He looked rich, sophisticated and self-confident. Most women’s idea of a perfect partner. And he wanted her back.
It seemed that shattered dreams could be glued together again after all.
She looked at him, searching her brain and her heart for the answer.
However much he’d hurt her, they had been together for six years.
She’d been expecting to exchange vows with this man.
She could still have the life she’d mapped out for herself.
Oliver woke to find the other half of the bed empty.
He rolled over, his body reacting instantly to the subtle scent of Helen’s perfume still clinging to her pillow.
Where was she?
They’d made love all night, so ravenous for each other that they hadn’t broken contact until the light had started to intrude through the curtains. They’d savoured and lingered and feasted on each other until, clinging together in blissful, satiated exhaustion, they’d finally fallen asleep.
And for the first time in his life he’d laid himself bare emotionally. Stripped himself naked in every sense, willing to trust this precious woman with his heart.
For the first time in his life, he’d said I love you.
He covered his eyes with his forearm and cursed softly, grimly aware that despite the unbelievable physical intimacies they’d shared, Helen hadn’t once said those words back to him.
But, then, Helen didn’t think that love could happen so quickly.
Or did she still think that she was in love with David?
Deciding that he’d given her enough space, Oliver pulled on jeans and a jumper and padded downstairs, pausing on the bottom step as he heard Helen’s voice coming from the kitchen.
He frowned.
He hadn’t heard the door.
‘I?
?m really glad you came, David,’ she was saying and Oliver froze.
David? She was talking to David?
And she was glad he’d come?
Unprepared for the pain that seared his chest, Oliver pushed open the door of his sister’s kitchen and saw Helen wrapped in a man’s arms.
David’s arms.
‘Excuse me.’ If he’d had his way he wouldn’t even have announced himself, but to make his escape he needed his jacket and his car keys and both were in the kitchen.
He cast one long look over the man who had once been Helen’s fiancé and who was obviously destined to hold that position again. If he hadn’t heard those words himself—I’m really glad you came, David—he would have flattened the guy for the way he’d treated Helen.
But clearly such heroics were uncalled for.
So instead he walked calmly into the kitchen, trying not to notice that Helen was still in her dressing-gown. The thought that she was still naked under there filled him with almost unbearable tension.
Last night she’d been his.
Every warm, feminine inch of her.