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She had unconsciously steeled herself for an emotional explosion, tensed in preparation of containing her usual reaction to him. The anticlimax was extreme: there was no explosion, no charge in the air between them, just air.
She felt... Actually she felt nothing at all. Her pulses were not leaping, there were no butterflies running riot in her stomach and no warm feeling in the pit of her stomach.
She felt...not needy!
Her first thought was that her prayers had been answered, her second was that there looked like a lot more than one night’s stubble on his chin and under the stubble he looked paler than usual.
‘Too late, I already have.’ He extended his hand towards her, letting the blood drip unchecked from his thumb onto the white grand piano, before he blotted his hand against his trousers and then, as an afterthought, smeared the red blob off the piano with his sleeve.
Gwen, who was less indifferent to blood than he appeared to be, felt her stomach muscles quiver in sympathy with the injury.
His grimace implied indifference as he proceeded to rub his hand against his shirt, leaving a bloody smear to match the one on the piano before giving up with a shrug. ‘Never mind. I’m sure Estelle will clean away the evidence.’
‘She’s not here.’
Gwen didn’t add,You sent everyone away so you could have some time getting to know your daughter before you shared the news with the world, because at some point over the last few moments she had realised that she was talking, not to Rio, but to his brother. And not just any brother, but histwin.
Hisidenticaltwin.
Rio’s twin—Roman, wasn’t it?—tilted his head to one side and for a moment looked less like Rio. In a similar situation Rio would have scrunched his forehead and—
‘So who are you?’
Gwen discovered that her scrutiny was being returned by a very curious pair of familiar dark eyes, the difference being that in his gaze there was nothing even vaguely sexual or challenging or a thousand other things Rio managed to communicate to her with just one look.
She found herself gathering her robe a little tighter around her, feeling awkward. She felt many things when she was with Rio but awkward was not one of them.
There hadn’t been time for Rio to contact his brother so this had to be a coincidence.
‘I’m Gwen,’ she said, even though she knew he would probably be none the wiser. ‘You’re Roman?’
‘Hello, Gwen.’ He gave a grin that was almost but not quite the same as Rio’s. She noticed for the first time that he looked tired, and maybe she was being fanciful but to her it seemed there was a darkness, a sombreness behind his eyes that Rio didn’t have.
Maybe she’d finally got used to being able to read Rio’s expressions, or maybe she could just see clearer when she wasn’t being blinded by the mad impulse to throw herself at his beautiful mouth like a suicidal rabbit when she saw a fox, which was something of a relief.
Her light musical trill of self-mocking laughter made Roman’s eyebrows lift, which made her laugh again and think,Just like Rio.
There had to be at least half a dozen PhDs in it for the academics. Two men, so identical to look at, and while one had awoken a deep primal passion in her that she hadn’t known she possessed, the other was just anextremelygood-looking man who physically left her completely cold. It really was inexplicable.
‘You actuallyareidentical.’ The moment the words were out of her mouth she felt foolish. How many times must he and Rio have heard that line? Luckily he was too polite to comment on her lack of originality, but she was sure that Rio wouldn’t have shown a similar restraint.
‘So people tell us,Gwen...?’
She nodded. ‘Meredith.’
‘Meredith or Gwen?’ She knew Rio would have accompanied the question with a mocking gleam in his eyes, but his brother didn’t.
His brother seemed a moreintensesort of person, this man who’d walked away from power and responsibility leaving Rio to shoulder the entire burden of their inheritance. It spoke of a certain selfishness to leave your brother holding the baby—though not that baby. Roman didn’t know about Ellie yet.
Or did he?
Did they tell each other everything?
She knew that often twins were closer than ordinary siblings; some even claimed to have a telepathic connection—if one stubbed their toe, the other felt it.
Was that just an urban myth? She sincerely hoped so!
‘My name is Gwen Meredith.’
