Page 60 of Awakened in Her Enemy's Palazzo

She was hearing what she wanted to hear, she told herself, her heart thudding as she scrambled over a small mountain of rubble and branches, negotiating a fallen tree with its roots exposed by sitting astride it and swinging her legs over.

And then she saw him.

‘My God, Theo! Get away from there! It’s dangerous! What on earth are you doing?’

On the edge of the dizzying drop, Theo turned, the abrupt action sending loose rubble skittering down the ravine.

Grace’s eyes went wide with fear. ‘Come away, you idiot! You’re going to kill yourself.’

Theo did not step away. He stepped towards her.

He intended to spend the rest of his life stepping towards her.

Towards Grace.

There were any number of things that he wanted to say, but the obvious one came out of his mouth.

‘You’re alive!’

‘Of course...’

She stopped, her eyes widening, then going from his grey face to the remnants of the car below.

‘You thought...?’ Remorse filled her face. ‘The car got carried towards the edge.’ She bit her quivering lip in an effort to steady her voice and pulled a stray twig out of her hair. ‘But it got caught on a tree. I think the impetus I think must have turned us around. The car continued to slide nearer the edge, but more slowly, and I knew I had to get out. But the door was jammed,’ she said.

Theo saw her eyes, dark with the memory of that moment when she must have thought she was trapped...thought it was the end.

He swore, choking on the unshed tears that filled his throat.

‘You weren’t there to save me, so I had to save myself. I tried to smash the window, but couldn’t. Stupidly, it didn’t occur to me straight off that all I had to do was open it. Lucky I’m skinny... Although even so I had to take off my sweater and—’

‘Shut up!’

It was hard to talk when you were being kissed.

He kissed her as though he’d drain her—as though she was the last drop of water in a desert. He was fierce—desperate, even—but so amazingly tender that her eyes started leaking again.

When his head lifted it took her several moments before she opened her eyes.

‘I saved you. Now we’re even,’ she said, staring up at his beautiful face and telling herself not to read too much into a kiss.

Although that was one kiss it was very hard not to read a lot into...

A laugh was dragged from his throat, which was raw from yelling her name. His eyes darkened with the memory of those last minutes, the like of which he never wanted to live again.

He would never, he decided, let her out of his sight again.

In the act of brushing mud from her wet cheek, he paused.

‘Yousavedme?’

He left that for later and ran his hands, palm flat, down her body.

‘You’re not hurt anywhere...?’

‘I’m fine. Just cold and—’ She looked at her coated hands and grimaced. ‘A bit dirty.’

His hands slid to her shoulders, then moved down her body as though he was convincing himself that she was really there, that everything was where it should be. It was at that point that he took in what she was wearing—or not. Because she stood there shivering, her shoulders hunched in a pitiable attempt to retain some heat, in a sleeveless white vest that sagged under the weight of rainwater. Her engorged nipples were pressing hard against the almost transparent fabric.

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