Inconsolable (43 page)

She turned. Her hand shot out and she traced the tattoo, fingers warm and delightfully curious. “You have the colours, the shape exactly right.” Her eyes came up to his face and locked on. “You saw this once.”

“I saw every part of you that night and every part I loved and memorised. I never stopped thinking about you, worrying about you, wanting you.”

She pulled her hand away as if it pained to touch him, but they were tethered now by anticipation and promise, by trial and the chance to build something triumphant.

She shook her head. “I don't know, I don't …” It wasn't an idle protest; all her doubts brimmed in her eyes.

“We fit, Foley. We might never have met. We should never have fallen for each other, but against everything sensible, we fit, and I'll do anything to help you see that, to win your trust again.”

“How can I love you and be wary of you at the same time?”

“How can you not? I've made you that way.”

“We'd need to do something about that. We'd need a more,” her hands flapped as she searched for the word. “I don't know—traditional courtship. I'm not sure what normal for us would mean.”

It meant the chance to make remake his life, to make a home, to be extraordinary together. “It's running on the beach. It's dodging storms. It's eating together, and talking and sleeping together.” It was everything they'd already tried out and so much more. “It would be love.”

She took a shuddering breath. “You never said you loved me until today, and you put me in a mood not to listen.”

She wouldn't be here if she didn't think it was love binding them through all the things that kept them separated. “I'll make a mantra of it and say it obsessively. I love you, I love you, I love you. However you need me to, wherever you need me to.”

“And if I wanted you simply for a friend?”

Oh no, that wasn't happening. “Then I lied.”

There was nothing accidental about the arm that hauled her up on her toes so that she crashed into him, or the test kiss he gave her to gauge her acceptance, or the way her arms wound around him and her breathing shorted.

She held his face, thumb rubbing over the scar on his cheekbone. “You made a puzzle for me.”

She'd made a new life for him. “No life I make for myself can be truly whole if you're not in it.”

And he'd dedicate himself to making sure she felt that, knew it, never had occasion to fear it, for as long as the moon ran the tides and the waves crashed on rock, and there were edges to fear, explore and conquer.

The next kiss was the wonder drug, a cautious mix of tender desperation and unchecked lust. It was a blockbuster. A category killer. Close and deep. Starved and ecstatic. It was made to change perceptions, neutralise opposition, swamp the market and save lives.

Its active ingredient was all Foley, and its efficacy was as close to forever as two less ordinary lovers would ever have.

 

Thanks for reading
Inconsolable
, I hope you enjoyed it.

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ISBN: 9780857992451

Title: Inconsolable

Copyright © 2015 by Ainslie Paton

All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher, Harlequin Enterprises (Australia) Limited, Level 4/132 Arthur Street, North Sydney, NSW, Australia, 2060.