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Chapter Nineteen
Luna’s mouth hurt as she forced yet another smile and said a cheery goodbye to the last passenger aboard the flight that had landed back to Sydney. She sighed heavily, her face about to crack with effort.
Trina, one of the other flight attendants, approached her. “Are you okay, Luna?”
She nodded, but was too tired to force yet another smile. “Yes, of course,” she lied. “Why?”
“Ever since you had a week off you haven’t seemed yourself.”
Trina was too insightful by far. “Then you’d be right.” She winced. “Did you ever wonder what your life would have been like if you’d turned left instead of right? Said yes instead of no?”
“Wow, that’s deep,” Trina announced. “But, yes. Haven’t we all?” She arched a dark eyebrow. “Do you have regrets? A long, lost love, perhaps?”
“Maybe.” Luna managed to evade the whole truth by doing one last inspection down the aisles, checking for any belongings left behind by unsuspecting passengers. Trina followed her for one last visual.
It wasn’t until they were walking through the airport, their wheeled luggage trailing behind, that Trina put a hand on her arm and said, “If you ever need to talk, I’m here, okay?”
Luna stopped, then turned to her and gave her a hug. “Thanks, Trina.” It wasn’t until she pulled back that the hairs on the back of her neck stood up, a prickling sensation going up and down her spine. Even before she turned around, she knew just who exactly was waiting for her.
“Aiden,” she whispered.
“I think I understand now why you’ve been so distracted,” Trina muttered with an envious little laugh.
But Luna was already caught up in the moment, her breath catching in her throat, her chest constricting while her mouth dried to parchment.
Aiden was still devastatingly good looking, and yet he looked different. In the three weeks since she’d walked away from him, and deliberately worked her ass off trying to forget him, he’d lost weight. Yet somehow it suited him. His cheekbones were sharper, his corded body more defined, his fitted suits sleeker.
He stepped toward her, his dark eyes running over her, assessing her just as she’d assessed him. And in that moment her body came to life, her pulse hammering, her vision brightening, her instincts focused all on him.
She swallowed heavily. “Aiden. Wh-what are you doing here?”
“I’m here for you,” he said simply, yet with such intensity, it took everything she had not to take a step straight into his arms...not to take a big step back. He stopped right in front of her, his tall, imposing form making everyone else in the airport fade into obscurity.
“It’s too late,” she said with a tilt to her chin, her body running hot then cold just by being in his presence. God help her, she’d thought she was getting over him, but she wasn’t. Far from it. She was still as drawn to him as she ever was, perhaps even more so.
“I want you, Luna. I always have. I was a fool all those years ago, too stuck in grief to care about anything or anyone. And then when I did care...I thought it was too late. I thought you would have found someone more deserving. And after the way I treated you, I didn’t for a second imagine you’d forgive me anyway.”
Her face paled, her eyes shimmering. “I wish you hadn’t believed that,” she whispered. “I wish I’d known you still cared.”
He exhaled softly, the toes of his polished shoes almost touching the toes of her platform shoes, and yet the chasm between them might as well have been thousands of miles wide. “I was a fool,” he said hoarsely. “You were the best thing in my life, and I threw it away.”
“Why, Aiden?” she croaked. “I-I need to understand.”
His eyes glimmered, as though he fought against the pain of remembered emotions. “After I lost my parents; I thought it was only a matter of time before I lost you, too.” He shrugged. “So I tore off the sticking plaster and walked away from you before you had the chance to walk away from me.”
