direct route. She ought to be able to cut him off before— She refused to think that she was not going to make it in time.
The information did not make it to her lungs. They already felt as though they were going to explode and when she was forced to stop to catch her breath it also gave her body time for the pain in her ankle to register. That was when she remembered the phone in the garage block. She could have rung through to the entrance gate—someone would be there now, ready to warn Kamel. She was trying to decide between the options of going back to the phone or trying to intercept him when she saw a really ancient bike propped up against a wall.
Sending up a silent thanks to whoever had left it there, she climbed aboard and began to pedal through the trees.
* * *
Kamel had gunned his way out of the garage.
It all happened so fast the sequence of events was a blur: the car appearing, throwing herself into the road, arms waving, then the crunch of metal as the front of the Aston Martin embedded itself into a tree.
I’ve killed him!
She felt empty, her body was numb—and then the door of the car was being wrenched open. It actually fell off its hinges as Kamel—large, very alive and in what appeared to be a towering rage—vaulted from the vehicle. The feeling rushed back and she began to laugh and cry at the same time.
‘You little fool! What the hell were you doing? I could have killed you!’ Looking white and shaken and a million miles from his indestructibly assured self, Kamel took her roughly by the shoulders and wrenched her around to face him. He registered the tears sliding down her face and hissed out a soft curse. How could you yell at someone who looked like that? ‘You just took ten years off my life.’ If he had no Hannah he would have no life; the blinding insight stretched his self-control to the limit.
‘I had to stop you—the car, the brakes...’
His ferocious frown deepened. ‘How the hell did you know about the brakes?’
She wiped the tears from her cheeks with the back of one hand and sniffed. ‘You knew?’
‘I stopped a few yards after I left the garage.’ To ask himself what the hell he was doing. Throwing some sort of tantrum because she didn’t immediately express unconditional trust? He’d moved the goalposts of this relationship on an almost daily basis. Hell, at the start, he hadn’t even wanted a relationship. If he had to work for her trust, he would. ‘Or tried to.’ He had used the gears to slow down to a crawl, planning to pull over at an appropriate place, which was the only reason he had not hit Hannah.
He closed his eyes and swallowed, reliving the nightmare moment when she had rushed into the road.
‘So you knew about what he tried to do?’
‘Who tried to do what?’
‘The colonel. He cut your brakes and I think he might be the one who sent the photos.’
Understanding softened his dark eyes as he placed a thumb under her chin, tilting her tear-stained face up to him. ‘Really sweetheart, that man can’t hurt you and I promise you will never have to see him again.’
She pulled away from him. ‘No!’ she gritted emphatically through clenched teeth. ‘Don’t look at me like that, and don’t even think about humouring me. I am not imagining things and it was you he was trying to hurt. You humiliated him. I saw the way he looked at you tonight, and then when I followed you he was in the garage and he didn’t want to be seen. So when I saw the brake fluid I knew...’ She pressed a hand to her chest and gulped back a sob and whispered, ‘I had to stop you.’
‘You were following me?’
‘I just told you—someone tried to kill you.’
‘I’ll look into it. He will be brought to justice if he is guilty.’ There was no hint of doubt in Kamel’s voice. ‘You followed me?’
She nodded.
‘Why?’ He hooked a finger under her chin and forced her to look at him, Hannah met his interrogative dark stare steadily, not trying to look away, feeling weirdly calm now the moment was here.
‘Because you asked me a question and you left before I could answer.’
‘You ran away.’
‘It was that or throw up all over your shoes.’
He stiffened. ‘You’re ill?’
‘Not ill.’ For the first time she struggled to hold his gaze. ‘You asked me if I trust you and the answer is yes, I do. Totally and absolutely. I know you always have my back—that’s one of the things I love about you. Of course, there are an awful lot of things about you that drive me crazy but they don’t matter because I love you...’ She gave a quivering smile. It hadn’t been as hard as she had anticipated, speaking the words that had been locked within her heart. ‘The whole package. You.’
This was the moment when in her dreams he confessed his love for her. But this wasn’t a dream; it was real. And he stood there, every muscle in his stark white face frozen, tension pulling the skin tight across the bones of his face.
Hannah walked into the wall of pain and kept going, her expression fixed in a reasonable mask. No matter how hard she wanted it, it just wasn’t going to happen.
‘It’s all right. I know that love was not part of the deal. I know that Amira...you will always love her, but it doesn’t have to be a deal breaker, does it?’
She felt the tension leave his body. ‘Say it again. I want to hear it.’
The glow in his eyes was speaking not to her brain, which was counselling caution, but directly to her heart. It stopped and then soared, and she smiled.
‘I love you, Kamel.’ She left a gap and this time he filled it.
‘Je t’aime, ma chérie. Je t’aime. I have been too stubborn, too scared to admit it to myself.’
‘Amira...?’
‘I loved Amira, and her memory will always be dear to me. But what I felt for her was a thing that... If I thought you loved another man I would not let you go to him. I would lock you up in a tower. I am jealous of everyone you smile at. That damned chef creep...’
‘Jealous? You... You’re not just saying that because of the baby?’ She saw his expression and gave a comical groan. ‘I didn’t mention that part yet, did I?’
‘Baby...there is a baby? Our baby?’
She nodded.
He pressed a hand to her stomach. ‘You do know how much you have changed my life?’
‘I thought that was exactly what you didn’t want.’
He shrugged. ‘I was a fool. And you were charming and infuriating and brave and so beautiful. You swept into my life like a cleansing breeze, a healing breeze.’
He opened his arms and, eyes shining, she stepped into them, sighing as she felt them close behind her. ‘I love you so much, Kamel. It’s been
