he said gravely, ‘I love you because you are beautiful and clever and honest and loyal …’
‘Flattery will get you a very long way.’ She sighed, closing her eyes as his fingertips trailed rapture over the quivering skin on the inside of her thighs. ‘And that will probably do the rest …’
His chest tightened as he looked down at her. ‘I love you because you think underwear is a better investment than clothes, and because you’re brave and funny and sexy, and I was wondering if you’d possibly consider marrying me?’
Her eyes opened and met his. The smile that spread slowly across her face was one of pure, incredulous happiness. It felt like watching the sun rise.
‘Yes,’ she whispered, gazing up at him with dazed, brilliant eyes. ‘Yes, please.’
‘I feel it’s only fair to warn you that I’ve been disowned by my family …’
Serene, she took his face in her hands. ‘We can make our own family.’
He frowned, smoothing a strand of hair from her cheek, suddenly finding it difficult to speak for the lump of emotion in his throat. ‘And I have no title, no castle and no lands to offer you.’
She laughed, pulling him down into her arms. ‘Believe me, I absolutely wouldn’t have it any other way …’
CHAPTER ONE
Five months later. British Military Base, Theatre of Operations. Thursday, 6.15 a. m.
THE sun was rising, turning the sky pink and the sand to gold. Rubbing his hand over eyes that were gritty with sand and exhaustion, Kit looked out across the desert and idly wondered if he’d be alive to watch it set again.
He’d slept for perhaps an hour, maybe two, and dreamed of Sophie. Waking in the dark, his body was taut with thwarted desire, his mind racing, and the scent of her skin was still in his nostrils.
He almost preferred the insomnia.
Five months. Twenty-two weeks. One hundred and fifty-four days. By now the craving for her should have faded, but if anything it had got more intense, more impossible to ignore. He hadn’t phoned her, even though at times the longing to hear her voice burned like a laser inside him, knowing that if he did it would only add fuel to the fire. And knowing that there was nothing that could be said across six thousand miles that would possibly be enough.
Just one more day.
In twenty-four hours he would be flying out of here. Flying home. There was a sense of suppressed excitement amongst
the men in his unit, a mixture of relief and exhilaration that had been building over the last week as the days dwindled.
It was a feeling Kit didn’t share.
He’d been in bomb disposal for a long time. He’d never thought of it as anything other than a job; a dirty, awkward, challenging, exhausting, addictive, necessary job. But that was in the days when he thought rather than felt. When his emotions had been comfortably locked away in some part of him that was buried so deep he didn’t even know it was there.
Everything was different now. He wasn’t who he’d thought he was—quite literally thanks to the lies the man he’d called his father had told him all his life. But also, loving Sophie had blown him wide open, revealing parts of him he hadn’t known existed, and now the job seemed dirtier, the stakes higher, the odds shorter. So much shorter.
One more day. Would his luck last?
‘Major Fitzroy—coffee, sir. We’re almost ready to move out.’
Kit turned. Sapper Lewis had emerged from the mess hut and was walking towards him, spilling most of the coffee. An earnest kid of nineteen, he had the gawky enthusiasm of a Great Dane puppy. It made Kit feel about a thousand years old. He took the enamel mug and grimaced as he swallowed.
‘Thank you, Lewis,’ Kit drawled. ‘Other men I know have curvaceous secretaries to bring them coffee in the morning. I have you to bring me something that tastes like freshly brewed dirt.’
Lewis grinned. ‘You’ll miss me when you get home.’
‘I sincerely doubt it.’ Kit took another mouthful of coffee and chucked the rest into the dust as he began to walk away. Not before he’d seen Lewis’s face fall though.
‘Fortunately you make a far better infantryman than a barista,’ he called back over his shoulder. ‘Bear that in mind when you get home, won’t you?’
‘Yes, sir!’ Lewis hurried after him. ‘And can I just say
how great it’s been working with you, sir? I’ve learned loads. Before this tour I wasn’t sure I wanted to stay in the army, but watching you has made me decide to go into EOD.’
Kit stopped. Rubbing a hand across his jaw, he turned round.
‘Do you have a girlfriend, Sapper?’
Lewis shifted from foot to foot, his face a mixture of pride and embarrassment. His Adam’s apple bobbed. ‘Yeah. Kelly. She’s expecting a baby in two months’ time. I’m going to ask her to marry me this leave.’
Narrowing his eyes as he looked out to the flat horizon, Kit nodded.
‘You love her?’
‘Yes, sir.’ He scuffed the dust with the toe of his boot. ‘We haven’t been together long, but … yeah. I really love her.’
‘Then take my advice. Learn to make a decent coffee and get yourself a job in Starbucks after all, because love and bomb disposal don’t mix.’ With a cool smile Kit handed the enamel mug back to him. ‘Now, let’s get out there and get this done so we can all go home.’
‘Sorry I’m late.’
Smiling broadly in a way that didn’t remotely suggest contrition and trying not to knock over anyone’s designer beer with her shopping bags, Sophie slid into the chair opposite Jasper at the little metal table.
He eyed the bags archly. ‘I take it you were unavoidably detained in …’ His brows shot up another inch as he saw the discreet logo of Covent Garden’s ‘erotic boutique’ on the corner of the biggest bag. ‘Kit’s in for a treat when he gets home.’
Shoving the bags under the table, Sophie tucked the great big bunch of vibrantly coloured flowers she’d just bought into the empty chair beside her and tried to stop herself from grinning like a love-struck loon.
‘I’ve just spent an indecent amount of money,’ she admitted,snatching up a menu and sliding her sunglasses onto the top of her head to read it. The table Jasper had chosen was in the shade of a red awning, which gave a healthy glow to his poetic pallor. He was so different from Kit it was incredible that they’d believed they were brothers for so long.
‘On some pretty indecent stuff, if I know that shop.’ Jasper peered into a corner of the bag.
‘It’s just a nightdress thing,’ Sophie said hastily, hoping he wouldn’t take
