Bound By Her Shocking Secret by Abby Green

CHAPTER EIGHT

‘WHERE’S MIA?’ DANIEL asked one of the assistants.

They were packing up the equipment ready for the next location and the last day of the shoot, which would take place after the weekend. They would have worked through, but Adele had to fly back to New York for a previously booked job, so everyone else would have two days off in paradise.

The young man was sheepish. ‘Sorry, boss, I forgot to tell you. She’s gone for a swim in the sea.’

Immediately Daniel’s insides tensed. He grabbed a towel, making his way to the beach. There was no sign of Mia, and he looked to the sea, which appeared unbelievably rough to him. Big waves crashed along the shore, sending up sprays of sea water.

People meandered along the shoreline, dogs at their heels. Children frolicked in the evening heat. Sunset was spreading across the horizon, bathing everything in a pink and red hue.

This really was the simple life—the pura vida that Costa Rica was famous for—and it was why Daniel had bought his house here on a whim. Because it had appealed to the part of him that wanted to cultivate a freer, less constricted life than the one he had had growing up. It wasn’t something he’d analysed in great depth, but it had definitely been his most spontaneous purchase.

But now he wasn’t thinking about any of that. He scanned the sea, growing more and more tense. No sign of her.

Just when he was starting to feel panic he saw her, waist-deep in the water, wading out. For a moment his heart stopped. He thought she was naked. But then he realised she was wearing a skin-coloured swimsuit. One of those they’d photographed her in earlier. Evidently they’d let her use it for her swim.

She came out of the water, body glistening, bringing her long hair over one shoulder and squeezing it. She looked like a goddess. Aphrodite. More than one person almost stumbled as they passed by.

Daniel forced oxygen to his brain. She was okay.

She looked up at that moment, as if she could hear his thoughts, and he saw how she tensed. She started walking towards him and he could see that she was self-conscious. It amazed him how she could be so beautiful and not take advantage of it, like every other beautiful woman he knew. But her lack of arrogance added to her allure. It was what had captivated him from the moment he’d seen her in real life.

She came closer. ‘Sorry, am I holding you up?’

Daniel handed over the towel even as he lamented the fact that she would cover her body up. She took it and wound it around herself, tying it under her arms.

‘No, not at all.’

She made a motion with her head towards the water. ‘You should have a swim—it’s glorious.’ Then she frowned. ‘Actually, I’ve never seen you use the pool at the house...don’t you like swimming?’

A solid weight lodged in Daniel’s gut. He knew he could say something flippant, but some force was compelling him to admit, ‘I know how to swim, but I don’t. Ever.’

Mia stopped. Eyes widening. ‘Why not?’ And then she said, almost to herself, ‘You were weird that day...when you came back and saw me with Lexi in the pool... You said something about putting up a protective rail. Did something happen to you?’

Daniel regretted whatever force had compelled him to tell Mia something he’d never told anyone else in his life. But it was too late now.

‘I told you my sister died...’

‘Yes.’

‘She drowned in the pool at our chateau.’

The pool that had subsequently been filled in and covered over.

Mia put a hand to her mouth. ‘Oh, Daniel... I’m so sorry. She was only six?’

He nodded. ‘We’d been playing. I ran back into the chateau to get something, and while I was gone I heard her scream, and then a splash. It seemed to take me for ever to run back to the pool...and when I got there she was floating face-down in the deep end. She’d only just started learning how to swim. She had no armbands on. I jumped in. I knew how to swim but I was panicking, and it was so deep. I tried to push her, to turn her over, but she was heavy. And then I couldn’t breathe...she was on top of me... I blacked out—’

‘You obviously nearly drowned too.’ Mia’s horrified statement cut through the painful memory.

‘I suppose I did. I never saw it like that.’

‘Where were your parents?’

Daniel’s mouth thinned. ‘Probably fighting. The gardener was the one who pulled us out...it was too late for Delphine, though.’

‘Delphine... The new jewellery collection is named after her?’

Daniel nodded. How could he explain that everything he did was infused with the loss of his sister? She was one of the reasons he’d accepted his inheritance—because she’d always loved the jewels so much. At every step along the way he was aware of how old she would be now. How beautiful. Living her life. And it was his fault. He hadn’t been able to protect her.

Mia was shaking her head. ‘You blame yourself, don’t you?’

Yes. But he didn’t admit that to Mia. ‘My mother blamed me for Delphine’s death. They were pretty much the last words she said to me before she left the chateau for good. For years I thought I was the reason she’d left... But then I found out that she’d been having an affair.’

Mia looked angry. ‘She was projecting her own guilt onto you.’

‘Perhaps. But the fact remains that I was there. I should’ve been watching Delphine. I knew we couldn’t count on our parents for care because they’d never given it.’

Mia said, ‘I trained as a lifeguard as a strong, athletic teenager, and I know how difficult it is to save someone panicking or unconscious in the water. It’s almost impossible unless you’re strong and trained. You were nine.’

When she put it like that, Daniel could appreciate it was perhaps irrational to blame himself, but Mia’s words weren’t any comfort. They just rubbed along all the jagged edges he’d held deep inside him for years.

‘It’s in the past,’ he said.

‘But it’s not, is it? Because it’s still affecting you. You don’t swim as a result.’

‘I don’t need to swim.’

‘You might... What if—God forbid—something happened to Lexi? If I wasn’t around...’

Daniel’s blood ran cold at the thought of history repeating itself. ‘I would never put Lexi in danger. I’m going to arrange to get a protective fence around the pool.’

‘You can put up all the fences you want, but accidents will still happen, Daniel. It was a tragic accident.’

Much later that night Daniel was in his study, staring into a glass of golden liquid. Golden liquid that couldn’t burn away the seam of pain that had been exposed earlier. He still couldn’t believe he’d told Mia about his sister and his mother. Even though he could see that she had a right to know.

Nevertheless, he resented the ease with which she seemed able to burrow under his skin before he knew it was happening.

He’d only come to his senses the first time around when he’d seen the hurt in Mia’s eyes at the speculation in the paper about his possible engagement to Sophie Valois. It had been like a bucket of cold water in his face, clearing the sensual haze in his mind.

But now that sensual haze was back.

Daniel cursed softly and tossed back the rest of his drink. If it was just about him and Mia, and the desire that had clearly not fizzled out, then Daniel would have no qualms about seducing her again and slaking his lust until whatever it was that bound him to her was well and truly burnt out. Then he could ignore those huge green eyes tempting him to spill his guts and get on with his life.

But it wasn’t just about him and Mia. It was about Lexi too. And, like it or not, she called to every protective instinct he had.

He’d failed Delphine. But when he’d told Mia that today, instead of looking at him with horror, or judgement, she’d looked at him with pity. Compassion.

‘It was a tragic accident.’

She didn’t understand. She thought she could absolve him. But he knew nothing could. Except maybe a commitment to protect his daughter. And he would do whatever it took to—

Daniel’s circling brooding thoughts came to a standstill when he heard a noise. He looked up and his pulse tripled, blood pumping in an instantaneous reaction to the sight before him.

Mia was standing in the open doorway, dressed in a T-shirt and, as far as he could see, nothing else. Her legs were endless and bare. Her hair was tangled and wild, tumbling around her shoulders. He could see the thrust of her breasts against the material of her shirt. Full and round. He’d spent the last couple of days in agony, looking at those perfect breasts, barely contained by the thinnest of swimsuits, each sexier than the last.

She looked as shocked as he felt. Eyes wide. Those same eyes that had looked at him earlier with such—

He blinked.

He told himself he was conjuring her up, like some form of mental torture. But, no, she was still there. Not a figment of his imagination. And now he saw that she was holding a water bottle in one hand and the baby monitor in the other.

He sat up. ‘Mia?’

Mia swallowed. She shouldn’t have come to explore why the light was spilling out of Daniel’s office.

Unable to sleep, she’d gone to the kitchen to get some water and had seen the light.

Only to find Daniel staring into the bottom of a glass as if it held all the answers, long legs stretched out before him, in jeans and a T-shirt. Bare feet.

She hadn’t been able to sleep because she’d been thinking of what he’d told her about his sister earlier...

Tension crackled in the air. ‘I... I couldn’t sleep... I didn’t mean to disturb...’

Great—now she couldn’t string a sentence together.

She started to turn around. ‘Sorry, I’ll—’

‘Wait.’

She stopped, still facing away. But she could see Daniel reflected in the glass, behind her. He was standing. He’d put the glass down. She could see how his gaze dropped and moved over her legs, and suddenly it was hard to breathe.

‘Don’t go, Mia.’

Her heart was thumping so hard she felt light-headed. She watched as he came up behind her.

‘Turn around.’

She knew that if she took a step, and then another, back towards her bedroom, Daniel would let her go. But the thought of not turning around was impossible.

She didn’t know if it was the culmination of everything that had happened, or this magical place, or what he’d told her earlier, but she was no more capable of denying this pull any more than she was of stopping breathing.

She turned around.

Daniel was just inches away.

He took the water and the baby monitor out of her hands and put them down on a table.

At that moment Lexi gabbled something unintelligible, breaking the silence, and Mia froze.

Daniel asked, ‘Is she awake?’

Mia waited a second and then shook her head. ‘No. She talks in her sleep. It scared the life out of me the first time she did it. Now I sleep through it.’

An expression crossed Daniel’s face. Something nakedly emotional. ‘Delphine used to do that too.’

Mia’s heart clenched. ‘Daniel... I’m so—’

But he put a finger to her mouth. His eyes roved her face. His hand moved to the back of her neck, where it was hot and damp under the heavy fall of her hair.

‘I want you, Mia.’

Right here, right now.

He didn’t have to say it. She could feel it pulsing between them.

‘I...’ She hesitated for a moment. As if she had a choice. As if she could just walk away from this man and the fact that he was the one who had truly awoken her. As if she could walk away from the need that had been building ever since she’d seen him again. The need to sate the deepest craving she’d ever felt.

He was Lexi’s father.

That knowledge sent something primal through her. Possessive. Her man.

‘I want you too.’ Her voice was rough with need, and she realised that she was giving herself permission to do this. Pushing aside the consequences.

He tugged her closer, until they were almost touching, and then he brought his other hand up, caught her chin, angled her face towards him and covered her mouth with his.

Mia combusted on contact. The kiss turned deep in seconds, tongues twining. Mia relished Daniel’s taste, sucking him deep. She groaned. Or he groaned.

His hands moved down to her T-shirt, pulling it up. She lifted her arms. They broke the kiss and Daniel pulled the garment off. Mia’s breasts felt heavy under his appreciative gaze, which devoured her. He’d always made her feel so...beautiful.

He cupped one breast and rubbed a thumb back and forth over one hard nipple. Mia bit her lip.

‘Si belle...’ So beautiful.

It was too much. Mia could feel emotion threatening to rise.

She said, ‘You... I want to see you too.’

Daniel looked at her before taking his hand off her and pulling his T-shirt off, behind his head and over. Now they were both bare from the waist up.

Mia sucked in a breath at the expanse of wide, muscled chest covered with dark hair. She put her hands on him, feeling the heat and the strength. Exploring the ridges of muscle and the flat discs of his nipples. Her nail caught on one and he sucked in a breath, took her hand.

He took her out to the deck outside the office, where there were two loungers. He said, ‘Lie down.’

Mia did, before her legs could give out. She lay back and watched as Daniel’s hands went to his jeans and snapped them open. Pulled down the zip. And then he yanked them down and off, kicking them aside. His underwear was despatched with equal efficiency, and Mia’s eyes widened on that part of his anatomy—long, thick and hard. For her.

The fact that he hadn’t slept with anyone else—and neither had she—was too much to absorb right now.

He came down on his knees and put his hands under her hips, tugging her down the lounger towards him. He pulled her underwear off and down her legs, throwing the wisp of material aside.

They were both naked, but Mia had never felt less self-conscious.

‘Open your legs,’ Daniel instructed.

Mia did, and heat washed up from her core when she saw how Daniel looked at her. He put his hands on her thighs and pushed them wider, and then he hooked her legs over his shoulders before coming down and placing his mouth...right there. At the centre of her body.

His hands were under her buttocks, holding her. She had nowhere to hide as Daniel laid her bare and feasted on her sensitive flesh, exploring her with his tongue, stabbing deep, licking, sucking. It didn’t take Mia long to tip over the edge, pleasure rocketing through her body before she could try and hold it back. It had been so long, and she’d never expected that it would be this good again...

Daniel lifted his head and she saw him smirk. She didn’t even have the energy to make a face. Her blood was pumping too hard and her heart was beating too loudly.

‘Still so responsive.’

Daniel came up on his knees between Mia’s spreadeagled legs. He reached for something in his jeans pocket, and then she heard foil rip and watched as he pulled a protective sheath over his straining erection.

Good, she thought, even as she lamented the lack of skin-on-skin sensation. They didn’t need to create any more drama. Just pleasure.

He surveyed her body, laid out before him, and it didn’t even bother her. It sent fresh spirals of need through her, making her desperate.

‘Please, Daniel...’

Answering her plea, he came down over her body and with one smooth, cataclysmic thrust seated himself deeply inside her. To her horror, she felt tears prick her eyes—not because of the earth-shattering sensation of Daniel’s big body penetrating hers, but because of the emotion it evoked.

She lifted her hips, urging him silently to move, and with a muttered curse he did. Slowly. Pulling back out, almost all the way before thrusting back in again. Over and over again. Until the emotion was driven away by pure physical sensation and their bodies were covered with a fine sheen of perspiration.

Mia couldn’t take her eyes off Daniel as he caught one of her legs and pulled it up, hooking it over his waist, deepening his penetration. Mia almost cried out but held it back, aware of the hushed night around them.

Daniel’s movements grew less smooth, faster, harder, and Mia wrapped her other leg around his waist. The tension in her body was starting to tighten and spiral as the crescendo rose between them, all the way, inexorably, until Daniel said in a rough voice, ‘Let go, Mia, fly.’

But in spite of her desperation something stubborn inside her made her shake her head. ‘You first...’

Daniel’s eyes went wide. She felt the tremor moving through his body as he fought for control, and then he uttered just one rough, indecipherable word as he thrust deep enough to touch her heart, and his whole body tensed as his climax ripped through it.

And that was the moment when Mia couldn’t hold back any longer, with pleasure exploding at her core and crashing through her body in wave after endless wave, her intimate muscles contracting around Daniel’s body until she was limp with exhaustion.

After long moments of their breath returning to normal, and with Daniel’s body a heavy but delicious weight on hers, he lifted his head and said, ‘You’ll pay for that.’

Mia lifted a hand and touched Daniel’s stubbled jaw. ‘I was right behind you.’

She only noticed her hand was trembling when Daniel caught it and pressed a kiss to the middle of her palm. Damn. That emotion stirred again. Forcing him to lose control first hadn’t made her feel any more in control herself.

Mia said, ‘I should go...check Lexi...’

Daniel disengaged his body from hers and Mia winced when over-sensitive muscles protested. She couldn’t quite believe what had just happened, even though she knew well that she’d been with him every step of the way.

She didn’t want to think too closely about what it meant. But she was already very afraid that tasting Daniel again had sparked a renewed hunger that would be hard to satisfy.

She sat up with effort, just as Daniel reappeared with his jeans on, unbuttoned, holding out her T-shirt. She slipped it over her head, avoiding his eyes. He put out his hand and she looked up. His face was unreadable, and that comforted her somehow.

She put her hand in his and let him pull her up. He kept hold of her hand and led her back up to her bedroom suite. They stopped outside. She tried to take her hand back, but he held it until she looked at him.

‘No regrets, Mia.’

She swallowed the regret already forming and pushed it back down. She’d chosen this.

She shook her head. ‘No regrets.’

When Mia woke up she was disorientated, and her body felt achy but in a pleasant way. She shot up as soon as the events of last night came back to her in glorious Technicolor, a mixture of cold horror and heat rushing through her.

The sun was already high outside, and Lexi wasn’t in her cot, which only compounded Mia’s sense of disorientation. And then she heard it: the sound of Lexi’s mostly unintelligible babble. Maybe Odile had come in and got her? Although Mia didn’t think the young woman would feel that familiar yet...

Which left only one other possibility...one that Mia couldn’t quite imagine.

She got up and washed her face, tried not to notice the faint stubble burn along her jaw. She threw on underwear and a pair of cut-off jeans, and a sleeveless shirt that tied at her waist.

When she arrived on the kitchen/dining level, nothing could have prepared her for the sight before her. Daniel was sitting at the table and Lexi was in a highchair. She wore a pretty floral romper suit and her hair was held back with a clip.

‘Baba!’ Lexi declared loudly, while banging a plastic spoon up and down on the table of the highchair.

Mia could see a spray of various foodstuffs in an almost perfect arc around the chair. They hadn’t seen her yet as she was hidden by a wooden pillar.

Daniel shook his head. ‘No, that’s you.’ He pointed to himself. ‘Papa—c’est moi.’

Lexi pursed her lips, as if she was trying very hard, and then said, ‘Abba!’

Daniel shook his head again. ‘Non, cherie, that’s a Swedish pop group. It’s Papa.’

Mia felt a rush of conflicting emotions. Relief. Pride. Concern. Protectiveness. Vulnerability.

Still too raw after last night. She’d almost thought it might have been a lurid dream, but the aches in her body were too real—especially the ache between her legs. And she felt emotional to see the two dark heads so close together. Lexi was her father’s daughter. Of that there could be no doubt.

Then Lexi spotted her. ‘Mama!’

Daniel looked around. Mia’s heart skipped a beat. She moved forward, trying to appear blasé. Nonchalant. As if what had happened last night and what was happening right now wasn’t as earth-shattering or significant as it was.

‘She’ll say it when you’re least expecting it. That’s how she likes to roll. She takes her own time.’

Mia picked Lexi up out of the highchair, kissing her and making her giggle. She finally looked at Daniel and took in the fact that he was wearing jeans again, and a grey T-shirt that made his eyes look steely. She felt breathless when she recalled all too easily how he’d taken off his jeans with such efficiency last night...

‘You should have woken me,’ she said. She couldn’t believe she’d slept through Daniel taking Lexi this morning.

He sat back. His jaw was clean-shaven. He looked as if he’d had twelve hours’ uninterrupted sleep when she felt far too crumpled and raw.

‘Actually, Odile heard Lexi chattering to herself. She asked me if she should go in and get her, so you could sleep, and I told her I’d do it.’

So Odile had noticed that Mia had been all but rendered unconscious by this man this morning. Brilliant.

‘I will admit that Odile changed her nappy, so I can’t claim that.’

Once again Mia felt it strange to acknowledge that she was no longer on her own with Lexi. ‘That was sweet of her.’

‘I told her she could take the day off because we’d be going out.’

‘We are?’

Daniel nodded. ‘If you like. There’s a waterfall not too far from here. Gabriela is happy to make up a picnic.’

Mia felt unaccountably resistant to the idea, while at the same time knowing she was being ridiculous. If Daniel wanted to spend time with Lexi, that was a good thing. But after sleeping with him she felt as if the whole situation was morphing out of her control faster than she could try to control it.

At a total loss as to know what alternative she had, and feeling as if she was stepping off a ledge into very unknown territory, all she could do was nod and say, ‘I’ll change Lexi into something more suitable.’

‘I insist,’ Odile said. ‘I’ve had the whole day off and I’d be more than happy to babysit Lexi. That’s why I’m here, after all. And I’m going to put her cot in my room so you can get a decent night’s sleep.’

Mia glared at Daniel above Odile’s head. This was his sneaky doing. Arranging to take her out for dinner and conspiring with Odile. And she hated the betraying little frisson of anticipation that sizzled in her blood at the thought of going on a ‘date’.

Where was her resolve from earlier?

Mia feared it had been fatally eroded due to spending the entire day with Daniel and watching him bond with his daughter. Not to mention the fact that she’d been in a weakened and susceptible state since last night.

She threw up her hands. ‘Okay, fine. I’ll get changed.’

She swore that if Daniel so much as smirked she’d change her mind, but he seemed to have the presence of mind not to push it.

She grumbled at herself as she took a quick shower and changed into a very plain sundress that she’d found in the dressing room. Dark green, thin straps. A little scallop detail around the edges, buttons down the front. Sandals.

She put her hair up in a rough bun and didn’t bother with make-up. She didn’t want Daniel to think she was making an effort, as if this was a real date. But her belly flip-flopped to think of exactly where they stood now. After last night. After today.

The day had passed far too easily and pleasantly in a national park. Lexi had loved the exotic colourful birds flying over their heads, and Daniel had carried her in a papoose against his chest, making Mia feel positively, shamefully, weak-kneed.

They’d conversed easily. It had reminded her painfully of how it had been between them before. How it had always taken her by surprise that she felt so comfortable with a man like him. It had reminded her of how close she’d come to hoping for more from Daniel.

But she’d excised those feelings from her heart. No matter how much he tugged on her emotions now she would not be so foolish again. She couldn’t let him continue this seduction, because she knew that, no matter what their physical connection said, emotionally Daniel was not available.

He’d never wanted a baby, or a family, and he was only making this effort now because he felt a sense of responsibility.

By the time Mia and Daniel arrived at a charming two-level restaurant in the pretty little town of Santa Teresa she was almost rigid with the effort it was taking not to respond to Daniel—casually sexy in linen trousers and a white shirt that stretched almost indecently across his broad chest.

The same chest where he’d cradled their daughter for most of the day. An image that Mia could not get out of her head.

When he put his hand on her back to guide her into the restaurant she tensed even more, earning a frowning glance. But the maître d’ approached before Daniel could say anything, fawning over them and taking them up to the top outdoor level and leading them over to a secluded table set out on a small balcony, overlooking the town and the sea beyond.

A full moon hung low in the lavender-hued sky. Candles flickered in the gentle breeze. It was simple and rustic and elegant all at once. There were small posies of local flowers in the middle of the table. Soft music played, and Mia recognised a world-famous Cuban band.

When the maître d’ had left, Mia said, ‘You really didn’t have to go to this trouble.’

Daniel sat back. ‘I like to eat, and we know you like to eat—it’s no trouble.’

She would have scowled at him, but a waitress approached to give them water and tell them the specials.

When she was gone, Daniel sat forward. ‘You look beautiful tonight.’

Mia looked at him suspiciously. Her dress really wasn’t special. She’d made no great effort. She wondered if Daniel was making a point. She looked around and saw women in sleek tunic dresses, limbs glowing with their Costa Rican tan. Men in suits. Gold jewellery catching the light. Perfume scenting the air.

She felt churlish now. Guilty. ‘I probably should have made more of an effort.’

Daniel shook his head, mouth quirking. ‘You really don’t know how beautiful you are.’

Now she blushed. ‘You don’t have to say that.’

‘It’s true. When the Delphine campaign is launched, your life is going to change. You’ll be in serious demand.’

Mia rolled her eyes. ‘I doubt that. I’ve never been in high demand and that’s okay with me.’ Before he could say anything else to seriously unsettle her, Mia said, ‘This is all very nice, but you need to know that I’m not here to be seduced, Daniel. Last night was...a mistake.’

A mind-blowing mistake.

She shook her head. ‘It can’t happen again.’

The waitress came back with a bottle of white wine and poured it. Daniel lifted his glass and held it out. ‘Salud.’

It was as if she’d said nothing.

Mia clinked her glass on his and said, ‘I mean it, Daniel.’

She’d braced herself for any number of things Daniel might say, so when he said, ‘You’re probably right,’ she felt a shameful rush of disappointment. She hadn’t expected him to agree with her.

He took a sip of wine and then looked at her. ‘But if you think you’re strong enough to resist what’s between us then you’re stronger than I am.’

Mia felt panicky. She should have known he wasn’t giving in. ‘But it’s just...chemistry. It’ll burn out.’

‘It hasn’t burnt out in two years.’

Mia’s insides quivered. No, it hadn’t. And Daniel hadn’t slept with anyone else in two years. That reminder made all sorts of illicit emotions spiral inside Mia.

Their starters arrived and for once Mia was barely aware of the food—a deliciously light seafood chowder.

Somehow they managed to keep to neutral topics while eating, as if there wasn’t a thick undercurrent of tension running between them, but when they’d finished eating he said, ‘I only realised after you told me about your first boyfriend what a betrayal it must have been to learn of the agreement between me and Sophie Valois. No wonder it upset you.’

Mia’s insides went into freefall. She hadn’t expected Daniel to think of that. She shrugged minutely, as if that moment hadn’t destroyed her as much as she hated to admit it had.

‘It was coincidental,’ she said.

‘Still... I’m sorry.’

She looked at him, her precious defences wobbling. ‘How were you to know?’

His mouth quirked. ‘You did a very good job of not revealing anything much about yourself or your life.’

All designed to keep him out and keep herself safe. Which had not worked.

She felt defensive. ‘You weren’t exactly an open book either.’

‘I met my match in you. I was used to women seeking to unearth as much personal detail as possible. You were...refreshingly uninterested. But then I found myself resenting your lack of interest slightly.’

They were interrupted by the waitress with coffee before Mia could fully absorb that and figure out what it might mean. She sipped the rich, dark drink, hoping that it would dispel some of the intensity she felt in these far too romantic surroundings.

When a local came over to greet Daniel, Mia welcomed the distraction, and the diversion from her urge to point out that, contrary to what Daniel had believed, she’d been far too interested in him. And that holding him at arm’s length had been the hardest thing she’d ever done. And ultimately futile.