The Photographer

(18) The Swiss "working" trip

Seb stood in the arrivals hall, his eyes fixed to the doors from which a steady stream of passengers were emerging. He was tapping his phone repeatedly against the palm of his left hand, taking in every face that he saw. Iris's flight had landed some time ago and he was yet to see her. He wasn't worried, he knew she was on the flight because she'd messaged him to let him know; he was just so excited to be seeing her, to being able to spend some time alone with her.

He'd told Britta he was not to be disturbed until Saturday, when Iris flew back to the UK and so his time was free apart from having to take a couple of hours out for some light training with Antti on Friday morning. His press officer and his fitness coach were the only two people who knew about Iris, the only two he'd told and their new relationship was to remain a very closely guarded secret for obvious reasons. He could not have the world finding out about them until Iris was in a position for her to be ready for them to go public. He did not want her to have a public, bitter and messy divorce on her hands. They were going to have to be very careful at the race tracks from now on.

His thoughts changed to what they might do over the next couple of days. After telling her husband that this was a work trip, she was bringing her photographic equipment with her and so he thought about taking her out somewhere for a day, somewhere where she could see some of the most breathtaking scenery Switzerland had to offer. As far as Ben was concerned, Iris was attending the filming of a commercial for one of the team's sponsors, a commercial that wouldn't be available in the UK and so returning home without any photos would look really odd.

He glanced at his watch, it had been nearly forty-five minutes since the flight had landed, where was Iris?

Then he saw her and he wanted to pinch himself to make sure that he was awake and not dreaming, she looked so beautiful.

She was wearing a short black sun dress, it's skirt loose and floaty and with a deep v neckline that showed off just the right amount of cleavage. But it wasn't that that caught his attention or the small cross body bag and black flip-flops she wore on her feet to give it a more casual feel. It was the familiar black and white plaid shirt she'd thrown on over the top, worn unbuttoned and with the sleeves rolled up to her elbows. Right there and then he decided he was a complete sucker for her in a plaid shirt, hopefully he'd be able to see her wearing one of his around the house - and not much else.

She hadn't expected to feel emotional when her eyes found his as she exited those doors but it hit her like a tsunami. Abandoning her silver trolley case she ran to him, biting her bottom lip in a futile effort to stop herself becoming a wreck. Luckily Seb met her half way and she leapt into his arms, wrapping her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck, burying her face against his shoulder.

"Hey, what's this?" he asked, his voice full of concern as he rubbed her back and felt her shaking with the force of her tears.

She couldn't speak, she couldn't even think right at that moment. All she knew was that she loved him so intensely and had missed him so much that it had knocked her for six. Speaking to Victoria yesterday, letting the magnitude of her situation and the depth of her love for him sink in had affected her more than she'd realised. If there'd been any doubt before (not that there was) then it was most certainly clear now that Seb was who she was meant to be with.

Having her clinging to him like this, crying on his shoulder was the very last thing he'd expected and he stood there, letting her remain clamped to his body like a small child who'd tripped over, cut their knee and needed consoling by their parent. She was making him wonder what on earth had happened over the past couple of days since he'd last spoken to her in Spain. Maybe someone had died? Someone close to her? "Iris, hey come on," he cooed to her, "you're here now, you're with me, I've got you."