are you? Is that why you stood me up so spectacularly? So publicly?’
He could still taste her rejection, something he wasn’t at all used to. If he wanted a woman it was usually only a question of when, not if. Rio had refused point-blank to see him after that night, cementing her status as the first woman to turn him down. The only woman to wound his male pride since his early twenties, when his first taste of love had been soured by deceit.
‘Yes, I am holding out for true love and you would hardly be the perfect candidate. Not with a string of broken hearts behind you.’ She smiled in that so there kind of way the English were so good at. ‘But I’m not here for us. In case you have forgotten, I’m here for Xena.’
‘And what we had isn’t of consequence?’
Rio looked uncomfortable and a heavy sense of seriousness filled the warm air around them. ‘My friendship with Xena is more important than anything else. I don’t want us to get in the way of that.’
She looked as though she was holding her breath, as though she was waiting for him to piece together whatever it was in her mind, but the mention of his sister served only to direct his thoughts back to his original purpose of bringing her out here to talk alone.
‘I don’t think going over the accident will help anyone right now. She has blocked out everything from the last two months. It’s as if she is stuck at a happy point in her life.’
‘I agree on that. That is why I believe it will reassure Xena if she thinks that we are in love.’
‘In love? You and me?’ She stumbled over the words, her fingers fidgeting with the hat she clasped as if it were a lifeline. ‘Is that really necessary?’
His mind raced. All his sister had ever wanted was for him to meet someone and fall in love, and the attraction between him and Rio had been so obvious, so intense he’d allowed Xena to revel in her role as matchmaker. Allowed her to believe there was a future for him and Rio. She’d even suggested that this time he should use their grandmother’s engagement ring, saying that Rio wouldn’t want the flashy diamonds Kyra had demanded.
He should have told Xena there and then that he didn’t want any kind of commitment, but he hadn’t wanted to destroy her happiness then, just as he didn’t want to now. ‘It would be what Xena has always wanted for us and maybe it could actually help Xena to feel more emotionally secure, which might enable her to remember things again.’
* * *
Rio’s heart raced. How could she pretend to be in love with Lysandros when just being around him sent her pulse racing?
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