Page 49 of Secrets of the Forgotten Heir

A moment later, a gentle hand grabbed my arm. ‘Beatrix.’ Fraser coaxed me around to face him. ‘Hey, what happened back there?’

Damn him for following me. I’d held the tears back for as long as I could and now they were tumbling down my cheeks. The last thing I wanted to do was cry, especially not in front of Fraser. I’d spent the last decade closing off my heart, training myself not to feel, but now I was back in Witchlight Cove and it was as though the last ten years had meant nothing.

I struggled to bottle up the tears back to where they damned well belonged: inside me.

Fraser ran his tongue over his lips then bit down slightly before he spoke. ‘I don’t know why people reacted to you like that, but I saw the whole thing. You didn’t do anything wrong. Youknowthat you didn’t do anything wrong.’

He thought the reaction in the café was due to Old Jacobson because he didn’t know my sordid history. Was that better or worse? If he knew my history – and possibly my future – the attraction between us would fizzle and die. Which wouldn’t be a bad thing, I told myself firmly.

‘I shouldn’t have come back.’ The words spilled from my lips before I could stop them.

‘Okay,’ he said slowly. ‘We’re not talking about Old Jacobson, are we?’

I shook my head.

‘I won’t pretend to know what happened, but whatever it was is in your past. No doubt it took a lot of guts for you to come back here, and I admire that.’

‘You don’t know anything about me. You don’t know what happened.’

‘I know a little,’ he admitted. ‘I know your parents died, and you were only seventeen when you were appointed guardian of the Eternal Flame.’

There was no pretence in his voice, just sympathy, and I could feel the warmth and compassion radiating from him. It was tempting to lower my shields and wrap myself up in it, let myself feel that everything would be okay.

I met his eyes and my heart skipped a beat. I knew that if I leaned forward, he’d wrap me in his arms and I could lose myself in his scent and his presence.

Just as I considered succumbing to my desire and letting myself fall into Fraser’s arms, my phone buzzed in my pocket. The moment broke our eye contact. I stepped back and pulled out the phone, expecting to see Yanni’s name flash up but it was Donovan’s.

‘I’m sorry, I have to take this,’ I said, my tone back to being businesslike.

‘Of course. If you need me, I live down there.’ Fraser pointed towards a house perched over the water. Glass,wood and sleek modern beauty: it looked like something out of a luxury magazine.

‘You live there?’ I asked, raising an eyebrow.

He smiled. ‘Yes. Just turn up if you need me. The spare key’s under the doormat.’

I shook my head. ‘A water shifter has been murdered so maybe don’t tell that to all and sundry.’

His smile widened. ‘You’re not all and sundry, Beatrix Stonehaven. You’re something else, and you have a standing invitation.’

He turned and walked towards his house and I’m damned if I didn’t watch the way his jeans hugged his backside.

Irritated with myself, I swiped up to answer the call.

Chapter Thirty-Three

‘Donovan,’ I said briskly. ‘What do you have for me?’ I hoped he’d say something that would help me forget about Fraser Banks, though it suddenly seemed unlikely.

‘Well, your friend’s got a lot of money,’ he replied. ‘He is crazy rich.’

‘I already know that,’ I lowered my voice. Fraser was still walking away and I couldn’t be too careful. The shifters I knew didn’t have exceptional hearing while they were in human form, but I didn’t know what type of shifter Fraser was. He could have powers I’d not come across.

I moved in the opposite direction as I cupped the phone and whispered, ‘What about those outgoing payments? That one was nearly a quarter of a million.’

‘It took some digging to get a name for the account you gave. The address it corresponds to is a business that belongs to a shell company, which is obviously a front.’

‘You didn’t get a name?’ I said, trying to speed things along.

‘Now that’s not what I said!’ He sounded affronted. ‘I’m trying to make you see that this person he’s giving his money doesn’t want to be found.’

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