Rebel's Bargain

She spun around on her heel. ‘I’ve got to go.’

His arm shot out as if to grab her then dropped to his side. ‘Please.’

The one word drilled through her panic. She stilled, though her pulse raced like an out of control train.

‘It’s taken me days to track you down. You left without a trace. No one seemed to know where you’d gone.’

‘Why do you want to see me?’

He rubbed a hand through his hair, tumbling glossy locks into disarray. ‘I need to talk with you.’

Poppy shuddered. ‘I can’t.’ She couldn’t put herself through that particular brand of torture again.

‘Please, Poppy.’ His voice was urgent. It held a note she’d never heard before, one that turned her churning belly inside out. How much more could she bear? ‘I heard you out. Won’t you hear me?’

Across the room Poppy saw heads craning to watch.

‘Not here.’ The words spilled from her lips before she could snatch them back.

‘No.’ His hand curved around her elbow and shimmering heat suffused her. She wanted to yank out of his hold but her brain sent the wrong signals to her body. ‘I’ve got a car outside.’

‘I’m not going anywhere with you.’

His grim smile told her he’d anticipated that. ‘Do you want to hear what I have to say with waiters listening in? Or here in the lobby?’ He glanced at the onlookers. ‘I suppose I could book us a room—’

‘You’ve made your point, Orsino.’ She grabbed her purse. ‘Let’s go.’

‘This is your apartment?’ The sense of space and light, as well as the magnificent photo of dawn breaking over a desert somewhere, made it instantly recognisable.

‘It is.’

She swung around but there was nothing to read in Orsino’s face apart from tension around the lips. A tension echoed in her own body.

Why was she doing this? Why had she let him bring her here instead of demanding answers in the car? Because sharing the intimacy of his sports car, cut off from the grey world sliding by around them, had been too much like sharing the intimacy of his bed. She’d felt again that tantalising sense that nothing mattered except the pair of them.

Abruptly Poppy turned. She strode to the door leading to the roof terrace. She couldn’t bear to be closed in with him even in this airy room.

Orsino was there first, opening the door and ushering her out, turning on outdoor heaters to dispel the winter chill.

But nothing could counter the cold creeping into Poppy’s veins. She turned her back on the stunning city view and leaned against the railing, facing him.

‘I’m waiting.’

He stood before her, his big hands clenching and releasing, a muscle jerking in his jaw.

‘Orsino?’ Poppy frowned. Why didn’t he spit it out? He’d never been anything less than articulate, even in his fury. Especially in his fury.

One tanned hand ploughed through his hair. He stood so close she saw the new scars on it, even imagined it shook.

Sudden panic gripped her. Surely there wasn’t some complication from his injuries? Could that explain why he looked so haggard?

She took a half step towards him then stopped as he spoke. She wouldn’t have recognised Orsino’s voice, wouldn’t have believed it to be his, except she saw his lips move.

‘You said I never loved you. I didn’t care enough to stay.’ His eyes bored into her. ‘You’re right that I never said it, never—’ His voice cracked and he scrubbed a hand over his jaw.

Poppy’s heart contracted. So, he wasn’t going to deny it. She felt the last tiny bud of hope wither.

‘Nothing had prepared me for you, for the way I’d feel about you.’ His lips curved in a travesty of a smile that wrenched at something deep inside. ‘Women were always easy for me, you see. I never had to try hard.’ He shook his head. ‘But with you, right from the first it was different.’

Poppy realised her breathing had stopped and had to drag in air. ‘How?’

‘How? I couldn’t take you for granted. I didn’t want to. I … needed you, right from the beginning. You were … important to me.’ Orsino’s laugh was harsh. ‘I’m not explaining this well.’

‘Just tell me.’ She felt stretched too tight, yearning for the impossible, forcing herself to stay where she was, hands braced behind her on the railing.

‘I couldn’t not have you. I’m not just talking about in my bed, but in my life.’ He paused to drag in a stertorous breath. ‘I’d have done anything to keep you, even marry you.’

‘You make it sound like a death sentence.’ That was her prerogative, surely. She was the one who distrusted marriage.