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Think about them? Think about them?
Dana bit back a peal of hysterical laughter and shrugged. ‘I don’t tend to dwell in the past,’ she lied. ‘I prefer to look forward.’
He hitched a chair forward and sat beside her. ‘I can’t get over how different you are.’
‘Well, I’m certainly not a schoolgirl any more.’
‘I noticed,’ he said. ‘But there is—stuff that I remember from those days.’ He looked awkward. ‘Things, maybe, that shouldn’t have happened.’
Her heart leapt. She kept her voice casual. ‘It was a long time ago, and we’ve both changed. Perhaps we should agree to forget the past.’
The blue eyes looked into hers. He said slowly, ‘I’m not so sure I want to forget—all of it.’
Hardly breathing, she waited for him to reach for her. Take her hand. Draw her towards him.
Only to see a shadow fall across the terrace.
‘So here you are,’ Zac drawled. ‘How convenient. You can both enjoy this pleasant surprise.’
He turned to the tall blonde girl standing almost hesitantly in the French windows, a brief blue dress showing off an expensive tan.
‘Robina, cara.’ His voice was a caress. ‘Come here and make Adam a happy man again.’
There was a silence that could have been cut with a knife. Adam rose slowly from his chair.
‘Robina, sweetheart, where did you spring from?’ He walked across the terrace to her side.
‘Just the railway station.’ She gave a little excited laugh. ‘I rang Zac earlier and asked him to pick me up. Is it really a nice surprise?’
Move, said a voice in Dana’s head as Robina’s hands went up to Adam’s shoulders and she offered her lips for his kiss. Move now. Stand up politely. Show nothing—no frustration, no disappointment—because you know you’re being watched.
Her body felt stiff, unwilling to obey, but she lifted herself from the lounger, the newspaper sliding from her lap.
She watched them kiss, waiting for jealousy to rip into her—tear her apart, but all she actually felt was anger. And its focus was neither Adam nor the girl clinging to him, but Zac, quiet and observant beside her.
She said brightly, ‘Adam, aren’t you going to introduce us?’
‘Of course.’ Adam led Robina forward. ‘Dana Grantham, meet Robina Simmons.’
‘I’m an old friend of Adam’s sister,’ Dana said easily, encountering a faintly limp handshake. ‘We’ve rather lost touch over the years, so this weekend has been catch-up time.’
Robina nodded. ‘And Mannion is such a lovely place for it to happen. I always think it’s a little corner of Paradise.’
Complete with serpent, thought Dana.
‘Well,’ Adam said breezily. ‘Let’s take your things upstairs, my sweet, and get you settled in.’
Plus another more private reunion , thought Dana as they disappeared into the house together, Robina chattering excitedly.
Zac broke the taut silence. ‘Please understand that you are wasting your time.’
She had not expected quite such a blunt approach, and for a moment, it threw her.
But only for a moment.
‘Why do you still begrudge me a pleasant weekend in the country?’ she asked coolly. ‘After all, I do work very hard.’
He nodded reflectively. ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘That I grant you because I have been watching you do so. But you would have done better to stay away.’
‘I am not here as your guest, Mr Belisandro.’ Dana lifted her chin. ‘Kindly remember that.’
He inclined his head with mocking courtesy. ‘Believe me, signorina, it is a situation that I find it quite impossible to forget.’
His dark gaze suddenly seemed to blaze at her, not with anger, but something even more disturbing, his eyes travelling from her parted lips to the rounded swell of her breasts under the cling of her silky top. Reminding her how his hands and lips had once caressed her.
Mouth dry, Dana took a step away from him, her foot brushing against the newspaper and pen lying forgotten on the flagstones.
She bent to retrieve them but Zac got there first, glancing down at the unfinished crossword as he held it out to her.
He said, ‘Fourteen down is “Azerbaijan”.’
‘You finish it,’ she said, turning away. ‘As you seem to think you have all the answers.’ And went into the house.
Even with the window open, her room was like an oven, but Dana was already boiling inwardly. She slammed the door and leaned against it, staring ahead of her with eyes that saw nothing.
