Amy’s cold fingers tightened around the phone in her pocket. She wished she could regain some of her earlier bravery, that utter certainty of several hours ago that had buoyed her.
That certainty had dissolved as she’d witnessed her mother’s body jerk like a broken doll in response to the shock from the paddles the paramedics had administered. The horror she’d felt had killed all her confidence stone dead, even before her father had snarled, ‘You did this!’
Amy was no longer made brave by the naive conviction that love would make everything all right. The conviction that had made her stand quietly throughout a storm of accusations and threats, culminating in her father’s parting shot.
‘Walk through that door and that’s it—I have no daughter.’
The ultimatum had shaken her but she’d held her ground. ‘You won’t accept that I’m with Leo, but I love him and I know we’re meant to be together. I have no choice.’
She knew differently now; therewasa choice and it was one she had made when her mother had regained consciousness and pulled off her oxygen mask long enough to plead.
‘Don’t do this, Amy, don’t go with him—promise me, promise me.’
‘I promise, Mum.’
Amy walked towards the open door, but her father had already disappeared from view. The elegant chandelier illuminated the graceful curving staircase that Amy had been halfway down when her mother’s anguished cry had made Amy turn in time to see her clutch her chest and collapse.
She had a vague recollection of running back up the stairs and falling on her knees by her mother’s prone form.
Her father had been there too, his face as red as her mother’s had been pale. ‘Are you happy now that you’ve nearly killed her?’
Amy blinked back tears as the scene continued to relentlessly play out in her head. She stared at the phone in her hand, remembering how she’d had to yell to make herself heard above her father’s abusive flow of bitter accusations as she gave the requested details to the emergency services.
‘Is she breathing?’ she’d been asked.
‘I don’t know!’ Amy had wailed, frustration and gut-clenching fear making it hard to respond to the calm instructions of the person on the other end of the line.
‘Yes, I think her airway is clear…but her lips are blue. Chest compressions? I… Right…’
When the paramedic had appeared, she had literally sobbed her relief, the floodgates opening and tears falling in a river down her cheeks as she fell back onto her heels and manoeuvred herself out of their way.
The journey behind the ambulance remained a surreal blur. The arrival in the casualty unit was equally dreamlike, but certain details stood out, like seeing the heart emoji on her phone screen when they had been asked to switch off mobiles as they walked through what felt like a sinister forest of bleeping machines to the cubicle where her mum lay, surrounded by a scary number of medical staff.
As she reached the first of the flight of steps that led to the front door, Amy heard footsteps from inside the house and braced her shoulders, fighting an urge to delay the moment when she would be alone with her father.
She was working up her courage when a rustle made her turn her head in time to see a tall, lean figure separate itself from the purple-shadowed glossy undergrowth.
‘Leo!’ Shock and longing were intertwined in her gasp as she identified the figure standing there. ‘I… I…Youcan’t be here.’ She looked nervously over her shoulder. The situation was awful enough without Leo, who didn’t have a clue what it was like to be on the receiving end of her father’s temper.
He took a step forward, the light illuminating his features. It highlighted the sharp cheekbones, the symmetrical planes and hollows, his perfect features dissected by a narrow blade of a nose, the sculpted sultry curve of his incredible mouth.
The shadows did nothing to dilute his masculine aura, the tingling charge of danger he gave off. The danger had initially attracted her, but it was his passion and sensitivity that had kept her with him, that had turned her lust to love.
The high-octane masculinity hit her now like a shockwave, grabbing hard at the muscles low in her belly, the longing so strong she could barely breathe. The sense of loss that followed felt like a hard, dark weight lodged behind her breastbone.
‘Where have you been, Amy?’ He moved closer and the light hit his face, leaving half in darkness, half in light. The emotions in his dark eyes reached out to grab her. He wasn’t angry, just frustrated and confused, his dark brows drawn into a questioning line above his hawkish nose as he stared at her. ‘I waited for you…’
She knew it was crazy but it was a fact; she couldfeelhis voice. Deep velvet with a fascinating back note of gravel, it vibrated through every cell in her body.
‘What have they done to you?’
She stood there on the balls of her feet, poised to run into the arms he held open in invitation. An invitation she longed to accept, to walk into his arms to feel the hardness of his lean body, smell the warm male scent of his skin. The longing rose up in her and she wanted nothing more than to lay her head against his chest and hear his heartbeat and feel his strong arms close protectively around her.
She wanted the rest of the world to go away and there to be nothing but her and Leo.
When Leo was with her she felt braver and stronger; it always felt as if he’d peeled away a layer and exposed the real her. With him, she was moreherselfthan she had ever been before she’d met him. The same way his lovemaking seemed to somehow drive her deeper into herself, making her self-aware at a cellular level in a way she could not define.
‘Is sex always like this?’ she had asked him after that first time, because she’d had nothing to compare it to.
