AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Seconds ticked by before he broke what was becoming an uncomfortable silence. ‘So, how long are you home for?’
‘Three weeks.’ Far out, his five-o’clock shadow gave him a rugged edge she wasn’t used to.
His smile pinched. ‘Gee whizz, you’re not mucking about with getting back to London, hey.’
‘I have to get back for work.’ Her reply was a little defensive.
‘Fair enough.’ He glanced over her shoulder, then back at her. ‘Did your other half come too?’
She shook her head. ‘Oh, no, he couldn’t, he’s super busy.’
You liar liar pants on fire, Samantha Evans, what’s wrong with you?
She watched this lips twitch at one corner, as if that information possibly pleased him, and the fact that it might have pleased her, and it shouldn’t. Couldn’t.
No, Samantha, don’t you dare go back there.
But my god, he smelt so delicious, like leather and horse and earth and so much man. She had to stop herself from leaning in closer and breathing him in deeper because there was something about that scent, his scent, that hit her sweet spot.
As if privy to her thoughts, his lips curled into a charming smile. ‘You should swing on over while you’re here, check out how much my place has changed since you last saw it, and we can maybe go for a fair-dinkum gallop and a dip in the dam afterwards, like the old days, if you want.’
She recalled all the times he’d been there for her, when she and his brother had lovers’ tiffs, or when she was struggling with her maths homework, and especially when … ‘That sounds, nice, I might just do that.’
‘Good, I look forward to it.’ Fire danced in his electric-blue eyes. ‘I hope you remember how to ride a horse like you stole it, because I don’t reckon you’d get much of a chance to gallop through the streets of London like you used to hurtle across the paddocks here.’ There was a slight tremor in his voice, as if he were holding pent-up feelings at bay, and something unfathomable momentarily crashed his steady gaze. ‘Those days were the best, weren’t they?’ he added, after clearing his throat, a dreamy look then crossing his face as though he was right back there, riding his horse alongside her as they laughed into the wind.
Bam, there it was again. That feeling. And right then and there, with the way he looked at her with such intensity, as briefly as it was, she knew he felt the same magnetic pull that she did. And that terrified her. Beyond words. As it seemed to do to him, too. The moment stretched on a little uncomfortably as that faintly familiar longing rose up inside of her. She’d felt the power of it once before, had acted upon it in the heat of the moment, and in doing so had experienced the deepest connection she’d ever felt. And it had scared her enough to run as far and as fast as she could.
Clearing unwanted emotions from her throat, she blinked away the memories of she and Connor and Angus galloping through the paddocks, bareback and free, as the sensation from Connor’s tender touches and lingering caresses, from so long ago, echoed inside her.
‘Well, I should let you get back to whatever you were doing,’ she said, a little hastily.
‘Yup, the day’s getting away from me.’ He glanced to where a watch would usually be. ‘I’ll catch you soon, Sammie, and we can touch base on the maid of honour and best man wedding duties while we’re at it.’ He flashed her a wicked smile before turning his attention to Shea, who had at some point arrived back at her side. ‘Hey, Shea, tell that fiancé of yours to give me a call when he gets a minute.’
Shea’s smile was filled with warmth. ‘Will do, buddy.’
Somehow, Samantha refrained from buckling at the knees as he put a safe distance between them and turned his focus back on the warm rows of hot pastry delights. A quick sideways glance was met with Shea’s all-seeing one.
‘What?’ She felt like she’d just been caught with her hand in the cookie jar.
‘You know what,’ Shea replied casually, as they headed back outside, and over to where they’d parked.
The chiming of Shea’s mobile thankfully saved her from a reply.
Samantha used the time it took to get into the passenger seat, drag her seatbelt over and clip it in to try and ground herself from the clouds Connor had just lifted her up to and gently placed her upon. She’d forgotten how his smile had always put her at ease, and how his mischievous side had enticed hers. It would be so easy to fall for his charisma and chivalry in the coming weeks. Lord knew it had been an age since she’d been skin on skin with a man. Benjamin had been her last, and even then, it hadn’t felt like it should. But she didn’t have the time, nor the heart, to fall, especially for a man that she had tumbled into bed with before. It had only been the once. But oh my god, she’d never forgotten how he’d made her feel that night, when she’d reached for him to help rid her from the crushing guilt and hurt. But then all she’d been left with the following day, when she’d stood at his twin brother’s funeral and watched the coffin disappear into the fire of the crematorium, was utter shame with her actions.
Her phone call having ended, Shea then dialled Jack’s number through the hands-free connection and filled him in on the details of the caterer’s call as she backed out and headed towards home. Staring out the window, at the stretches of countryside broken up by the occasional farmhouse and outbuildings, Samantha heard Connor’s final words after their night together replaying in her head like an old tape.
I love you, Sammie Evans, I always have and always will.
At the time, so torn and tortured, the L word had been the last thing she’d wanted to hear, especially from Angus’s brother. What would the township think of her getting into a relationship with Connor so soon after the accident? It would have been grounds for painful gossip, gossip her deceased parents were no longer able to remedy, gossip she hadn’t had the courage to face. So she’d filed his declaration away, and had eventually put it down to words said by a caring friend in their mutual time of need. But in those fleeting moments, the ones when she would dare to bring it back out when she felt alone in her marriage – which had been often of late – she’d begun to wonder if he’d really meant it. And if he had, would she have wanted him to?
Maybe she’d fallen for the wrong brother, but it was a little late to remedy that.
Way too much life had passed between then and now.
CHAPTER
7
