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Watching his expression grow blunt and tight, she shook her head. ‘You have a one-track mind, Rollo Fleming.’
‘Only with you. And if we weren’t being forced into a state of celibacy—’
‘It’s only been a couple of hours.’
Glancing at his watch, he grinned. ‘Five hours and seventeen minutes.’
It was stupid, but the fact that he was counting the minutes made her feel ridiculously happy. The urge to tell him so was almost overwhelming. But instead she shook her head.
‘Only another day to go and then we’ll be back at the apartment and we can do whatever we want, wherever we want.’
He ran his finger slowly down her arm. ‘I thought I was the cold-blooded one,’ he said softly.
She hesitated, and then took a breath, fear and hope tangling inside her. ‘Of course, you could just tell James the truth. About why you want the building.’
He didn’t reply—just stared past her at the tumbling waves so that she thought he hadn’t heard her.
Finally he turned and gave her a small, polite smile. ‘I don’t think that will work.’
‘Why not?’ There was a knot in her stomach. Biting her lip, she tried to keep her voice steady. ‘He wants to sell to someone with family values. You only want that building to keep a promise to your father.’
He was still smiling, but his fingers felt suddenly rigid against her skin. ‘And how do I explain us? What “family values” does our sham engagement represent?’
There was no easy way to answer that.
She drew in a deep breath. ‘It was just an idea.’
‘Are you having second thoughts?’
His eyes on hers were dark and tormented. She shook her head, bewildered by the sudden shift in his manner. ‘Of course not. I like the Dunmores, and I don’t like lying to them. But my loyalty’s with you, Rollo. It will always be.’
He nodded, and some of the tension in him eased. ‘Always as in for ever?’
She nodded. ‘I know how much this deal means to you.’
She stared at him, blindsided by longing and hope and fear, wanting to speak, to go further, to risk everything. But instead she wrapped her fingers more tightly around his and squeezed.
‘It means a lot to me too.’
She swallowed; her voice was shaking, and the beating of her heart was drowning out the sound of the waves. Only it didn’t matter. All that mattered was finding the words to reach him. To make him understand. Even if that meant making herself vulnerable.
‘I care about you and I want you to be happy.’
His face was blank and unsmiling. She held her breath as he stared at her in silence, and then finally he said quietly, ‘I want you to be happy too.’
She could hear the struggle in his voice. But she knew how far they had come for him to admit even that much. And right now it was enough. Glancing down at the heart of pebbles she’d made in the sand, she breathed out softly. She had enough love for both of them.
‘In that case let’s go back to our room. We’ve got at least an hour before dinner.’
His dark, hungry gaze fixed on her face, tugging at her like a fish hook, so that suddenly she was breathless with desire, her body impossibly hot and tight. And then, without warning, he pulled her to her feet and hand in hand they ran towards the dunes.
* * *
The following morning, James Dunmore invited Rollo to his study to go over the proposal, and Daisy joined Emily on a guided tour of the estate’s lavish gardens.
‘So is this the actual creek?’
They were standing on a small wooden bridge above a grass-edged stream.
