Page 7 of Modern Romance Collection December 2024 Books 1-4

She turned around now, and Quin forced his gaze up and tried not to let those huge green-blue eyes unsettle him. Except he had to concede that every time his son looked at him with those exact same eyes he was reminded of his errant mother.

No wonder Quin hadn’t felt remotely like pursuing another woman in the meantime. Sadie had been like a resident ghost. But she wasn’t a ghost any more.

She said, ‘I...ah...just wanted to say thank you...again.’

From behind her, Quin saw one of the staff send him a signal and he welcomed it. He said, ‘We’re about to take off. You should take a seat and buckle in.’

‘Of course, yes.’

She looked around and chose a seat that put her facing away from Quin. That made him feel irritable—and thenthatmade him feel even more irritable.

He buckled his own belt and focused on the plane taxiing and taking off into the night sky over New York—andnoton the woman who was sitting just feet away. The same woman who had built him up only to tear him down and remind him that he’d been an utter idiot to believe in love or that trust could ever exist.

There were only two things he trusted in this world now: himself and his son. The sooner he knew what Sadie Ryan was up to, the sooner he could put her at a safe distance again.

CHAPTER THREE

SAOPAULOWASfull of tall, soaring buildings as far as the eye could see. They hadn’t driven into the city itself. They were somewhere on the outskirts, on wide, leafy streets. As they’d stepped out of the plane a short while before, the early-morning sun had made the nearby city glimmer in the golden light.

A new day, a new dawn. Sadie had taken it as a sign of better days to come and clung on to that now.

Surely now she could start to rebuild her life? Make amends for what she’d had to do? Be a mother to her son...?

‘You didn’t sleep much on the plane. You could have gone into the bedroom.’

Sadie tensed at virtually the first words Quin had uttered since they’d taken off from New York. He’d noticed her restlessness. She’d been doing her best to try and ignore him and her awareness of him. He’d changed on the plane at some point—into khaki trousers and a short-sleeved white polo shirt. He looked dark and suave and ridiculously sexy, his clothes doing little to hide the powerful body underneath.

Sadie felt self-conscious. She knew she must look tired. And wan. A far cry from the golden tan she’d had the last time she’d known Quin...golden from practically living on the beach. They’d spent more time in the water than on land.

‘I’m fine,’ she said now. ‘I’m not a great sleeper at the best of times.’

Although she knew that the truth of her restlessness had more to with Quin’s proximity and the impending reunion with her son than with anything else.

‘You slept fine when—’ Quin stopped abruptly.

Sadie’s heart thumped. ‘When we were together?’

He didn’t answer. He might want to pretend it hadn’t happened...their relationship. But it had. They had a little boy as proof that once he’d loved her.

She said, ‘I did sleep well with you.’

She blushed. When they’d actually slept. Usually around dawn, after spending hours exploring each other with a thoroughness that had left her wrung out and destroyed by pleasure. But it had been a beautiful destruction.

She’d felt so safe with Quin, in his arms. It had been a completely instinctive sense of well-being, as if as long as she was with him everything would be okay. No wonder her mind had been blank of the horrors—

‘You used to have nightmares.’

Except for those. Her subconscious had provided images at night that she hadn’t been able to understand, and it had only been when her memory returned that she’d realised the nightmares were based on reality. Her memory taunting her.

‘I don’t get them any more.’

Her reality had been enough of a nightmare for the last four years. Now her sleep was broken up with wondering if and how she’d get to see her son. And Quin. And now here she was. Moments away from meeting her son.

‘Does he ever ask about me?’ Sadie blurted out before she could stop herself.

Quin shot her a glance. ‘He’s only just started to recently. Since realising that he’s the only one of his friends who doesn’t have a mother.’

Sadie felt a little sick. ‘What have you told him?’

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