Virginia nodded, flushed from the mad gallop they’d just had. She wasn’t sure who had started to gallop home first, but suddenly they were both flat out and clearly in a race. Sean had won—but only by a length. As a result, they were both covered with red dust.
“I’ll supervise the cooking,” Virginia said. She was salivating just thinking about the corn pudding they would share that night. “We are lucky we still have any corn,” she added.
Sean smiled and said something, but Virginia failed to hear him as she rounded the corner. Standing in the hall was Devlin.
She halted and Sean collided with her back.
Virginia hardly noticed. For her heart had stopped and she failed to breathe.He was back.
Devlin stood there nonchalantly, staring calmly at her, clearly having expected her. His hard thighs were braced as if he rode his ship. His gaze never wavered from her face.
Virginia gulped down air and it burned her lungs and chest.He had come back after all.Her heart now slammed, causing more burning, more pain. She began to shake. She turned, realizing Sean had dropped the corn, and managed to glimpse his shocked expression. She bent, inhaling hard, saw how terribly her hands were shaking. As she reached for an ear of the scattered corn, she tried to think, but her thoughts were wild and incoherent.
Oh God, what did she do now?
Images afflicted her, images of Devlin O’Neill getting up from the bed they had shared, not looking at her.
“Devlin,” Sean said quietly, but as he spoke he bent and seized Virginia’s arm, hauling her to her feet. “We didn’t know you had come back.” He did not release her, clearly knowing that she might not be able to stand if he did.
There was no response to his remark.
Virginia half turned, fully panicked now, and saw him smiling at them both. Instantly their gazes locked. “The corn,” she said, her voice low and husky, incapable of looking away from him.
He hadn’t changed. He was seductive and powerful and magnetic; he remained mesmerizing. If only he had changed…
“Leave it,” Sean snapped, also staring at Devlin as if hypnotized. “You didn’t send word of your arrival.”
“I didn’t realize you needed to be warned of my return,” Devlin said calmly.
Virginia could not look away from him. Almost every moment she had spent alone with him crashed over her then, from their first debate in the confines of his cabin upon theDefianceto the last time she had seen him, walking out of her bedroom.
I’m sorry I hurt you, he had said.
“Hello, Virginia,” he said now.
She couldn’t speak so she tried to nod.
“Sean,” he added with an inclination of his head.
Sean finally moved, coming forward slowly. “Father was here the other day. I heard about your tour—and the hearing. I’m glad you’re back.”
“Are you?” Devlin asked rather coolly.
Sean stiffened. “Yes, I am.” He now glanced back and forth between his brother and Virginia. Virginia realized that she was paralyzed and that she continued to openly stare. Although she remained stunned, her mind began to work. She hadn’t really ever expected to see him again. And she had been fine with that. He had hurt her beyond words, but she was certain she had recovered, that time did heal all wounds. But now he was back, standing just a few feet from her, and nothing had changed. It was as if the months had never passed. Her wounds, once tightly sewn up, split asunder.How could he have left her the way that he had? How?
Suddenly Sean made a sound and walked out of the hall, leaving the two of them standing there, staring.
“You look well,” he commented, his tone neither indifferent nor interested. “Other than the dirt.”
She inhaled. Did he remember anything, anything at all? But how could he possibly forget!
He strolled forward. “I take it you and Sean are getting on?”
She stiffened. He had once suggested, absurdly, that she would marry his brother. “He has become a good friend.”
He didn’t seem to care and he shrugged.
She wet her lips. “Did you really tell him…that we should marry?”
