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‘That’s called being fair’

‘That’s called being a creep You’re just a different kind of creep, Leo!’

Leo flushed darkly, outraged at having had what he considered to be his ied down into the dirt in the ean to rapidly revise his satisfied acceptance that what he had confronted in the sitting rooood brother What if she had already been subconsciously co him to Alex? Was Alex a creep? No To her, he would have seemed as wholesome as freshly baked bread with his ‘let’s hold hands and discuss our feelings’ approach

Jealousy and possessiveness, teaknesses he had always prided hi, rose in him like a red mist To top it all off, his brother at that very instant had the barefaced cheek to tell him, ‘Perhaps you should take time out and, hey, e?’

‘And maybe you should listen, little brother She’s off-limits’

‘Hello?’ Heather interjected furiously at Leo’s ferocious verbal warning to his brother ‘Are you talking about me? Because, if you are, I just want to remind you that I’m not your property, Leo!’

‘You’re in love with me!’

Heather fell silent, cursing the one, wild moment in time when she had been drawn to be honest with hiainst her Tears of hurt and betrayal stung the back of her eyes, and she looked down at her feet, willing herself to fight against the te Once, in front of Alex, had been quite enough

And I’h Leo’s consciousness like a razor blade, shearing away at his fundamental acceptance that the chosen path of his life was to remain free of the encuold He had his son It was enough He was not even aware that he had spoken his thoughts out loud until Heather, standing as still as a statue, asked him to repeat what he had said

‘You’re right,’ he told her, walking towards where she hadtowards the er aware of his brother It was as if a genie in a la in his ears, but still he felt good Calm ‘I’m a different kind of creep’

‘Wha…?’ The whole parallel-universe thing was happening again She wanted to move out of Leo’s reach, but her feet stubbornly refused to oblige What had he been talking about when he had said that he refused to let her go? Had she heard correctly? Her heart was beating so fast that she felt faint Orat her, his fabulous eyes reaching down into the depths of her and stirring everything around It was so unfair that this hat love was all about: allowing someone in who had the power to scramble your brains

‘I am prepared to esse

‘You’re “prepared to make a commitment” to me?’

‘Correct,’ Leo asserted

‘What sort of commitment?’ Heather asked faintly

‘Are there different kinds?’ He frowned, just a tiny bit thrown by her lack of a suitably rapturous response

‘Yes, there are different kinds!’ Heather was compelled to point out, because her mind, which had turned to cotton wool for aher that their definitions of commitment would almost certainly not coincide Leo’s idea of coenerously allocate a few months rather than a feeeks to a relationship, and toany plans that stretched beyond a two-day ti her, and she would be no better off than she was now In fact, she’d be worse off, because she would have longer to fall even deeper in love with him

‘How so?’ Leo demanded, but cautiously

‘You kno I feel about relationships,’ Heather told him quietly

‘Then et ratified by the alteration in her expression After everything he had been through over the past few days, he had never expected to land up in this place, and from the look of it neither had she It was as if suddenly he was released to have her, and anyhimself in such wildly unexpected terrain iped out by the knowledge that she was now his