Page 103 of In Love and Revenge

‘Oh.’ She stares at me, her frown line deepening.

I want to kiss her right now. Pull her to me and lose myself in her taste. But one wrong move and I can sense she’ll pull away from me. Hard.

‘Why don’t I make you something to eat? While you go upstairs and unpack?’

It’ll take everything in me not to log on to my home security system and watch her whilst she’s upstairs without me. To see which room she chooses.

‘Um ... sure. Thanks.’ She stares at me like she’s trying to figure something out.

‘Oh, this is for you,’ I say before she leaves the room.

I reach inside my jacket pocket and take out the piece of paper.

‘What’s this?’ she asks, unfolding it.

‘The alarm codes. And instructions for the front door. It works on biometrics, so we can set that up in the morning.’

She stares at the paper, before glancing at me. ‘So, it’s like the key for the front door?’

‘Exactly.’

‘You’re giving me a key to your house?’

‘Yes,’ I say slowly. ‘Is that a problem?’

She shakes her head, her eyes popping. ‘No problem, I guess. I just ... Aren’t you worried I’ll steal something?’

I hold her eyes, noting the hint of challenge in hers. But it’s only thinly veiling her real emotion – hurt. That snide remark I made about her paying for her crisps, amongst other ‘digs’, have led to this – she doesn’t trust me. She doesn’t know whether I was being sincere when I told her I believe her father is innocent.

‘Anything you want that’s under this roof is yours. You don’t need to ask. Now go and unpack.’

She clamps her mouth shut, giving me one more uncertain look before she walks out.

I rest my hands on the counter and exhale.

She’s here. That’s the main thing. She’s where I can see her. The rest I can work on, as long as she’s here.With me.

I set to work, cooking some fresh pasta while I fight the urge to go upstairs. I need to tread carefully. She might need my help, but she sure as hell won’t find it easy to accept. Everything I thought I knew about her situation has been tipped on its head since I sat down in that seat opposite George Thorne. I saw the raw desperation in his eyes. I’ve seen it countless times in the eyes of people who’ve lost everything. The people who then come to Fairfax Guardian to make sure that it never happens to them again. We assure them that their assets are protected. But Aurora isn’t anasset. She’s his daughter. Which made his desperation all the more tangible. It was a living, breathing mass that I could feel and taste across that table.

He’s an innocent man claiming he has the one thing I want, in order to get the single thing he needs.

Someone to protect his daughter.

He can’t tell me what I want to know about my money. I’ll have to re-assess how I deal with that. But he can give me something I want much, much more.

Aurora.

He’s a man willing to do anything. The glow of pride in his eyes as he spoke about her could have made it easy to hate the pair of them for how wholesomely they love one another – without condition, without expectation. And for how fiercely they’re prepared to sacrifice for one another. Her father isn’t concerned for himself, only for her wellbeing. He doesn’t have a secret stash of money hidden away to provide for her should she need help. Her bank statements showed that. And the wildness in his eyes confirmed it.

He doesn’t have my money. And he never has.

The man is pushing her right to where I want her. Because the past week has taught me one thing: what started as an obsession for revenge has turned into something very different. Something that feels like my heart is in danger of beating out of my chest whenever I see her.

This isn’t pure lust. God knows how much easier that would be. But it hit me the moment she opened the door to that grotty bedsit with a fire in her eyes, ready to fight me.

I care about her.

She’smine.