To Love Honour and Disobey

Failed.

There was nothing else for it. They were just going to have to do more of what they’d been too busy to do before.

Talk.

‘Seb?’

‘Mmm-hmm.’

‘Are you awake?’

‘Obviously.’

She grinned in the darkness and rolled onto her side to face him. ‘Did you tell your parents you got married?’

‘Hell, no,’ he laughed.

‘Why not?’

‘Well, for one thing you walked out before I had the chance. And for another they have enough failed marriages between them not to need me adding to the tally.’

‘Your parents are divorced?’

‘Three times each. Mum is on her fourth marriage now. Dad’ll no doubt play catch-up soon.’

Ana wished like hell she could see his face right now. ‘You’re kidding.’

‘Would I make that up?’ Wow.

What an experience. ‘When did they divorce each other?’ He sighed. ‘Do you really want to know this?’

‘Yes.’ ‘They separated when I was twelve. Mum got married again that year. Dad the year after that. They both divorced again the year after that. To be honest, then I start to lose track.’

‘What happened to you?’

‘What do you mean what happened to me?’ Defensive as ever there was.

‘Who did you live with?’

‘I split my time between them.’

Ana winced. She hadn’t had the greatest home life—but at least it had been stable. One house, one lot of guardians. ‘What were the step-parents like?’

‘They varied.’ ‘Did you have stepbrothers or sisters?’

‘Occasionally. For a while.’ His answer was supposed to be a conversation closer.

But she ignored it, because that must have been hard, because it explained just a little about him. ‘But you don’t have other siblings.’

‘No.’

Utterly closed now and, as if to reinforce it, he pushed the questions onto her. ‘What about you? How did your aunt and uncle take it?’

‘I’ve never told them,’ she said baldly, still thinking over his revelations.

‘Really?’ He grunted. ‘When did you last see them?’

‘Oh, I don’t know. Over a year ago.’

‘Over a year ago? As in before it happened?’

‘Yeah.’ She shrugged off his incredulity in the darkness. ‘We’re not close.’

‘Obviously.’ She could hear his frown. ‘Things really were bad for you, weren’t they?’

Oh, so he was thinking she had it worse than him now? Her heart lifted a notch. ‘Not that bad, Seb. I was fed, clothed. But I just didn’t fit in.’ She hadn’t been physically neglected, but she had been emotionally abandoned—and hurt. ‘I wasn’t what they wanted and I couldn’t figure out how to be what they wanted.’ She’d tried so hard for so long but it had never been enough. They hadn’t wanted her, or loved her. ‘We send the odd email.’ She sighed. ‘It wasn’t their fault—they didn’t ask to be landed with me. They did their best in a bad situation.’

‘You’re too generous. They should have loved to have you. They should have loved you.’ There was a long pause. ‘You were too generous with me, too.’

Why, because she’d wanted to give him her heart? Because she’d believed in the happy ever after? At least now his attitude towards it made more sense. He must have thought she was so naïve.

‘I’m sorry I hurt you,’ he said quietly.

She could actually smile and shake her head. ‘It wasn’t all your fault.’ And it wasn’t—some of what had happened could never have been predicted. ‘I said yes, didn’t I? If I hadn’t been so foolish it wouldn’t have happened at all.’ She’d wanted to believe so badly that someone could love her—that someone could fall completely in love with her like that. Oh, yes, totally fairy tale. Totally naïve. But she looked back on it with less of the total cringe factor now. Because while it hadn’t been love, there had been no denying the lust—there was still no denying the lust. ‘You were like this pirate—swooping in and taking what you wanted.’

‘Yeah, well, I’ve learned my lesson.’

And maybe he had. He certainly wasn’t pushing for what he wanted now. Even though a tiny part of her wanted him to, the rest of her actually respected him for it.

She pondered what he’d told her, couldn’t stop another question going into the personal. ‘Is that why you do divorce cases? Because of your parents?’

‘Partly. I’d always wanted to go into law, and dispute resolution seemed the natural specialty, seeing I had a lot of practice with it.’