Page 59 of Seasons of Sin

“Actually, I was hoping to forget you.”

She nodded, and now she pushed up from him, stepping back on the footpath. A car hurtled past but neither of them heard its rumbling engine.

“I think that’s the right idea. We should forget each other,” she said with an attempt at coldness.

“That is never going to work,” he remarked simply.

“Eventually it will.” She shook her head. “Or maybe it won’t. But I can’t go through this again. Don’t you get it? I’m in the middle of a divorce. My life is a mess. I’m finally doing something that I love, for the first time ever, and I just want to be good at it. I want to wake up in the morning and smile; not to feel like I have this weight pressing down on my chest.” She squeezed her eyes shut on the emotions that were slamming into her. “I miss you so much it hurts but I know I can’t make this mistake again.”

“If you miss me then give me time. Let’s start with dinner tonight.”

“No.” She took another step backwards, and now she lifted her hand in the air to hail a taxi. One blinked its lights from adistance away. “I’m so tired, Thaddeus. I’m tired of hurting. I’m tired of feeling like this.”

“Then don’t.”

She opened the door to the taxi but he put a hand on it also, holding it steady and preventing her from slipping inside. “Remember how you felt on my boat? Remember how we danced beneath the stars? Remember how everything in our world was perfect and right? Come back in time with me. Dance with me. Feel like that again.”

“Can you go back in time?”

“Wecan,” he promised her throatily.

She shook her head. “It’s a fantasy.” She reached up and pressed a kiss against his cheek and then sat down in the taxi. “It was all a stupid fantasy.”

He watched her drive off with a sense of despondency unlike anything he’d ever known. Thaddeus had been a reluctant bedfellow with rejection. He could count on one hand, with fingers spare, the number of times he’d failed in either his personal or professional lives.

He felt it now, though. He had failed. But if there was one thing Thaddeus Konstanides didn’t accept willingly, it was failure.

CHAPTER 12

“You must have knocked his socks off,” Melania’s voice was still hoarse.

“When are you going to kick this thing?” Saphire asked, grimacing at the clunky subject change.

“I’m getting better. But listen, what the hell did you promise this guy? I’ve never seen a pledge like it.”

Saphire swallowed. “What did he offer in the end?”

“He didn’t tell you?”

“No,” she shook her head, easing herself into Melania’s chair. She clipped the phone under her ear and stared at the view of downtown Rome. “He said he’d sort the details out later.”

“Well, you must have put him in a pretty generous mood.”

“It was business,” Saphire said stiffly.

“Of course it was. I would never insult your professionalism by implying otherwise. But you didgoodbusiness.”

“How much?” Sapphire murmured.

When Melania named the amount, Saphire almost sobbed. It was too much. It was his guilty conscience speaking.

“He’s just asked you to drop the contracts off today. Do you mind? I’d get Kate to do it but she’s got some thingamajig on.”

“Right,” Saphire nodded. She vaguely recalled Kate mentioning a personal commitment. “I can organize a courier.”

“No, it has to be you. Or me. They have to be signed and then brought straight to the solicitor. It’s too important to entrust to anyone else. Can you do it?”

Saphire felt a buckling of her will-power, but it was not in evidence when she answered. “Of course. I’ll just check the messages and then head over.”