A/N: Here we go, this is a sequel to ‘Welcome To My Life’ and ‘As Lovers Go.’ It can stand alone but you may need to have read read the other two to have an understanding of some of the characters.

Chapter One

“You’re scheming.”

“What makes you say that?”

“Your eyes narrow and you tilt your head to the left.”

“Alright smart arse,” Sam smirked, running a hand through his hair as his daughters started to groan, realising that they actually had to participate in a family outing, “I’m scheming.”

“What are you planning?” Cole pushed, stepping to the side so he could keep an eye on the girls as they bickered, bodyguard duty was bad enough when it was just Sam he was protecting but family days were a nightmare.

“We have a charity event approaching and I think I’m going to scare the hell out of the snobs.”

“You are one of the snobs,” Cole pointed out, sighing when Sam’s daughters both stomped off.

He understood that teenagers had to do that but why in opposite directions? Why make his job harder than it already was? Sam laughed as he rounded them back up and forced the sulking teenagers to stay with their father while waiting for the last member of the family. Gina. Sam’s irritating eye candy wife, was still struggling to walk across the muddy grass in her genuine Gucci or Armani, or whatever they were, stiletto boots. She was drawing the gaze of practically everyone there. Who turns up to the circus in stilettos, a snakeskin mini skirt and talon like fake nails anyway?

“What are you going to do to them then?” Cole returned to their conversation and Sam eyed the big top tent.

“I think I’ll hire out this circus and set up the tables inside.”

“You want to hold a charity ball for a bunch of stinking rich peacocks in a circus tent?” Cole asked incredulously and Sam nodded, blue eyes glinting at him with amusement, “You won’t pull it off.”

“You’re wrong. This is me we’re talking about, it’ll work out fine in the end,” Sam stated, his usual arrogance just making Cole want to roll his eyes.

“I’m allowed an opinion, and I think it won’t work,” Cole repeated, catching Amy’s bag as she tried to sneak off and escape the circus.

“You’re opinion is wrong.”

“How can an opinion be wrong?” Cole demanded, standing Amy next to her sister, who then decided it would be her time to try to escape.

“If it’s different to mine, then it is wrong,” Sam explained with a smirk, holding out a hand for his wife when she finally made it over, dainty sandaled feet caked in mud.

“You’re disgusting,” Amy stated to her father, taking her mother’s other hand, “You can’t overrule another person’s opinion and discount it. Free will and all that.”

“I’m rich honey,” Sam drawled, winking at Cole as she stared at him in distaste, “That means I can do whatever I want to.”

Problem was, Sam was rich enough for that statement to be true. Cole had been working for him for nearly four years and not once had Sam not been able to bribe his way out of a difficult situation or talk his way round someone. It was amazing to watch him play around though; it was like watching someone perform magic.

“So why did you drag us here?” Lucy broke her usual silence when they walked into the giant red and white striped tent and started climbing up to get to the benches.

“It talks!” Sam exclaimed with mock astonishment and Lucy glowered at him, shoving past and sitting on the other side of Cole.

“He’s dragged you here because he knows that you’re all going to hate it. That, and you know he’s just a big kid and wants to see the clowns.” Cole murmurs and she glances at him, fighting not to smile. Smiling went against the moody teenager act she had going on, “Sometimes I wonder if I should hire someone to work at the office and keep him entertained while the grown ups work. Ow!”

“I heard all of that,” Sam stated, not apologetic in the slightest for giving his bodyguard a dead leg.

Cole would have retorted but the cheap lights were dimmed and two trapeze artists started swinging above them. Amy settled back in her seat with a resigned expression, Lucy got her mobile out and started playing games, Gina stared in awe, and Sam’s eyes were scanning the room.

He was shocked as he stared at his boss. Sam was serious about it; he was honestly going to go ahead with his stupid plan to piss off all of his business associates. Then again, he was richer than all of them and he owned huge chunks of their companies. None of them could offend him or he’d take over their company and destroy them, and they all sucked up to him no matter what he did or said.

The circus was, the only word for it was interesting really. Gina clearly enjoyed, but she was a spoilt little rich girl that had never been to one before. The girls hated it and Sam only watched half but from what Cole saw he thought it wasn’t as bad as some were. The acts were good, real acrobats, trapeze artists and a proper high wire. The man, or boy, that had walked the horrifically high tightrope had captivated him. Whoever they were they looked like they were taking a morning walk along a normal street and not a wire fifty feet up. The trapeze artists finished off and Sam immediately stood and dragged his family down to the ringmaster.

“Well that was a waste of time,” Amy grumbled, Lucy nodding and agreeing for once but Gina was still looking around with amazement. Cole felt sorry for her, she lived with Sam, the world’s most arrogant man and two daughters that were far too intelligent for their own good and the three teased her mercilessly. Problem was; she was too dumb to realise what they were actually saying half the time. Sarcasm was just lost on her and Sam was a very big fan of the lowest form of wit.

“So what did you think of the show?” one of the acrobats asked Amy, his eyes wandering over her far too much for Sam’s comfort and Cole put a hand on his shoulder as he stepped forward to say something.

“You should get real jobs,” Amy stated, getting a nod of agreement from Lucy.

“What?” the guy was floored, obviously he was used to having girls be impressed.

“The number of people that attend the circus has declined by over twenty percent in the past twenty-five years. Give it another ten and it’s likely that you won’t have a job so in the unlikelihood of you not having a stupid accident before then you are definitely going to end up jobless, and homeless,” Amy explained sweetly fluttering her eyelashes at him, and Cole shook his head when Sam laughed.

“Amy you’re being unfair,” he intervened, seeing how most of the acts were getting annoyed at her, “They’re actually very good at what you do.”

Neither girl looked particularly convinced and the circus performers were starting to look rather disgruntled. Sam shot his spilt children warning looks before pulling the ringmaster further away and drawing him into what looked to be a very interesting conversation. Cole watched as a few performers moved away, thankful the situation hadn’t got out of hand, there had been times in the past that the twins’ scorn had created circumstances that had to be resolved by Sam paying a large sum of money out to ease tempers.

“But you didn’t watch any of us,” the tight rope walker suddenly blurted out, eyes accusing, his outburst surprising everyone and causing Cole to look at him warily, “How can you say we’re good when you didn’t even watch?”

“How do you know I didn’t?”

There were sniggers from the other performers accompanied by elbow nudges as they all shared looks behind the tightrope walker’s back. He didn’t dare look over his shoulder at them, his pale green eyes dropping from Cole’s face to the floor.

“I was looking at you,” the blonde performer muttered, cheeks tinged pink as the crowd behind him made some suggestive comments.

Cole was going to remove himself from the situation. The guy was good looking; blonde hair, icy pale green eyes, and a very toned body from what the costume revealed, but that was the problem. He was Cole’s exact type, perfect in fact. So, naturally, he could have easily passed himself off as Nick’s long lost brother.

“Great,” Amy exclaimed, beaming at the performer, “Cole, ask him to dinner.”

“Amy-”

“Actually, dinner at yours, to be more specific.” Lucy threw in. Cole almost groaned. Why did they have to meddle like that? He hated it when they got involved and it was even worse when they ganged up on him.

“Lucy-”

“Cole is a really good cook,” Amy turned to the speechless performer, smiling amiably, like she’d been his friend for years.

“Amy-”

“He does the best mozzarella stuffed meatballs that you’ll ever taste in your life,” Lucy spoke over him, standing on his foot and making him wince.

“Lucy-”

They were doing it again! They weren’t letting him get a word in edge ways so he could put a stop to the madness. The tightrope walker still looked confused though, hopefully he’d reveal a boyfriend and they’d stop.

“Here’s his address. It’s not too far from here, quite walkable if there’s any problems with transport.”

“Amy!” Eventually he’d manage to interrupt them long enough to stop them from being irritating little brats and the Sam could tell them off when they were back in the car heading back.

“When you go make sure that you take a bottle of red wine with you.”

“Lucy!”

“Nothing cheap, mind you,” the arrogant drawl came from the last place Cole wanted to hear it, “Vacqueras is probably your best bet.”

“Sam.” An idiot, even Gina, could pick up the warning in his voice as he growled his boss’ name.

“Cole shut up,” Amy ordered with a wave of her hand and Cole stared at her with disbelief, as did the dumbfounded performers. She grinned at Sam before turning her full smile at the poor blonde, who was looking between them all with no idea what was happening, “Be there for eight, not a moment later. Cole hates it when people are late.”

“I’ll send my driver to collect you,” Sam insisted, not blinking when Lucy stamped on his foot again to keep him quiet.

“Uh-” the unfortunate kid tried to speak up, hopefully to protest, but the twins were having none of it.

“Don’t dress up too much. Wear jeans and perhaps a shirt.”

“If you three-”

“Make it a green shirt.”

“-don’t stop this -”

“It’ll be perfect to emphasize your eyes.”

“-right now-”

“Have a good time.”

“-then I’ll…”

Cole trailed off when the twins and their stupid father dragged him away from the gawping blonde and the crowd of performers. His head was reeling. Had they seriously just done that in front of him? Had he really not succeeded in stopping them? He glanced behind him at the tightrope walker, who was still rooted to the spot, and he preyed that the guy had enough sense to not turn up.

The journey back was tense. Sam was waiting for him to snarl some sort of insult at him, the twins were smug and unsuspecting at how dangerous it was to piss of the family bodyguard and Gina was happily watching the other cars pass them by with a happy smile on her face. At least someone had enjoyed the day.

“Cole-”

“No Sam.” He snarled as they stopped outside his small terraced house. Thankfully a different bodyguard covered the evenings with them, he wouldn’t be able to put up with them for the rest of the day.

Why was it that rich people always felt the need to play around with your life?

“Cole-”

“I mean it. I’ll see you tomorrow for the meeting,” he slammed the door unnecessarily loud once out and stalked up the garden path, not bothering to wave them off. How could they do that to him?

As soon as he got into the house he had a shower, a very long, very warm shower that did wonders to help him relax. Working with Samuél Giraud and his filthy rich family was more hassle than it was worth. Why had he stayed on their payroll for four years then?

“I wish I knew,” he muttered in annoyance as he looked through the cupboards, collecting the ingredients for just a normal spaghetti bolognaise and not some fancy meat ball dish that he wouldn’t be making at all if he could help it.

He flicked the radio went on, started chopping up ingredients and he couldn’t help but grin Jonathon’s new song. It was one of their better ones, a hell of a lot better than some of the crap of the previous album. For a moment there it had looked like the singer had lost his edge. Cole was completely calm when the doorbell rang at ten to eight and he jumped in surprised. Had the kid actually turned up?

No. He hadn’t. Instead, standing on his doorstep with a bottle of wine, a tub of ice cream and a film, looking something like death warmed over, was Nick. The last person he needed to see after having his employer’s family rub salt in the wound concerning his distinct lack of romance in his life.