page12 (2/2)

She wanted to believe hi of Edward, for some reason

Edward, sliolden-brown hair Edas always so elegant, as sophisticated and char as Rafe was stoic and tender Edward had been the hero of her earliest fantasies He used to flirt with her shalance and clever compliment

Edward

Maybe what they needed, she and Rafe, was to talk about the hardest things—like Edward’s death, which he seeo, at Villa Santorno, when she’d tried repeatedly to bring it up, he’d only refused over and over to go into it

She went for it “Is this about Edward somehow?”

“Go to sleep, Gen”

“I touched the scar on your cheekand it all went bad”

“No”

“Rafe, I think we really need to talk about it”

“Leave it alone”

“No No, I’ht, the facts of the situation Eloise toldhotime friend of Brooke’s; they’d met as children, Brooke and Fiona, at St Ansele of nineteen, Fiona had ht her Tillworth, a country house not far fro and Edas driving Brooke had stayed the night at Fiona’s There was only you and Edward in the car when he drove off the road and into an oak tree Eloise said that the investigation absolved you of any wrongdoing, that it was sis that can happen now and then”

Rafe lay very still At first And then, with slow, deliberate care, he eased away from her They still lay side by side, but their bodies were no longer touching “So, then You knohat happened There’s nothing to talk about”

She sat up, switched on the lamp by her side of the bed and turned back to look in his hooded black eyes “There’s everything to talk about There’s how you feel about what happened How you’reholding up And there’s the question of why you won’t let a good plastic surgeon have a look at that scar”

His eyes flashed dark fire “I feel like bloody hell about what happened, thank you I’ood health and I’ up just fine As to ive a damn If you don’t want to look at me, then simply look away”

“Oh, Rafe, that’s not fair You can’t just—”