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‘You didn’t have to do that, tonight,’ she managed. ‘Help me get donations, I mean. I know I’m not your favourite person.’
‘I wanted to.’
‘Thank you.’
They stood again, silent and motionless. The tension cranking up a notch. Something inched down her spine and, if she hadn’t known better, Rae might have wondered if the thermostats hadn’t been set a touch too high. It was paradoxical, then, that she shivered.
She might have known the ever astute Myles wouldn’t miss it.
‘Cold?’
He hitched one eyebrow. As though he knew it was pure molten heat burning though her. She narrowed her eyes.
‘A little.’
‘Liar,’ he whispered.
The wry smile tugged at the corners of his mouth, snagging her gaze, pinning it, and doing things to her insides that he had no business doing. Her stomach couldn’t have been more fluttery if it had turned into the lepidoterarium where last year’s fundraiser had been held. But infinitely worse than that was the way a fire was roaring deep inside her, much, much lower down. The smouldering embers making heat, and desire, and need pool between her legs.
What was the matter with her that she was so incredibly attracted to this man? Even after all these years. He was like an insect that had crawled under her skin and was itching her from the inside out. It made no sense.
She would be wise to remember that Myles had never said that he believed her explanations as to what had happened with Justin, just that it was difficult to change his perceptions. And the truth was that he’d never even tried to explain his own actions that night he’d rejected her all those years ago. Yet she still felt as if she weren’t herself. That she hadn’t found herself. Worse, there was no denying the electricity that sparked and arced between her and Myles.
So many years later and she was pretty much in the same position she’d been in all those years ago.
‘You know my sisters will give me the third degree next time I see them?’ She swallowed hard, trying to loosen her dry tongue. To find something—anything—to say to break the silence. ‘They’ll want to know exactly how I came to be in contact with you again. And how you came to escort me to that ball.’
‘I can’t say I give a damn what that lot want to know.’
He took a step towards her, his voice unbelievably husky. Sexy.
She should back away. The idea of something happening between them was insane. And yet she couldn’t bring herself to move a muscle. All she could think about was how much she longed to tell him the truth. But that was madness. The whole world had already decided what they knew about her to be true. Whatever she said, Myles wasn’t going to believe her.
And did it even matter? In a few days she’d be gone. Thousands of miles away on the month-long posting that she’d told him about earlier that evening.
By the time she returned, Rafe would have resolved the issue of the death threats and life would be back to normal. No more bodyguard. No more Myles.
The last thing she needed to do was complicate it now.
He took another step towards her.
‘I’m not who you think I am, you know,’ she choked out in panic.
She hated that he pulled a face. She was suddenly so desperate for him to know the truth. As if, if she could convince him that she wasn’t the girl the media had set her up to be—had never been that girl, not really, not intentionally—then maybe there was hope she could one day convince the rest of the world.
‘Stop, Rae. You were better off when you didn’t play that game.’
He was so close now she could almost feel the heat bouncing off his body.
‘It isn’t a game,’ she managed shakily.
‘I’ve seen enough about you over the years to know it’s always a game with you lot.’ The words were ground out almost as though he was acting against his own will.
And he still didn’t step away. He didn’t break eye contact.
‘Myles—’
‘Stop talking,’ he bit out.
