She gave a light shake of her head. ‘No. I haven’t been there in a long time.’
‘How come?’
‘There aren’t many reasons to. My mother left the country because she had didn’t have any family left there and wanted a fresh start. We used to visit when I was younger, but she passed away when I was twelve and I’ve never been back.’
She made that final admission quickly, as though it caused her physical pain to speak that fact aloud, and Caleb could hear her sadness and the loss she felt. It changed the tenor of her voice, momentarily casting a shadow across her beautiful face, and he found himself longing to reach out and smooth it away, which surprised him as he wasn’t usually given to such tender impulses. But he was familiar with the deep ache of not having a mother. For Serena, however, to have lost her mother after knowing her and being loved by her…well, that was a cruelty he couldn’t speak to. His mother had absconded before Caleb could even begin to remember her, and a person couldn’t miss what they’d never had, could they? At least, that was what he always told himself in the moments he caught himself approaching some form of pathetic, melancholic sentimentality.
‘It’s a shame that you lost her at such a young age,’ Caleb sympathised, focusing on Serena instead of the dart of poisonous feeling arrowing across his chest that accompanied any consideration of the woman who’d given him life. The woman whose decision to leave and never return had carved a void in him that had never been filled and created a wedge between him and his father that was yet to be bridged.
‘It is. She was a very vibrant character and a lot of fun, so her loss left a big void.’ Sadness haunted the rim of her eyes as she continued, ‘But it’s much worse for my younger brother and sister. They never even had the chance to know her. I, at least, have my memories.’ Her eyes grew wet and she blinked rapidly, angling her face away. ‘I’m sorry. I don’t know why I’m getting emotional. This is terrible drinks conversation.’
‘It’s fine conversation.’ Gently placing a finger under her chin, he turned her face back to his, but the sparks that ignited from that brief moment of contact seemed to still them both, their gazes meeting and holding, the air seeming to charge as they did. ‘You have nothing to apologise for.’
With a swipe of her inky lashes, she banished the sadness from her eyes and smiled again, a smile of determination. ‘Your turn now, Caleb Morgenthau. Tell me about you,’ she invited, leaning her head on her hand and looking at him through such bright eyes and with such a soft smile that he was captivated all over again, and he found himself leaning in to her as close as possible, as if being pulled by some invisible thread.
‘What would you like to know?’
‘You’re Australian, yes?’ At his nod of confirmation, she smiled. ‘Whereabouts in Australia is home?’
‘I was born and raised in Melbourne, but nowadays home is wherever I’m establishing a new venue. In the last few years, I’ve lived in Sydney, Bali, Hong Kong and here in Singapore.’
‘You have places like this in all those cities?’ she asked, looking more than a little impressed.
‘Not exactly like this, but yes. And few more besides.’ Caleb grinned. ‘Now that this place is running successfully and there’s a good management team in place, the next stop is Europe. After that, the plan is to expand into North America.’
‘So, you’re looking to conquer the world?’
‘Perhaps I am.’ He smiled, but in that moment, he was far more interested in conquering her. Taking her over kiss by kiss, touch by touch, until she was completely and undeniably his.
The smile dancing at the corners of her mouth made him think she knew exactly what he was thinking, that she was thinking it too. She took another sip of her champagne. ‘Where are you opening in Europe?’
‘Saint-Tropez. Mykonos. Rome and London,’ he answered, waiting for the hint to be dropped that she would love to visit those venues and pleasantly surprised when it didn’t. Usually, the women he met couldn’t wait to exploit the connection for access to his luxurious nightlife experiences.
Instead, her eyes shone. ‘You’re so lucky. Getting to live and work in all those different places.’ Wistfulness infused her words and made him think of his younger self, of the days that he’d spent chafing at the ties that bound him, dreaming of an escape, of freedom, and he wondered what it was that she was dreaming of escaping. Responsibilities at home perhaps? She had mentioned having younger siblings. ‘Was this what you always wanted to do?’
‘I wouldn’t exactly say that,’ he admitted with a wry smile. ‘It’s an inherited family business. My grandfather owned a small restaurant in Melbourne fifty years ago. My father joined the business at sixteen and when he eventually took over, he expanded across the state. By the time I was growing up, we had places in every major city across Australia and it was just expected that I would join the business and one day take over. I was never asked if it was what I wanted to do, and I struggled with that choice of how I wanted to live my life being essentially taken from me. I felt…’ Caleb searched for the best way to describe it, even though he had never been good at drawing feelings out of himself or putting his emotions into words. He had figured out at a young age that it was better to bury whatever he felt, rather than be consumed by it.
‘Boxed in,’ Serena supplied knowingly, and it took him aback that she could so easily identify what he had felt. As if she too knew that feeling. As if they were connected.
‘Yes. Exactly,’ he breathed, staring at her with a strange lump forming in his throat, because when had he ever felt such a strong bond of kindship with anyone else, especially a woman?
Was that what had compelled him to share so much in that moment, when expressing his feelings quite so openly about anything wasn’t something he ever did. He was certainly asked his fair share of probing questions, but Caleb always denied the requests to drill into his life, holding everyone, especially women, at arm’s length. Life, he’d learned, was safer that way. Tidier.
‘I get it. Having your life mapped out for you before you have the chance to claim it as your own is not easy.’ Something moved in her eyes that told of her own experience with that, and he felt his breath catch again, the same strange feeling hooking in his chest. ‘But you obviously managed to get past it somehow?’
‘Eventually I realised I was lucky to be part of something, to be part of that legacy and that it was time I started contributing to it. And I knew how much it meant to my father too, to have me be part of it.’
‘Both he and your grandfather must be incredibly proud of all you’re achieving.’
‘I think my father would be happier if I slowed down long enough to have a family and provide the next generation of Morgenthaus, but since that’s not going to happen, he’ll have to be content with global expansion.’
Caleb couldn’t fathom where those words had come from either, other than his earlier conversation with his father was still playing on his mind. It was the same discussion they’d had a dozen times already—his father exerting paternal pressure on him to fulfil the rest of his obligation and provide heirs to continue the family legacy—and it had ended the same as every other time, in a stony stalemate. His father didn’t want to hear his refusals, and Caleb wasn’t willing to offer the reasoning behind his unyielding stance. The events, scorched into his brain, were not moments of his life he had any interest in talking about, especially not with his father. They had never been close like that, not after his father had spent the majority of Caleb’s formative years battling his heartache over his wife’s desertion and finding solace in burying himself in work and never in his son—the son he held responsible for that loss.
‘You’re don’t plan on getting married and having a family?’ Serena queried.
‘No. I like my life as it is. I have no desire to change it,’ he answered, with a frankness that left no room for doubt. He liked to always have those cards face up on the table so any woman who crossed his path knew what to expect. And whatnotto expect. That was key. Not that it was necessary, not when he was so careful to only entertain women on the same page as him. ‘Now, I think it’s your turn again,’ Caleb said, his eyes mapping the striking planes of her face. ‘Tell me what brought you to Singapore?’
‘Work. My boss is looking to expand her overseas business, so we’re here, taking lots of meetings and exploring new opportunities.’
