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She gave an odd little laugh. ‘My parents’ marriage? I don’t even know if they had one...a marriage, that is. I don’t know who my parents were...are...but my mum and dad love one another. Well, I always thought they did, but then I always thought that they were my parents. I always thought I knew...’ Her voice cracked.
‘I don’t know why I’m telling you this. Oh, God, it’s so embarrassing. I really hate crying,’ she gritted as she dropped her head to her chest, hiding behind the veil of flaming hair, chest heaving as she fought to contain the emotions that were leaking out of her.
Marco had been an objective observer to many tears, the majority of these calculated displays aimed at eliciting a reaction in him. The only thing they left was a nasty taste in his mouth. He dealt with these types of situations by removing himself from the scene.
Watching Kate declare her utter contempt for her tears of genuine emotion, he felt no urge to walk away, he felt an alien urge to comfort her, but his utter cluelessness of how to go about this left him feeling unaccustomedly helpless.
Lust was normally a lot simpler than this. Walking away from uncomfortable situations a lot easier too.
Placing a thumb under her chin, he tipped her face up to his and he looked into her swimming eyes. How could a person be so tough and self-sufficient and so vulnerable at the same time? A vulnerability he could see she hated owning.
‘I can see why you hate it; you look terrible.’ She actually looked breathtakingly beautiful.
Kate looked at him for a moment, her amber eyes shining with indignation before she laughed at herself. ‘I can be so ridiculous sometimes.’
He grinned back. ‘That’s better, and you’re telling me because I asked.’ Which was not keeping things simple. His motivation remained something of a mystery to him, unless the answer was as simple as that he simply wanted to know.
‘So you discovered you were adopted recently?’
She nodded. ‘My gran died.’ As she began to explain the sequence of events, she realised that it was a relief. After all the weeks of bottling it up, sharing her story was cathartic, even though the recipient of her confidences was the last person she would have expected to choose. ‘At least, Ithoughtshe was my gran. I was helping go through her papers, and I discovered our adoption papers. Discovered my entire life has been a lie. Everything changed.’
‘So you and your brother—older or younger?’
‘A year older.’
‘You’re both adopted. How did he take it?’
‘He already knew.’ Hurt quivered in her voice. ‘He’s known for years, and he didn’t tell me. I thought we were so close andhewas angry withme. Jake thinks I was punishing our mum and dad.’
‘Are you?’
She opened her mouth to angrily deny it, and then closed it, shaking her head. ‘Maybe a little,’ she confessed. ‘But I suddenly didn’t know how to act around them. It felt surreal. Why didn’t I sense it? Don’t people sense these sorts of things? I think Jake did. He went looking for proof of his suspicions...went looking for his birth parents. But his mother is dead and his father has another family and didn’t want to know him.’
‘Poor guy. Maybe your brother wanted to save you from that.’
‘I don’t need saving or protecting!’ she flared. ‘I am more than capable of looking after myself.’
‘All right, maybe they, your mum and dad, were the ones who were afraid? Maybe they were uncomfortable about telling you, and every day they didn’t just compounded their guilt? I don’t know, why don’t you ask them?’
‘I can’t even talk to them. They lied.’ Even she could hear the doubt in her voice.
‘They messed up, but people do that every day of the week. Do you want to know who your birth parents were?’
‘No. They didn’t want me, why would I look for them?’ She shook her head and angled a confused look at his face. ‘I really don’t know why I’m tellingyouthis.’
‘Maybe because of my warm, understanding personality...no...? Ah, well, maybe I just happened to be there when you had, what do they call it, a trigger moment?’ He picked up the empty bottle, his lips quirking as he shook it and looked at her with eyes dark enough to get lost in. ‘Or possibly...?’ he mocked.
‘If that were the caseyouwould be tellingmeyour deepest darkest secrets. I only had a mouthful.’
‘Oh, the night is young yet,cara,’ he teased. ‘You might unlock my secrets yet.’
‘It isn’t...young, that is, the night,’ she realised, catching sight of the face of the thin-banded watch he was wearing.
‘Hold on, Cinders,’ he said, catching her arm as she went to get to her feet. ‘I haven’t had my promised dance yet.’
Kate subsided again, her skin tingling not just where his fingers had lain but all over. She felt the dark scratch under every inch of her body.
‘Be serious,’ she said, trying to sound exasperated and missing by a mile.
