Page 54 of One Forbidden Night In Paradise (Hot Winter Escapes)

A honeyed sweet lightness was spreading through her limbs. Chase in England, in her cottage. She could see him, crouching on the lawn behind the cottage shaping snow, his green eyes dark like the mistletoe that grew around the oak trees.

‘I don’t want this to end, Jemima, and I don’t think you do either.’ There was an edge to his voice, like an actor who wasn’t quite sure of his lines. ‘So why don’t we just carry on like this?’

‘Like this,’ she repeated slowly. ‘So it would be like another holiday.’ Although she would have to go to work.

‘Why does it have to be a holiday?’ His gaze was dark and intent on her face. ‘It could be like this every day.’

She stared at him in confusion. ‘How could that happen?’

‘It’s very simple. I love you and I think you love me.’

Jemima stared at him, mute with shock. Her heart had stopped beating. Chase loved her. He loved her. She could feel her world rearranging itself into a place of yearned-for possibilities, a blurring, swirling carousel of lights and bright colours, and it was so beautiful and she wanted it so badly that she could hardly bear to look.

Her heart jerked inside her chest, making her jump.

I love you and I think you love me.

His words rolled queasily around her head. Every man she had ever dated had said a version of that sentence. And at the time they’d thought they meant it, and probably Chase thought he meant it now and maybe he did. Maybe it could work. She loved him and he was amazing in bed, and he was kind. Considerate. Sweet. She thought back to how he had taken her out in the submersible and then to New York. No one had ever done anything like that for her before. He had wanted to make her smile but he had also held her while she cried.

She stopped herself, pinching off the flow of hope.

Of course, he didn’t love her. They had met nine days ago. And yes, a lot had happened in that time but it didn’t mean any of this flame and hunger would work in real life. She glanced past his shoulder at the shimmering curve of water and the looping sunlight, watching it break into pieces and fly away like petals. In its place she could see the wet streets of England and cold grey reality.

‘But I don’t. I don’t love you,’ she lied. ‘And I doubt that you love me. It just feels like love because we’re here in paradise and it’s all so perfect, but this isn’t my life.’

‘It could be.’

Could it? Her throat tightened. The desire to agree with him, to pull him closer and tell him that he was right was nearly impossible to resist, but the very fact that she could think that way was a reason not to. Wanting something to be true didn’t make it so. She had come here to learn that lesson and, thanks to Chase, she had.

‘Please don’t do this. Please don’t make this any harder than it is.’

‘You’re the one that’s making it hard, Jemima. I’m saying it’s simple.’

She got to her feet, shaking her head. ‘Yes, you’re saying it. But saying and doing are two different things.’

His face hardened. ‘And I know that. I’m not one of your ex-boyfriends. I’m not your father. You know who I am. You know I’m not going to break my promises. You can trust me and I know I can trust you because you’ve made me remember the good things about loving someone, not just the risk.’

She thought about the snow room, and the yachts, and she remembered how his eyes had blazed when Billy had texted him about the bowl. Yes, she knew who he was. She knew he was addicted to the adrenaline rush of diving for treasure. She also knew who she was to him. She was a novelty right now. Like the beach house. And he was excited by the idea of playing with her in the snow in her garden. But Chase was a man who had a room in his penthouse where it snowed three hundred and sixty-five days a year on command. His command. How long before his attention would waver and be drawn to the glittering prizes waiting to be discovered beneath that endless blue ocean?

The idea of those green eyes drifting away made her feel suddenly sick.

‘I do know who you are, Chase,’ she said quietly. ‘You’re a billionaire who looks for treasure in his spare time.’

‘And that’s a problem?’ Now he was on his feet. ‘You said you didn’t care about money. Except you do if there’s too much of it.’

‘I care about honesty and right now you’re not being honest with me or yourself. I saw how you reacted to that text message from Billy.’

‘Yeah, I was excited. It was exciting.’

‘You weren’t excited, Chase, you were transfixed. You didn’t even know I was there.’

‘That’s not true.’

‘I know what I saw. And I saw how much it mattered to you.’

‘You matter to me.’

‘But I won’t. As soon as we leave here, it won’t feel the same. It can’t because none of this is real, you know that. You just don’t want to admit it.’

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