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‘My apologies for the oht bow ‘Lieutenant Colonel Cade Grant…But you can call me Cade’

‘Cade…’

When their hands connected he felt a jolt, an unwelcome jolt that reminded him why he stayed away from people—and wos All feelings All the ti?’ he demanded when she continued to stare at him

‘My turn to apologise I was just surprised to hear your name I didn’t connect it when I saw the family crest on the top of your notice because that said Grant Featherstone Carew’

‘Just i for a parcel’

The look of irony in his eyes e inside her that nised it as instant, potent, dazzling lust And now she couldn’t have been angrier with herself for the lapse in concentration She recovered herself to say priht shorten it’

Lieutenant Colonel Cade Grant, local war hero? Hoas she? Bolting fro must have scrambled her brain You could hardly pick up a newspaper or switch on the television without there being some report about Cade Grant’s bravery under fire The reasons for his extended leave ht to some R and R ‘Of course I’ve heard of you—who hasn’t? And I know I shouldn’t stare—’

‘At what?’ he deered his face

‘Scars?’ Her brow puckered and then her eyes cleared as she focused on the howyou are in the flesh than on the television—’ She gulped, went bright red and pressed her lips together as if she didn’t trust herself to speak another word

Surprising himself, he badly wanted to smile

Starting to fuled her back towards him ‘Could you help me with this, please?’

He hesitated, and then thought, Why not?

She felt Cadecat His warles of sensation down her spine She could smell his scent, clean and musky with a hint of toothpaste in the mix She held her breath as he reached out and touched her

‘This terrible thing you did…Are you ready to tell me about it yet?’

In a ain! And, truthfully, she had been hoping he wouldn’t ask She felt so ashamed She’d let everyone down—especially her mother, whose day this really was Not to uilt bit deep as she thought about Horace

‘Well?’ Cade pressed

She blushed furiously For such a big, tough entle He made her want to talk ‘I abandoned my fiancé at the altar…’

She waited for a reaction, but Cade just went, ‘H the top button on her dress The brush of his fingertips on her naked skinmoment

‘Go on,’ he encouraged ‘You’ve started so you o the whole way now’

Her eyes widened at this suggestion until she shook her brains cells into some sort of order ‘Horace was harmless…He was really nice He didn’t deserve this—’

‘He ’

She wracked her brains ‘No…that’s just it—’

‘Keep still, will you? Or I can’t undo this’

She tensed, and then relaxed into the starburst sensations created by Cade’s fingers ed, discovering it was hard to find a balance between her need for s out in the open

‘Horace’s worst cried

She blinked furiously as Cade opened a button close to her waist and she felt the reverberations of his touch all through her lower body ‘He was t

oo nice,’ she blurted, e

‘Too nice? What’s that?’

‘But so immature…You know…’ She made a half-hearted attempt to explain to Cade what she olf club, he…’ She bit down on her lip She couldn’t bring herself to be so disloyal, not even now

‘I see’

No, Cade didn’t Or at least, she hoped not Horace was harmless, and almost certainly less well prepared than she was for their wedding night Her mother hadn’t wanted to talk about sex with her, but there had been uide her, and some of the articles had been really helpful But when it ca…well, she couldn’t face it; not with Horace ‘I feel so bad…Horace is such a softie’

‘Which hy you agreed to marry him, I presume?’

And why she had bolted too They would never have made each other happy

Cade gathered Horace was a bit of a chump, but not a bad bloke What Liv had told hi about her situation, and he could tell she felt better for it Her actions had been a tad on the dramatic side, but he could see why she had cut and run before a disastrous e had made both Liv and her fiancé unhappy

And he was a uidance counsellor now?

Of all the crazy situations—and he’d been in a few—this one was a peach Liv re hos he’d put in shoes boxes filled with cotton wool

And how exactly did he think he could help her with her, anyway

The buttons she wanted hith of her spine to the hollow just above the swell of her buttocks When he’d freed the first of them he’d noticed how soft her skin was, and by the time she’d lifted her hair out of the way and he’d seen the tiny birthmark like a love-bite at her hairline he wanted to taste it He’d killed that thought i to pull back now ‘You can finish the rest of them yourself’