worry you. I’m feeling better now I’m in the fresh air.’
Despite her claims, he was still looking at her with that strange expression in his eyes.
‘Why are you single?’ he asked suddenly, making her blink at him in surprise.
‘Oh, you know...’
He frowned. ‘It’s not because I’ve been working you too hard, is it?’
‘No, no!’ She shook her head. ‘It’s through personal choice.’
His frown deepened, as if he didn’t quite believe her.
She swallowed before expanding on her answer, linking her fingers tightly together around the glass. ‘I decided to take a break from dating for a while. My last relationship was a bit of a disaster.’
He relaxed back against the bench. ‘How so?’
‘The whole fiasco at LED pretty much ruined it. After I started having trouble coping with what was going on at work I got a bit down and it made me withdraw into myself. My ex-boyfriend, Ewan, got fed up with me being so...er...unresponsive.’ She cringed. ‘That’s why I’ve been trying so hard to stay positive. I know how it can get boring, having people around who feel sorry for themselves all the time.’
He ran his hand through his hair, letting out a long, low sigh.
Heat rushed through her as she realised how Max might have interpreted what she’d just said. ‘I didn’t mean... I wasn’t talking about you.’
He snorted gently and flashed her a smile. ‘I didn’t think you were. I was frustrated on your behalf. I can’t believe the guy was stupid enough to treat you like that.’
‘Yeah, well, it’s in the past now. To be honest, that relationship was always doomed to fail. He was a little too self-centred for my liking. He made it pretty obvious he thought I wasn’t good enough for him.’
‘Not good enough! That’s the most ridiculous thing I ever heard,’ he snapped out, the ferocity in his tone telling her he had a lot more he wanted to say on the matter, but for the sake of propriety was keeping it to himself.
She smiled at him, her heart rising to her throat. ‘It’s okay. It doesn’t bother me any more.’ And it really didn’t, she realised with a sense of satisfaction. Her experiences since breaking up with Ewan had taught her that her real self-worth came from her own actions and achievements, not pleasing someone else.
Putting the empty glass onto the ground by the bench, she tried to hide a yawn of tiredness behind her hand. It had been a long and intense day.
‘Do you want to get out of here?’ Max asked quietly.
Clearly she hadn’t been able to hide her exhaustion from him.
Looking at him with a smile of gratitude, she nodded her head. ‘I wouldn’t mind. I don’t think I’ve got the energy for any more dancing.’
He stood up. ‘Okay, I’ll go and fetch the car.’
‘I’ll just pop back in and say goodbye to Jack and Amber and I’ll meet you back here,’ she said, gesturing to the pull-in place at the end of the sweeping driveway.
He nodded, before turning on his heel and heading off towards where they’d left the car parked by the estate’s church.
She watched him disappear into the darkness, with his jacket slung over his arm and the white shirt stretched across his broad shoulders glowing in the moonlight, before he dipped out of sight.
After saying a hurried goodbye to the now rather inebriated newlyweds, she came out to find Max waiting for her in the car and jumped in gratefully, sinking back into the soft leather seat with a sigh. Now she knew that bed wasn’t far away, she was desperate to escape to her room and finally be able to relax away from Max’s unsettling presence.
It only took them five minutes to drive to the B&B she’d booked them into and as luck would have it there was a convenient parking space right outside the pretty thatched cottage.
‘We’re in the annexe at the back,’ she said to Max as he hauled their overnight bags out of the boot. ‘They gave me a key code to open the door so we won’t need to disturb them.’
‘Great,’ Max said, hoisting the bags onto his back and following her down the path of the colourful country cottage garden towards the rear of the house. The air smelled sweetly of the honeysuckle that wound itself around a large wooden arch leading through to the back garden where their accommodation was housed, and Cara breathed it in with a great sense of pleasure. The place felt almost magical, shrouded as it was in the velvety darkness of the night.
Cara tapped the code into the keypad next to the small oak door that led directly into the annexe and flipped on the lights as soon as they were inside, illuminating a beautifully presented hallway with its simple country-style furniture and heritage-coloured décor. Two open bedroom doors stood opposite each other and there was a small bathroom at the back, which they would share.
‘I hope this is okay. All the local hotels were fully booked and Jack said this was the place his cousin and her family were going to stay in, so the owners were pleased to swap the booking to us, considering it was such a last-minute cancellation.’
Max nodded, looking around at the layout, his expression neutral. ‘It’s great.’
The hallway was so small they were standing much closer to each other than Cara was entirely comfortable with. Max moved past her to drop his bag into one of the rooms and his musky scent hit her senses, making her whole body quiver with longing. The thought of him being just a few feet away from her was going to make it very difficult to sleep, despite how tired she was.
After dropping her bag into the other room, Max walked back into the hallway and stood in front of her, a small frown playing across his face. ‘Are you feeling okay now?’
She smiled, the effort making her cheeks ache. ‘I’m fine.’ She took a nervous step backwards, and jumped a little as her back hit the wall behind her. ‘Thank you so much for coming with me. I really appreciate it.’
He was looking at her with that fierce expression in his eyes again and a heavy, tingly heat slid from her throat, deep into her belly, sending electric currents of need to every nerve-ending in her body. For some reason she was finding it hard to breathe.
‘It was my pleasure, Cara,’ he said, his voice gruff as if he was having trouble with his own airways. ‘You know, that guy you were talking to earlier was right. You do look beautiful in that dress.’
She stared at him, a disorientating mixture of excitement and confusion swirling around her head.
His gaze flicked away from hers for a second and when his eyes returned to hers the fierce look had gone and was replaced with a friendly twinkle. ‘It occurred to me that you might have a bit of trouble getting out it—after needing my help to do it up this morning. Want me to undo the buttons for you?’
What was this?
Cara knew what she wanted it to be: for Max to want the same thing that she did—to alleviate this unbearable need to touch and kiss and hold him. To slide off all their clothes and lose themselves
