Page 244 of Modern Romance Collection December 2024 Books 5-8

Still arrogant, she thought, arrogant and wanting to run things his way.

For an endless, shuddering moment, nothing happened and then he walked slowly towards her with that beautiful feline grace as if he owned this shabby little shop. As if he owned the whole world. But he didn’t own her.

She slammed her way round the desk. ‘You need to leave.’

‘We need to talk.’

‘No, we don’t,’ she snapped, trying to manage the vaulting somersaults her heart was performing beneath her ribs at the same time as stifling the shoot of hope she could feel trying to push its way to the surface. Because seeing him was already too much for her to handle.

‘Your phone number doesn’t work. Your website is inactive. And you closed your bank account.’ His voice was quiet but she could hear his anger and frustration.

‘I already know all of that.’ Her voice cracked and she stared at him, shaking, not with fear, but with need and longing, and love. But Tiger didn’t love her.

Tilting her chin, she forced herself to look into his eyes. ‘So, if that’s all you came to tell me, I think we’re done here.’ She didn’t want to believe it, but now that she had said it out loud, she meant it.

‘Why did you do that? I was going to help you. You need the money.’

She folded her arms in front of her aching chest. ‘Not your money. And what I do with my bank account is none of your business.’

Tiger felt his heartbeat accelerate.

Walking into the auto repair shop and seeing Sydney there, whole, not weeping or bleeding or crushed, he had felt a bone-deep relief and such an immensity of love that he could hardly speak. Because he knew what love was now. He knew because it no longer felt like a risk but an adventure, a poem and a blessing all rolled into one.

But it was as if she were still behind the glass counter. There was a barrier between them, thin but unwavering, which was good. He wanted her to be safe and careful. But also bad, because he wanted to take her in his arms more than he had wanted anything, even the moon.

Only he needed to find the right words.

‘It is my business. You are my business.’ Which were the wrong words, he realised, cursing silently, panic swelling in his throat as he watched her stiffen. He tried again. ‘What I’m trying to say is that you’re my world.’

‘And you’re heading to the moon, so you’ll be orbiting me at a distance, which suits me fine.’

‘Not without you. If I go, you go.’

‘You can’t do this, Tiger. You can’t just turn up and say things like that. I was getting better. So say whatever it is you came here to say, and then go.’

His heart felt as if it were tearing in two. All his life he had seen love as a weakness but now that it filled him from head to toe, it felt like a superpower. Only one that he hadn’t learned how to use properly.

Please let me find the words,he prayed.

‘It’s very simple really. I love you and I need you. And I don’t know how to live my life without you. Without you, nothing matters. Nothing makes sense.’

‘You’re the one not making sense. You told me you didn’t love me. You chose the moon, remember?’

‘I don’t care about the moon. I care about you. And I love you. I love you like I never thought it would be possible to love anyone. And I know you probably won’t believe me, but I think I loved you right from when you walked into my office and gave me the cold shoulder. I just didn’t know what I was feeling. But I was lucky. I had a couple of people on hand to help me and I took their advice.’

Her eyes, her beautiful brown eyes, were wide and stunned. ‘Your lawyers told you to come and find me?’

He shook his head, then he took a step forward. Just a small one, not big enough to scare her.

‘When I was leaving the island, Silvana gave me a ticking-off. Made me see that I was sabotaging the only future that’s ever made sense to me. The only future I want, and need.’

She held his gaze. ‘What did she say?’

He laughed. ‘She told me a few home truths.’ Another step forward. ‘Basically, that I was a fool.’

‘You’re not a fool.’

His eyes on hers were bright with tears, and as he shook his head, she took a step this time. ‘I walked away. I let you slip through my fingers.’ He hesitated, then reached out and touched her cheek gently, his heart contracting with relief, and a hope that hurt, when she didn’t pull away. ‘That would make me a fool in anyone’s book.’

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