His whole body ached from their night-long exploration of one another. She’d roused him at some point in the depths of the night with her hand on his cock and her mouth at his ear. Whispering naughty things, communicating her need in soft moans and sharp little gasps. He couldn’t resist her and he’d rolled her beneath him, finding her hot and ready.
But day dawned and reality washed over him like a cold shower. She would be leaving soon, going home to face her problems. Without him.
Of course without you. Did you think that she’d suddenly invite you to go along? You’ve made it clear you don’t want a relationship…so what would you give her?
A week. She was due to fly out on New Year’s Day but he could cancel the hotel booking and convince her to stay with him. Here, in his house and in his bed. This—whatever they wanted to call the simmering attraction between them—was a chance encounter between two people who desperately needed to escape the real world. What was the harm in prolonging that for a week?
The harm is that you’re delaying the inevitable. She will leave and you’ll go back to your old workaholic life.
He threw an arm over his eyes. Maybe if he went back to sleep he could wallow in fantasy land a little longer.
Neve shifted, her pale, brown lashes fluttered but she didn’t wake. Light danced off her long hair, making the dark strands look shot-through with gold.
He’d never believed in fate before. After all, what possible reason could fate have had to steal his parents away? But Neve had landed on his doorstep—or rather, in his kitchen—at a time when he’d needed exactly what she offered. Perspective.
What she’d said last night about his father wanting him to be happy was true. Deep down in his gut, he knew it. The problem was he no longer understood what happy meant.
His father had been so proud of him when he’d been accepted into the law program at The University of Melbourne. It was one of the best in the country, certainly the best in the state. The grin on his father’s face had been so wide, Damian had feared his dad’s head might split his head in two. But his dad never got to see his son graduate, never got to see Damian take the first steps into becoming a formidable presence in Australian law.
The memory of that smile, of the thump as his father’s hand came down on Damian’s back, and of the loud whooping cheer his dad had made, had stayed with Damian. And he’d clung to it like a life raft.
How could he give that up for a shot at something as intangible as happiness?
“I can hear your brain working from here,” Neve’s sleepy voice made his body tingle with anticipation.
“You’ve got that sexy, husky thing going on this morning.” He brushed the hair back from her forehead and pressed his lips to her temple. “I like it.”
She started to respond but then her eyes lit up. “Merry Christmas!”
“Merry Christmas, Neve.”
Tilly, who must have figured out she wasn’t the only one awake, nudged the bedroom door open and started whining for attention. Neve stretched out and Tilly slotted her head into the proffered palm. Seeing those two together filled him with a strange warmth.
His two girls.
Only they weren’t. Neve wasn’t his at all. And it would be crazy to think she might be, since they’d only known one another for a few days. But how else could explain the completeness he felt with the three of them together, like they’d formed the happy little family he’d never thought he’d have?
“I know we’d talked about you going back into the city to stay at the hotel,” he said, temptation getting the better of him. “But you’re already here and it’s such a long drive.”
A smile quirked on her lips. “You want me to stay?”
“Well, the roads might not be clear and you know…” He cleared his throat. “It’s a safety issue.”
“Right, a safety issue.” Her eyes twinkled. “I have to leave on New Year’s Day though. The flight’s booked and I can’t change it.”
“Of course.”
His heart ached at the thought, but even having a few more days with her would be worth it. Then he would move on, appeal the class action ruling and start learning how to be happy.
But he wouldn’t allow himself to get attached to Neve. He’d appreciate the time with her for what it was, a lucky accident that had helped him in a dark time of his life.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Neve dug her toes into the sand and sighed. The sun beat down and she was grateful for the huge, floppy hat Damian had picked out for her at a fancy boutique on the main strip. It was New Year’s Eve and she had a ten a.m. flight the next day.
This past week had been magical. Soon after Christmas, the majority of debris from the storm had been cleared and the beach had called her name. So they’d spent their days sunbathing and cooling off in the waves of the Sorrento Back Beach, taking Tilly for walks, cooking, drinking some damn good Australian wine and having copious amounts of panty-meltingly hot sex.
There was a good chance that Neve had actually died and gone to heaven. Unfortunately, it couldn’t last. She and Damian had held up their deal on Christmas day and while he’d called his sister, she’d called her family. They’d been thrilled to hear she was soon heading home. For good.
Even her brother, who’d admitted he felt a little abandoned by her, understood why she’d left once she’d come clean about her true motives. Tears had finally been shed as they grieved the loss of the mother who’d left them. Now she could close that door and move on, be a more loving stepdaughter to the woman who really had raised her, and be a more committed family member all round.
But a little piece of her soul was breaking at the thought of leaving Damian behind…and Tilly, to whom she’d grown rather attached.
“Can you pass the water?” Damian asked, pushing up to a sitting position.
He looked damn good—the sun loved his skin and had turned it into the golden bronze of a Greek god. Sand stuck to his thick, dark hair and his stubble had turned to a sexy scruff that made her want to kiss him until her cheeks stung.
“Sure.” She dug into the cooler and fished out an icy cold bottle.
He brought it to his lips and tipped his head back, a stray droplet racing towards his jaw and running down his neck. Her mouth watered.
“Want some?” He handed her the bottle and she drank, trying to quench a thirst that wasn’t anything to do with hydration.
“This really is paradise,” she said, looking around. Blue sky stretched out for miles, dotted with clouds so white and fluffy they looked like balls of cotton candy.
“Yeah, it is. You could stay, you know.” He winked as if to prove he was joking, but his tone didn’t sound so nonchalant.
She couldn’t. Kite Harbor was her home and she missed her family like nothing else. For the first time since she’d left, she actually had pangs of homesickness—despite the beauty of this little slice of Australia.
“You know I have to go home.” She scooted closer to him and rested her head on his shoulder. “Why don’t you come with me?”
“You know I have to stay.” He sighed and tilted her face up to his for a searing kiss. The water had cooled his lips and tongue, but his hands were hot on her body. He toyed with the strap of her bikini, a promise to be fulfilled when they returned to the beach house. “I can’t leave those people with nothing. I have to fight for them.”
But what about after that? What about the rest of our lives?
His thumb brushed along her jaw. “I’ve had the most incredible week with you, Neve. I’m going to miss you.”
It wasn’t fair. “What happens now? Do you think you can have the decision overturned?”
He shrugged. “I honestly don’t know, the chances are probably slim. But I have to try.”
“And then what?”
He looked out toward the ocean, his jaw set. “I still want to make my dad proud.”
“I’m sure he’s proud already,” she said. “And you have to start living for you
.”
“I am.” He pulled away and his voice became distant. “I am living for me, Neve. I’m carrying on his good name and that makes me very proud.”
The words stung but she couldn’t resent him for it. He had to live his life and make his own decisions, no matter how much she was going to miss him.
Shortly after, they bundled everything into the car. Tilly was at home because dogs weren’t allowed onto the back beach and she needed to be fed soon. But Neve wasn’t ready for the day to end. If only they could stretch this time out a little longer…
She forced herself to think of her family and the pain eased in her chest ever so slightly. Her mind was a seesaw, swinging back and forth. Never before had she felt quite so torn between two things, not even when she’d left home the first time.
But this was just a holiday fling, wasn’t it? Her heart squeezed instinctively. No, it wasn’t.
It was impossible to deny the feelings anymore. She cared about Damian. A lot. It was crazy and foolish and so unlike her, but she did. She loved the way he cooked her dinner every night, the way he made her body light up like a Christmas tree, the way he was tender and sexy and fiercely competitive—especially when it came to Gin Rummy. She loved the way he worshiped Tilly and treated her like a queen.
She loved him.
If she were in a cartoon, a giant lightbulb would have lit up above her head. Her stomach swished. How had she not seen this coming?
“Come on, slowpoke,” Damian called as he walked up the wood stairs to the parking lot with their belongings bundled up in his arms.
Neve realized she was blocking traffic at the bottom of the stairs and hastily followed him, her bare feet thudding against the wooden steps.
Holy shit, you love him? What the hell were you thinking, falling in love?
Clearly, she hadn’t been thinking. It had just…happened. So hard and fast and unexpected.
The bone-deep completeness she felt with Damian frightened her. How could something so strong be a passing whim?
They reached the car and packed everything into the back of his SUV. Brushing the sand from her legs and shaking out her beach towel, her mind reeled. Being in love didn’t change their circumstances. It didn’t change the thousands of miles that would be put between them tomorrow.
A long distance relationship wouldn’t work, she needed the people she loved to be present. The last thing she wanted was another invisible figure in her life.
“All good?” Damian touched her shoulder.
“Yeah, I’m fine.” She swallowed against the lump in her chest.
“Let’s head home and we can open up a bottle of pinot and then we can make the most of our last night together.” He pushed her up against the passenger side door and brought his lips down to hers.
Her body melted against him, her hands gripping him so tight she was surprised he didn’t flinch. They broke apart only when a group of teenagers walked past, shouting at them to get a room.
“We’re causing a scene,” she said, trying to seem casual while inside she was a raging ball of confusion and despair. “Better take it somewhere private.”
“Let them look.” He ran his hand down her back and filled his palm with the curve of her ass. “They’re just jealous.”
“And you’re insatiable.”
They got into the car and headed back to the beach house. Traffic was heavy and the little seaside town felt more like downtown New York than it did a peaceful holiday destination. Horns honked and the intersections were clogged.
“Is it usually like this?” she asked.
“Every New Year’s Eve it gets rowdy as hell.” He paused at a red light with the turn signal clicking as they waited.
The light turned green and they pulled into the intersection. But a blur of black flashed in Neve’s periphery as a car raced toward them. An alarm sounded in her brain, a fearful pulse of awareness at full volume. A car was going to hit them. She tried to move in her seat but there was nowhere to go.
No, no, no!
She screamed as her whole body tensed up and Damian’s cry filled the air. Then it hit, metal crunched and glass shattered as they skidded across the road.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Neve had experienced some serious hangovers in her day. Like the morning after Oktoberfest, when she’d woken up in a position that looked like a cross between a pretzel and some kind of newfangled type of yoga.
Waking up in hospital after a car accident was like every hangover you’d ever had in your life rolled into one. Her whole body ached from bruises and cuts, and she winced at the bright light streaming in from the window beside her. Her cheek throbbed where it had been stitched up and her chest was mottled with a nasty seatbelt bruise. It hurt with anything more than a shallow breath.
But, after a night of observation, she’d been cleared for release. No head injuries, no broken bones. Not even a fracture. Lucky didn’t begin to describe it.
“Damian?” She reached for the bed’s remote control.
The clatter of hospital activity went on outside her room and Damian was nowhere to be found. Snatches of memory came to her; Damian’s harsh cry as the car hit, him calling her name over and over like a chant. Swearing, pleading.
Not again, not again, not again.
Neve was certain she would never ever forget him muttering those words as he squeezed her hand in the ambulance. He’d walked away with barely a scratch since the car had hit the passenger side dead on. They’d given her something for the pain, which had made her groggy, and she hadn’t been able to form the words to comfort him as she wanted to.
Her clumsy fingers finally found the right button and the bed made a humming sound as it slowly tilted her up to sitting position. Her beach bag sat on the visitor’s chair next to the bed, the only splash of color against the blindingly white background of the hospital room. There wasn’t a sign Damian had ever been with her, not a jacket nor a pair of sunglasses. Not even the lingering scent of his shampoo.
She blinked, trying to get her eyes to adjust, but they continued to swim. That’s when a fat tear dropped down onto her cheek and rolled slowly towards her mouth. She wiped it away with the back of her hand, cursing herself. This was no time to lose her shit.
Would he really have left her at the hospital all alone?
It would be impossible for her to imagine what he must be going through right now. Was he freaking out having to deal with another car accident? Or had he decided that being by her side now went beyond the realms of their fling?
A nurse entered the room and checked the chart at the end of the bed. She fussed over Neve, firing questions at her in a broad, no-nonsense Australian accent.
“You’ve been cleared for release, but the doctor is going to come in shortly to have a quick chat about your prescription. I understand you’re going to be flying soon?” the nurse asked.
“That’s right.”
“Okay. The doctor will give you a letter to accompany your medication in case they give you any trouble going through customs.” She smiled. “It should be fine, but better safe than sorry.”
“Thank you.” Neve picked at the edge of the bedsheet.
“The main desk can arrange a taxi if you don’t have anyone to drive you home.”
“Okay.” Neve’s throat was dry and she struggled to swallow. “Has anyone been in while I was sleeping?”
The nurse paused, her sympathetic expression making Neve’s stomach turn. “I haven’t seen anyone today, but the hospital is very busy. A lot of people come and go, so it’s very possible that someone stopped by but left you to sleep.”
“Right.”
Her head pressed back against the pillows as the nurse left the room, and Neve gritted her teeth. She refused to believe he’d abandoned her.
The last week they’d spent together had been magical, dream-like. Damian had doted on her day and night, cooking lunches and dinners, driving her up and down the Mornington Peninsula coastline. They’d taken Til
ly for long walks every morning and spent every night learning each other’s bodies. He’d brought her a pleasure she’d never known possible, the kind that she’d only thought existed in fiction.
But he was real, what they had was real.
Neve didn’t believe that your life flashed before your eyes in some kind of blurry-edged montage right before a life-threatening incident. But the one thought that had raced through her mind right before they crashed was whether or not Damian would be okay. If she’d died, he would have been the last thing she saw, the last thing on her mind.
And for some crazy reason, that comforted her.
She loved him. It was a fresh feeling, still small and full of unrealized potential—more like a rosebud than a fully bloomed flower. But given a little sunlight and water she knew it would grow into something beautiful.
Before she left Australia, she would tell him how she felt.
Damian paced up and down the hospital hallway, his feet tracing and retracing the same line back and forth while he tried to keep a lid on his panic. He tried to block out the stomach-churning stench of antiseptic and whatever else it was that gave hospitals their awful smell. The second he’d stepped through the front door he’d wanted to hurl, memories rushing at him thick and fast.
He’d been so preoccupied with getting back to the beach house so they could make the most of their remaining timing together, he hadn’t seen then black SUV running a red light. The driver—a stupid kid who’d had his license only a few weeks—was also in the hospital.
The swirl of ‘what ifs’ assaulted his brain, memories and fears dueling noisily within him.
He’d walked away with barely a scratch. It was almost as if he hadn’t been in the car with her. His chest ached and he realized he’d been holding his breath.
“Hello?” Annabel’s voice caught him off guard and then he remembered he’d dialed her number. “Damian, are you there?”
“Yeah.” He sighed, pressing the phone closer to his ear. “Sorry, I got distracted.”
“How’s Neve?” Annabel’s voice was taut with worry. “How are you doing? I know you hate hospitals. I’m so sorry I’m not home.”
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