Perhaps the only moments they could simply still be together were the in-between moments, right at dawn or dusk, when everything seemed softer, gentler, quieter. When nothing, past or future, mattered more than the moment itself.
A great sadness overwhelmed her. Why, she didn’t know. After the night she’d had, she should be feeling anything but sad.
She rested her chin on the back of her hands and in the rosy half-light her thoughts spilled unchecked from her lips. ‘I’ve come to the brilliant conclusion that you’re the human equivalent of Alpha Centauri.’
He opened his eyes and her sadness slipped away. He turned his head to watch her, a quizzical smile only adding more character to his beautiful face. ‘Would it be in my best interests to ask why?’
She grinned from the top of her mussed hair to the tips of her bare toes. ‘I’m gonna tell you anyway. Alpha Centauri appears as a single point of light to the naked eye, but is actually a system of three stars.’
‘You think I have a split personality?’
She held up a stilling finger. ‘I think there’s more to you than the face you show the world. You’re also bright, eye-catching and seem much closer than you really are.’
‘Eye-catching, eh?’ He closed one eye. ‘And how long were you lying there coming up with all that?’
She shrugged, her upper body sliding deliciously against his. ‘Not long.’
‘Mmm.’ He lifted a heavy hand and trailed it down her naked back, sending goose bumps popping up all over her skin. ‘So how far away is my heavenly twin right now?’
‘Four-point-three trillion kilometres.’
His laughter lifted her as it echoed through his ribs.
Rosie buried her blushing cheeks in a mound of sleeping bag. ‘I’m sorry. I just compared you with spheres of hot gases. And after all the nice things you just did for me. And to me. It seems to have opened neural pathways better left closed.’
‘I only have myself to blame.’
She lifted her head and rubbed a knuckle across the end of her cold nose. He lifted his head to kiss the spot.
This was bliss. This made it all worth it. Surely…
She looked directly into his disarming eyes as she said, ‘All that Alpha Centauri stuff—I just meant that you’ve turned out to be not quite who I expected you’d be.’
‘A man ought to do his best to exceed expectations wherever possible.’
‘Maybe a man ought to, though in my experience not all that many bother to try.’
‘Your experience?’ he rumbled. ‘Now, there’s a subject I could warm to.’
He waggled his eyebrows, and Rosie felt like she’d blushed enough for one day. Any more and her cheeks might stay that way.
‘This is not the time for that conversation.’ She dragged herself into a sitting position. She slipped her flannelette pyjama-top on, and quickly added the beanie and scarf, suddenly cold now that she was no longer wrapped in Cameron.
His fingers slunk beneath her top and trailed down her back, creating a slip and shift of heat that made her want to give in and stay, talk, confess, believe…
But, like Alpha Centauri, the four-point-three trillion ways he made her feel safe and secure and precious were illusions all. At the end of the day, she was all she had. And that was fine. She could enjoy him in the in-between times. And that would be enough. If she told herself enough times she might even start to believe it.
‘Then how about we put it right up front during a Saturday night drink before my dad’s birthday party?’ he said.
‘Before your who and what?’ she asked. Her head whipped round to stare at him, to find him leaning on one arm, bare chest rippling with manly gorgeousness that made her sure the canoe, bike and jet ski in his garage weren’t the dust collectors his telescope was.
Her mouth watered. She dragged her eyes back to his—like that had ever made anything any easier!
‘My father’s seventieth,’ he said. ‘Something you said has been percolating for a while now. And last night, as I cleaned the floors of my house with my hours of pacing, I made up my mind. I’m going.’
‘What did I say?’
‘That you spent too long wishing you’d had the chance to know your father, no matter what kind of man he might have been. I need to face the man, to ease my mind. And, since you’re the one who convinced me as much, I thought you might like to tag along.’
Rosie breathed in and out. In and out. Not eight hours earlier he’d wanted to cool things down. Now he was making plans whereby she would meet his parents. His whole family. She tried to figure out what he was playing at, but all that beautiful, warm skin was making it hard for her to see the bigger picture.