To Have A Heart (A New Adventure Begins - Star Elite 7)

But she was.

Mallory was right before him.

Alive.

As passionately enchanting as he could have hoped his future wife would be.

It was that thought that gave him a moment’s pause. While a passionate kiss on a moonlit night with a woman as beautiful as Mallory was something no sane man would ever turn down, he wasn’t prepared to sacrifice his bachelorhood for it – was he?

Could Mallory ever be his wife?

“What is it?” Mallory asked when she felt his withdrawal.

Physically, Callum didn’t move. He just seemed to distance himself by staring at the floor blankly, as if his mind was a million miles away. She knew then that their wonderful embrace was over. While she wanted to weep for the loss of it, Mallory also wanted to find out why Callum had so brutally withdrawn.

She felt cold. Bereft. Alone. Scared. At a loss to explain what had happened. More confused than she had ever been, but so desperate to step back into his arms that she almost reached out to him. It was only that awful distance that stopped her.

“The others will come out to look for us soon. I don’t want them to catch us like this. It changes everything.”

“How? This is between us, Callum.”

Mallory hated the thought that Callum might go inside and tell his colleagues what they had done. Surely, he would be more of a gentleman than that, wouldn’t he? Mallory didn’t know him well enough to be able to say if he would or not.

Another stark reminder that I don’t really know him.

“Look, my colleagues are a little different to most men.”

“I know,” Mallory interrupted. “You work for the Star Elite.”

“No. It’s not that. Well, not entirely. My colleagues will view us as being together because I was the one who was sent to get you out of Melrose House. I have had to get you to trust me to get you to this far. Consequently, my colleagues will talk to me if they want you to do something. Moreover, if they know we are outside, they will suspect we are talking, or kissing, or something. While they will give us time to sort ourselves out, they do still have a duty to make sure we are safe. They will also see to it that your virtue is protected.”

Mallory’s brows shot up. “I didn’t intend to embarrass you.”

“It isn’t that,” Callum sighed.

Mallory suspected it was. A part of her that had once been blossoming and full of hope suddenly began to wither again, like a plant without water.

“My colleagues are well aware that I am not married, and you are beautiful.”

With that, Callum forced himself to take several steps away from her.

Mallory’s heart fluttered wildly upon hearing that he thought she was beautiful. An instinctive denial hovered on her lips, but he continued talking before she could speak.

“I think you should know that some of my colleagues in the Star Elite have been tasked with similar missions.”

“Rescuing women?”

Callum nodded. He seemed so reluctant to say what he did next that Mallory was intrigued.

“Unfortunately, they have fallen in love with the women they were ordered to rescue and protect. They were single at the time, and so were the women so essentially there is nothing wrong with their conduct. However, it resulted in the men marrying the women.”

“But you don’t intend to get married.”

Mallory wasn’t at all sure what she should think. She was deflated, if she was honest, but also stubbornly reluctant to admit that the passion they had both enjoyed just now was wrong in any way.

How can something that felt so right be so wrong? So, he doesn’t want to get married. Nor do I for that matter.

Where that left her was beyond her.