The hell it was.
He stared through the windscreen but he wasn’t looking at the ocean view. He was seeing Sophie leaning over the baby. Moreover, he wasn’t seeing himself as only his sisters’ guardian, he was seeing himself as a father in the truest sense of the word.
He shook his head. Wrong decade. Sophie wasn’t the woman for him long term, she was all about adventure and discovering new places. As was her right, he told himself, and after what she’d been through, she deserved it. Who was he to interfere with her dreams and plans? Nor was this trip she was embarking on the end of the world. A few months. A year tops and she’d be back. He could almost guarantee it.
Over the week Sophie had brought sunshine and summer and sparkle to what he was only now realising had become an exceedingly dull existence.
He’d made love to her in the sea and watched the sense of humour spark in her eyes, made love to her in the centre of a macadamia plantation and watched the green reflected in the amber. He’d laughed more. Because he’d found more to laugh about with Sophie to share it with.
And every now and then he’d remember she was leaving and a shadow would steal over the sun.
He forked frustrated fingers through his hair. For the second time in his life he’d fallen for a woman. And this time he’d fallen hard. And these feelings he had were nothing like those he’d had for Bianca.
These feelings ran deep. So deep they touched his soul and he didn’t know if he’d ever be free of them. And powerful enough to rock his world to its very foundation. It was nothing like he’d ever experienced—dangerously so.
Despite his deepening feelings, he wasn’t prepared to compromise what he believed in or how he wanted to live his life for someone else’s whims and fancies and ideals. Bianca hadn’t fitted into the world he’d created for himself and his sisters, so Bianca was history. Simple.
With her outlook on life so different from his own, Sophie didn’t fit into his world either. But something didn’t gel and he couldn’t put his finger on what it was. Whatever it was, it was far from simple.
Sunday morning. Sophie woke to daybreak’s murky light stealing over her window sill, although she couldn’t remember falling asleep. The last time she’d checked the time it had been ten past four. She’d resisted trying to contact Jared. He’d come when he was ready, and if he didn’t… She had no one to blame but herself.
He hadn’t come.
Sitting on the edge of her bed, she dragged on her dressing gown. Her eyes felt swollen and gritty, her nose was still blocked from her crying jag hours ago and there was an empty ache in her chest that wouldn’t go away.
She had no idea whether it was over with Jared, why he hadn’t turned up last night or what he was thinking. But rather than sitting around like a misery guts and moping about it, she had packing to do. The furniture belonged to the apartment but she needed to sort what she was taking with her, and toss or store the rest.
She could ring Jared…and apologise. She headed for the kitchen. She’d seen the disappointment in his eyes when she’d mentioned keeping tabs on one another. No, he’d come on his own terms or not at all.
She’d just made a pot of tea when he turned up. Leaning on the door frame with his darkly stubbled jaw, furrowed hair and bloodshot eyes, he looked as ragged and sleep-deprived as she felt.
He was just about the most beautiful sight she’d ever seen.
She stood back to let him enter. He smelled of the beach, cool morning air and impossible dreams. He closed the door behind him and they stared at each other for a long moment.
She couldn’t read his expression but maybe she saw something that gave her hope? Courage? ‘I missed you.’ She hadn’t meant to say them but the words tumbled out.
He didn’t answer. Just wrapped one large hand around the back of her neck, hauled her face up to his and kissed her. Hard. Possessively and with a kind of angry passion.
She felt his strength in the rigid arm that supported her, in his rock-hard body as she melted against him. Perhaps some of that strength would flow into her…
But no. He released her with such speed and vehemence she almost stumbled. ‘We need to cool it.’ He shoved his hands in the back pockets of his jeans and shook his head, then watched the window where the pale sun slid through a smudge of grey. ‘This has got way too intense and I sure as hell don’t need it right now. Neither do you.’
He regretted that kiss and the loss of control. The knowledge was both painful and poignant for Sophie. But it was for the best and he was right, they needed to put some distance between them. In one week the man she loved would be a world-away-distant memory.