her breath caught. ‘You never even saw my face.’

Apollo fought the urge to grab her hand, to force her to look into his eyes. This woman and their encounter together in the lift had haunted him, branded him. He’d fought himself for months, cursed himself for not tracking her down immediately. By the time he’d snapped and decided to find her, there had been no trail to follow, no clues as to her identity or whereabouts. To think, Astrid Lewis, PR guru and thorn in his side, was the mystery woman who had broken him apart in the dark and made him feel more alive than he could ever remember feeling.

During that first meeting they’d had last year, his body had reacted instantly to her polished accent and he’d been annoyed, thinking perhaps that he’d developed a slight kink for prim English beauties. But perhaps his body had known it was her, even if his mind hadn’t made the connection. He’d felt the same pull towards her, the same primal reaction he’d had to that masked beauty on that long-ago night.

‘You didn’t see my face that night either, Astrid.’ Hetook a step closer. ‘But still, you told me it was the closest you’d ever felt to another person. Then you simply walked away, gone without a trace. Was it all a lie?’

‘No, it wasn’t. But it wasn’t about you. Things were…’

‘Complicated,’ he finished for her. His jaw ached with how tightly he gritted his teeth, remembering all the scenarios he’d imagined that could be hercomplication, none of which painted her in a positive light. The need to know burned in him, almost as brightly as the need to pull her into his arms and find out if she tasted just as good as his memory insisted she would. ‘I’d like to know why you ran from me. What were you hiding?’

‘I’ve not been hiding anything.’ She turned to face him, a stricken expression on her face. Her chest heaved against the simple white silk shirt she wore. ‘I searched for you…after. I tried to find you, Apollo. I tried my best.’

She’d searched for him? Apollo felt a sudden rush of possession, knowing she hadn’t walked away as easily as he’d assumed. Fate had brought her back to him and, this time, he wouldn’t let her walk away without a fight.