But it was there one moment and gone the next.
She must have imagined it. Perhaps it was wishful thinking—making them seem like equals when they really weren’t. She cleared her throat. Looked away from him. Night had fallen outside, but a full moon cast an eerie glow over the forest glen. Eerie and, compelling. And almost magical.
Snowdonia had given her strength, purpose and a sense of wellbeing ever since she’d arrived here determined to build a new life. But there was still something missing which had nothing to do with her financial instability or the endless stress of not being strong enough to make her dreams come true.
There was a Welsh word for the feeling of something lost, something longed for, connected to their homeland, that couldn’t be directly translated into English: hiraeth. Her nain had explained it to her when Katie had been a homeless teenager but, being English, and never really having had a homeland she cared about, Katherine had never understood it.
But what if the hiraeth her mother had felt being away from her homeland, living with a man who had never really loved her, had been something like this deep tug of yearning? A part of her being she couldn’t control?
Katie let out a slow breath, her heart galloping into her throat.
She turned back to find Jack still watching, still waiting, any trace of vulnerability in his expression gone.
She unfolded her arms, raised her gaze and ruthlessly controlled the hum of arousal.
‘The answer’s no, Jack,’ she said.
Something leapt into his eyes that looked like regret. But she knew she must have imagined it when his jaw hardened and his gaze became flat and remote.
‘Very well,’ he said, surprising her with the instant capitulation. But then he stroked her chin with his thumb and the brutal sizzle rasped over sensitive skin.
She stood trapped in his penetrating gaze and regret sunk like a stone into her abdomen.
‘But be advised, Katherine,’ he said, his tone as harsh as the light in his eyes. ‘I never give anyone a second chance.’
It was a warning that should have been easy to reject, but it wasn’t, the foolish urge to call him back and say yes to his devil’s bargain all but overwhelming when he took her quad keys, promising to have the vehicle returned that evening.
As the front door slammed behind him, her breath guttered out, her body collapsing against the kitchen counter. But the moment of relief did nothing to disguise the hollow weight still expanding in her stomach—which made no sense at all.