Duty At What Cost?

He gave her such an open, clear-eyed smile before turning back to the stove that Ava felt something inside her shift and fall into place. Shell-shocked, she couldn’t move.

She loved him.

She had been trying to ignore the feelings burbling away inside her for so long but...mon Dieu, she had loved him from that first night. Had she? A lump rose in her throat as she recalled how gentle he had been with her mother’s cat. At the time she’d told him that she hated him but she hadn’t. Not even then.

‘You okay?’

Ava glanced up from the terracotta tiles to find Wolfe holding a spatula and wearing a frown. ‘Fine.’

‘Well, that’s a surefire answer saying that you’re not.’

‘No. I am.’ She strolled into the room as if she hadn’t just made a discovery that would irrevocably change her for ever. She couldn’t tell him. Not only were her emotions too new, she didn’t know how to tell him. And she was pretty sure he wasn’t feeling the same thing she was, so she smiled instead. ‘Really. I was just thinking of last night.’

‘Good to know I make you scowl.’

‘The other part.’

‘Come here.’ He pulled her in close. Kissed her mouth.

His warmth made her heart swell but she didn’t let herself think it was more than it was. ‘The eggs are burning,’ she said faintly, wanting space.

His gaze was piercing, as if he was trying to read her, and she painted on another smile. ‘I’ll get the orange juice.’

‘I’ve made fresh coffee, as well.’

Coffee. Yes. That would help her jumbled thoughts.

She opened the fridge. Funny, but when she had imagined realising she was in love with someone it hadn’t been anything like this. She’d imagined she might be at a restaurant, or in bed, somewhere cosy, wrapped up in her lover’s embrace. One of them would say it and then the other...they’d smile, share the moment...

‘It’s right there.’

Ava started as Wolfe reached around her and pulled a carton from the door, his other hand resting on the small of her back.

‘Are you sure you’re okay?’

‘Positive.’ Positive she might never be okay again. That was what she was positive about. Because Wolfe wouldn’t want her love. He wasn’t a man who wanted any woman’s love. In fact if she told him how she felt it would probably send him running in the other direction.

* * *

Ava pulled her foot up onto a wooden chair and hooked her arm around her knee, nursing what remained of her coffee in both hands. They’d decided to eat their food outside by the infinity pool, but although the view was magnificent she had barely paid it any attention.

‘So, tell me why you joined the army,’ she asked, intrigued by some of the stories he’d told her about the time he’d spent with Gilles when they were younger.

Wolfe set down his fork and pushed his empty plate away, reaching for his own coffee. He took his time stretching out his long legs, his jeans riding so low she could just see the ridge of that fascinating muscle that wrapped around his hipbones where his T-shirt didn’t quite cover him.

‘Couldn’t think of anything else to do with my time.’

‘Really?’ She dragged her eyes back to his face as if she hadn’t just been ogling him. She didn’t believe a man with his keen intelligence would make such a decision so casually. If she had to guess she’d say it had something to do with his need to protect everyone around him. Like his brother. His father. ‘That was it?’

His eyes narrowed, as if he could discern her thoughts. ‘Don’t make me out to be some sort of hero, Ava, because I’m not.’

Even without the cool words she could see the sudden tension in him and wondered if it was because this was the first personal question she had asked him since that night he had talked about his family.

Trying not to let his response completely ruin the mood between them, Ava cast her eyes over the golden cliff-faces and tiered flowerbeds that tripped down towards a horseshoe-shaped blue lagoon. ‘Wow, this view is really something. Is the whole island this beautiful?’

‘The other side gets the wind straight off the Atlantic, so it’s a bit scrubbier, but basically yes.’

‘Do you come here often?’

‘Not as often as I’d like.’

Ava sighed. ‘It’s so relaxing here. It’s as if the real world is another planet. If I had my way I’d stay for ever.’