His heart was beating wildly.
It wasn’t true. It couldn’t be true.
He searched inside himself, but every turn he made inside his head led him back to the same place.
He loved her. He loved Dora.
Part of him wanted to wake her and tell her—but what was he expecting her to
say?
He had cornered her, coaxed her and nudged her into agreeing to this marriage for Archie’s sake. He’d offered sex and security.
Love hadn’t been mentioned.
And, however much it might hurt to say nothing, he knew he couldn’t mention it now.
CHAPTER NINE
DORA WOKE AT DAWN.
The sun was still low, just a soft veil of light, but it was enough to pull her from the cocoon of sleep and make her eyelids flutter open.
Charlie’s arm was resting on her thigh, the heat from his body seeping into her skin, and for a moment she let herself enjoy the weight and warmth of it, the pictures it made in her head.
She wanted to believe in those pictures—wanted them to be real.
Her eyes rested on his face. A lock of dark hair had fallen across his forehead and she had to clench her hands to stop herself from reaching to smooth it away.
No wonder she had let her thoughts stray into the dangerous territory of what it would feel like if this was real. If they were really in love. He was so beautiful, sexy and smart, and unbelievably good in bed.
But it was just like in the movies.
Two people had to want to walk into the sunset. And for Charlie the sunset was nothing more than a giant distant star sinking beneath the horizon. It held no magic or romance—or at least not with her.
And, to be fair, he had never so much as hinted that it did. He had been honest about his motives for inviting her to Macau, and for asking her to marry him.
Archie was his sole concern.
Hers too.
Love—the walking into the sunset kind anyway—was beyond her. Della might have thought Dora just needed to meet the ‘right’ man, but she knew she wasn’t brave enough to risk having the stuffing ripped out of her.
She was just confused. So many things had happened in such a short time in the blur of her new life. Della’s accident, becoming Archie’s guardian, meeting Charlie...
And then there was the past, always tripping her up, making her want things she knew she couldn’t let herself have even if they were on offer.
Her chest tightened, so that she felt suddenly breathless, trapped.
Lifting Charlie’s arm, she slid across the bed and sat up.
It took a few moments for her to make sense of the cabin, and then, picking up the shirt he’d discarded so hastily last night, she shrugged it on and crept from the room.
There was nobody about on deck, and she walked towards the front of the boat. After the warmth of the cabin it was refreshingly cool and, leaning against the handrail, she gazed across the water, breathing in deeply.
The sun was inching higher, its light getting brighter, shifting from white to yellow. But on the mainland the hotels and casinos were still lit up, the flickering reds and greens and pinks drawing people in with promises of winning big.
Wrapping her arms around her waist, she hugged herself tightly.