I had a two o'clock with the legal team and a four o'clock conference call with Tokyo and approximately forty seven other things that needed my attention on Monday afternoon.

I sent the car for Cael Whitmore at one thirty.

Mark appeared in my doorway at one fourty- five. "Your guest is here sir."

"Send him in."

Mark stepped aside and disappeared and then Cael walked through my office door and I forgot what I had been doing.

He looked different in daylight. Better, somehow, which I had not thought was possible. He was dressed simple — dark trousers, a fitted grey shirt, his dark hair pushed back from his...