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"I think I’ll wed Sarah after all," he growled, yanking on her stays so tightly, she lost her ability to breathe "I’ the air required to speak, she swatted at him to fix it He scowled, then appeared to notice that she was about to faint, and why He gruy and loosened the tapes

"I ’ope yer ’appy," he snapped "You’ve driven me to the altar!"

Amelia pulled on her underskirts After Tiht up her dress from where it pooled on the floor and thrust her arers fuown

"I love you" She looked over her shoulder "I do not know if I have ever told you that, but it’s true You are a good man"

The flush of his skin spoke volumes

"’E’d best aze on his task "Otherwise, I’ll string ’iut ’im like a fish"

It was soratefully "I would help you, if it calance over her shoulder revealed a wry curve to his lips "’E doesn’t knohat trouble ’e’s got ’imself into with you"

Amelia shifted ih to show him"

The s and shoes, and rushed toward the door As she took the stairs with all the decorum she could muster, her breath shortened until she felt dizzy

The next moments of her life would alter the future forever; she felt it in her bones The feeling of portent was so strong, she was almost inclined to flee, but could not She needed Montoya with a depth and strength she had thought she would never feel again Part of her heart screamed silently at the betrayal of her first, dear love for Colin The other half was older, wiser and understood that affection for one did not negate the affection she felt for the other

Her hand shook as she reached for the doorknob of the private dining room In the best of circumstances she would be nervous She was about to face the man who had seen her and touched her in ways no one else ever had The added tension brought on by the revealing of his face only deepened her disquiet and concern

Taking a deep, shaky breath, Amelia knocked

"Coe, she entered with as confident a stride as she could affect She paused just inside, taking in the lay of the rooe circular table draped in cloth, and walls covered in paintings of the countryside He faced away from her before a , his hands clasped at the small of his back, his broad shoulders covered in exquisite colorful silk, his silky black locks restrained in a queue that ended just between his shoulder blades

The sight of his richly clad for Then he turned, and her body froze in shock

It cannot be hi akin to panic It is i, her breath seized in her lungs, and her thoughts stuttered as if she had taken a blow to the brain

Colin

Hoas it possible?

As her knees gave way, she grappled blindly for a nearby chair but hly charged air as her instincts rushed to the fore and forced her to breathe

"Aed toward her, but she held up a hand to stop hih a throat clenched painfully tight

The Colin Mitchell she knew and loved was dead

Then, how is it, an insidious mental voice questioned, that he is here with you?

It can’t be himIt can’t be him

She repeated that litany endlessly in her ht of the years between thehts, the shter

The betrayal was so complete, she could not credit that Colin was capable of it Yet, as she stared at the dangerously handsoonizing truth

I would know him anywhere, it said My love

How could she have ns?

Because he was dead Because I grieved long and deeply

Freed from the confines of the mask, Colin’s exotic Gypsy features left no doubt that it was he He was older, the lines of his face ular, but the traces of the boy she had loved were there The eyes, however, were Montoya’s--loving, hungry, knowing eyes

The lover who’d shared her bed was Colin

A wracking sob escaped her, and she covered her mouth with her hand

"A tone in which her naone, leaving behind the voice she heard in her dreams It was deeper, more mature, but it was Colin’s

She looked away, unable to stand the sight of hi to say?" he asked quietly "No questions to ask? No insults to hurl?"

A hundred words struggled to leave her htly, unwilling to bare the depth of her pain She stared at a s of a lake that adorned the wall Her lower lip quivered, and she bit it to hide the telltale movement

"My body has been inside yours," he said hoarsely "My heart beats in your breast Can you not at least look at me, if you will not speak to me?"

Her silent reply was the tears that flowed in a steady, endless stream

He cursed and ca him "Do not come near me"

Colin’s jaw clenched visibly, and she watched the e to see Montoya’s maturity and polish within her childhood love He looked the saer, ly attractive, blessed with a novel masculine appeal few could rival She used to dream of the day they would be wed and she could call him her own

But that dream had died when he had

"I still drea the words she had not realized she’d spoken aloud "I still want that"

"You allowed me to believe you were dead," she whispered, unable to reconcile the Colin she re before her

"I had no choice"

"You could have come to me at any time; instead you have been absent for years!"

"I returned as soon as I was able"