by Cathryn Hein
‘Can I ask you something?’
‘Anything,’ she said, tickling his sides. ‘I’m all yours. Mind, body and soul. Especially body.’
He didn’t laugh or squirm as he had the night before when she’d discovered his hidden ticklish spots. The serious expression remained in place.
‘Who’s Michael?’
She frowned. Michael? Then she understood. Her eyes slid away from his. Why did he have to ask? Why did he have to spoil this moment, this first, perfect morning with that? Michael Fenton was the last person she wanted to talk about. He was part of a past she’d already left.
‘No one important.’
His expression clouded. ‘Soph, you’re lying, and you never lie. Who is he?’
‘I told you,’ she said, trying to wriggle from under him, ‘he’s no one important.’
He grabbed her arms and turned them over until her scars showed. ‘He did this, didn’t he?’
‘No, Aaron. I did that. No one else. Me.’
He stared at her, blinking.
She pulled her arms from his grip and reached up to hold his face between her hands. This was something he had to understand. He couldn’t keep festering over it. These scars had faded. They no longer held meaning.
‘I’m not doing this with you. You have to stop. I’m responsible for what I did, not Michael. Just like you’re not responsible for Mum. You didn’t kill her. She did that all by herself, just like I did this all by myself. Don’t spoil our first morning together by raking up the past. It’s over, gone forever. I love you. That’s all you need to know.’
He shook his head, then picked up her hands, kissed both palms and pressed them together, holding his kisses against her skin. ‘I don’t deserve you.’
‘Yeah, you do.’ She winked. ‘Now, where were we before you so rudely interrupted?’
‘I think I was about to tell you how much I love you.’
‘Liar,’ she said, wiggling her eyebrows and tugging a hand from his to trace a fingertip down his chest. ‘I think you had more on your mind than love.’
‘You reckon?’
‘I know.’
He tucked a loose hair behind her ear and smiled. ‘You’re beautiful, you know. Inside and out.’
She kissed the tip of his nose. ‘So you’ve said, but if it’s not too much trouble, can we cut the sweet-talk and get on with it? I’ve a lot of catching up to do.’
For a moment, he looked at her, stunned, but then he laughed. ‘Well,’ he said, nuzzling her neck and running warm hands over her fast-rousing body, ‘a good trainer always follows his owner’s orders …’
Acknowledgements
My sincere thanks to Belinda Byrne for her faith in Promises, wonderful editing, and phone calls that leave me grinning. Also to Arwen Summers and the rest of the Penguin team for all their hard work.
To Clare Forster, agent extraordinaire!
To my amazing critique partners, general sounding boards and good friends, Sue and Rach, also Louise and Rebecca who were there during Promises’ genesis.
And, most of all, thanks to Jim. My rock.
MICHAEL JOSEPH
Published by the Penguin Group
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First published by Penguin Group (Australia), 2011
Text copyright © Cathryn Hein 2011
The moral right of the author has been asserted
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
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ISBN: 978-1-74-253394-0
Letter from the Author
Dear Reader,
I hope you enjoyed Sophie’s and Aaron’s story, which is one very close to my heart and was inspired from personal experience. If you'd like to catch up with my other stories, on the following pages are blurbs for my other four novels, The Falls, Rocking Horse Hill, Heartland and Heart of the Valley.
If you'd like to find out more about me and my books, please visit my website. You can also keep up with new releases and gain access to exclusive content, news and giveaways by signing up for my occasional newsletter.
Happy reading!
Cathryn