When he broke away, his breathing was ragged. He stepped back, eyes burning into hers. ‘Do we need to talk about this?’
His eyes were full of everything. Talking... Thinking... They could do that later. She shook her head, somehow found her voice. ‘No.’
‘Good.’ He smiled, and then she was being swept up, being carried down the steps, through the room and down the stairs to the vast, empty bedroom; that vast, empty bed.
He hadn’t planned it, only thought about it. At lunch he’d had a vision of Mia in this bed and now she was beside him, wrapped in white sheets, her hair long and loose around her face. She was lying on her side, gazing at him, cheeks flushed, eyes glowing softly. He wasn’t used to being looked at like this, as if he was someone special, but it was how she made him feel. The way she’d kissed him, the way she’d touched him, the way she’d given herself to him so tenderly. Two hours ago she’d asked him to show her the dome, and he’d hesitated, because it was yet another small space. In the car, coming back from the restaurant, it had been almost impossible not to slide his hand over hers, not to lean in and kiss her when the engine died.
He’d known being in the confined space of the dome with her would challenge his self-control. He’d failed, hadn’t been able to stop himself reaching for her. If she’d stilled his hand, he would have stepped back, but she hadn’t. They’d collided like stars, exploded like meteors.
He touched her hair, winding a tendril around his finger. ‘It’s the first time I’ve seen your hair loose.’
She smiled. ‘There’ve been lots of first times today.’
Her smile was full of light and he felt lucky to be the one bathing in its warmth. If fate had twisted in a different direction, she might have been married by now. Could he afford to break his own rule, permit himself some curiosity? There’d undoubtedly be fallout, but he couldn’t help it. He wanted to know everything about her. He leaned in and kissed her softly. ‘Tell me about Hal.’
‘Hal?’ The light in her eyes drained away and two little creases appeared on her forehead. She took a breath, hesitated, then exhaled slowly. ‘He was Ash’s business partner.’ She lowered her gaze and for a long moment she was silent. When she looked up again, there were tears behind her eyes. ‘He was...the kind of person who made you believe in possibilities. He was good for Ash...in the beginning, anyway. They were a good team. Friends as well as colleagues. The three of us spent a lot of time together.’ She smiled softly. ‘We were already like a family when Hal asked me out. When he asked me to marry him, it felt like we were completing the circle.’
She seemed to lose herself for a moment. Rain pattered on the windows. He held his breath, listening. Waiting.
‘But Hal wasn’t what he seemed.’ Her fingers clenched the sheet. ‘He was cooking the books, stealing from the company.’
‘Stealing?’
She met his gaze. ‘He was massively in debt: gambling; high-stakes poker... I didn’t know he gambled, had no idea he was in debt, because he was always splashing money about, booking trips for us to lovely places. His family was well-off, you see. He told me he had money in shares, trust funds, investments. He once said he’d had a surprise bequest from a distant family member, but he hadn’t been to any funeral.’
Her mouth wobbled. ‘I should have worked it out, especially after Ash told me that there were inconsistencies in the company accounts. At the time it caused friction between us. I couldn’t believe he would doubt Hal’s honesty.’ She chewed her lip. ‘But then I realised I’d never seen a single bank statement of Hal’s—only the statements from our joint account. He told me that his family’s accountant always handled his finances and I’d just accepted it.
‘I decided to test him. I said that we ought to be looking for a place to buy for after we were married; that we ought to be lining up a mortgage. I told him that I’d arranged an appointment with the bank. He got flustered, started saying that there was plenty of time, that we shouldn’t be rushing into anything. I saw it then, the blind panic in his eyes, and I realised that Ash had been right all along.’
She pressed her fingers to her eyes. ‘It all came out after that. The gambling, the debts. He’d cleaned out his trust fund, sold his shares, and when it was all gone he’d started stealing from Ash. I broke off the engagement. Hal’s family settled out of court, but Ash and I took a real knock over it. We mended our fences, but I felt terrible. For so long, I’d been telling him that he was wrong about Hal, and he’d chosen to believe me. If it hadn’t been for me, he’d have challenged Hal much sooner.’
‘Oh, Mia...’ She wasn’t to blame. It had been an impossible situation; loyalties divided between lover and brother. He understood that situation all too well. He touched her shoulder, running his fingers lightly along her arm. ‘Now I understand why you came to my hotel that day, why you interceded so compellingly for Ash.’
She sighed. ‘Atonement.’
He pulled her close. ‘A little, maybe, but mostly you did it because you love your brother, and you wanted to help him. It’s what you do, Mia—you help people. You push back, you shape fate.’
‘Is that what you think?’
He kissed her hair. ‘Let me see... You convinced me to meet Ash in Greenwich, which secured him development funding and
