‘You saved me the trouble of coming for you.’
At his words her head jerked round. Alaric had intended to come for her? For a foolish instant hope quivered in her heart, only to be dashed by harsh reality. No doubt he’d planned to deliver his apology and suggest she leave, rather than stay and embarrass them both.
‘I’ve come for my passport.’ The words came out full of strident challenge.
Did she imagine a stiffening of his tall frame?
‘You want to leave?’ He frowned.
‘Yes!’ How could he even ask it? ‘But I need my passport and I’m told I need your permission to get it.’
‘What if I asked you to stay?’ His eyes probed, laser bright.
‘No!’ Her response was instantaneous. He couldn’t be so cruel as to expect her to remain. Seeing him, always from a distance, would be unbearably painful.
A sound broke across her thoughts and she looked up. Alaric’s mouth had twisted up at one side.
Surely he wasn’t laughing at her?
Indignation and fury warred with hurt. A voice inside protested Alaric would never be so deliberately cruel. He wasn’t callous like Patrick.
But she knew to her cost men were cruel.
She spun on her foot and marched to the door. She’d get a lawyer to retrieve her passport.
Tamsin was reaching for the door handle when something shot over her shoulder. A hand slammed onto the door, holding it shut. Alaric’s arm stretched in front of her and her skin prickled at how close he stood. His heat was like a blaze at her back.
‘No!’ The single syllable cracked like a gunshot. ‘You’re not leaving. Not like this.’
Alaric’s chest ached as he forced himself to drag in oxygen. His pulse thundered, pumping adrenaline through his body. The sight of Tamsin storming out of his life had been impossible to bear.
‘I refuse to stay and be the butt of your humour.’
He stared at her glossy hair, her slim shoulders and lithe body and felt heat punch his belly. She thought he’d laughed at her?
‘Tamsin, no. It’s not like that.’ It had been more a grimace of pain than anything else. Pain that slashed bone deep. ‘If I was laughing it was at myself.’
‘I don’t understand.’ She didn’t move a muscle, but neither did she try to wrestle the door open.
‘I told Raul I was going to ask you to stay. I was just remembering his response.’
‘You talked to your cousin about me?’
She turned, looking up with wide amber-gilt eyes that melted his bones. He shuddered with the effort of controlling the emotions threatening to unravel inside.
‘He thought I’d have no trouble persuading you. Then, as soon as I suggested it, you instantly objected.’ Objected! She’d turned ashen. As if she couldn’t think of anything worse than being with him.
Fear petrified him, as strong as in that soul-wrenching moment when he’d seen her in the path of the avalanche.
What if he couldn’t persuade her? Had he hurt her so much he’d destroyed his last tentative hope?
He refused to countenance the thought.
‘I don’t understand.’ She blinked and looked away, as if she couldn’t bear to look at him. He didn’t blame her.
His self-control splintered. He lifted his hand, stroking knuckles down her velvet cheek. His fingers hummed as a sensation like electricity sparked beneath his skin. She gulped and a tiny fragment of hope glowed in the darkness of his heart.
‘I don’t want you to leave. I won’t allow it.’ He cupped her chin and lifted her face till she had no option but to meet his gaze. The jolt of connection as their eyes clashed shook him to the core.
‘You have no right to talk about allowing.’ The belligerent set of her jaw spoke both of pain and strength. His heart twisted as he recognised one of the things that drew him to her was her indomitable spirit.
‘No. I have no right.’ The pain of these past weeks returned full force. ‘But I’m too selfish to give up. I’ll make you stay. Whether I have to persuade you or seduce you or imprison you in the highest tower.’ Her lips parted in shock. The urge to kiss her soft mouth was almost more than he could bear.
‘You’re crazy.’ She stepped away, only to back into the door. Alaric paced forward till a hair’s breadth separated them. Tamsin drew a strained breath and the sensation of her breasts brushing against him made him groan. It had been so long since he’d held her. Too long since he’d kissed her.
‘No!’ She held him at bay.
She didn’t want him after what he’d done.
‘Tamsin, I…’ He hesitated, groping for words to express unfamiliar feelings. Feelings he hadn’t believed in before her.