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She gave a bitter laugh. It was ironic that he didn’t want to talk when she had finally worked up the courage to come clean. He deserved the truth and she hoped that her family would forgive her, but she just couldn’t do this to him.

What did they say? Prepare for the worst and hope for the best.

Elsie walked into the bedroom and pulled out her suitcase.

* * *

During his absence, Elsie kept busy sorting and folding her clothes with methodical precision. She tried not to allow his reaction to his mother’s situation to influence her thinking. He obviously cared about his mother’s happiness. She knew full well that there would be no negotiating his response to her own personal bombshell, there would be no quiet reflection, probably no quiet at all…

She knew with equal certainty that for her there would be no getting over him; she was being expelled from her own personal paradise. Life would go on, but she would never escape the love she felt for him and part of her didn’t want to.

The only question was when she was going to tell him.

When her phone rang, she jumped a mile. She looked at the caller ID and saw it was her twin at the same moment she saw she had ten missed calls.

‘Emily?’

‘Elsie… Thank God!’ At the sound of her sister’s voice, the tears started leaking from her eyes. ‘Don’t you ever pick up?’ she pushed on, speaking in a rapid staccato, not allowing Elsie to get a word in, even had the massive emotional lump in her throat allowed it. At least her twin couldn’t see the tears flowing down her face.

‘I’ve been worried sick and, before you ask, there’s nothing wrong—everything is great! You don’t have to marry anyone. Rupert and Harriet are getting divorced. Turns out she has been having an affair. How great is that? It’s all sorted. You’ve got to come home! You don’t have to marry anyone and…oh, I almost forgot… I’m engaged! It’ll be a double celebration next Saturday. You still there, Elsie?’

Elsie swallowed and swiped at the moisture on her face with the back of her hand.

‘I’m here, Em, and I want to get married. I want to get married to Leandro more than…just more, but I’m probably coming home,’ she admitted, pushing away the bleak resignation and clinging to the thread of hope, even though it was ultrafine, but then love wasn’t logical. ‘I’m packed. I’ll let you know the flight times… Sorry, Em, I have to go. Oh, and c…congratulations.’

Her voice broke on the word and she ended the call with a sob.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

HER HEART THUMPED when Leandro walked into the bedroom, but the haggard, haunted expression in his starkly beautiful face stopped her in her tracks. It almost seemed as if he had aged ten years in the last two days.

‘Did you get a swim?’ she asked, despite the fact she had vowed she would get straight to the point.

He shook his head, his dead-looking stare coming briefly to life as he studied her face. A moment later, a frown appeared. ‘You’ve been crying.’

Elsie lifted a hand to her cheek and gave a rueful shrug. Cold water could only go so far when it came to repairing the results of a ten-minute crying jag.

‘We need to talk,’ she said quietly.

‘I have spoken to my mother and reassured her.’

His eyes followed the swift, sure movement of her hands as she absently gathered the long, heavy strands of her hair and knotted it at her nape in a self-supporting swirl.

‘How do you do that—make it stay there with no hairpins?’

It was fascinating, but not as fascinating as her heavy spun-silk hair. He loved the feel of it brushing his chest when she rode him, an expression of intent concentration on her face as she worked her way to orgasm.

How many more times could he do that? How many more beautiful memories would he be able to make, to live off for the rest of his years of bloody, soulless duty?

‘I don’t know, Mum taught us when we were small. I’m glad about that. But that’s not what I need to talk about, Leandro.’

‘Can we leave the talking until tomorrow?’

She sighed out her frustration, pushing away the temptation to agree. ‘I need to talk and you need to listen, Leandro.’

After a moment he nodded and came towards her.

Tomorrow, this will all be a memory, she repeated in her head. The mantra was not soothing, just saddening.