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‘Leo, please,’ Heather pleaded in growing confusion Was he jealous? Those were the enraged, possessive remarks of a jealous lover, but since when had Leo been either possessive or jealous? There was also so on here The air felt thick and heavy with threat

‘Love birds? You , Leo! I told you, Heather and I were just talking’

‘About what? What conversation is so intimate that it requires you to be entwined with one another?’

‘We weren’t entwined,’ Heather protested, while her heart continued to beat out an erratic tattoo

They had leapt apart like guilty lovers, Leo thought irrationally, and the more they defended thee was coursing through hi from He could almost taste it in his ain some of his formidable self-control

Was it his ihtly tousled? This was the woo had confessed her love for hiauntlet had been laid down, and it had not been one which he had been inclined to take up He had never given her the slightest inclination that there could be a future between the point of truth, but she had stubbornly refused the two options which had been left open to her—either slink aith a discreet lack of fuss, or else put aside her silly dreams and continue their relationship, which would have been his preferred path Sheall her cards on the table would put him in an untenable position

He was a -term relationships Hadn’t hethe tiether? More than with any previous wo, and had told her certain things about his e which had previously been kept in his own private terrain Of course, he had not told her everything, but co else—and no one could say that he hadn’t been upfront from the start—the least she could have done was take the hint

Women, the very feho had ever dared to nurture inappropriate ambitions as far as he was concerned, always but always took the hint

He had spent three days telling himself that he had to be ruthless when it cah the barriers he had carefully, over time, constructed around himself

He had decided that he would have one final conversation with her, clear the air

The last thing he had expected was to walk in on her and his brother cuddled up on his mother’s sofa in virtual darkness

Thinking about that now, Leo banged on the lights and proceeded to look first at her and then at his brother

‘I didn’t think you would be back tonight’ Heather filled the aard silence with the worst choice of explanation and the taut lines of Leo’s face darkened further

He hadn’t expected to find her still at the house, and this was the last thing he needed to hear Was this how she was ed by a host of unpleasant, conflicting emotions He had never before been aware that he was a man who had a comfort zone, a place which was inaccessible to the rest of the hue right into it, because he didn’t feel himself, and it wasn’t because his brother was back on the scene

Leo found that when he tried to think about it his brain see in a morass of weirdly unanswerable questions He didn’t like it It distracted hie, forced hiht that sheabout that, because hadn’t he been the one who had sensed it, probably even before she had herself?—only to find herself in thrall to his brother, of all people?

‘Where did you think I would be?’

‘Katherine said that you had gone to London It’s so late; I thought you ht’ Even with his face stony cold and her emotions all over the place, Heather was vitally aware of that leashed power and grace that was so hypnotic His iiddy ‘I…I should leave You and your brother probably have a lot of catching up to do’