ddenly understood.
Kyla reached for his hand and curled her fingers around his. ‘Do you think things happen for a reason, Ethan?’
‘What do you mean?’
Perhaps she heard the wariness in his voice because she smiled. ‘I mean that some things are just meant to happen. You came out of nowhere. Serendipity. You could have chosen to escape anywhere but you came here.’
Ethan felt coldness pour through his body.
It hadn’t been serendipity.
And he hadn’t come out of nowhere.
Her words were like a hammer blow to his conscience and the perfection of the moment was soured. ‘Kyla—’
She covered his lips with her finger, preventing him from finishing his sentence. ‘Not now. Now I just want you to kiss me again. And then we’ll go home and do everything again in slow motion.’
CHAPTER NINE
UNFORTUNATELY, fate intervened in the form of a little girl with an asthma attack.
Logan was still tied up with Fraser, who was now being sick and complaining of persistent headache, so Ethan had no choice but to leave Kyla on her doorstep.
Once again he seemed distant, remote and Kyla felt a twist of yearning for the unconstrained, passionate side of him she’d discovered up in the ruins of the castle.
For a moment he’d lost control and finally revealed himself to her but now he had retreated back into his shell.
‘I’ll see the Roberts child, come back here and change and then go straight to the surgery. Logan thinks he may have to fly Fraser over to the mainland for a CT scan.’
They might have been no more than colleagues, discussing their plans for the day. Visit here. Clinic there.
Where had it gone? Kyla wondered as she stared wistfully into his handsome face—that incredible closeness and intimacy that had held them both in its grip. Where had it gone?
‘On second thoughts, would you mind picking up a suit for me?’ He handed her his keys. ‘I can take a shower at Logan’s and change before surgery. It will be quicker than coming all the way back here.’
‘Of course.’ She took the keys and waited for him to say something that indicated he understood the way she was feeling. Something that acknowledged the power of what they’d shared during the storm. But he didn’t even look at her.
His handsome face was grim and serious as if he had a thousand things on his mind and none of them related to her.
‘That’s fine.’ She forced herself to speak normally and not show her disappointment. ‘I’ll bring the suit. Will I be able to find it?’
‘In the wardrobe in my bedroom. Just choose one. And Kyla.’ Finally he looked at her but there was a bleakness in his eyes that did nothing to alleviate the growing ache inside her. ‘This evening, we have to talk.’
Talk? She watched him stride towards his car, the lump in her throat as big as the weight in her heart.
She loved him, she realised with a sinking feeling. Somehow, over the past weeks, she’d grown to love this complicated man. And up until five minutes ago she would have sworn that he had feelings for her, too.
Had she imagined what they’d shared in the castle?
No. She definitely hadn’t. She was just being paranoid, she told herself as she turned and let herself into her own house. She’d shower and change and then collect his suit on her way to work.
She had nothing to worry about.
The fact that he was suddenly serious and detached was just Ethan being Ethan. He was thinking about work. That was what he did.
As she stripped off her clothes she was suddenly deliciously aware of the unfamiliar ache in various parts of her body and a soft smile touched her mouth. He felt something for her, of course he did. How, otherwise, could he have made love to her in the way that he had? She just had to be patient and allow him the space he obviously needed.
He wasn’t a man who opened up easily, she knew that.