Chapter 18

“Lea, I expected to see you again before Monday,” Dave revealed, standing on the pavement beside the Mercedes that contained Dave’s sister.

"Well..."

"I see you at the castle?”

“I’m sorry—I’d like to spend some time at home before going to your busy parties in the city. and I need to talk with my aunt.” Pale and taut, Lea collided head-on with smouldering dark blue eyes heavily fringed with lush black lashes. Her tummy flipped as if she had been flung up in the air. Surely no man had ever had such compellingly beautiful eyes? Her fingers clenched into her palms as she stepped back from Dave, uneasily aware of the phalanx of bodyguards hovering around them.

“You make it sound so reasonable,” Dave reached out and closed a hand around hers as she brushed a skein of gold silky hair back from her brow. He eased her inexorably closer. “But you know that’s not what I want.”

She whispered against his lips. “What are you doing?”

“Acting?” he whispered back as his lips brushed against hers.

The lashes above her aquamarine eyes fluttered down to conceal her strained gaze. Her heart was racing like an overwound clock behind her breastbone. His mesmeric pull was almost more than she could bear. Even the timbre of his rich, dark drawl slivered through her like the lick of a flame. But that tide of physical response infuriated her and stung her pride.

She nodded silently. “Surely there’s some part of the day when I can have my own free time, right? Not partying with your clients here in the city?” Lea queried, throwing her blonde head high, a gleam of challenge in her bright eyes.

“Your own free time?” Dave countered, his lean, dark features tensing.

“Isn’t this a job? I can’t be on duty at twenty-four-seven.”

Dave froze, all the warmth ebbing from his gaze, leaving it winter-dark and cold. In that instant, she could have done nothing more offensive than voice a cool and emotionless reminder of the legal agreement that had brought them together. He marvelled that, for a little while, he had somehow contrived to forget that fact. Her words had grated on him, striking the hard-calculating note that he was all too accustomed to hearing from her sex. Evidently, he had not yet been generous enough to keep her sweet.

“I don’t think you can have read the small print on your contract,” he breathed in an icy, cutting tone of distaste. “From the moment you wear my wedding ring, you will be on duty twenty-four-seven.”

She sighed, sensing that Mary was looking at them.

Dave walked away, leaving Lea paralysed on the pavement with nervous tension. She was torn between regret and relief. A terrifying part of her wanted to run after him, to douse the aggression she had awakened and luxuriate in the kiss that she had subconsciously longed to receive. But the rest of her rejoiced in saying no to that weaker part of her nature. She wasn’t a toy for him to play with as and when he fancied. She was too proud and intelligent to behave like the woman who had fawned on him at his club the night when they’d first met, wasn’t she? But just at that moment, pride was a cold companion, filling her with disappointment rather than a sense of achievement.

A few weeks later, after yet another party on the beach near Dave’s apartment in the city, Lea was tired after her swimming session and, after a shower, lay down on the bed to rest with one ear out to listen for when Dave returned from his run. But he must have been doing a marathon because every time she glanced at the clock by the bed, it had gone around another half an hour until finally she closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.

Lea hadn’t had the dream in years. She was in the back of the car, her parents were arguing in the front, with her father in the driving seat. The trees on the roadside were blurred by the speed at which her father was going. The car swerved and spun, but her father corrected it, laughing maniacally and asking if they were wetting their pants yet. Her mother had stopped shouting back and was now shrunk into her seat, begging him to slow down in a whimpering voice, one side of her face already blackened by her husband’s fist from the day before.

Lea saw the tree coming towards them, looming, looming. She screamed, but it was too late. Too late. Too late…

Someone was trying to revive her. She could feel their hands on her shoulders and hear them calling her name. “Lea. Wake up. You’re having a bad dream. Wake up.”

But it wasn’t the off-duty nurse or the paramedics who had been first on the scene that day. Lea opened her eyes to see Dave perched on the edge of her bed, his hands stroking back the hair that had fallen across her face.

“Lea? It's Dave; it’s all right, I’m here. It was just a nightmare.” His voice was gentle and his touch soothing, anchoring her in the present, not the past.

Lea blinked away the terrifying images lingering in her head. She pushed herself upright into a sitting position, wincing against the light of the bedside lamp he had switched on. How long had she been sleeping? Hours and hours for it were now dark outside.

“Sorry. Gosh, I didn’t realise it was night already. Did I wake you up?”

He took one of her hands and held it in his, stroking the back of it with slow, rhythmic movements. “In bed, but not asleep. I was going through some emails on my phone when I heard you call out.”

Lea peered at the bedside clock to find it was close to midnight. “Oh, I must have wrecked your dinner booking. Sorry. I didn’t realise how tired I would be after swimming.”

“Can I get you something to eat or a drink of milk or something?”

She screwed up her face. “Eww. I hate milk.”

His crooked smile transformed his features and made her heart do a little flip-flop. “I should have remembered that. What about fruit juice or herbal tea?”

“You don’t have to fuss over me like I’m a little kid.” She plucked at the hem of the sheet with her fingers. “I’m not hungry, and I’m perfectly able to get myself back to sleep.” She kept her gaze lowered, conscious of his hair-roughened thigh so close to hers on the bed. Conscious of his stroking fingers on her hand, conscious of her body secretly reacting to his touch. Warmth spread through her lower body, flickers of heat smouldering in her core.

He was dressed in boxer shorts but naked from the waist up. His lean and athletic build could have been no better advertisement for regular exercise. His pectoral muscles were toned and carved on his broad chest, and the neat washboard ridges of the muscles on his abdomen spoke of a man who was not afraid of pushing himself to the limit. It was all she could do to keep her hands to herself. Her fingers tingle with the desire to explore those toned ridges and trace every hard contour.

“Do you want to talk about it? Your dream?” Dave’s baritone voice was deep, calm, and even, as soothing as his stroking fingers on the back of her hand.

Lea fixed her gaze on her hand, encased in the shelter of his. Her skin was so pale against his tan, a reminder of all the essential differences between them. She hadn’t been in a gym since rehab. She felt sick to her stomach at the thought. Too many reminders of the pain of trying to walk again, trying to be normal when normal was something other people took for granted and never had to question.

“I haven’t had a nightmare in ages." She chanced a glance at him to find him watching her with concern etched on his features. She lowered her eyes again and asked, “Did I say anything while I was asleep?”

“You were calling out “Stop” repeatedly. I was worried we might’ve had an intruder. I came rushing in to find you thrashing on the bed in the throes of a nightmare.” His eyes were haunted by the stress of finding her so distressed. “You were dreaming about the accident?”