Page 13 of One Night in My Rival's Bed

He frowned. ‘How was it your fault?’

‘I was supposed to be watching her.’

‘How old were you?’

‘Nine.’

‘Isn’t that a bit young to be responsible for a small child? Where were your parents?’

I let out another rough-edged sigh, wondering why I was unloading all this emotional drama to my sworn enemy. ‘My dad had died two years before. My mother was still struggling to cope, so I used to take Niamh to the park after school to give Mum a break.’

Grayson’s frown was still deeply entrenched on his forehead. It gave him a severe and intimidating appearance, but when I looked into his eyes I could see a blue ocean that wasn’t cold and icy at all. There were warm currents swirling in the depths.

‘And all these years you’ve been blaming yourself?’

I shrugged one shoulder. ‘Who else is there to blame? I was supposed to be watching out for her and I turned away to look at something, I can’t even remember what it was now. I heard a scream and turned back to see Niamh on the ground, bleeding from her head and ears. It wasn’t Niamh who’d screamed but another child who saw it happen. Fortunately, there were a couple of people nearby walking their dogs and they called an ambulance.’

‘I’m sorry you and Niamh had such a terrible thing happen, but you really mustn’t blame yourself, Ash.’

‘How can I not? I changed the course of her life that day. Her potential was stolen by my inattention.’

Grayson placed one of his hands on my shoulder and a shudder of awareness coursed through my body. His touch was warm, anchoring, stabilising. Grounding me in a way I had not felt before. Our eyes met and, in that moment, I sensed that here was someone who truly understood the emotional trauma of watching someone they love hover between life and death.

‘I blame myself too for my brother’s accident. It was a snap decision to swap seats that night. He hadn’t had much experience driving in the rain and yet I agreed to let him take over the wheel. It was the worst decision of my life.’

I placed my hand over his where it was resting on my shoulder. I could feel the soft dark hairs on the back of his hand against my palm and fingers. I could see the anguish and guilt in his eyes that reminded me so much of my own. I gave his hand a gentle squeeze, marvelling at how broad his hand was compared to mine.

‘I’m guessing you don’t make snap decisions any more, right?’

His mouth twisted ruefully, and he lifted his hand away from my shoulder, taking my hand with it. ‘Not usually.’

His thumb stroked over the back of my hand in a slow-motion caress that sent searing heat coursing through my flesh. His touch was so light, tender almost, and it should not have caused the riot of sensations in my body, but somehow it did and I—shame on me—did nothing to stop it.

Only the sound of the honeymoon suite door opening finally made me pull my hand out of Grayson’s light hold. I turned to face my sister, who was dressed in smart casual clothes, her hair brushed and tied in a neat ponytail.

‘You’re late,’ Niamh said, eyeballing me.

‘Only five minutes or so,’ I said, glancing at my watch.

She gave Grayson a hard stare and then turned and led the way inside the honeymoon suite. We followed her without a word and then Grayson closed the door, exchanging a brief raised brow glance with me that made something turn over in my belly. We walked to the sitting room off the foyer of the suite, where Ethan was seated on a plush sofa rather than in his wheelchair. His expression matched Niamh’s defiant you-can’t-tell-me-how-to-live-my-life look.

‘I hope you both realise the stress you caused us both last night by disappearing without telling us where you were going,’ Grayson said in a stern tone that I knew was not going to work with my sister. And, judging from Ethan’s expression, it wasn’t going to work with him either.

Niamh sat beside Ethan and grasped his hand. ‘Your reaction to our announcement was so upsetting.’ Tears shone in her eyes, and she continued with a wobble in her voice, ‘I thought you’d be happy for us and instead you tried to ruin what was supposed to be one of the most memorable days of our lives.’

Ethan seemed to grow a few centimetres as he held his older brother’s gaze. ‘I brought Niamh here to c-compensate for her disappointment in how you b-both reacted to our news.’

‘Look, I’m sorry about that,’ I said before Grayson could respond. ‘But it was such a surprise to drop on us. We didn’t even know you were seeing each other.’ It felt kind of weird to be saying ‘we’ all the time as if Grayson and I were a couple.

Niamh met my gaze with her watery one. ‘Is it because of what happened to Daddy all those years ago?’ Her question was directed at both of us—me and Grayson.

‘No,’ Grayson answered.

‘Yes,’ I answered at the same time.

Grayson locked his gaze on mine, one of his dark eyebrows rising in an arc. ‘Seriously?’

I straightened my shoulders and held his querying look. ‘Our father would still be alive today if it hadn’t been for your grandfather ripping him off in that so-called friendly merger. Any merger between the Clancys and Barlowes is to be discouraged, even romantic ones.’

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