LITMIR.BIZ

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four.’ Logan grinned. ‘Just like her Aunty Kyla.’

      ‘I was three.’

      ‘And you were always leaping off the rocks into the water. “Keep an eye on your sister Logan.”’ Logan gave a wry smile as he mimicked his mother’s voice. ‘You had no sense of danger.’

      ‘You can’t live your life looking over your shoulder.’ Kyla finished the food on her plate, careful not to look at Ethan. She wanted to swim but not now. Not while he was there. She’d go back to her cottage, wait for them to finish the picnic and then come down later. ‘I’m off.’ She jumped up and brushed the crumbs from her jeans. ‘Thanks, Evanna, that was delicious. Logan, I’ll see you tomorrow. Don’t forget to phone Mum later. She keeps missing you when she calls and she wants to chat about the arrangements for Aunty Meg’s birthday.’

      Ethan was watching her. She could feel him watching her and she forced herself to cast a casual glance in his direction and smile.

      ‘Bye, Ethan.’ She felt as though her face was going to crack. ‘See you tomorrow.’

      Walk, Kyla, walk. And no looking back.

      There are other men out there, she reminded herself as she made her way across the sand to the cottages. Nice men. Uncomplicated ones.

      And one day she was going to meet one of them.

      

      CHAPTER SEVEN

      ETHAN hesitated by Kyla’s back door, knowing that he shouldn’t be there. But how could he stay away? She was avoiding her family and he was the cause of it.

       She didn’t want to bump into him.

      Gritting his teeth, Ethan lifted a hand to knock on the door, but at that moment she wandered into the kitchen. And saw him.

      She’d obviously just come out of the shower and was wearing a pair of tiny shorts and a skimpy top, and her hair fell in damp, curling waves over her shoulders. Her feet were bare and her legs long and lightly tanned.

      Their eyes held for a long moment and he wondered fleetingly whether she might just ignore him.

      But then she walked over and opened the door. ‘Is something the matter? I was just going to bed.’

      Bed? She looked like that to go to bed?

      Ethan felt his blood pressure rise several notches and suddenly he wished he’d left this visit until the morning. Everything that needed to be said could have been said in the harsh light of day when she was wearing a navy uniform.

      Not that her navy uniform did anything to disguise the tempting curve of her bottom.

      ‘Ethan?’ she prompted him with a frown. ‘What’s the matter?’

      He pulled himself together. ‘You’re going to bed? It isn’t even nine o’clock.’

      ‘I’m tired.’

      ‘Can I come in?’

      Something changed in her eyes. Suddenly they were guarded. Wary. ‘Why?’

      ‘Because I need to apologise.’ He came straight to the point, his voice rough. ‘And because we need to talk about the other night.’

      She didn’t play games—didn’t pretend that she didn’t know what he was talking about. She wasn’t that sort of woman. ‘It was over a week ago, now. It doesn’t matter.’

      ‘I’ve tried pretending that it doesn’t matter but it hasn’t worked. And it hasn’t worked for you either, has it? I haven’t seen you at Logan’s once this week.’ And he knew she was protecting herself.

       From him.

      She inhaled sharply. ‘I’ve been busy, Ethan.’

      ‘Busy avoiding me.’

      Her shoulders stiffened. ‘And what if I have? I can read signals. You made your position clear and I’m not a woman who needs to be told anything more than once.’

      ‘What if I told you that you misread the signals?’

      ‘I’d say you were lying.’ She tilted her head to one side. ‘I know rejection when I see it.’

      ‘No, you don’t. That wasn’t rejection.’ Suddenly it was imperative that she understood that much at least. ‘That wasn’t rejection, Kyla.’

      ‘Then my fluency in body language is less accomplished than I thought, because it certainly felt like rejection.’

      He didn’t associate her with coldness and yet her expression was anything but encouraging. He jabbed his fingers through his hair. ‘It wasn’t rejection. Far from it. But things are complicated.’

      ‘And I certainly wouldn’t want to make them more complicated—goodnight, Ethan.’ She made a move to close the door but he stopped her easily and moved inside.

      ‘I’ll leave when you’ve heard me out. There’s something I need to tell you. I probably should have told you earlier but I couldn’t.’

      She hesitated and then let go of the door but she didn’t close it. ‘All right. I’m listening. You’re going to tell me that the kiss was a mistake.’

      ‘It wasn’t a mistake. I just didn’t plan for it to happen.’

      ‘And do you plan everything that happens in your life?’

      ‘No. But there are things that I need to explain to you before we go any further with this.’

      The chemistry was there again, pulsing between them, drawing them in. The wind was blowing outside and yet in her kitchen the air was thick, hot and pulsing with expectation. Suddenly his throat was so dry he could hardly speak and he guessed she was feeling the same way because she swallowed hard.

      ‘You don’t have to explain anything to me.’

      ‘Yes.’ The dryness made his voice hoarse. ‘Yes, I do, Kyla. It’s important.’

      ‘Then tell me.’

      He almost laughed. Tell me. She made it sound so easy and yet now the moment had come he had no idea what to say. He didn’t know where to begin. He wasn’t even sure where the beginning was.

      ‘Are you married?’ Her softly spoken question shocked him.

      ‘Why would you think that?’

      ‘Because I suppose it’s the one thing that would stop this thing between us going any further.’

      ‘I’m not married.’

      ‘Then nothing else matters.’ She sounded so certain. So confident about everything. And she made life sound simple. ‘Ethan, you don’t need to worry. Or feel guilty. This isn’t right for you and—’

      ‘It’s right for me.’ He growled the words against her mouth because his hands had reached out and hauled her against him even while his brain had been sending out warnings. He ignored the warnings and kissed her.

      Later. He’d worry about everything else later.

      Her arms slid round his neck and he felt her slender body press against the hardness of his. He was hot and aroused and more desperate for this woman than he’d been for any other in his life.

      He forgot all the reasons why he shouldn’t be doing this.

      He forgot that she was probably going to hate him when she found out what he was doing there.

      He just needed to answer his body’s screaming need to possess her in every way.

      His hands were on the rounded curve of her bottom when they heard hammering on the door.

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