She didn’t say anything and for once he wasn’t the one using silence as a means of extracting information.
‘When my mother died,’ he admitted, ‘I was also young. My father took her death extremely badly. He carried on ruling the country, he talked and walked and performed his duties as he always had, but unfortunately I was the one who saw behind that façade and it was tough for a child. In truth, I lost both my parents that day. My mother through death and my father through many months of mourning.’ He shook his head, surprised at the direction of the conversation. ‘By the time he surfaced, I had grown up.’ He slapped his hands on his thighs, ending his astonishing deviation from the straight and narrow. ‘Right, then, should there be anything at all you need...’ he nodded to a buzzer by the side of the bed ‘...buzz and someone will bring whatever you request.
She reached out and her slim fingers lightly curved over his wrist.
‘I’m really sorry, Abe. Yes, you must have been very lonely indeed.’
They had moved closer to one another. How had that happened? The atmosphere was suddenly heavy with feeling and with a powerful, invisible bond that took them away from the charged present back to the past they had shared.
She trembled and her eyelids fluttered as he traced his finger along her cheek.
Of course, he was going to kiss her.
Shefeltit with every nerve in her body and shewantedit with every nerve in her body.
She sighed, mouth parting, her whole body straining towards him. In her head, she had yearned for this so much and so many times but now, as his lips found hers, she realised that no imaginings had come close to replicating the fierce sizzle of electricity that zapped through her.
His tongue invaded her mouth, meshing against hers as he drove her back against the pillow.
His fingers weaved through her short hair and the heavy weight of him against her reminded her of hot, sultry nights when they’d done nothing but make love for hour after hour.
He suddenly drew back with a shudder and vaulted to his feet and, in turn, she squirrelled back up into a sitting position, aghast at her loss of self-control and hating herself for having succumbed to the treacherous demands of her body, seduced by the fact that he had talked to her, really talked to her, for the first time that she could remember.
She wasn’t here playing tourist! And she certainly wasn’t here as his lover!
She was here to discuss a life-changing future and she was utterly dismayed at how fast she had lost track of that.
She couldn’t look at him, but she could feel his eyes boring into her as he moved to stand by the door, looking over his shoulder with one hand on the doorknob.
‘Don’t forget,’ he said evenly, ‘we meet with my father tomorrow for dinner.’
‘I won’t.’ Her voice was as controlled as his, thank goodness.
She only realised that she’d been holding her breath when the door clicked quietly shut behind him, and she exhaled long and slow before flopping back onto the pillows and staring up at the ceiling.
CHAPTER FIVE
GEORGIEAWOKETOsharp brightness pouring through a slit in the thick curtains in her bedroom.
It took her a few moments to orient herself and to work out where she was, in a strange bed in a strange house in a strange country... No, in a strange bed in apalacein a strange country!
She was in pyjamas and she took a few mental steps backwards to remember the events of the day before.
She’d left one world behind and stepped into a completely different one, like stepping into that magical wardrobe and being transported to a mythical kingdom.
In all her confusion, Abe had been the one constant and she had clung to him. She knew that Tilly had taken everything in her stride and adjusted with enviable ease to their exalted surroundings before flopping into bed in the adjoining bedroom in their suite.
While she...
She groaned and buried her head in her arms because recall of that searing kiss the night before leapt out at her, gleefully reminding her that of all the stupid,stupidthings she could have done, passionately kissing Abe had to be right up there.
She’d kissed him and she’dwanted more. She’d been dragged back at speed to where they had been four years previously and every single memory had risen to the surface, firing her up and setting her body alight.
Her response had been a heady combination of buried lust and a surge of dependency on him because he was the only thing in this strange new world that seemed to make any sense.
She had no idea how she’d managed to make her way to the bathroom and actually have a shower and change into pyjamas before collapsing into bed, but she had and now...
New day, new way.
