glad you came,’ he told her, sitting back and looking at her. His gaze burned.
‘It was fun. Never knew I had a gambler in me.’
‘I mean that you came at all. Here.’
Lana looked away nervously. Outside was the Orient’s Dragon Garden, its verdant lawns and stone fountains glinting in the sun.
‘I didn’t think I’d see you again,’ he said quietly.
Lana nodded.
Robert took her hand. ‘I don’t want that to happen any more. I never want to not know how you are, where you are. If you’re happy. Do you understand?’
‘Robert—’
‘I mean it,’ he said firmly. ‘No more running. You’re too important to me.’
She drew her hand away.
‘I shouldn’t have said that.’
Lana shook her head. ‘I’m glad you did.’ She paused. ‘I want us to be friends.’
His voice was hollow. ‘Of course.’
‘Rita called this morning.’ She sipped from her glass.
‘And?’
‘Conversations are happening. Cole’s got a great lawyer on board but Rita doesn’t seem worried.’
‘She’s a remarkable woman.’
‘She is.’
Lana put down her drink. ‘It’s safe for me to go back. I’ll leave at the weekend.’
He nodded, had been expecting it. ‘How do you feel?’
‘Scared. But I have to do it. I have to face the consequences of what I’ve done.’
There was an awkward pause.
‘I don’t want you to go,’ he said. It was a statement, entirely unsentimental.
Lana was honest. ‘Neither do I.’
‘Then don’t.’
She searched his eyes. ‘I don’t understand.’
‘Stay here.’
‘Why?’
His gaze was serious, the look she had loved so long. ‘Because I want you to.’
In that instant, the world changed.
‘Lana, there’s something I have to say.’ He watched her solemnly. ‘I don’t want to marry Elisabeth. I thought I did, but I don’t. I convinced myself it was the right thing but it’s not. Please, don’t interrupt, let me just do this.’ He leaned forward. ‘All I can think about is you. Only you, always you. Since you walked away from us, not a day, not an hour, not a single minute has gone past when I haven’t thought about you.’ A beat. ‘I’m yours. You have me, you always did and you always will.’
‘Robert …’
‘I haven’t finished. I love Elisabeth. I do. But not in the way I love you. The way I love you is different, I can’t explain it, like it’s a different part of me I’m loving you with, and that part can’t ever belong to somebody else.’ His voice shook. ‘I don’t care how long I have to wait, how much I have to face, what it means for any of this’–he gestured around him–’but I’m not getting over you again.’ He bowed his head. A frown furrowed his brow. ‘I can’t marry her.’
Lana’s heart was thumping. ‘Did you just say all that?’ she whispered.
‘I’ll say it again.’
The fire that had been dead in her caught light. ‘You don’t need to,’ she said. ‘I can remember it.’
He took her hand again, not caring who saw. ‘Say it could work.’
‘We’d hurt people.’
‘Not in the long term.’
‘It’s impossible.’
He laughed, looked about him, then at her. ‘Anything’s possible. Wouldn’t you say?’
She laughed with him. ‘It’s crazy.’
‘The only things worth it are.’
Lana shook her head, squeezed his hand. ‘Robbie Lewis, what have you done to me?’
He smiled. ‘Not nearly enough.’
She smiled back.
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